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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:A history of modern literary development among the Edos 1897-1960
Authors:Usuanlele, UyilawaISNI
Agbontaen, K.A.
Year:2000
Periodical:Africa: rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione
Volume:55
Issue:1
Pages:105-113
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:Edo
literature
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/40761432
Abstract:Although the Edo-speaking peoples of present-day Edo state, southcentral Nigeria, have a history of literary development that predates colonialism, literary development in the Roman script dates from the colonial period. The first published Edo author was J.E. Edegbe, whose books were published in the 1920s by the Foreign Bible Society. Due to unfavourable economic conditions, the small number of emergent literati of the 1920s and 1930s had to publish their work either overseas or in Lagos and other towns. The Edo writings of this early period dealt mainly with cultural and language issues, and they were often didactic in nature. A number of Edo wrote in their indigenous language, mainly the Benin dialect, or wrote books that aimed to help promote the writing and understanding of the language. Creative literary writing did not begin until the late 1930s, when it was facilitated by economic change and educational expansion.The postwar period saw a large number of publications on various subjects and in various Edo dialects. Notes, ref.
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