In the decade before and after independence, Nigerians not only adopted the novel but reinvented the genre. Nigerian novels imagined the new state, with its ideals of the rule of law, state sovereignty, and a centralized administration.
Debt, Law, Realism argues that Nigerian novels were not written for a Western audience, as often stated, but to teach fellow citizens how to envision the state. The first Nigerian novels were overwhelmingly realist because realism was a way to convey the understanding shared by all subject to the rule of law. Debt was an important theme used to illustrate the social trust needed to live with strangers. But the novelists felt an ambivalence towards the state, which had been imposed by colonial military might. Even as they embraced the ideal of the rule of law, they kept alive a memory of other ways of governing themselves. Many of the first novelists – including Chinua Achebe – were Igbos, a people who had been historically stateless, and for whom justice had been a matter of interpersonal relations, consensus, and reciprocity, rather than a citizen’s subordination to a higher authority.
Debt, Law, Realism reads African novels as political philosophy, offering important lessons about the foundations of social trust, the principle of succession, and the nature of sovereignty, authority, and law.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 823/.08309358669030904
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- f-nr---
- ISBN
- 0228007801 9780228006282 9780228007807
- LCCN
- PR9387.4
- LCCN Item number
- K67 2021eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- NLC
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (x, 282 pages)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)kck00241804 (OCoLC)1232238317 (CaOOCEL)460279
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- NLC
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- DEBT, LAW, REALISM 2
- Title 4
- Copyright 5
- Dedication 6
- Contents 8
- Acknowledgments 10
- Introduction 14
- 1 Crediting African Literature 42
- 2 Reciprocity 63
- 3 Sovereign Debt 81
- 4 Of Confidence and Markets 107
- 5 Women and the Cowrie Zone 124
- 6 The Law’s Monopoly on Violence 142
- 7 The Problem of Succession 161
- 8 Modern Debt and the Civil Service 179
- 9 Corruption 200
- 10 Discipline 219
- Conclusion 228
- Notes 240
- Bibliography 268
- Index 286
