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FROM ONITSHA MARKET
LITERATURE TO HOME MOVIES
By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Whenever Onitsha gets into any business, other cities take the back
seat. When market literature was in vogue, Onitsha was the leader.
Now that home movies have taken over, Onitsha has shot ahead as
the centre of the booming trade.
According to a study published by the British Library in 1990,
Market Literature from Nigeria: A Checklist, there was zero publishing
output in Onitsha as at 1949 when Lagos could boast of as many as
19 titles. By 1950-54, Lagos accounted for 30 books while Onitsha
had only seven titles. From 1955 to 1959, Onitsha gained
ascendancy with 56 books as against 31 from Lagos. In the boom
years of 1960 to 1966, Onitsha published a whopping 411 titles while
Lagos had only 65 books. Of course the civil war years of 1967 to
1970 dealt a heavy blow to the growth of market literature in Onitsha,
but that is another story.
Onitsha market literature was made up of inexpensive booklets and
pamphlets comprising genres such as fiction, plays, verses, current
affairs, language primers, social etiquette, religious tracts, history,
biography, manuals, collections of proverbs, letter-writing, traditional
customs and, of course, money-making. There is actually a title How
to get Rich Overnight by H. O. Ogu.
Colonialism and its education somewhat “opened the eyes” of the
authors of the market literature. Some of the soldiers who had
travelled to Burma and other sectors of the Second World War came
back with exotic ideas. The economic prosperity that followed the war
provided extra income for leisure reading. As large numbers of rural
dwellers trooped to Onitsha, the book market shot up especially as
there was massive expansion in primary and secondary education
after the war. The Onitsha publishers made up of a close-knit group
of families from some surrounding towns were in effective control of
apprenticeships, sub-contracts and agencies while organising the
distribution of their titles to all parts of Nigeria and indeed West Africa.
Sales of the booklets ranged from three thousand copies per title
to 100,000 copies for bestsellers such as Ogali A. Ogali’s play,
Veronica My Daughter. Scholars and writers like Chinua Achebe,
Emmanuel Obiechina, Ulli Beier, Michael Echeruo, Ernest Emenyonu,
Ime Ikiddeh, Bernth Lindfors, John Reed, Alain Ricard, Adrian
Roscoe etc. have written extensively on the Onitsha market literature
phenomenon.
A quotable quote from one of the titles, from the recently deceased
Ogali’s Veronica My Daughter, goes thus: “As I was descending from
a declivity yesterday with such an excessive velocity I suddenly lost
the centre of my gravity and was precipitated on the macadamised
thoroughfare.” The next character then says: “I hope your bones
were mercilessly broken.” The reply from Bomber Billy of bombast
comes this way: “Don’t put my mind under perturbation!”
Some of the more prominent Onitsha authors and their titles
include: J. Abiakam How to Speak to Girls and Win their Love; Cyril
Aririguzo Miss Appolo’s Pride Leads her to be Unmarried; S. Eze How
to know when a Girl Loves You or Hates You; Thomas Iguh
$9000,000,000 Man still says No Money; Highbred Maxwell Public
Opinion on Lovers; Nathan Njoku Beware of Women and My Seven
Daughters are after Young Boys; Marius Nkwoh Cocktail Ladies and
Talking about Love (with Mr Really Fact at St Bottles’ Church);
Joseph Nnadozie Beware of Harlots and Many Friends; Raphael
Obioha Beauty is a Trouble; Ogali A. Ogali Veronica My Daughter
and No Heaven for the Priest; H.O. Ogu Rose Only Loved My Money
and How a Passenger Collector Posed and got a Lady Teacher in
Love; Rufus Okonkwo Why Boys Never Trust Money Monger Girls;
Anthony Okwesa The Strange Death of Israel Njemanze; Okenwa
Olisah Money Hard to get but Easy to Spend and Drunkards Believe
Bar as Heaven; Speedy Eric Mabel the Sweet Honey that Poured
Away; Felix Stephen Lack of Money is not Lack of Sense etc.
In the audio-visual age of today, what Onitsha has lost in market
literature it has more than gained in the production and marketing of
home movies especially at the celebrated 51 Iweka Road.
This article which first appeared in the NIGERIA MONTHLY is
reprinted here with the author's permission.