INTRODUCTION
When Nigeria achieved independence from British colonial rule on
October 1, 1960, the prospects appeared promising and
expectations for the futures of the country were high. Nigeria was
the most populous Country in Africa, and the potential for
economic growth was great, Buoyed largely by the discovery of
commercial quantities of petroleum in the Niger delta region in
1958. Nigeria was dubbed the ‘‘Giant of Africa,’’ And many people
both inside and outside the country believed that Nigeria would
soon rise to claim a leading position in African and world Affairs.
Nigeria also saw itself as a beacon of hope and progress for other
Colonized peoples emerging from the yoke of alien rule. By 1970,
however, Nigeria’s stability and prestige had been greatly
damaged by a decade of political corruption, economic
underdevelopment, and military Coups. Most damaging, however,
was the culmination of these problems in a two-and-a-half-year
civil war from 1967 to 1970 that rent the country along regional
and ethnic lines, killed between 1 and 3 million people, and nearly
destroyed the fragile federal bonds that held together the Nigerian
State.
BUILDING A NATION
The need to build pride around a unified national identity for
Nigeria was not a new development in the 1960s; indeed, the
creation of a pan-Nigerian consciousness had been a
preoccupation of nationalist activists since at least the 1930s. By
the 1960s, however, the desire for a sense of national unity had
spread beyond the political realm to encompass cultural activities
as well. Many people began searching for ways to develop a
distinct and recognizable national culture in order to bring
Nigerians together as a single people and to grow national pride
by contributing something distinctly Nigerian to world culture in
general. Artists, writers, scholars, and politicians developed many
different conceptions of what aesthetics and values best
, characterized Nigeria, but all were clearly concerned with
promoting and analyzing Nigeria’s unique traditions and history,
and in this way illustrated their desire to forge a stronger national
identity.
In theater and literature, Nigerians made great contributions to
national culture. Chinua Achebe, perhaps Nigeria’s most famous
author, published his masterpiece, Things Fall Apart, in 1958. By
the early 1960s he had become one of the leading voices in the
Nigerian arts. Written in English prose, Things Fall Apart makes
use of a European language and a European medium, the novel, to
tell a tale of life in Nigeria prior to and leading up to British
colonial rule. Other writers told similar tales of Nigeria’s
traditional ways, but in a different type of language. Amos
Tutuola’s The Palm-wine Drinkard, first published in 1952 and
produced in the theater in the 1960s, tells of the story of a man’s
journey with a palm-wine tapper (a worker in a traditional Nigerian
industry) through the land of the dead. Rich in indigenous
cosmology, the tale is also written in broken, or pidgin, English,
common among Nigerians who did not have extensive European
education. Other writers wrote solely in indigenous languages, but
this severely restricted their markets and, therefore, their capacity
to truly promote a pan-Nigerian vision. The most famous
dramatist to emerge in the early 1960s was Wole Soyinka, whose
A Dance of the Forests was written to commemorate Nigerian
independence in 1960. His plays became famous not only in
Nigeria but throughout Africa and Europe. Soyinka’s contribution
to drama later earned him the distinction of becoming the first
sub-Saharan African to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The expansion of formal education facilities was part of a wider
economic plan on the part of the First Republic to make Nigeria
wealthier and more self-sufficient. In 1962 the government
When Nigeria achieved independence from British colonial rule on
October 1, 1960, the prospects appeared promising and
expectations for the futures of the country were high. Nigeria was
the most populous Country in Africa, and the potential for
economic growth was great, Buoyed largely by the discovery of
commercial quantities of petroleum in the Niger delta region in
1958. Nigeria was dubbed the ‘‘Giant of Africa,’’ And many people
both inside and outside the country believed that Nigeria would
soon rise to claim a leading position in African and world Affairs.
Nigeria also saw itself as a beacon of hope and progress for other
Colonized peoples emerging from the yoke of alien rule. By 1970,
however, Nigeria’s stability and prestige had been greatly
damaged by a decade of political corruption, economic
underdevelopment, and military Coups. Most damaging, however,
was the culmination of these problems in a two-and-a-half-year
civil war from 1967 to 1970 that rent the country along regional
and ethnic lines, killed between 1 and 3 million people, and nearly
destroyed the fragile federal bonds that held together the Nigerian
State.
BUILDING A NATION
The need to build pride around a unified national identity for
Nigeria was not a new development in the 1960s; indeed, the
creation of a pan-Nigerian consciousness had been a
preoccupation of nationalist activists since at least the 1930s. By
the 1960s, however, the desire for a sense of national unity had
spread beyond the political realm to encompass cultural activities
as well. Many people began searching for ways to develop a
distinct and recognizable national culture in order to bring
Nigerians together as a single people and to grow national pride
by contributing something distinctly Nigerian to world culture in
general. Artists, writers, scholars, and politicians developed many
different conceptions of what aesthetics and values best
, characterized Nigeria, but all were clearly concerned with
promoting and analyzing Nigeria’s unique traditions and history,
and in this way illustrated their desire to forge a stronger national
identity.
In theater and literature, Nigerians made great contributions to
national culture. Chinua Achebe, perhaps Nigeria’s most famous
author, published his masterpiece, Things Fall Apart, in 1958. By
the early 1960s he had become one of the leading voices in the
Nigerian arts. Written in English prose, Things Fall Apart makes
use of a European language and a European medium, the novel, to
tell a tale of life in Nigeria prior to and leading up to British
colonial rule. Other writers told similar tales of Nigeria’s
traditional ways, but in a different type of language. Amos
Tutuola’s The Palm-wine Drinkard, first published in 1952 and
produced in the theater in the 1960s, tells of the story of a man’s
journey with a palm-wine tapper (a worker in a traditional Nigerian
industry) through the land of the dead. Rich in indigenous
cosmology, the tale is also written in broken, or pidgin, English,
common among Nigerians who did not have extensive European
education. Other writers wrote solely in indigenous languages, but
this severely restricted their markets and, therefore, their capacity
to truly promote a pan-Nigerian vision. The most famous
dramatist to emerge in the early 1960s was Wole Soyinka, whose
A Dance of the Forests was written to commemorate Nigerian
independence in 1960. His plays became famous not only in
Nigeria but throughout Africa and Europe. Soyinka’s contribution
to drama later earned him the distinction of becoming the first
sub-Saharan African to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The expansion of formal education facilities was part of a wider
economic plan on the part of the First Republic to make Nigeria
wealthier and more self-sufficient. In 1962 the government
