Ekwensi’s second novel, published in London by Hutchinson. The imprint page reads “First published 1961 / Reprinted 1962”, so this copy is the second impression.
The jacket opens by quoting Peter Abrahams on the author of People of the City — that Ekwensi’s writing is “as important to the literary development of West Africa as Nkrumah to its politics” — and then explains the title for a British readership: Nana is ‘Jagua’ because she is ‘class’, like a sleek Jaguar car.
The novel follows an ageing beauty in modern Nigeria who, without education herself, decides she must marry an educated man on the way up, and puts her money behind Freddie, a young schoolteacher who wants to read law in England. The plan fails and she returns to the night clubs, the crooks and the politicians. The back matter gathers notices from West Africa, Nigeria, the Times Literary Supplement and the Central African Post, the last of which manages to call the book “a shot in the arm by an African writer” in capital letters.
Dedicated to Prudence Smith and Sylvia Carew. Set in Linotype Baskerville and printed on Antique Wove paper by William Clowes and Sons of London and Beccles — the sort of detail a paperback reissue never carries.
Impression. The imprint page reads “First published 1961 / Reprinted 1962”. This copy is the 1962 reprint, not the first impression.
