Abiola Odejide is senior lecturer in language arts at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She has pub!ished articles on Nigerian children's books in educational journals, and has contributed to a book, J u n i o r Literature in English, S. O. Unoh, ed. (African Universities Press, 1981).

Adrian Roscoe Mother is Gold

Theresa Meniru, Unorna

Jean Jacob)', Abimbolu, p. 37 Abiola Odejide, "Cultural values and occupational choices in selected Nigerian children's books"

Deborah Brandt, "'Versions of literacy"

Abiola Odejide Education As Quest: The Nigerian School Story

Western education, w h i c h was initially viewed w i t h distrust w h e n it was i n t r o d u c e d into Nigeria in the 19th century, has c o n t i n u e d to fascinate generations o f Nigerians. As the p r o d u c t s o f the schools b e c a m e p o w e r brokers in the n e w colonial g o v e r n m e n t and even after political independence, it b e c a m e quite clear that a n y o n e w h o aspired towards s e l f - i m p r o v e m e n t and social mobility had to acquire w e s t e r n education. Roscoe, like m a n y o t h e r critics, has d r a w n attention ,*o the attraction of western e d u c a t i o n for the post-indep e n d e n c e generation o f Nigerians and their high expectations of its potential for liberating t h e m f r o m the darkness o f illiteracy. As Ikemefuna, a victim o f o n e o f the neoliterates, told his wife, he did not w a n t his children to b e b l i n d like you a n d me; to have eyes a n d n o t b e abie to read t h e m a r k i n g s o n a b o o k ; to have clever h a n d s but n o t b e able to w r i t e . . .

This emphasis on western e d u c a t i o n arises f r o m the belief that it is the m o s t p o t e n t force for social change, a p a n a c e a for the n e w feature of u r b a n crime, ( " i f only there were m o r e s c h o o l s . . . I a m sure there w o u l d be half the c r i m e " says Reverend Olu in Abimbolu) and the p a s s p o r t to a prestigious middle class profession. Not surprisingly, e d u c a t i o n is strongly canvassed as being of value in a subgenre of Nigerian school stories by authors w h o believe that it is an intrinsically p o w e r f u l agent for social change. Their b o o k s clearly enunciate in a literary f o r m the thinking of scholars on the interaction of literacy and society such as O x e n h a m and Ong that: Literacy may a d a p t itself to t h e social p r a c t i c e s o f a c o m m u n i t y , but o n c e it m o v e s in, it m a k e s p e o p l e essentially, d e f i n a b l y literate a n d C h i l d r e n ' s Literature in E d u c a t i o n

9 1987 Agathon Press, Inc.

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"The scholarship winner was too overcome..." From Abimbolu, by Jean Jacoby. Reprinted by permission of Hodder and Stoughton.

thereby sets the potential for predictable kinds of economic, political and intellectual change. Viewed in this light, education b e c o m e s something to be actively sought, and the process o f acquiring it, a quest.

Gulten Wagner, "An evaluative study of children's books published in Nigeria"

Ernest Emenyonu,

Cyprian Ekwensi

In the precolonial and colonial schools in Nigeria, British children's b o o k s were used extensively, since textbooks and other reading materials came from England. According to Solaru, " t h e earliest lessons o n English came from The Queen's Primers," and from about 1870, Nelson's Royal Readers was established as a s c h o o l textbook. In spite of calls for the Africanization o f school texts from the 1920s, the literary diet of Nigerian school children, even in the 40s and 50s, consisted of titles like Treasure Island, Robinson

Crusoe, The Three Musketeers, King Solomon's Mines, Tom Brown's School Days, and Little Women. Shakespeare's plays, especially as retold by Charles and Mary Lamb, and the novels o f Charles Dickens, Defoe, and the Bronte sisters were favourite readings. Political i n d e p e n d e n c e in 1960 hastened the call for the repatriation o f the school syllabuses so as to make Nigerian children's reading m o r e relevant to their needs. This trend c o n t i n u e d in the 70s

Education as Quest

Nigeria Educational Research Council, Guidelines on Nigerian Secondary Education Curriculum

79

w h e n guidelines were provided by the Federal Ministry o f Education to schools to use literary texts that inculcate in the learner national consciousness and unity, w i d e n his cultural background, and entertain him. In the English school story, w h i c h provided a ready m o d e l for the n e w crop o f writers o f children's b o o k s in Nigeria in the 60s, education is taken for granted and the school acts as a b a c k d r o p to the adventures. In contrast, in its Nigerian counterpart, there is, it seems, a need perceived by these authors to justify the value of western education. It was important to give the consumers o f western education and incidentally, o f the stories, the assurance that their goal was a w o r t h y one, one that w o u l d be of benefit to t h e m as individuals and to their communities. The beginning o f school life, especially boarding school life, is consequently depicted, as in the traditiona! quest stories, as a rite o f separation, not just from the child protagonist's family, but from the w h o l e community. His journey is an irreversible one that is significant for him as well as his community. For instance, the village blacksmith tells Bayo, the y o u n g protagonist of Tales O u t o f School,

Nkern Nwankwo, Tales Out of School

Hal, so this our new oibo (i.e., white) man? Come here . . . . Perhaps later, when you have become a doctor and wear ties and all, we may seem too uneducated for you. But now, you are one of us. Such a separation from the c o m m u n i t y that had nurtured him demands extensive leave-taking from all its members. The occasion o f the breaking o f the news of the child's admission to school often provides ready opportunities for a discussion of the merits and demerits of western education. Its key advantage is in the way it liberates the children from the burden of poverty, humiliation, and suffering w h i c h was often their parents' lot. The authors actualize in their stories the conditions necessary to enable these y o u n g people to attain full dignity in c o n t e m p o r a r y Nigerian society. The first prerequisite for obtaining this education is a m o v e m e n t away from home; usually, a small, quiet sleepy village like Umuofia in C h i k e a n d t h e R i v e r , by Chinua Achebe, Ofe in A b i m b o l u , and Dusi in S a n i Goes to School. In these stories, there is no equivocation in the authors' e n d o r s e m e n t of the acquisition o f ff)rmal education as a w o r t h y aspiration for all y o u n g people in Nigeria. E z e Goes to School, A k i n Goes to School, and S a n i Goes to School, w h i c h Michael C r o w d e r c o a u t h o r e d with O n u o r a Nzekwu, Christie

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Ajayi, and U m a r u Ladan, respectively, are " i s s u e s " stories which, in line w i t h the tradition earlier highlighted, aggressively tout w e s t e r n education. T h e plots are formulaic, the characters often stereotypical, and the p o i n t o f view, adult. T h e basic story line is that a y o u n g b o y d e t e r m i n e s to acquire w e s t e r n education, m e e t s considerable o p p o s i t i o n , reverses, and finally achieves his aim. His success c o m e s t h r o u g h a c o m b i n a t i o n o f his o w n resourcefulness, help f r o m s o m e " p r o g r e s s i v e " adults, a n d g o o d luck. In this fictional world, the y o u n g seeker-after-wisdom, must, like his c o u n t e r p a r t in the traditional tales, suffer and thus learn to appreciate fully the value o f w h a t he acquires at the end. Social stress such as the death o f a father or helper or suffering at the hands o f guardians and s c h o o l mates are prices that the protagonist has to p a y in his quest for education. T h e a u t h o r s ' strategies for p o r t r a y i n g prevalent societal attitudes to w e s t e r n e d u c a t i o n s h o w varying degrees of literary expertise. On the o n e hand, the narrator o f S a n i Goes to S c h o o l adopts an unobtrusive voice, less strident than those o f E z e Goes to S c h o o l and A k i n Goes to School. Although the value o f w e s t e r n e d u c a t i o n is p r o m o t e d , it is in a less blatant way. Dr. Audu and the District Head in S a n i Goes to S c h o o l are the p r o p o n e n t s of western education. T h e y speak fervently o f its values to the individual and the society, using their p e r s o n a l experiences; but they are a c c o m m o d a t i n g of o t h e r p e o p l e ' s views: Sani Goes to School,

p. 21

Dr. Audu started to lecture the Village Head on the foolishness of letting anyone but a trained doctor circumcise children. Then he stopped, seeing how sick with worry Mai 'unguwa Domoso was. After all, until more doctors had been trained, how could poor villagers ever hope to take their sick children to h o s p i t a l s . . . In contrast, Mr. T h o m p s o n in E z e Goes to S c h o o l t h u n d e r s away at the villagers a n d points out their folly in rejecting w e s t e r n education:

Eze Goes to School,

pp. 43-44

You should be progressive like your neighbours. Those of your people who have realized the value of education asked for that school; and yet you tell me you have only one boy t h e r e ! . . , a day will come when you will regret your folly. Intrusive narrative c o m m e n t s in A k i n Goes to S c h o o l and E z e Goes to S c h o o l e x p o u n d o n the i m p r o v e m e n t s w h i c h e d u c a t i o n b r i n g s - a better life for the individual and the c o m m u n i t y . T h e absence of long tirades distinguishes S a n i Goes to S c h o o l f r o m the o t h e r t w o titles. T h e choice o f characters canvassing or p r o m o t i n g w e s t e r n educa-

E d u c a t i o n as Quest

81

tion adds also to this contrast: Mr. T h o m p s o n , the white district officer, and Sergeant Wilberforce in E z e Goes to S c h o o l are b o t h intense and rather abrasive characters, while Dr. Audu and the District Head in S a n i Goes to Sc,bool are less offensive and m o r e compassionate, t h o u g h no less dedicated to the cause. The Village Head says: Sani Goes to School,

p. 15

I myself know well what education can do. All my sons are at schoot, and two of my daughters too. My eldest son is a doctor in Kano. . . . Only last m o n t h . . , he saved his own mother's l i f e . . , should I not bless the day that I decided to send my son to school? And yet like you, I too was reluctant to send him. The technique of alienation is used to distance the o p p o n e n t s of western education from the narrator o f the story as well as from the reader, and c o n s e q u e n t l y to disparage their beliefs. The apprehensions o f the local p e o p l e about western e d u c a t i o n r e e c h o constantly in E z e Goes to S c h o o l and A k i n Goes to S c h o o l - - i n the people's refusal to help pay the children's s c h o o l fees, their refusal to release the children from home, their constant assertion that western education alienates its c o n s u m e r s from their people, and the belief that the c o n t i n u e d fame o f their village rests in the strict adherence to old values. The characters w h o express these views play the roles o f the devil's advocate, and thus provide occasions for the "progressive" agents o f change to dismiss such misplaced beliefs.

Ibid., p. 13

However, in S a n i Goes to ,School (unlike the o t h e r t w o stories w h e r e objections to e d u c a t i o n are c o u c h e d in general, impersonal terms), the misgivings are personalised in the reader's e n c o u n t e r with s o m e o n e w h o has suffered directly from one o f the products o f western education. Like the villagers, the reader can share in Nakaka's s o r r o w at the loss o f his son in a railway accident, a s o r r o w w h i c h is expressed poignantly: " e d u c a t i o n brings that w h i c h takes away w h a t y o u have . . . . " An obsession with morals detracts from the literary quality o f t w o of the books, E z e Goes to S c h o o l and A k i n Goes to School, especially in the inappropriate use o f archetypal characters as protagonists. The physical characteristics o f Eze Adi in E z e Goes to S c h o o l and Akin in A k i n Goes to S o b o o l sink u n d e r the weight o f the role they have been created to bear, w h i c h is to e m b o d y a struggle against the forces o f illiteracy. Few glimpses of their physical characteristics emerge; neither d o their h u m a n weaknesses. The value o f suffering in order to achieve success and the glory o f w i n n i n g moral battles are extolled. For the latter, N z e k w u and C r o w d e r used an externalized moral battle b e t w e e n the forces o f evil and the

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forces of good, reminiscent of J o h n Bunyan's The P i l g r i m ' s Prog r e s s (1687). The t w o alternate in Eze's mind, Eze Goes to School, p. 38

"But you must go to school," the first voice said urgently. "The money is in Iwe's house and there is no one there. Go and find it now.' ' The second voice turned to the first one, "Don't give him bad advice. You are always making people do wicked things." "If what I say is bad, then you tell him how he can get money to pay his fees," the first voice sneered. "Don't heed him," the second advised Eze. "He is in love with evil. When you are in difficulty, pray to God. He loves children and He will certainly help you." Such externalized moral battles are not unusual in Nigerian children's stories, w h i c h are often characterised by strong, overt didactic c o m m e n t s . The narrative voice is not m u t e d at all, as clear c o m m e n t s are passed o n events and behaviour as in the traditional tales. The favoured voice is the omniscient narrator, w h i c h allows for direct c o m m e n t s . Very often, the p e r s o n a adopts the tone of a benevolent adult, imparting moral values in a clear-cut manner, c o n s e q u e n t l y leading to a failure to blend c o m m e n t s with narration.

Christopher Clausen, "Home and away in children's fiction"

However, S a n i G o e s to S c h o o l is a beautifully crafted piece in w h i c h the t h e m e does not o v e r w h e l m the story. Its setting in a small, n o r t h e r n Islamic village dictates the nature and the tone o f the obstacles w h i c h the protagonist faces in his attempt to acquire a western education. Unlike Akin and Eze, he is not too keen to go to school, and his troubles are slightly different from theirs. S a n i Goes to S c h o o l moves more towards the conventional school story, w h i c h is characterised by mini-adventure, a few intrigues, and final victory. As in m a n y children's stories, Sani runs away from his temp o r a r y home, an experience w h i c h serves the p u r p o s e o f enabling him to g r o w up emotionally and experientially. Even the c o m m o n place incident of a s c h o o l b o y raid o n an orchard is given depth and sensitive treatment t h r o u g h the skillful protrayal of the subtlety of the motives and actions o f Sani and his friends. They are not portrayed as being altruistic in their dealings with each other, although they all g r o w up emotionally t h r o u g h their punishment. The story gains in d e p t h from this portrayal o f characters in a multidimensional way. The ordinariness o f Sani, the protagonist, makes him easier to identify with. He lacks the positive aggression o f Eze and Akin, w h i c h drives t h e m to strive for academic distinction and b e c o m e in a way, superchildren. Rather, Sani is m o r e human, less o f a superachiever, m o r e considerate o f other people's

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feelings--in effect a m o r e attractive p e r s o n than the other two. By the end o f all the three stories, both the children and the adults have acquired t w o kinds o f e d u c a t i o n - - o n e formal, the other informal. The y o u n g protagonists are well set o n their way to academic careers, as well as to emotional development. For the adult inhabitants of this fictional world, the k n o w l e d g e is cognitive, a consciousness of the need to adapt to changes and accept w a r m l y tl-m social and e c o n o m i c changes w h i c h education will inevitably bring. The overriding theme is that western literacy enables the c o n s u m e r s to envision for themselves wider roles in the society, but like the a l m a g i r i , the y o u n g Islamic pupil w h o follows his Master from city to city and c o u n t r y to country, these children too must tolerate hunger and physical and emotional pain in order to attain their goals. In this lies true education. The high dividends it must yield are reflected in the c o m m u n i t y ' s u n s p o k e n but implied n o t i o n that the agents of western education such as the headmaster must have qualities equivalent to the m i n i m u m prerequisites for being a titled m a n in the community. One of the o p p o n e n t s of a village headmaster criticized him for' being Anezi Okoro, The Village Headmaster.

p. 12

an inexperienced, unmarried bookworm who does not know hove-to deal with our people. He does not drink. He does not farm. He does not hunt. He does not know where any of us lives. C o m p e t i t i o n is integral to this educational system; at the level o f the individual, it is confined to academic p e r f o r m a n c e and the desire for popularity a m o n g peers. The larger social grouping of the house system engenders intragroup c o o p e r a t i o n but interhouse competition. The authors, as if c o n c e d i n g that this is what adult life in a literate society is all about, prepare the y o u n g protagonist to fight the battle for academic superiority and indicate the emotional and physical factors n e e d e d for it. A natural e n d o w m e n t with a g o o d brain is insufficient; it has to be c o m b i n e d with hard w o r k as in E z e Goes to S c h o o l and A k i n Goes to School. The need to surpass colleagues, especially the female ones, is a strong factor. As Eze's father puts it,

Eze Goes to School

pp. 18-19

You must beat all the boys in any examination you take. You must take first place always. And if you are stupid enough to let a boy beat you, never, my son, never let the girl, Chinwe, beat you. While being top o f the class is presented as being a w o r t h y ambition in E z e Goes to S c h o o l and A k i n Goes to School, in the third story ( S a n i Goes to School), the authors exhibit a healthy scepticism about the obsessive wish to excel, especially w h e n it leads to excessive hard work. Sani, w h o was having problems with his arithmetic,

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" . . . who is afraid of the masquerade?" From Unoma, by Theresa Meniru. Reproduced by permission of Evans Bros.

Sani Goes to School, p. 58

resolved to work harder than ever at this subject, and each evening would find him adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying. He grew thin and tired from worrying about e x a m s . . . Sani later l e a r n s h o w to f i n d t h e fine b a l a n c e b e t w e e n a d e q u a t e w o r k a n d o v e r w o r k . By n a t u r e a n d t r a i n i n g , he h a d i m b i b e d the q u a l i t y o f p l a c i n g c o n s i d e r a t i o n for o t h e r s a b o v e p e r s o n a l a d v a n c e ment. Yengo, a m i n o r c h a r a c t e r i n T r o u b l e in F o r m Six, serves E k w e n s i ' s p u r p o s e o f r e v e a l i n g this u n h e a l t h y a t t i t u d e to s c h o o l w o r k . His c h a r a c t e r is r e v e a l e d by p o i n t b l a n k d e s c r i p t i o n :

Cyprian Ekwensi, Trouble in Form Six, p. 21

A confirmed bookworm, he made no effort to put into use the splendid body with which he was blessed. He was one of those boys who believe in all work and no play. To him college was no place for games or any form of play. It was a place for passing exams, for

Education as Quest

85 preparing for one's academic future. He always said that after winning certificates, there would be plenty of time to play: but not before. T h e a u t h o r ' s unsubtle technique here is to h o l d up the character's ideas to ridicule a n d " i m p l i c a t e " the reader in a c o n d e m n a t i o n o f such an attitude. Yengo's p o s i t i o n is extreme, but it does not detract f r o m the value o f e d u c a t i o n w h o s e products, an elite corps, w o u l d f o r m the nucleus o f the n e w indigenous governing power. In Unoma, Meniru explores a similar m o t i v a t i o n in the story of a y o u n g girl w h o has to bear the b u r d e n o f her father's strong conviction that w e s t e r n e d u c a t i o n is invaluable, even w i t h i n the traditional m o d e s of c o m m u n a l living. The o c c a s i o n for his c o n v e r s i o n is the m a n i p u l a t i o n o f the records of the c o m m u n i t y ' s contributions by the treasurer w h o s e son can write. Given the weight of the evidence n o w attached to w r i t t e n records by the Okehi c o m m u n i t y , w h i c h was n o w c o m p l e t e l y e n a m o u r e d of the " m a g i c " o f w e s t e r n education, I k e m e f u n a resolved that all his children, male or female w o u l d be educated. T h e c o m m u n i t y had a b s o r b e d o n e function of literacy, that is record-keeping, into its social system a n d had a d o p t e d it, mistakenly no doubt, as an inviolable record.

Benjie's Great Day examines a similar a t t e m p t to acquire education. But the events are p e r c e i v e d t h r o u g h the eyes o f the protagonist, a y o u n g b o y f r o m a o n e - p a r e n t family. T h e basic h u m a n interest story records his private pleasures, anxieties, and struggles in this quest. T h e social structure w h i c h allows such d e p r i v a t i o n to o c c u r appears to be inviolable. T h e individual can salvage himself by suffering to acquire education, but there is no glimpse o f the possibility o f a change in the society. However, it is no accident that the high point o f action in the story is the fire o u t b r e a k in the h o m e of a miserly recluse. T h e incident serves t w o purposes: to underscore Benjie's largeness o f heart and to aid h i m in his g r o w t h as a m e m b e r of the c o m m u n i t y . That kind o f e d u c a t i o n is a p r o d u c t o f h o m e training, not f o r m a l education. Unoma displays the same kind of social conscience, an avowal o f the greater i m p o r t a n c e o f the utility of the educated individual to his c o m m u n i t y , w h e t h e r it is traditional or m o d e r n . Such individual and c o m m u n a l motivation for acquiring literacy has e n s u r e d the p o p u l a r i t y o f s c h o o l stories as a p o p u l a r fictional genre a m o n g Nigerian School children. In stories a b o u t y o u n g e r children going to school, h o m e and school are inextricably w o v e n together. Very often, the s c h o o l o n l y provides a p i v o t a r o u n d w h i c h the n o r m a l maturational process of a y o u n g p e r s o n ' s life evolves. In Unoma the school o n l y provides a b a c k d r o p for the adventures w h i c h the girl gets herself into, o n

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account o f her impulsive nature. H o m e and village life constitute m o r e p r o m i n e n t settings for her actions than school life. For this "rushing w i n d of a d a u g h t e r " (p. 8) the solid security of h o m e life is a necessary a n c h o r for her adventures. Her escapades m o v e bey o n d ordinary school children's adventures to an exploration o f the effects o f these o n her p s y c h e and o n the traditional networks o f social relationships. Much m o r e important is the possibility o f the fusion o f traditional and western values. O t h e r authors had hinted at its possibilities in E z e Goes to School and A k i n Goes to School; it is given practical application in the " p r o p e r " socialising o f Unoma. This u n i o n o f the old and new is symbolised in the initiation o f U n o m a into the cult o f the masquerade after she had accidentally violated the grove. The violation is a challenge to the social order. The tension arising from it is diffused, the n o r m is reestablished as the literate U n o m a b e c o m e s " o n e o f the trusted few of her age group (guarding) the secrets of the village cult" (I3 . 36). The c o n t i n u e d social relevance of the subject matter and t h e m e o f such stories has ensured their p o p u l a r i t y right from colonial times till now. Even t h o u g h the boarding school type story owing its ancestry to T h o m a s Hughes' Tom B r o w n ' s School D a y s (1857) has faded out with the i n t r o d u c t i o n o f day schools, the other type w h i c h celebrates the acquisition o f western education still continues to h o l d a fascination for y o u n g readers in Nigeria. References Achebe, Chinua, Chike and the River. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966. Ajayi, Christie, and Crowder, Michael, Akin Goes to School. Ibadan: African Universities Press, 1978. Brandt, Deborah, "Versions of literacy," College English, 1985, 43(2), 128138. Clausen, Christopher, (1982) "Home and away in children's fiction," Children's Literature, 10, 141-152. Benjie's Great Day. London: Collins, 1980. Ekwensi, Cyprian, Trouble in Form Six. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966. Emenyonu, Ernest, Cyprian Ekwensi. London: Evans, 1974. Jacoby, Jean, Abimbolu. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1955. Ladan, Umoru, and Crowder, Michael, Sani Goes to School. Ibadan: African Universities Press, 1978. Meniru, Theresa, Unoma. London: Evans, 1976. Nwankwo, Nkem, Tales Out o f School. Ibadan: African Universities Press, 1963.

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Nzekwu, Onuora, and Crowder, Michael, Eze Goes to School. Ibadan: African Universities Press, 1963. Nigeria Educational Research Council, Guidelines on Nigerian Secondary Education Curriculum. Lagos: Federal Ministry of Information, 1977. Odejide, Abiola, "Cultural values and occupational choices in selected Nigerian children's books," Nigeria Educational Forum, 1982, 5(2), 203-209. Okoro, Anezi, The Village Headmaster. Ibadan: African Universities Press, 1967. Roscoe, Adrian, Mother is Gold: A Study in West African Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971. Wagner, Gulten, "An evaluative study of children's books published in Nigeria." Master of Library Science dissertation, University of Ibadan, 1974.