Creating Postcolonial Literature: African Writers and British Publishers

262 Pages·2013·4.63 MB·English

by  Caroline Davis (auth.)

Creating Postcolonial Literature
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Creating Postcolonial
Literature
African Writers and British Publishers
Caroline Davis
© Caroline Davis 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-0-230-36936-8
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-35051-3 ISBN 978-1-137-32838-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137328380
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
List of Tables vii
Acknowledgements viii
List of Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
Part I Oxford University Press in Africa, 1927–80
1 The Vision for OUP in Africa 17
2 ‘The Obligation to Be Profitable’: OUP in West Africa 32
3 ‘The Call to Duty’: OUP in East Africa 48
4 Publishing under Apartheid: OUP in South Africa 65
Conclusion to Part I 87
Part II The Three Crowns Series, 1962–76
5 The History of Three Crowns 93
6 Judging African Literature 108
7 Editing Three Crowns 123
8 Publishing Wole Soyinka 142
9 Publishing Athol Fugard 162
Conclusion 193
Notes 197
Bibliography 231
Index 244
v
List of Illustrations
2.1 John Brown and T. T. Solaru at the opening of the new
warehouse in Ibadan (1970) 33
2.2 Oxford University Press book exhibition, Ibadan (1970) 40
3.1 Julius Nyerere receiving a copy of his book Uhuru na Umoja
from Charles Lewis, c. 1967 52
7.1 Tsegaye Gabre- Medhin, Oda- Oak Oracle (1965), front cover 128
7.2 Obi Egbuna, Daughters of the Sun (1970), front cover 136
8.1 Wole Soyinka, The Lion and the Jewel (1963), front cover 150
8.2 Wole Soyinka, A Dance of the Forests (1963), front cover 151
8.3 Wole Soyinka, Kongi’s Harvest (1967), front cover 152
8.4 Wole Soyinka, The Road (1965), front cover 154
8.5 Wole Soyinka, Three Short Plays (1969), front and back covers 155
8.6 Wole Soyinka, Collected Plays 2 (1973), front and back covers 156
9.1 Athol Fugard, People Are Living There (1970), front cover 171
9.2 Athol Fugard, Hello and Goodbye (1973), front and back covers 172
9.3 Athol Fugard, Boesman and Lena (1973), front and back covers 173
9.4 Royal Court Theatre, A South African Season, programme
cover (1974) 180
9.5 Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, Statements:
Three Plays (1974), front and back covers 188
9.6 Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, Statements:
Three Plays (1974), title-page 189
vi
List of Tables
2.1 Nigeria branch accounts, 1962–78 44
3.1 Eastern Africa branch accounts, 1964–74 53
4.1 South Africa branch accounts, 1959–82 84
vii
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge all those who have helped me during the research
and writing of this book. I would like to thank David Johnson and Robert
Fraser at the Open University for their immensely generous support, advice
and encouragement at every stage of this study, from Ph.D. thesis to book
manuscript. I am also most grateful to Isabel Hofmeyr, Stephanie Newell and
Shafquat Towheed for their kind and constructive help and advice.
I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Oxford Centre for
International Publishing Studies at Oxford Brookes University for their
support, in particular: Jane Potter, Chris Fowler, Sally Hughes, Angus
Phillips, Beverley Tarquini, Nicola Timbrell, and my former colleagues,
Paul Richardson and Sue Pandit. I would like to acknowledge the generous
research funding I received from Oxford Brookes University.
In carrying out this research, I have received extensive help from Martin
Maw, Head of OUP Archives, who first alerted me to the existence of Three
Crowns. I would also like to thank the archivists at Cape Town University
Library, at the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown, at The
Cape Town Archives Repository and at Leeds University Library Special
Collections. My thanks in addition to those who agreed to be interviewed
for this project, namely, David Attwooll, James Currey, Ron Heapy, Marie
and David Philip, Jon Stallworthy, Randolph Vigne and Dennis Walder. I
am grateful to Valery Rose for p roof- reading an earlier draft of this manu-
script. I would also like to thank Ben Doyle and Monica Kendall at Palgrave
Macmillan for their excellent editorial work.
A much earlier version of Chapter 5 appeared as ‘The Politics of
Postcolonial Publishing: Oxford University Press’s Three Crowns Series
1962–1976’, in Book History, 8 (2005), and a version of Chapter 4 was
published as ‘Histories of Publishing under Apartheid: Oxford University
Press in South Africa’, in The Journal of Southern African Studies, 37:1
(2011). A shorter version of Chapter 8 was published as ‘Publishing
Wole Soyinka: Oxford University Press and the Creation of “Africa’s
Own William Shakespeare”’, in The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 48:4
(2012), and a case-study within Chapter 9 appeared as ‘Publishing A nti-
Apartheid Literature: Athol Fugard’s Statements Plays’, in The Journal of
Commonwealth Literature, 48:1 (2013). I am grateful for permission from
these journals to reprint extracts here. Archival references, quotations
and illustrations relating to Oxford University Press are reprinted here
with the kind permission of the Secretary to the Delegates of Oxford
University Press.
viii
Acknowledgements ix
Finally, I am very grateful for the constant help and encouragement of
friends and family, especially that of my father, Ian Davis, and my late
mother, Judy Davis. I also owe special thanks to Sheila Clayton. Most of
all, however, I would like to thank my husband, Andy Clayton, and my
children, Joseph, Ellen and Jude. This book is dedicated to them.