Newsprint Literature and Local Literary Creativity in West Africa, 1900s - 1960s

This book explores the creative writing found in African-owned newspapers in British West Africa in the first half of the 20th century, arguing that it should be included in literary genres and anglophone world literatures. It combines in-depth case studies of creative writing with a reappraisal of Nigerian pamphlets and focuses on non-elite authors, showing how local print cultures permeated African literary production and charted changes in literary tastes and styles.

Format: Hardback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 17 October 2023
Publisher: James Currey

This groundbreaking study delves into the literary landscape of West African newspapers and local printing presses during the first half of the 20th century, offering a unique African perspective to transatlantic Black studies. By examining the creative output of African newsprint, the author reveals how African newspapers have shaped readers' perceptions of subjectivity and society under colonialism.

From their inception in the 1880s, African-owned newspapers in British West Africa boasted an abundance of creative writing by local authors, predominantly in English. However, this rich and diverse body of work has largely been overlooked in critical discussions of African literature and cultural history. This book aims to rectify this by exploring this understudied archive of ephemeral writing, encompassing a wide range of genres, including serialized fiction, poetry, short stories, philosophical essays, articles on local history, travelogues, and reviews, as well as letters.

By combining in-depth case studies of creative writing in the Ghana and Nigeria press with a comprehensive reassessment of the Nigerian pamphlets known as Onitsha market literature, the author delves into hitherto neglected genres, styles, languages, and, most importantly, readerships. Through a focus on non-elite authors, the author uncovers the ways in which local print cultures permeated African literary production, charting changes in literary tastes and transformations to genres and styles as they absorbed elements of globally circulating English texts into formats suitable for local consumption.

This important book offers fresh trajectories for thinking about local and transnational African literary networks while remaining attentive to local textual cultures in contexts of colonial power relations, anticolonial nationalism, the Cold War, and global circuits of cultural exchange. It sheds new light on the complex interplay between global and local forces that shaped African literature during this pivotal period, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the African literary heritage.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781847013828