Nigerian Novels

So I was at the hair salon the other day patiently waiting my turn when the discussion led to novels. We not only talked about novels written in English but also novels written in Yoruba. I remember I had to read some Yoruba Literature, it was easy the first year in secondary school but then books like "Eru o bodo" (I forget the author) became required reading in the second year. I don't think I ever finished that book. I just had one of my classmates tell me the plot. But, I did take one thing away from it--the hero at one point in the story said "Sun mo yin, ko wa gboru ara", that stlll cracks me up. Unfortunately, I didn't take Igbo and only took one year of Hausa so I didn't have immediate access to any of the literature in those languages or any of the other Nigerian languages

Anyway, this led me to thinking about the Pacesetter series. Anyone remember "Sisi" "Director" "Rich Girl, Poor Boy" and so on and so forth. I remember we used to try to figure out who had read the most in the series using the list of titles provided in the entry pages and it used to be a thing of pride if you happened to have read more than anyone else. I started feeling this great desire to read them again and went searching on the web.

I found out that Macmillan, through their Pacesetter division (or subsidiary), used to publish the series but they no longer do. You'll be hard pressed to find any related information on their website though. However, the series has been picked up again by a different publisher and although some of the books are out of print, many are still available. You can find more information at www.pacesetternovels.com. I have to acknowledge that I got this URL from Nairaland at http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-13468.0.html. Please understand that I am in no way encouraging you to purchase from this webiste. If you do, it's at your own risk. For me, just looking at the illustrations on the book covers is joy enough for now. The next time I visit Nigeria I intend to find the original ones wherever they may be hiding in my house.

Good reading they were, and not just those books, there were other books like "The Birthday Girl" and one whose story I remember but not the title and author. The main characters were Richard and Minna. She was rich, he was poor but they managed to get married and had twins. They had a fight, he left with one twin, they got back together and lived happily ever--wait a minute, is that "Rich Girl, Poor Boy"? I don't think so. Hmnnh...

We Nigerians are a talented bunch, there's so much we have to offer the world. I want to challenge you to unleash your creative side. Whatever it is you think you know how to do, go ahead and do it. Draw, paint, write, create something. It really is not all about the Benjamins, y'know?