An African Treasury

LANGSTON HUGHES’s anthology of writing by Black Africans, copyright 1960, Pyramid edition April 1961; this copy is the FIFTH PRINTING, September 1968, at 50 cents. Dedicated “To the young writers of Africa”. His introduction explains how the book was made: asked by the editors of Drum in Johannesburg to judge a short-story contest, he began writing to writers across English-speaking Africa — sending a letter to “Prime Minister AZIKIWE’s chain of newspapers in Nigeria” asking for contributions, and receiving floods of manuscript, “much that came was in longhand, often very hard to read”. The acknowledgements thank BEN NAMDI AZIKIWE, the editors of Drum, the West African Pilot, African New Writing, and ULLI BEIER and JANHEINZ JAHN, editors of BLACK ORPHEUS — the journal this Library holds in thirty-six numbers, and the source of several pieces reprinted here. Nigerian contributors include Onyemaekeya Udeagu, BABS FAFUNWA, J. Koyinde Vaughan on Africa and the cinema, AMOS TUTUOLA (“Ajantala, the Noxious Guest”), CYPRIAN EKWENSI, GABRIEL OKARA and WọLẸ ṢÓYÍNKÁ (“Two in London”, from Black Orpheus). Also Abioseh Nicol, Can Themba, Bloke Modisane, TOM MBOYA, Ẹzekiel Mphahlele, Peter Abrahams, Todd Matshikiza, KWAME NKRUMAH, Efua Sutherland, Richard Rive, Birago Diop, LÉOPOLD SÉDAR SENGHOR and J. H. KWABENA NKETIA on Akan poetry.