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Located in Anambra State, south-eastern Nigeria,\u00a0Onitsha<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is home to the largest open air market on the African continent, the Onitsha Main Market. From the 1940s through to the 1960s, the Onitsha market was the centre of a thriving industry where pamphlets that catered to a growing literate populace were cheaply printed and sold. This collection of publications, now referred to as “Onitsha Market Literature” have become collectors’ items. Because they were written by the common man and woman, and reflected local cares, concerns and anxieties, they have also become a means by which social conditions of the time can be examined. Possibly a genre onto itself, Onitsha Market Literature offers a wide variety of topics ranging from romantic advice, to dramas, plays, history and racy stories.<\/span><\/p>\n Recently the University of Kansas\u00a0digitised twenty-one pamphlets<\/span><\/a>\u00a0from Onitsha Market, making them available for the general public to read and download. The twenty-one pamphlets are part of a larger collection of 101 pamphlets from Onitsha that are held at the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas, and were selected as examples of the themes that areubiquitous in Onitsha Market Literature<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Photo of Onitsha Market taken by Thomas R. Buckman<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Common themes were\/are sex, love, marriage and money. The driving forces behind the genre were the newly literate Nigerians who were hungry to read books that were\u00a0specific to their experiences and lives<\/span><\/a>. When the local publishing industry was in its heyday, pamphlets were bought and widely exchanged among readers who,\u00a0by all accounts<\/span><\/a>, enjoyed them thoroughly. A fascinating observation that stands out while perusing the twenty-one digitised pamphlets is that a lot of the subjects covered by the available Onitsha Market Literature are still hot topics in Nigeria today, more than fifty years later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The dangers of loose living and how to make money quick<\/strong><\/span> When young men are cautioned to be careful in choosing the means through which to make money, the popular song\u201cJankoliko\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0comes to mind, especially the bit where Sound Sultan raps\u00a0\u201cno need to rush, no jars, no medi, take it slow and steady\u201d<\/em>, advice to young people trying to earn riches. The emphasis placed on marrying someone you love in\u00a0“A Woman’s Pride is Her Husband”<\/em>\u00a0can be seen in the countless Nollywood movies staring Ghanaian actor\u00a0Van Vicker<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In\u00a0“The African Bachelor’s Guide and Lady’s Guide (to be read before marriage and after it)”<\/em>\u00a0by Cy Diala there are chapters dedicated to \u201cthe importance of prayers in searching for a girl to marry\u201d and to warning men of \u201csiren spinsters\u201d. Nigerians today should be familiar with the often repeated advice on the importance of prayers in finding someone to marry, although the term \u201csiren spinster\u201d will probably be new to most these days. In the early 1960s it was an accepted fact that young unmarried, sexually uninhibited women in Lagos preferred married men as boyfriends. Today, movies such as\u00a0“Blackberry Babes”<\/em><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0“White Hunters”<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0“Fazebook Babes”<\/em>\u00a0depict women as \u201csiren spinsters\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201csiren spinsters\u201d become \u201ccocktail ladies\u201d in\u00a0 Marius U.E Nkwoh’s\u00a0\u201cCocktail Ladies\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(from the series \u2013 “Facing the facts around us”).\u00a0“Cocktail Ladies”<\/em>\u00a0derides feminism for encouraging women to do everything that men do and to rival men. Furthermore, the bad behaviour of these \u201ccocktail ladies\u201d who do not live respectable lives, are listed as drinking, smoking, partying and making men pay for it, as well as driving their own cars, working in various fields and wearing makeup. Marius, we can safely assume, was a very worried man.<\/span><\/p>\n Other Ontisha market pamphlets such as\u00a0“Elekere Agwo: The Quack Doctor”<\/em>\u00a0by D. Nkem Akuneme, originally published in July 1964, provide the type of exploitative entertainment that Western pulp fiction is known for.\u00a0“The Quack Doctor”<\/em>\u00a0is the tale of the honest and law-abiding Okondu who is pushed into \u201cthe hands of mercenary quacks\u201d and the world of illicit drug deals due to a set of unfortunate circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n Pan-Africanism and Idealism<\/strong><\/span> In comparing Onitsha market literature from the 1960s with Nigerian popular media in the present time, the general lack of media that dissects politics today is jarring. It is easy and perhaps expected that love, marriage and moral cautioning will remain as relevant topics, yet, with the exception of the odd song lamenting the failures of the Nigerian government, political commentary in popular culture now tends to be almost non-existent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Considering that in the 1960s, Nigeria (along with several other African countries) had just become independent from British colonial rule, it does make sense that idealism was widespread. A lot of Nigerians today may not be familiar with\u00a0Patrice Lumumba<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or his legacy, yet the fact that a play aboutn this \u201clion of the Congo\u201d was published in Onitsha back then hints at the celebrity of African revolutionary figures of the time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A recent discussion with a friend of mine, Antoinette Obiogbolu, lead us to speculate on idealism, or the lack of it, in Nigeria today. Antoinette believes that idealism in Nigeria died with the failure of\u00a0Biafra<\/span><\/a>‘s attempt at secession. Works on political figures in popular culture are not replete in Nigeria today as the death of idealism means that Nigerians do not imagine a better state for the country itself, and so seek to improve their daily lives while dealing only with trivial issues. In this way, concerns about money, women, love and marriage can continue to overshadow all else, even as\u00a0the imperatives of idealism remain<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The more things change…<\/strong><\/span> Reading through the twenty-one digitised Onitsha market pamphlets, it is obvious that while some things have changed most remain the same. The harsh criticism and shaming targeted at Nigerian women is ongoing, while political dramatisations have ebbed. While on one hand it is amazing that the ideas present in the earlier Onitsha market literature seems to held strong through time, it would be more impressive if healthier cultural attitudes thrived, as well a bit of idealism.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n <\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/onitsha-market-01.jpg\")
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\nTitles such as\u00a0“A Woman’s Pride is Her Husband”<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0“The Way to Make Friends with Girls”<\/em>\u00a0reflect the universal enduring theme of love and marriage. On the other hand,\u00a0“Beware of Women”<\/em>\u00a0presents Nigerian (and African) women, as gold-digging Jezebels, a portrayal that has stood the test of time. Moving past the titles and deeper into the pamphlets reveals further surprises. When Mrs Chinwe Akaosa, the writer of\u00a0“A Woman’s Pride is Her Husband”<\/em>, advices women to be obedient and mentions that some women use \u201ccharms\u201d on their husbands, it seems like Mrs Akaosa’s words were not published in the 1960s but in the 2000s. Countless Nollywood movies today show women using black magic to secure their husbands and offer morals on the importance of (women’s) obedience in married life.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thisisafrica.me\/data\/thumb\/abc_media_image\/5000\/5389\/w430.68de7.jpg\")
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\nNot all Ontisha market literature dished out advice and moral epithets or was exploitative. Despite the disdain shown towards traditional religious practices,\u00a0“The Ibo Native Law and Custom”<\/em>, which was meant for students and those interested in Igbo history and culture, provides useful information about the Igbo people. A surprising find for me was a play called\u00a0“The Last days of Lumumba (the late lion of the Congo)”<\/em>\u00a0by Thomas Orlando Iguh, which suggests the popularity of pan-Africanism during that time, i.e., it wasn’t just an idea for the intellectual class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOnitsha market literature\u00a0thrived until the market was heavily damaged<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in 1968 during the Biafran War. Today, a large majority of\u00a0Nollywood movies come out of Onitsha<\/span><\/a>, and in some ways the current Nigerian movie industry has replaced the Onitsha market literature of the past. Nollywood is lauded foremost as a local initiative that was driven by Nigerians and\u00a0catered to local realities<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by telling stories that are relevant to the lives of Nigerians and Africans. But while Nigeria’s local movie industry has grown exponentially, the publishing industry is in a sad state. These days, a visit to a bookshop in a Nigerian market is more likely to yield books by Western authors such Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steel or Jeffrey Archer, as opposed to locally printed books. (However is not the case in parts of Northern Nigeria, where locally printed books in Hausa, otherwise known as\u00a0Hausa market literature<\/span><\/a>, remain popular today (see also “Hausa popular literature and video film: the rapid rise of cultural production in times of economic decline<\/span><\/a>“)). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n