Fifty Years of the Nigerian Novel, 1951-2000

Over the past fifty years, the Nigerian novel has grown to more than a hundred titles. This may appear to be rather a handful, considering the relatively long stretch of time. The fact is that not many have tried their hands at the occupation, or gone beyond the first book. It probably goes to show that writing is no easy occupation. What may be more remarkable is that relatively few, out of that handful, is known by the reading public, or discussed by the critics. Of course, it is t he task of the critics to tell us which of the titles to treat as literature, and why. Therefore, part of the reason why the reading public seems to know very little beyond what had been read as part of certificate examinations in literature must be that t he critics hav e not always played their part satisfactorily. A literary work needs to be widely discussed and presented in a variety of contexts to catch the attention of the reading public. Another reason is one often mentioned, which is that the Nigeria educational n system has not been successful in training the people who pass through it in the discipline of reading. Many a secondary school educated Nigerian has been able to pass his examinations in literature by studying publications of the questionan danswer type, which are coming out all the time, and are therefore relatively inexpensive. Undoubtedly, this sort of reading matter may help to focus the minds of the young learners on the facts which they must supply in order to achieve success and to th e kinds of iss them. tasks is ues that the examiners require of However, reading for the gathering of information relevant for specific only an aspect of the training regime, and it can do real harm if it lacks the support of reading as a continuous exercis Teaching a e. t the secondary school level should aim at giving the student good quality education.