Over the years, since I got close to this Nigerian ‘industry’ which is responsible for the “management” of literature, I came to observe its several layers—beginning with an idea in a literary-inclined mind and ending in form of a book (physical or otherwise) in the hands of a consumer or reader. The topic above, presents us with the task of identifying the state of this ‘industry’ as well as the involvement of the Nigerian youths in its management, which seems to be lacking.
Let me admit to making many assumptions in my opening paragraph, regarding the meaning of a number of terms appearing in the topic, even when I know that definitions of them might vary from one reader to another. With this in mind, I must proceed in discussing the topic by taking as much time and space as possible, to give my own meaning of terms that might be a subject of diverse definitions, such as ‘literature’, ‘Nigerian literature’, ‘youth’, and the industry’, among others.
Whenever the need to define a literary term arises, I am known to look in the direction of Chris Baldick’s Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, and I shall do just that for an idea of what the term ‘literature’ could mean. Accordingly, it means: “A body of written works related by subject-matter (e.g., the literature of computing), by language or place of origin (e.g. Russian literature), or by prevailing cultural standards of merit. In this sense, literature is taken to include oral, dramatic, and broadcast compositions that may not have been published in written form but which have been (or deserve to be) preserved.
Since the 19th century, the broader sense of literature as a totality of written or printed works has given way to more exclusive definitions, based on criteria of imaginative, creative, or artistic value, usually related to a work’s absence of factual or practical reference. Even More restrictive has been the academic concentration upon poetry, drama and fiction. Until the mid-20th century, many kinds of non-fictional writing – philosophy, history, biography, criticism, topography, science and politics – were counted as literature; implicit in this broader usage is a definition of literature as that body of works which – for whatever reason – deserves to be preserved as part of the current reproduction of meanings within a given culture (unlike yesterday’s newspaper, which belongs in the disposable category of ephemera)…”
Is this definition helpful or confusing? I think it only helps in setting before us a paved path of fresh problem: which of these definitions should we adopt for the purpose of discussing this topic, and for what reason? I must say that my purpose here is not to argue on which of those definitions of ‘literature’ is the correct one, and which others are not – for time and space would not permit nor forgive such a distraction. It is however most expedient, for the purpose of simple identification of what is meant by “Nigerian Literature”, that I simply adopt the more restrictive definition of the term, which is said to come from the academic circle; and that is, ‘literature’ means poetry, drama and fiction.
What then is meant by Nigerian literature? Is it only the poetry, drama and fiction that are conceived and produced by Nigerians? If so, does it include Nigerian writers of poetry, drama and fiction who have emigrated to foreign countries and are living permanently there? If so, does it exclude those Nigerian writers of poetry, drama and fiction who have emigrated to foreign countries and are living permanently there, but do not write any such poetry, drama and fiction on anything about Nigeria? Where is the place for the writers of poetry, drama and fiction that are only born of Nigerian parents (or one Nigerian parent), whether or not such a writer has Nigerian contents in his or her poetry, drama or fiction?
The above, were the type of problems that Andrew Sanders faced when he sat down to write The Short History of English Literature. In his Introduction to the Second Edition, Sanders observed the rightful place of English literary icons, starting from Geoffrey Chaucer, but was forced to include non-English writers in this classification for one reason or the other. “This present history has attempted to look at the range of English literature from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day,” Sanders writes. “Its definitions of what is ‘English’ and what is ‘literature’ have remained, as far as is feasible, open. It will inevitably offend certain readers by what it has included and what it has excluded.”
It is therefore, not my deliberate effort to offend anybody that I am also daring to include and exclude in my list of Nigerian poets, dramatists and fiction writers those that I think should be excluded or included. Accordingly, I cannot, for example, in all clear conscience, include the poetry, drama and fiction of foreign born ‘Nigerians’ as Nigerian literature; I cannot also include the poetry, drama and fiction of Nigerian born producers of poetry, drama and fiction that do not contain the remotest connection to anything that is Nigerian. My definition of Nigerian literature therefore, includes only the poetry, drama and fiction that are written by Nigerians about Nigeria and Nigerian cultures, whether set in Nigeria or foreign soils. I derive my precedence from Sanders who writes in the Introduction to his The Short Oxford History of English Literature as follows: “The History also included certain English writers who wrote in Latin and others whose origins were not English, let alone British or Irish, whose work seems to have been primarily intended to associate with a British market and with an English literary tradition.” Finally, my classification of Nigerian Literature must include those non-Nigerian writers of poetry, drama and fiction who have taken Nigerian citizenship, even as I exclude the Nigerians who have renounced their Nigerian citizenship.