The Ibadan Origins of Modern African Literature: African Writers Series, Mbari Club & the Social Character of Ibadan

Abstract

This paper carries forward and develops the theme of the character of African writing as a product of a specific discipline of the imagination within the postcolonial city itself by evoking the genealogy of African literature. The emergence of the postcolonial city represented a moment of intense cultural outreach and the internationalization of African literary production. The production of African literature was as much a function of global regimes of political and economic activities of itinerant publishers and of the icon of postcolonial modernity, the educational system, as it was the direct reflection of the transformations of the city. Importantly, the imperative of the literary function of cultural unification in modern Africa coincided with the simultaneous emergence of cosmopolitan centers of artistic production in a number of African cities, especially, Ibadan.