Abstract This collection of essays by one of Africa’s leading scholars examines African literary traditions in the broad sense, and places the work of individual authors in context. Here F. Abiola Irele presents probing critical readings of the works of Chinua Achebe, Kamau Brathwaite, Amadou Hapae Ba, and Amadou Kourouma, among others. In addition to discussing texts central to the evolving canon of African literature, The African Imagination addresses both the growing presence of African writing in the global literary marketplace and the relationship between African intellectuals and the West.

The publication in 1958 of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart was experienced as a significant literary and cultural event in Africa, probably no more so than in his own country, Nigeria, and at his alma mater, University College, Ibadan. I was an undergraduate there at the time, and have retained a vivid memory of its enthusiastic reception by the handful of students and Nigerian faculty who represented what we had then of an "interpretive community" for what was just beginning to emerge as a new literature in Africa. Achebe's work could not have appeared at a more propitious time, confirming with the force of its achievement a development for which the signs seemed encouraging and yet, at the same time, undecidable.

Sometime during the midsixties, I had the good fortune to attend a major arts festival being held in Belgium, that of Knokkele-Zoute. At the pavillion devoted to electronic music, to which I had wandered out of curiosity, I found myself in conversation with one of the organizers, who, observing my obvious perplexity at the sounds which emanated from the formidable array of equipment there and on learning that I was from Africa, remarked that since this music was really no different in its fundamental principles from the traditional music of my native continent, I was well placed to appreciate what he himself felt to be its special appeal. One can of course summon an array of objections to the remark of my Belgian interlocutor, beginning with the assumption that electronic music has any intrinsic musical or aesthetic appeal. But I have often wondered, ever since my conversation with him, about the wider implications of the rapprochement he made between traditional African music and the

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The Publishing process in Africa, äs it relates specifically to book production, is marked by a Singular anomaly. The vast majority of books read in Africa either for educational or recreational purposes are written by foreigners and published abroad. Even works by African authors, literary or otherwise, continue for the most part to be published outside the continent and have to be subsequently imported. It has been estimated that something like 90% of the books and publications sold in Nigeria originale from abroad. When it is considered that the Publishing industry in Nigeria is one of the best established on the continent, the Situation in the rest of Africa can well be imagined. This anomaly has had serious consequences both for the values involved in the development of a literate cuiture in our various societies äs well äs for the management of our national economies. Although in the past decade or so there has been a considerable rise in the number of educational books written by Africans, especially for the primary and secondary levels, it remains true that the greater proportion of textbooks employed in the schools are by foreigners and are conceived with little or no reference to our environment. In fact, a considerable part of textbook writing now being undertaken by African authors consists in the mere adaptation to the local environment of educational material produced elsewhere. The need for an immediate relation of reading material to the local environment is nowhere more urgent than in the area of textbooks and supplementary readers for children, in view of the peculiar psychological and pedagogical implications of this category pf books. Yet nearly all the children's books to be found today in Africa have been designed with reference to non-African societies. and cultures, and very often express values that are damaging to the developing consciousness of African children. In a more general perspective, vast quantities of foreign material, much of it of indifferent and sometimes even dubious quality, are still imported to satisfy the reading appetite of the literate stratum of our society. And äs regards African literature in the European languages in particular, the fact that our writers are generally published abroad means that they are first given critical reception outside their Community of experience and expression. The connection between this abnormal cultural Situation and the economic life of African countries is both direct and significant. As education is a priority in the development policies of our various governments, a considerable part of our foreign exchange is committed annually to the importation of books required for the Implementation of educational programmes in continous expansion. Besides, the rapid growth of literacy has created a demand for books and reading materials of all kinds which is being met largely through imports. The effect of our almost total dependence on external sources for published material has been vividly demonstrated over the past year in Nigeria by the austerity measures introduced by the Federal government, which have drastically imposed limitations on the importation of goods: the result is that booksellers are unable to bring in supplies sufficiently to meet demand. Thousands of students are thus having to go without essential textbooks, and even books written by Nigerian authors and published overseas cannot be made available locally. It is of course a matter of elementary honesty to acknowledge the positive contribution of foreign publishers to the development of education and of a literate cuiture in Africa. What is more, the local branches of some of these publishers have stimulated the growth of Publishing äs an industry on the continent, in terms both of the Provision of appropriate infrastructures and the training of skilled personnel. The fact remains, however, that we can no ionger depend on them at this stage of our development to meet our Publishing needs. There is no doubt also that the present Situation in which the Publishing industry is dominated by foreign interests has neocolonial implications which account for many of the problems evoked above. It has long been recognised that the solution to these Problems lies in local Publishing and several studies and Conferences, especially those sponsored by UNESCO, have been devoted to the question of indigenous Publishing in Africa äs part of a comprehensive Programme of educational and cultural development. The 1967 Accra Conference, held under the auspices of UNESCO, sought in particular to create an awareness of the issues involved in the promotion of local Publishing effort in Africa and to propose a feasible approach to them. One of the principal recommendations of that conference concerned the creation of Book Development Councils in all the African States äs a means of providing institutional support for the development of local Publishing in Africa. A further Step in the effort of reflection on these problems was the Ife Conference of 1973, sponsored by the University of Ife, which was a notable attempt to take stock of progress achieved in this field, and to outline a Programme of action in the immediate äs well äs the long tenn for Publishing in Africa. It is this background which gives significance to the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, established in 1979 by Mr. Shoichi Noma, an eminent pcrsonality of t he Japanese and international Publishing world, vvho set up an endowmcnt of $100,000 äs a charitable trust for the schemc. The imerest from