Twelve Nigerian market pamphlets, folder 1 of 2

Dossier

Twelve Nigerian market pamphlets, folder 1 of 2

• 1950s-1970s (Production)

"V.P. [mostly Onitsha]: Various publishers, ca. 1950s-70s. Collection of twelve original staple-bound pamphlets, most ca. 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" and 32-64pp. A few with toning or mild foxing to wrapper margins, but all generally in Very Good or better condition.The majority printed in 1971; others as early as 1959 and as late as 1972. An excellent, representative sampling of the popular literature that flourished in West African market stalls in the 1960s and 70s, most of it characterized by sensational (and even slightly prurient) content, rustic production values, and a disarmingly naïve (to a modern reader's eyes, at least) approach to its subject matter. All twelve examples of works bear the Onitsha, Nigeria imprint -Onitsha having been the epicenter of this publishing genre. Despite a brief vogue for these Onitsha chapbooks in the United States in the mid-70s (the period during which the few large insitutional collections of them were formed) most are now quite uncommon in the trade. It should be noted that most of these works were reprinted seemingly at random, sometimes with abridgements at other times with added matter; occasionally under a new author's name or pseudonym; almost always sans date. The cataloguer is deeply indebted to the painstaking work of Peter Hogg and Ilse Steinberg, whose landmark work Market Literature from Nigeria: A Checklist (British Library: 1990) was essential to identifying and dating these ephemeral works." -Lorne Bair