Author(s):
Hilary B. Hungerford* - University of Kansas
Abstract:
Nigeria in the 1950s and 60s was marked by extensive cultural, economic, and political changes. Onitsha Market Literature provides a window through which to view Nigeria before, during, and after these changes. The primary objective of this research is to understand the ways in which modernity was negotiated during decolonization in Nigeria. This research introduces themes of modernity, hybridization, and creative resistance to the discussions of Onitsha Market Literature. Onitsha Market Literatures reveals the agency of average Nigerians in creating and reproducing new social relationships and cultural meanings in a post-colonial era. I approach these themes by exploring the relationship and co-constitutive link of place and self. Onitsha Market Literature, locally produced and consumed, shows how messages were internalized, transmitted, and reproduced on a local scale, and expresses and reflects the creation of a new place. The Onitsha authors empower their readers by giving them the necessary ideological tools of modernity: individualism, capitalist enthusiasm, and the English language.
