LEWIS NKOSI

One of the first things one notices upon arriving in West Africa, especially in Nigerian cities, is the easy co-existence of the old and the new modes of living. . . It is not only that architectural styles have found a new synthesis in some of the buildings here: the very spirit which moyivates city life is uniquely African. The "feel" of a West African city is as distinguishable from that of cities in other parts of the world as a European city is distinguishable from an American city. And it is this uniquely West African mood which distinguishes the literature of West Africa from that of South Africa. Whereas the contemporary fiction of West Africaseems to be almost saturated with the spirit of traditional myths, the literature of South Africa reflects the great gulf existing there between the urban and the rural communities and between the industrial and the traditional societies.

- Lewis Nkosi, "English-Speaking West Africa", Africa Report,December 1962.