Introduction
In the last unit, you learnt how the colonialists depicted Africans in the literary works they wrote which were set in different countries in Africa. In this unit you will learn how Nigerian literature the way we know it today developed. We will trace the rise of Nigerian Literature by introducing you to the establishments and issues that influenced the development of Nigerian Literature. Some of those influences are the early Christian and Islamic missionaries, colonial education and the efforts of publishing houses, which made the publication of the literary works possible.
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3.1 The Early Missionaries
Early Christian and Islamic scholars contributed immensely to the development of Nigerian Literature.
3.1.1 The Islamic Missionaries
The religion of Islam was introduced in Nigerian Hausa states through the wangera traders from Mali in the 13th century. However, the religion became widespread in the 14th century with the arrival of Maghili from Kanem. He was followed by some other missionaries who were either merchants, pilgrims or Mallama. Islam is a form of religion and also a form of education.
Consequently, the spread of Islam was accompanied by the spread of Islamic education. The implication of this is that Islamic scholars and clerics were produced simultaneously, the people were converted to a religion, and at the same time were given Arabic education.
The Jihads, of the 19th century accelerated the spread of Islam. Apart from education and religion, Islam is not only a religion but also a way of life, so it brought other benefits in its trail. The leaders of the Jihad were learned in every conceivable standard. Consequently education received adequate attention after the Jihads. Koranic schools were opened and there was a great stimulus to learning. Islamic civilization was introduced and “other oriental cultural achievement such as the art of reading and writing as the media of disseminating the religion” (Yahaya 10) was also introduced. Arabic was the medium of instruction so the early literary output in Hausaland was written in Arabic. Scholars wrote books and poems. These were read and translated to Hausa but later, the Arabic letters were converted to produce the Ajami. Similarly, roman letters were converted to produce the Boko. This means that the bulk of early Hausa literature were written in Ajami and Boko. The old and the young embraced the new re-awakening of knowledge. Muslim scholars led by Uthman Dan Fodio and others contributed to literary attainments of the era.
Shehu Usman Dan Fodio was said to have composed 480 poems. His daughter, Nana Asama’u wrote 17 poems, his brother, Shehu Abdullahi Fodio wrote 8 poems and his son, Isan Kwere, 7 poems, many of his disciples and other scholars also composed poems.
These poems, like other poetic works in other literary traditions vary in length ranging from 11 to 450 stanzas (Yahaya 12) . At that time, there were printing press or publishing houses so these scholars wrote withink on plain sheets of paper and their disciples and pupils copied them out. These poems were had religious undertones or backgrounds as preachers “recited some relevant sections of relevant poems to illustrate or emphasize a point in sermons”. Apart from poetry which appeared to be the popular genre of literature at this stage of the development of Nigerian literature, other Islamic scholars wrote other imaginative works too.
Arabic became the literary and sophisticated language of the society. The learning and enlightenment stimulated by the Islamic religion produced many intellectuals, and among them were literary artists. Consequently, the Islamic way of life “affected the style, content and purpose of literature”. Islamic literature flourished throughout the Northern region. Some radical movements emerged and used the literary medium to propagate their ideologies or criticize the power elite. The literature of this period in the Islamic states were written mainly in verse.
Gradually, there was an attempt to transcribe the Arabic literature into Hausa. The result of this effort was the emergence of a language known as “Ajami”, a fusion of Arabic and Hausa. “This was widely used for literary purposes. But the literary tradition that resulted remained essentially Islamic, with models drawn from classical Arabic prototypes” (Darah 2).
3.1.2 The Christian Missionaries
The Christian religion was another powerful catalyst of change that greatly influenced the development of Nigerian Literature.
Just like Islam, Christianity contributed a good deal to the development of Nigerian literature. Unlike the Moslems, the Christians came first and foremost with the conversion of the Nigerians they encountered. The early Christian missionaries seemed to have had an ultimate goal of winning more souls for Christ. The viewed the traditional Nigerian religion as barbaric, fetish and idolatrous. The adherents of the traditional religion were regarded as pagans who were doomed and if not converted would end up in hellfire, a place of intense suffering and ‘gnashing ’ of teeth forever. However, they also brought along western education which enabled some of their converts to learn to read and write.
The Portuguese missionaries worked in Benin in the 16th century. But their new faith had a meteoric existence due to the resistance of Ede to the anticipated cultural disintegration which a total acceptance of Christianity might engender within the Edo society. Apart from Benin, the missionaries made an early incursion in Calabar and Warri but were not quite successful. This means that the Roman Catholic Church made a feeble attempt to Christianise Nigeria before the high blown missionary enterprise in the 19th century Nigeria.
Another missionary attempt to evangelise Nigeria came with the expedition of the Niger of 1841. The aims of the expedition included the promotion of trade in the metropolis, signing of treaties with local chiefs, and the building of school and churches. The British also wanted to establish an equivalent of Freetown in the heart of Nigeria, Lokoja was their choice. Unfortunately, fever broke out on board the ship and fifty (50) out of the one hundred and fifty ( 150) Whiteman died of an ailment that was suspected to be malaria. This expedition failed. That not withstanding, it succeeded in setting up some establishments in Lokoja which became a springboard for the missionaries in later years.
The missionaries realized the necessity of writing in Nigerian Languages to facilitate their works evangelisation so initiated moves towards the development of the indigenous language. First of all, they decided to encourage indigenes to undertake the preaching of the gospel. One of such preacher was Ajayi Crowder who later became the first African Bishop who joined the 1841 mission in Nigeria. They were joined later by Rev. J.C. Taylor. Ajayi and Taylor both Yoruba and Igbo ex-slaves respectively. They were given the task of founding the Niger Mission. Crowther sailed up the River and founded another station at Lokoja while Taylor was left in charge of Onitsha. The returning slaves were returning then helped to establish missions in Egba, Abeokuta, Badagry and other places. As they raised preachers, they educated them and some of them engaged in imaginative writings those in the influence of the missionaries on the Nigerian literature is mainly through colonial education which will be treated in the next segment. (3.2).
3.2 Colonial Education
The Christian missionaries like their Moslem counterparts did not concentrate only on religion and evangelization as discussed. They consciously contributed to the socially and economically uplift of Nigerians. One of the remarkable contributions of the missionaries is the reduction of Nigerian languages to writing. Some of the results of their labours in this direction is the production of the Igbo vocabulary, and the translation of the Bible and Anglical Prayer Book into Yoruba by Ajayi Crowder. In 1884, he published A Vocabulary of the Youruba Language (Falola 24) Consequently, literate and semi literate Nigerians started writing, first in their indigenous languages. They started with textbooks and later literary works.
This linguistic achievement is very important in the development of Nigerian Literature because language is an integral part of a peoples culture and the medium of expression in literature. This development of the vernacular made it possible for early Nigerian literary writers like Peter Nwana, Daniel Fagunwa and Mallam Tafida, to have produced their masterpieces in their indigenous Nigerian languages.
The missionaries established primary schools at first for the children of the converts and later admitted other children whose parents, though not Christians, allowed to go to
schools. These children were exposed to literary words mainly poetry and prose from the western world. As these children grew, they were influenced by the literature of other people and sought to write their own. Nigerian writers were all products of western or Arabic education acquired in Christian and Koranic schools. Thus, colonial education contributed immensely to the development of Nigerian literature. In the Secondary schools were established in the country mainly in the Western and Eastern parts of the country. The products of these schools became teachers, catechists and priests.
Classical literature was introduced in the schools. This ignited the interest of Nigerians in literature. But most importantly colonial education made it possible for Nigerians to be able to express themselves in both the indigenous and English language both in speech and written forms. This led to the establishment of indigenous newspapers which encouraged literature. The products of these schools were among those who championed the Onitsha market literature, a prominent landmark in the development of Nigerian literature.
3.3 The Publishing Houses
We have decided to mention the publishing houses here because without them, the literary works would have remained in the manuscript form. The implication is that it would have had limited audience like the early Hausa poems which were copied by pupils and disciples. But with the publishing houses, the tedious and arduous task of copying which in some cases may not be copied accurately, is removed the copied materials have shorter life spans as they could easily be destroyed or lost.
Publishing helps writers in three major ways:
. First, quality economy and posterity. Good publishing was encouraged; usually companies ensure that before they publish a particular work, that it has met a certain acceptable standard. They send the manuscripts for evaluation, the evaluator assessed the work and made a recommendation if he/she recommends that the work be published, the publishers also have in-house editors who would help to ensure that the work, to a large extent is error-proof. This is why students
are encouraged to read good literary works especially novels and plays to increase their proficiency of the language. After the evaluation of a particular manuscript, the recommendations of the evaluator are incorporated by the writer before the final publication.
. Secondly, publishers help to widen the scope of the market for the author. Publishers invest in the publication of a book with profit-making intent. They therefore devise strategies for marketing as many copies of the book as possible to ensure high profit margin. In doing this they are circulating the work to a wider audience and popularizing the work and the author. For instance Chinua Achebe is known all over the world because his early novels were published by Heinemann, a publishing company that was able to market the novels all over the world. If Things Fall Apart remained as a manuscript, like some poems of the early Islamic scholars, may be some of us will not know anything about the novel today. In fact, without the publishers, we would not have been discussing the Nigerian written literature.
. Finally, publishers help to elongate or even perpetuate the life span of a book. Publishers print a certain number of a particular work and depending on the sale, the work is reprinted as many times as possible depending on the demand. Other publishers could obtain the copyright from the original publisher and continue the publication of the works even long after the demise of the writers. In Nigeria, writers like Fagunwa, Cyprian Ekwensi, Flora Nwapa, Ola Rotimi, Zulu Sofola and Ezenwa-Ohaeto are dead but we are still reading their works. Publishers ensure that literary works outlive their writers and the works are preserved for posterity. We still read Shakespeare’s plays that were written in renaissance England in the 17th century.
Early publishing companies in the country include Faber and Faber, Heinemann Longman and many others.
4.0 Conclusion
The development of Nigerian literature was influenced by external forces, mainly colonial education and religion. These missionaries established Quranic and Christian schools. Such influences from the Christian and Muslim missionaries helped Nigerians to read and write. Thus they were able to read the works of classical literary writers. This education aided the reading of foreign literatures and the writing of indigenous ones. The publishing houses also had a tremendous positive impact on the development of Nigerian literature.
5.0 Summary
In this unit which is a bit historical, one has taken you through the coming of early missionaries Moslem and Christian to Nigeria and how they contributed to the development of Nigerian literature. Their major contribution as you have seen is the establishment of schools and the education of Nigerians among whom were literary artists.
6.0 Tutor Marked Assignment
List and discuss the contribution of the publishing houses in the development of Nigerian literature.
7.0 References/Further Studies
Darah G.G. (1988) “Literary Development in Nigeria” in Ogunbiyi (ed) Perspectives on
Nigerian Literature 1700 to the Present. Volume one Ikeja: Guardian press.
Essays in Literature: African Books Networks http://www.hbooknetworks.com
Falola, Toyin(1988). “Earliest Yoruba Writers” in Ogunbiyi (ed).
Perspectives on Nigerian Literature 1700 to the Present. Volume One Ikeja:
Guardian Press.
Yahaya, Ibrahim Yaro (1988). “The Development of Hausa Literature” in Ogunbiyi (ed).
Perspectives on Nigerian Literature 1700 to the Present. Volume One Ikeja:
Guardian Press.
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