Nigeria [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONTHESE pages aim to capture the spirit and ethos of a nation, Nigeria, its people and its places. As such, this anthology becomes a microcosm of different familiesHausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Ibo, Kanuri, Ibibio, Effik, Tiv and Birom to name some of the leading memberswhich make up the teeming population of a country as old as the pre-history of Africa and as new as a nation which achieved independence on 1 October 1960. The sweep of our canvas presents an emphasis on youth at a crucial moment of its history, looking forward and looking back. Any attempt to view in perspective the conflux of past and present reminds us that the heritage of Nigeria takes us back long before the Portuguese and the peoples of the Niger delta 'discovered' each other, to the first millenium for which sources are either archaelogical or rely on the oral tradition of legends passed from generation to generation.There follows the period of 'the interlopers', the Europeans, whether they came for exploration or to exploit the slave trade, which reached its peak in the eighteenth century. With the nineteenth century we find some Europeans with more altruistic motives, wishing to extend to the different Nigerian tribes the benefits of European knowledge, morality and civilization which seemed destined to conquer the world. It was only in our present century, after the savagery of two world wars, that a profound pessimism and pragmatic considerations led European powers to accept the necessity of decolonization.No colonial administration could ever have envisaged perhaps the greatest legacy the British offered the young Nigerian elite; the English language. Almost coinciding with the handing over of power, young Nigerian writerspoets, novelists and playwrightsbegan to attract attention. While some of them still preferred Yoruba and other languages, the majority of them had chosen English, though like all writers of value, they achieved their international reputations through their indigenous nationalism. Like Nigeria's leaders and technocrats, they share the accent of youth. While it was not possible for them to become full-time writers in Nigeria without a job, nearly all have posts in government employment, the media, or in the universities. Yet in spite of this, or perhaps because this brings them into closer touch with the people, their writing captures the different facets of Nigerian life with an innocent originality which is a rare commodity in the hurly-burly of Western publishing. It seems that one writer tends to stimulate another, and as in a golden age, standards rise, while at the same time the diversity of Nigerian authors defies any academic attempt at classification, or to call them a 'Nigerian school'. The extremes of sophistication of city lights mingle with the labyrinthine shades and spirits of Amos Tutuola. It is as if they have added a further rule of the road to drivers: beware at all times of ghosts.Confronted with this galaxy of talent, the problem has been one of12