How Heinemann, Pacesetters Promoted Growth In Nigerian Literature

The emergence of the African writers series by Heinemann in 1962 really helped to boost the Nigerian and indeed African writings of the Achebe era. According to Odimegwu Onwumere, a poet and media consultant, the series has been a vehicle for some of the most important African writers, ensuring an international voice to literary masters including Chinua Achebe, Ngugi was Thiong’o, Steve Biko, Ama Ata Aidoo, Nadine Gordimer, Buchi Emecheta and Okot P’Bitek. “It provided a forum for many post independence African writers, and provided texts with which many African universities could begin to redress the colonial bias then prominent in the teaching of literature”, Onwumere wrote. The works in the series include novels, short stories, poetry, biographical writing and essays from across Africa.
The  brain behind the series was the Heinemann executive,  Alan Hill, and the first editor of the series was Chinua Achebe, who focused first on West African writers, and soon branched out, publishing the works of Ngugi Wa Thiongo in East Africa, and Nadine Gordimer in South Africa. By the time Achebe left the editorship in 1972, over 40 writers from 19 different countries had been published in the series. According to records, apart from the editors, James Carrey anchored as the editorial director of the label from 1967 to 1984, and during his tenure, the series released over 250 titles by authors from more than twenty-five African countries.
In spite of the obvious advantages of the series, it also had some shortcomings. According to Onwumere, many African authors saw the series as part of the colonial masters strategy of exploiting the relics left of Africa. Consequently, many of the authors did not want the label, AWS, to publish their works; they wanted African publishers as against the neo-colonial publishers. The genesis of this contentious relationship between the AWS publishers and the African authors ranged from advance/royalty payments to editorial recommendations. This was why perhaps, Wole Soyinka, for a time, resisted having his novel, The Interpreters appear in AWS; though he said it was for fear of being confined to the ‘Orange ghetto’ defined by the recognizable colour scheme of AWS volumes. The contention could also been the reason for Ayi Kwei Armah’s hope “to find an African publisher as opposed to a neo-colonial writers coffle owned by Europeans but slyly misnamed African”
But the factor that really led to the steady decline of the series seem to border more on economy than authors-publishers relationship. In Onwumere’s words, “After a fairly prosperous beginning, the series faced (the economic) difficulties that mirrored those which faced the continent as a whole. By the mid-1980s, only one or two new titles a year were being published, and much of the back catalogue had fallen out of point”.
However, from the early 1990s, Heinemann has been making attempt at reviving the series by publishing new works, text originally published in local release and translated works. So, in conclusion, while there are all sorts of ways to critique what the AWS turned out to be, in the words of Aeron Badly, “it is absolutely unquestionable that Alan Hill’s establishment of an ‘African Writers Series’ for Heinemann was the most important and most influential publishing infrastructure through which ‘African Literature’ was first developed between the late 1970s and early 1980s Nigerian young writers were given the opportunity to have their works published curtsey Macmillan publishing company. Through the company’s young writers’ series, known as pacesetters, hundreds of youths across Africa were published, with Nigerians forming the largest percentage. The series dealt mostly with contemporary issues that were of interest to young adults. Among the lucky young writers to be published were Mohammed Sule, author of the undesirable Element (1977) and the Delinquent (1979), Helen Obviagele, who wrote Evbu My Love (1980) and Dickson Ighrini who authored Death is a Woman (1981) and Bloodbath at Lobster Close (1980). Other work in the series include, Kalu Okpi’s Coup!, Sunday Adebomi’s symphony of Destruction, I’ve Oparandu’s The Wages of Sin, Sam Adewoye’s The Betrayer, and Victor Ulojiofor’s Sweet Revenge. By the early 1990s, there were about 125 pacesetters titles. And the books were widely available, even in the market bookstalls, which usually sold only textbooks.
However, with the economic decline which began around the 80s, Macmillan separated from Macmillan Nigeria, taking with it the pacesetters copyright. Consequently, the series vanished, and only occasional pirated versions of a few titles could be seen in Nigeria. But, those who were fortunate to have been published have made their marks and some have even gone further to produce more serious works. Among such writers are Mohammed Tukur Garba (author of the Black Temple-1981); and Muhammed Sule, who published Eye of Eternity and the Devil’s Seat, respectively, in the 90s.