African Series

This special, large-format, lavishly-illustrated edition of Things Fall Apart, 'Africa's best loved novel', is a timely tribute to  'the father of modern African Literature'. It is published to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of a book now considered a classic of African and World Literature. This edition uniquely blends the enduring simplicity of Achebe's tale with the creative visual talents of some of Nigeria's best and bright contemporary artists. The result is a book that will appeal to lovers of African Literature and Art the world over. A treasured testament to the art of story-tellling, Things Fall Apart Illustrated is bound to become a collector's item.

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) is widely recognized as the founding father of modern African literature in English. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, not only contested European narratives about Africa, but also challenged assumptions about the form and function of the novel.

Throughout his long career, Achebe was a voice for the peoples of Africa and also a formative influence on a new generation of African writers. This volume of tributes and reflections is a fitting testament to his legacy.

The Bikoroa Plays is a major of cycle of three plays, The Boat, The Return Home and Full Circle that were first staged in 1981 at the University of Lagos and the National Theatre of Nigeria. The Boat is a prose drama that documents Ngbilebiri history. The Return Home is a historical play set in the 1920s. Full Circle is set in the 1950s and concerns a brothers' quarrel in a traditional setting. The three plays are characterised by their dramatic qualities and unique poetic voice.

In the fictional country of Kato, a successful and much-loved academic, Jungu, comes face to face with academic colonialism in the guise of American economic aid to the poor African country. Highly qualified Africans are passed over in favour of "experts" from the donor country, and students do not receive the education which is their due. Jungu comes into tense confrontation with the American dean, in his efforts to correct the policy and restore academic dignity.

From the begining of her life eighteen year-old Belinda has struggled hard against the immorality, oppressions and crime prevalent in the Nigerian society in which she lives. Her mother dead and her father a drunk, she chooses to work as a riceseller rather than become a prostitute. Her search for truth and spiritual development leads her through traumatic experiences. Through poverty she learns self- reliance, through physical and psychic battles with a friend in a polygamous marriage she learns to trust in her own strength. And when Chief Ojo offers her family freedom and marriage into riches Belinda must decide between the boy she loves and marrying a man for money, and her family's survival.

The award-winning noted playwright here takes a comic swipe at ideological misfits and opportunists who strut the ever-accommodating political landscape of contemporary Africa. A former military Major, takes to politics. His motives have far more to do with vanity than patriotism, and his attempts to adapt to a situation he hardly comprehends produce highly comic results. His predicament is complicated by the unexpected arrival of his American wife who discovers two more marriages contracted without her knowledge and her husband beset by political problems.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The late Ola Rotimi is one of Nigeria's most well known playwright and Professor of Dramatic Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University

Tells the classic story of the Zulu hero Chaka.

"Literary duelist and inimitable dramatist, Soyinka, bursts into the historical scenes of Africa, taking on issues and societal flaws that most writers simply leave out. His unconditioned reflex, gut reactions and flashes of inspiration, through shotgun sketches of his eloquent and sharp pen, come from his impulse and are examples of the Soyinka Impulse."--back cover.

Spirited and intelligent, Morayo grows up surrounded by school friends and family in Ibadan. There is Eniayo, her adoring little sister—for whose sake their middle-class parents fight stigmatising superstition—and a large extended family of cousins and aunts who sometimes make Morayo’s home their own. A shameful secret forced upon her by Bros T, her cousin, thrusts Morayo into a web of oppressive silence woven by the adults around her. Morayo must learn to fiercely protect herself and her sister as young women growing up in a complex and politically charged country.

A novel by the outstanding chronicler of Nigerian City Life

"The Black Man's Burden is truly a tour de force, a bold and stimulating work. With skill and sympathy, Basil Davidson sets up the lines of a debate that has long been waiting to be born."

A series of stories within a story, all narrated by Obi, a young, hopeful Nigerian immigrant in America.

When a baby girl is abandoned at birth, Reverend Arlington and his wife Ginny are only too happy to adopt her. The media cover this moving story, and a Nigerian woman living in England takes more than a passing interest in the Arlingtons. She decides that they world provide the right Christian home for her own baby, Chester. Shortly afterwards, Chester is delivered to social services with a letter explaining that the Arlingtons should be his new parents. So young Chester enters the vicarage of the sleepy seaside village of St Simon. He is the only black child for miles around.

"The New Tribe" tells the story of Chester's long search for his true identity, and the challenges he faces as a black child in a white family.

Very few writers can give life and essence to their work as Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo does in this remarkable novel where the deep voice of tradition and the significant breath of the 'rememberer' blend in a notable symphony which fills the reader up to the brim.

House Of Symbols is a remarkable achievement in plot, style, characterization, atmosphere and every other thing that goes into a powerful novel. It is the story of the sensitive Osai as well as his Eaglewoman into whose bag 'money flows like the Otaru River.' Terror mingles with humor, pain with pleasure in this fascinating saga set in a town in Eastern Nigeria.

This is a profoundly written book, a work of immense significance which fills an aching vacuum in African Literature
                            -The Lumina 

 Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo is Professor and head of the department of English at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. She is a prolific writer, with over 50 publications, including 14 books and numerous journal articles. She has won at lea4A four major creative writing prizes, including ANA Prizes for Prose Fiction and Women Writing, and WORDOC Short Stone Competition. She was a visiting Commonwealth Fellow at SOAS, the University of London in 1989/90 and a Research Fella' at University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1999/2000.

This is the story of a woman who refuses to mourn her husband's death. The village knew she was an unhappy wife, but she is still expected to weep and speak the praises of her husband. Her story reveals the value of friendship between women, based on liking rather than traditional beliefs.

How the leopard got his claws
Recounts how the leopard got his claws and teeth and why he rules the forest with terror.
Author: Chinua Achebe

First published in 1946, this novel exposed the condition of black South Africans under a white regime. It presents a portrait of labour discrimination, appalling housing conditions and one man's humanitarian act of defiance.