Readings In African Popular Fiction

"... a useful introduction to an important field of African creative writing that has been invisible for the most part in North America and Europe."

--Eileen Julien

Readings in African Popular Fiction explores the social, political, and economic contexts of popular narratives by bringing together new and classic essays by important scholars in African literature and eight primary texts. Excerpts from popular magazines, cartoons, novellas, and moral and instructional pamphlets present African popular fiction from all areas of the continent. Selections include essays on Hausa creative writing, the influence of Indian film in Nigeria, Onitsha market literature, writing and popular culture in Cameroon, Kenyan romances, Swahili literature, art and cartoons, works by South African writers of the 1950s, and popular crime thrillers in Malawi. Stephanie Newell's introduction engages themes and trends in popular fiction in contemporary Africa.

Contributors are J. C. Anorue, Misty Bastian, Felicitas Becker, Richard Bjornson, William Burgess, Michael Chapman, Don Dodson, Dorothy Driver, Roger Field, Bodil Folke Frederiksen, Graham Furniss, Raoul Granqvist, Paul Gready, Ime Ikiddeh, J. Roger Kurtz and Robert M. Kurtz, Alex La Guma, Brian Larkin, Bernth Lindfors, Charles Mangua, Gomolemo Mokae, Ben R. Mtobwa, Njabulo Ndebele, Nici Nelson, Stephanie Newell, Sarah Nuttall, Donatus Nwoga, Alain Ricard, Lindy Stiebel, and Balaraba Ramat Yakubu.

Stephanie Newell is Smuts Memorial Research Fellow in African Studies at the University of Cambridge. She is author of Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana (just approved for IUP co-pub with Manchester UP), Ghanaian Popular Fiction (Currey; Ohio, 2000), and editor of Images of African and Caribbean Women: Migration, Displacement, Diaspora (Centre for Commonwealth Studies, 1996), Images of African Women: The Gender Problematic (Centre for Commonweatlh Studies, 1995), and Writing African Women: Gender, Popular Culture, and Literature in West Africa (Zed Books, 1997).

Preliminary Table of Contents:

Permissions

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgments

Introduction Stephanie Newell

1. Perspectives on West African Popular Fiction

Hausa Creative Writing in the 1930s: An Exploration in Postcolonial Theory Graham Furniss

Indian Films and Nigerian Lovers: Media and the Creation of Parallel Modernities Brian Larkin

Excerpts from Balaraba Ramat Yakubu, Alhalo Kwikwiyo Translated from Hausa by William Burgess

Onitsha Market Literature Donatus Nwoga

The Role of the Publishers in Onitsha Market Literature Don Dodson

Reproduction of J. C. Anorue, How to Become Rich and Avoid Poverty

Irregular Visions: Narratives about Ogbaanje (Spirit Children) in Southern Nigerian Popular Writing Misty Bastian

Felix Couchoro: Pioneer of Popular Writing in West Africa? Alain Ricard

Writing and Popular Culture in Cameroon Richard Bjornson

The Character of Popular Fiction in Ghana Ime Ikiddeh

2. Perspectives on East African Popular Fiction

Storylines, Spellbinders, and Heartbeats: Decentring the African Oral-Popular Discourse Raoul Granqvist

Romances for the Office Worker: Aubrey Kalitera and Malawi's White-Collar Reading Public Bernth Lindfors

Joe, the Sweetest Reading in Africa: Documentation and Discussion of a Popular Magazine in Kenya Bodil Folke Frederiksen

Fascimiles of Cartoons, Stories, and Covers from Joe Magazine

Representation of Men and Women, City and Town in Kenyan Novels of the 1970s and 1980s Nici Nelson

Excerpts from Charles Mangua, Son of Woman

Language and Ideology in Postcolonial Kenyan Literature: The Case of David Maillu's Macaroni Fiction J. Roger Kurtz and Robert M. Kurtz

Excerpts from Ben R. Mtobwa, Dar es Salaam Usiku (Dar es Salaam by Night) Translated from Swahili and with a short introduction by Felicitas Becker

3. Perspectivees on Southern African Popular Fiction

Rediscovery of the Ordinary Njabulo Ndebele

African Popular Fiction: Consideration of a Category Michael Chapman

The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties: The Unreal Reality of their World Paul Gready

Drum Magazine (1951-1959) and the Spatial Configurations of Gender Dorothy Driver

Facsimiles and Front Covers, Articles, Letters and Advertisements from Drum Magazine, 1952-1955

La Guma's Little Libby: The Adventures of Liberation Chabalala

Little Libby Comic Strips by Alex La Guma

Reading Lives Sarah Nuttall

Black 'Tecs: Popular Thrillers by South African Black Writers in the Nineties Lindy Stiebel

Excerpts from Gomolemo Mokae, The Secret in My Bosom

Index