Children’s Literature Production and Reception in Northern Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects

Citation: Aishat Ize YUSUF (2021). Children’s Literature Production and Reception in Northern Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects. Yobe Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (YOJOLLAC), Vol. 9, Issue 1. Department of African Languages and Linguistics, Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. ISSN 2449-0660

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE PRODUCTION AND RECEPTION IN NORTHERN NIGERIA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

By

Aishat Ize YUSUF

Abstract

The reading culture in Northern Nigeria has been a cause for concern especially in the last two decades with much effort being put into reviving it. One of the recognized reasons for the decline in reading culture especially by the young is the inadequate importance given to children’s reading habits especially in their early years. There is an appalling attitude towards the production and dissemination of appropriate and engaging literature for a new and contemporary generation of young readers despite the laudable efforts of some outstanding publishers and writers. It has become imperative to attempt a tentative presentation of guidelines that will enable aspiring Northern Nigerian writers produce literature that is both appropriate and engaging to the contemporary child, while at the same time, teaching those qualities and values that are respected and celebrated by the society. This paper therefore aims to identify some of the challenges militating against children’s literature production and its reception in northern Nigeria while proposing some simple means of solving aforesaid challenges.

1.0 Introduction

Literature for children has always had one problem in particular. That of deciding which literature (among the plethora of literary works available) is actually suitable for children. Scholars, academics and various others interested in the proper development of the child have given different definitions of what can be considered as children’s literature, while at the same time trying to identify several criteria to delimit this important literary genre.

However, although children across the globe have a lot in common from the beginning of time, various factors like race, traditions, cultures, religion, changes in time, advances in technologies and the quality of living today all bring about differences in the actual lives of children today. These factors also determine the form and content of writings targeted at children, and often influence the production of such literature in various localities and societies.

The focus of this paper is on the production and availability of children’s literature in Northern Nigeria, which i is already lagging behind on the rate of publications of literature in English (the national lingua franca) (Yusuf, Owenmeh &Agulonye, 2016). Children’s literature as well as other forms of literature in Northern Nigeria suffer in their production and patronage due to a variety of factors some of which are cultural, economic and ideological. The very concept of the child itself is in question and the level of importance attached to a child’s development is mired in controversy. Consequently, a writer of children’s literature in this region is bound to, and often do, face a number of challenges and problems. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t any prospects, on the contrary, this paper tries not only to outline some of the challenges facing children’s literature production but also to identify its prospects and proffer some solutions for the literary development of contemporary Northern Nigerian children’s literature.

2.0 What is Children`s Literature?

Gubar (2011) outlines the difficulty of trying to define children’s literature by positing it as a category between the postulations of critics she terms “the definers” and “the anti-definers.” The definers are critics who see children’s literature as being in a constant bid to define and delimit its own activities and the anti-definers who find the very notion of a literature specifically produced for children as incongruous. For the definers, children’s literature according to Lesnik-Olberstein in Hunt (1999), is a category of literature the existence of which absolutely depends on supposed relationships with a particular reading audience: ‘Children…' which for Hunt (1999) makes children's literature to be defined by its audience in a way other literature tend not to be. This goes along with the supposedly one-sided view of the child (reader) as incompetent as well as lacking appropriate consideration for aesthetic literary characteristics and criteria.

The anti-definers according to Gubar (2011), “point out that the possessive “children’s” falsely implies that young people own or control a body of texts that are generally written, published, reviewed, and bought by adults, and often read by them as well.” (p.210). This argument sees children’s literature as an undefinable venture. Gubar goes on to show how those who wrangle over the finer points of the genre are in the actual minority, (albeit a very vocal one) with the “vast silent majority of scholars cheerfully carrying on with their scholarship on specific texts, types, and eras of children’s literature as though the lack of an overarching definition constituted no real impediment to their work.”

In Nigeria as in many parts of the world, there is a romantic view of childhood which assumes that young readers are supposedly not yet disillusioned by the vagaries of life. (Mohammed, 2013). Their consciousness is regarded as rather naïve and as lacking as their ability to navigate the language used in literary productions. In contemporary analyses of children's literature and its reading processes, there is still an obvious influence of the romantic paradigm. The contemporary production of literature for the young and its critical analysis often implement the legacies of the Enlightenment and Romanticism by critically transforming or ironically inverting these models of childhood and growing up.

Other definitions and criteria for delimiting children’s literature fall into this very elastic criteria. According to Ogu (1992), children’s literature in Africa maintains the romantic view of childhood with an added criterion of socializing and moral didactics while insisting on children’s familiarity with the portrayed subject matter. Children’s literature therefore, having no definite means of recognition are delimited into the age and cognitive abilities of the target audience, distinctive literacy characteristics of the norms which show that is has plot, themes and point of view relevant to the child and functions as a means of child development by fostering morals and character development in children and finally the usual categorization of books by publishers as children’s literature.

2.2 Understanding Children’s Tastes in Literature

Children’s literature in Nigeria has been characterized by a tendency towards inculcating morals and other important aspects of traditional African cultures. While this is a worthwhile function of children’s literature, unfortunately, many past and contemporary writers of children’s books have not been really considerate of the changing times and realities when writing for children. This anomaly which is common not only in the culturally conservative North but also the rest of the country, has led to the production and publishing of books which although have the general approval of adults who are very much interested in the moral acculturation of children, have failed to attract the attention of the children who are to be the major recipients. Many books which fall into this category are books on collected folktales by various tribes which are mere translations of the original. For children who were born and bred in a world of televised, fast paced stories, cartoons, computer games and ever evolving mobile phone applications, these stories hold little attraction.

 Contemporary children are slightly different from those in the past regardless of race or geographical location due to the far reaching influence of globalization and the information technology revolution. These days, with the ever lowering readership rates despite the valiant efforts of the post Harry Potter book publishing and selling boom, teachers and parents are increasingly confronted with a phenomenon Edwards (2010) terms ‘reluctant readers.’

Reluctant readers are readers who are either intimidated by books or simply not interested in the ones they are asked to read. Other reasons may have to do with underlying conditions such as dyslexia or simply inexperience. As a response to this problem, writers and publishers developed the “Hi-lo” book category which according to Edwards (2012) are “high in interest and low in readability.” Such books often deal with subjects like ‘cars', ‘pirates’, ‘sports’, ‘animals’, ‘machines’, ‘high profile biographies’ and the likes. Brown (2007) also advises that “material for reluctant readers must have an interest level several years older than its reading level.”

Hall (2010) also encourages writers to write for “neglected audiences “because many children are unable to find titles that they can relate to. Northern Nigeria is very multifaceted in terms of cultural and socioeconomic stratifications but in terms of literature for children, the themes can be quite homogeneous. Many young readers are forced to read books that are far removed from their own reality. A child who dreams of becoming an inventor, or an explorer/adventurer would be hard pressed to find a continuous stream of titles published to satisfy his/her needs. Others find it impossible to even find any reflections of their cultures in any book. With so much material from Nigeria’s multicultural and multiethnic plurality, there is so much to get inspiration from if writers, publishers, teachers, parents and the society would endeavor to broaden our ideas of what is acceptable within the bounds of generally accepted morality.

Children today are quite cognizant of the contemporary realities which are affecting their lives no matter how much we shield them. They face enormous pressures this days because of changing lifestyles, influence of information technologies and rampant insecurity and they need to make sense of things. Parents, guardians and other role models aren’t always around to help. The international award winning British children’s writer Anne Fine in a (1997) Magazine interview claimed that she likes writing about the emotional pressures on modern children which is the basis of her success because “Psychologically, kids don’t really change from one generation to the next- but today’s youngsters are much more street smart”. She goes on to say that “children aren’t silly, what they want is realism”. This reinforces the idea that to some extent children’s literature should reflect the realities of contemporary children existence.

So what then is this contemporary realism that underlines children taste today? While in the past Southern writers wrote books like Eze goes to school, Akin the drummer boy, One week one trouble, etc., the northern child who read, had to rely on books written in Hausa for literary acculturation. (Ali, 2012; Nasidi, 2016). All these books notwithstanding the location, were normally based on themes like leaving the rural areas for the urban, new experiences in the modern as opposed to the traditional background of the main characters and also a lot of hype about traditional folktales depicting the African way of life.

With time however, children stopped relating with all these themes and motives because the realities of their lives proved otherwise. According to Ashimole (1992), there has been a rising number of (Nigerian) children who were of bourgeois and elitist parentage and so more at home with the television, video, videogames and the like. This predisposition for electronic devices in place of paper bound books became the norm and in effect is still the reality of many Nigerian children’s lives today including even a presumed majority who are economically disadvantaged. The spectrum of electronic device choices has only expanded and very few Nigerian children have escaped being impacted by the InfoTech revolution.

Now due to this pre- occupation with modern electronic media, children were exposed to western style stories told in movies, cartoons, animation movies and video games. They are infinitely more interesting than the printed or even digital literature to be found in Nigeria today. Written literature is faced with a serious set of disadvantages in the face of these competing media. To tackle this, Hall (2010) advises writers for children to actively embrace both electronic and design innovations in order to keep up with the changing realities of children’s lives since children like the fast paced adventure and action packed stories due to the fact that they are building up their muscles (both physical and mental) and are generally restless.

Many traditional children’s literature critics advocate simplicity because they claim that the world of the children is very simple and their minds are generally incapable of complex contrasting thoughts. They tend to see the world as simply black or white or good and evil without all the grey areas noticeable and understood by adults. Therefore, children’s books which portray the real world and even fantasy ones in simple terms are generally more acceptable to children otherwise. This simplification for children also accounts for the fact that they can cope with only few ideas, characters and themes at a time.

Other childist critics like Nikolajeva (2010) and Johansson (2013), ask for a reduction in adult hegemony on children’s literary experience. They advocate for more inclusion of children’s voices with children who write for children given more autonomy and relevance. To these critics, children understand better the concerns of other children while adults are often just trying to foist a contentious heteronomy on children who have no choice but to accept, (albeit reluctantly) their own marginalization. This could lead to reluctance in reading and wholeheartedly experiencing literature which encourages more robust, critical interactions with literary texts.

Children’s attraction to bright colors also accounts for the need for bright and tastefully illustrated books. Ashimole (1992), claims that to young readers, illustrations are not just pretty pictures accompanying the text but the actual “soul of books”. Most times the images conjured by the illustrators are most likely to be recollected than the glossary of dead words. Illustrations for children’s books have improved considerably in the past decade with good illustrators like Mustapha Bulama becoming one of the best known in Northern Nigeria. Below is an example of his work in collaboration with children’s writer Fatima Akilu.

For Ikhigbonaoreme (1992) children’s stories which deal with lasting qualities of truth and universality as their thematic preoccupations are much more effective in the child’s intellectual and oral development than those that are too “preachy or morally condescending. “All these show that children love reading stories with themes that are evergreen, especially those which are meant to entertain and amuse, instruct, teach morals, history, and geography and also to solve problems. Stories about animals, humorous tales and books dealing with the supernatural are also perennial favorites, and science fiction is also very popular these days due to the overreaching influence of the global technological advancements on everyone even the children themselves.

A child’s mind is often observed to have a very short attention span. Therefore, a good children’s book must stretch the children imagination and be free from stereotyped plots, situations, vocabulary and characters, easy solution and a general air of unreality. (Ikhibonoareme, 1992). This is because; children like realism and want to see echoes of the world around them. Writers for children are encouraged to adopt a direct but simple approach because this appeals to children and it stimulates their desire to read further. (Brown, 2007). Since children love action and suspense with plenty of incidents, description shouldn’t be too long to bore them; and the writer often has descended to the level of the child in thought, feeling and language. The language and dialogue should be as natural as possible. According to Brown (2007), writers have to find the child within themselves. Writers should also take note that the use of illustration is very important and should be closely linked with the text. Since this is usually the job of editors or illustrators in the publishing house, the authors must assist that the illustrations are done in proportion to the stories.

2.3 Challenges Facing Children’s Literature in Northern Nigeria

Mohammed (2013) gave quite an extensive list of challenges, which militate against children’s literature in Nigeria as presented below:

· Poor reading culture: Children these days’ lack enthusiasm towards reading. They rather prefer to watch films for hours. The culture of reading is therefore gradually dying away in our children. This of course, no doubt, affects the harnessing of children’s literature for Nigeria’s transformation agenda.

· Non-availability of literary reading materials: Literary reading materials are in short supply. Where they are available, they are not affordable. This definitely affects exploring children’s literature for national transformation.

· Non-teaching of Literature in most secondary schools especially in Kano state. Literature as subject is not taught in most public schools in Kano state and in some other states within the north-west zone. No reason was how ever given for this act of neglect. This situation affects harnessing of children’s Literature for Nigeria’s transformation agenda.

· Non-availability of qualified literature teachers: Qualified literature teachers who can effectively handle the teaching of Literature are not readily available. Language teachers who are non-Literature specialists are often made to teach Literature. This hampers the harnessing of children’s Literature for national transformation.

· Problem of demarcating between adults and children’s Literature (literary texts). Literary texts considered as adults’ Literature are often used by children. For instance, texts like Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe; The Concubine by Elechi Amadi; The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka; The Trial of Dedan Kimathi by Ngugi and Mugo are equally used by secondary school children.

· Note: Most of the challenges she proffers are country wide phenomena but some are of specific concentration in Northern Nigeria.

Additionally, one of the greatest challenges however for writers is, discipline. Meniru (1992) states that she marvels at the naivety of writers who think writing for children is an easy way of passing time. Writing for children is derisively viewed as simplistic. In actual fact, writing children’s literature is not an easy job considering how difficult it is to continuously capture children’s attention. Many writers have good intentions when starting to write a children’s book just like any other literary genre. Yet despite the initial buzz of ideas, they finally just give up. According to Josephine Feeney “the difficult part is to be disciplined”. The writer just has to keep slugging it out because the rewards are far greater than the challenges.

There is also the challenge of getting a book published. It is a well-known fact that publishers reject a lot of book especially those by new authors. The key is never giving up. Correct whatever mistakes have been pointed out, improve it and keep trying. Many of the most famous and successful books today were almost invariably rejected at first.

Finally, it is important to realize a very important lesson as Brown (2007) reminds writers, “Rules are notoriously made to be broken.” These recommendations especially those pertaining to writing for children are just guidelines. Brown continues that, J. K. Rowlings, didn’t seem to have gotten the memo on why fantasy was not a viable enterprise in children’s writing and she consequently had to deal with a lot of rejections by publishers. Consequently, she not only inspired a reading revolution that astounded the world in recent history but also became the first billionaire author with a fantasy series written for children.

3.1 Prospects and Recommendations

Writing for children requires just as much professionalism as writing for adults. It is sometimes a bit more demanding than writing for adults because a children’s writer has to be able to see the world through the eyes of the children. The problem of poor reading habits and reluctant readers can be reduced if children find children’s books more attractive and relatable. One way of doing this, according to British writer Josephine Feeney is to keep in touch with youth culture by talking to child relatives or even stopping children in the streets to ask them questions. Above all, writers must be able to sympathize with children. A children’s author should never have forgotten what it was like to be a child.

A good knowledge of child psychology helps writers, teachers and caregivers understand the child, his needs, his likes and dislikes.” An author of children’s books should read as widely as possible and be up to date with the latest publication for children including newspaper and journals. (Meniru, 1992).

Were we have situations of enthusiastic readers who can’t afford books or lack books in school and public libraries, private philanthropy and government assistance becomes very helpful.

The problem of bad and unqualified teachers who are poor readers themselves are a bedeviling problem in Nigeria with many efforts by government to quell without much effect. Efforts towards upgrading teacher competence and motivation shouldn’t be relaxed. It may take time to change attitudes towards the importance of a well-educated populace but with perseverance it is achievable. The teaching of literature and creative writing should be reintroduced in places where they are lacking. Many Nigerians in the North do not see writing and teaching of literature as viable occupations mostly due to ignorance. This needs extensive awareness campaigns.

Finally, I add my voice to the international call for English and literature departments worldwide to recognize Children’s literature as a genuine and worthwhile area of study with the same concessions and investments as those made for formally marginalized studies like women’s literature. Without proper recognition and legitimization by Literature departments, Children’s literature will not truly evolve and acquire the level of respectability that will encourage serious dedication to it as an art form and as an important acculturating tool for our children. When we do not study and properly critique Children’s literature, we leave our children to the mercy of whoever is supplying their needs for good literature to read.

4.0 Conclusion

Children’s literature in northern Nigeria has been shown to be beset with myriad problems ranging from ignorance of its importance in the development of children’s cognitive and emotional abilities to a poor writing and reading culture. Literature is generally accepted as a way of engaging with the realities of life and it also serves as a window to the world. Children’s literature like other literary forms in northern Nigeria suffers a glaring neglect which is detrimental to the development of young generations. Without a exposure to a robust literary experience, the mental and emotional developmental scope of children is severely limited and the effects are becoming more noticeable in a world that is further and further leaving our young ones behind in many aspects of development.

This paper has covered several areas starting from what the term ‘Children’s literature’ means, its contributions to child development, understanding what children like to read, and the challenges involved for any aspiring or even established writer who decides to write for children. Finally, recommendations were made based on the prospects the genre has in reviving the reading culture in younger generations but also getting the important notice it deserves as a worthwhile endeavor and field of critical studies.

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