Africa Writes Back — 2008

The African Writers Series & the Launch of African Literature

By James Currey

“[The book] is full of the drama of that enterprise, the drama of dealing with the mother house, the drama of dealing with the often intractable political constraints dominating the intellectual space across Africa, and not least of all dealing with the writers themselves—with their ambitions, their temperaments, their financial needs and, at times, their perception of a colonial relationship between themselves and a European publishing house.”

Clive Wake, Emeritus Professor of Modern Languages, University of Kent at Canterbury

June 17, 2008, is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart by Heinemann. This publication provided the impetus for the foundation of the African Writers Series in 1962 with Chinua Achebe as the editorial adviser.

Africa Writes Back: The African Writer’s Series & the Launch of African Literature captures the energy of literary publishing in a new and undefined field. Portraits of the leading characters and the many consultants and readers providing reports and advice to new and established writers make Africa Writes Back a stand-out book. James Currey’s voice and insights are an added bonus.

Contents:
A Chrononology of the African Writers Series –
The Conspirators
INTRODUCTION
The Establishment of African Literature –
Publishing Chinua Achebe –
WRITERS FROM WEST AFRICA
Nigeria: The Country where so much started –
Negritude from Senegal to Cameroun –
The Magical Mystery of Ghana, Sierra Leone & the Gambia
WRITERS FROM EASTERN AFRICA
Towards the Oral & the Popular in Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania –
Publishing Ngugi –
Publishing Nuruddin Farah – Ethiopian Emperors Past & Present
WRITERS OF RESISTANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA
Publishing Alex la Guma, Dennis Brutus, Bessie Head & Masizi Kunene
WRITERS FROM SOUTHERN AFRICAN
Guns & Guerrillas in Mozambique & Angola –
The Struggle to become Zimbabweans –
Publishing Dambudzo Marechera –
Zambia Shall be Free –
Death & Detention in Malawi –
ARAB AUTHORS

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James Currey was the editorial director at Heinemann Educational Books in charge of the African Writers Series from 1967 to 1984. He is the recipient of the African Literary Association’s 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.