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The Development Of Written Igbo Literature (Chapter 27), Chukwuma Azuonye

Chukwuma Azuonye

Against the background of the existence of indigenous writing systems (such as Nsibidi pictographic-ideographic signs and the Nwagu Aneke or Umuleri syllabary), this chapter surveys of the emergence of written literature in Igbo from the 19th century "linguistic labors" of the Christian missions (including collections and transcriptions of Igbo oral literature and translations of European classics into Igbo) and the promotion of supplementary readers in the first quarter of the 20th century which ushered in the first modern Igbo novel, Omenuko by Pita Nwana (1933). Modernist writing in Igbo is represented by the poetry collected in Aka Weta (From Different …