Onitsha Market Literature | KU Libraries Digital Collections

Onitsha Market Literature consists of stories, plays, advice, and moral discourses published primarily in the 1960s by local presses in the lively market town of Onitsha, an important commercial site in the Igbo-speaking region of southeastern Nigeria. In the fresh and vigorous genre of Onitsha Market Literature, ordinary citizens wrote pulp fiction and didactic handbooks for those who perused the bookstalls of Onitsha Market, one of Africa’s largest trading centers.

This digital collection has a few examples from over 100 publications held at the KU Spencer Research Library. It is expected to grow over time. Additional information and scans can be seen in our digital exhibition: https://exhibits.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/show/onitsha

: Matter of life and death

: One love forever

: She died in the bloom of youth

: Wretched orphan

Users of this collection should be aware that these items reflect the attitudes of the people, period, or context in which they were created. Certain images, words, terms, or descriptions may be offensive, culturally insensitive, or considered inappropriate today. These items do not represent the views of the libraries or the university. https://spencer.lib.ku.edu/collections/problematic-description

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