Nigerian Literature, as defined by Dr.

Taye Awoyemi-Arayela in Nigerian Literature in English:

The Journey So Far?, would essentially be any Nigerian literary work of imagination which is
written by Nigerians for Nigerians; it discusses issues that are Nigerian and shares the same
sensibilities, consciousness, world-view and other aspects of the Nigerian cultural experience. This
essentially means that there is a form of common sensibilities that bind Nigerian writers together.
This essay therefore is going to tackle that common sensibilities by tracing it to the historical
watersheds that led to the development of Nigerian Literature, with reference to such points as the
establishment of newspapers, the need to translate the Bible, the advent of written literature in
Northern Nigeria, and the advent of written literature in Southern Nigeria.

Firstly, the establishment of newspapers was an important historical watershed that flourished
literature in Nigeria. Nigerians felt the need to start pushing out their own voices and — in effect
— their culture, history, daily realities and identity to the populace. For this cause, they started
establishing their own newspapers around the 1880s to address and tackle these concerns. Bulletins
such as "Lagos Standard", "Lagos Time", "Lagos Observer". "The Anglophone",
"Eagle", and "Lagos Critic" were among the several other newspapers that were established during
this time. Soon, some of the writers of these publications transitioned into serious art and started
publishing books to tell a story — their story.

In furtherance, the need to translate the Bible was probably another one of the reasons why the
British had given the natives of Nigeria education. It is noteworthy to say that they believed that in
all those places where their military didn’t reach, their missionary activities would reach there.
Thus, they needed an irreproachable force with which they could reckon the people with and
subsequently discovered that it was indeed the lessons of the English Language. With the grasp of
the knowledge of the English Language at hand, cultural nationalists like Samuel Àjàyí Crowther
localised it into the Yoruba language by translating the European Bible. The successive literary
texts about Yoruba grammar and orthography created that glaring awareness to chase after literacy.
It is the chase for literacy that made the existence of Nigerian Literature possible in the first place. I
mean, how else would the native literati have corrected the false consciousness of the Europeans if
they had no knowledge of written literature?

Another important historical watershed in the history of Nigerian literature was the advent of
written literature in Northern Nigeria. Due to the fact that Lord Lugard deliberately didn't pay
much attention to the Northern states because of his promise to not defile their Islam religion with
Christianity, the Northerners had their orthography from an established alphabet hat was inspired
by Arabic which is labelled as Ajami. In the historical traces of literature in Northern Nigeria, it is
worthy of note to say that they flourished better in poetry than in the other two genres: prose and
drama. This can be traced back to the Arab influence. The Arabs who have been recognized for
their opposition against drama also flourished similarly in poetry. It is through this influence that
poets like Aliyu Namangi wrote their poems.

Also, the advent of written literature in Southern Nigeria rapidly spurred the growth of Nigerian
Literature as it is today. After Samuel Ajayi Crowther (a free, returning slave) had translated the
Bible and had standardized the orthography and grammar of the Yoruba language, along with the
exposition to the history of the Yorubas by Reverend Samuel Johnson, the Southerners developed
that burning interest to promote the Yoruba literature, culture, religion, and its history. Most of
these motifs were visibly lucid in the works of writers like Wole Soyinka who dealt most of his plays
around the mysticism of the Yoruba supernatural world. His plays The Dance of the Forest and
Death and the King’s Horseman might be a perfect example of this. This advent of written
literature in the South which was early in place because of the translation of the Bible became a
weapon for culturalists in the South who wanted to correct the bad impression of the Europeans
on Nigerians as being barbaric, uncouth, uncivilised and uncultured. Even in these contemporary
years, we still find literary works that aim at this end.

In conclusion, this treatise has been able to discuss the important historical watersheds in the
development of Nigerian Literature with recourse to the establishment of newspapers, the need to
translate the Bible, the advent of written literature in Northern Nigeria, and the advent of written
literature in Southern Nigeria.