Re-appraising the Status and Work Condition of the Writer in Post-colonial Africa

Abstract

The Emergency of Nigeria Literature The literary scholar, Robert, Wren, writing about the making of Nigerian literature in his book published in 1991, described the years 1948-1966 as „Those magical years‟. (1) In the late 1940s- during the colonial period – when I was a student at Government College, Umuahia , we could not believe our eyes when Mr A.J. Carpenter whose book we used for our General Science classes, stood in front of us and addressed us in flesh and blood. We had not before then seen the author of any book we studied and had come to assume that you could not be an author and still be alive! We could not imagine that we would one day become locally and internationally acknowledged authors and still be alive and kicking. I thank God for the privilege of being a living witness to the magical transformation.