These two items — the first and second issues of Okike, published in 1971 — are among the most significant acquisitions in the entire 2026 collection. Okike was founded by Chinua Achebe at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the immediate aftermath of the Biafran War, as a deliberate act of cultural reconstruction. The name, from the Igbo word for creation, announced its intent.
The journal became the principal platform through which a post-war generation of Nigerian writers found their voices: Christopher Okigbo was dead, the infrastructure of Nigerian literary culture was shattered, and Achebe used Okike to begin rebuilding it. The early issues published work by writers who would define Nigerian literature for the next four decades.
Issues 1 and 2 were produced in very small print runs during conditions of extreme resource scarcity in post-war eastern Nigeria. They are vanishingly rare in institutional collections worldwide. That OlongoAfrica has secured copies of both for Nigerian readers — for the city of Lagos, where Okike's importance has always been understood — is a source of genuine pride.