Africa Writes Back

17 June 2008 is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart by Heinemann. This provided the impetus for the foundation of the African Writers Series in 1962 with Chinua Achebe as the EditorialAdviser. '... not only the story of a publishing enterprise of great significance; it is also a large part of the story of African literature and its dissemination in the latter half of the twentieth century. The manuscriptis full of the drama of that enterprise, the drama of dealing with the mother house, William Heinemann, of dealing with the often intractable political constraints dominating the intellectual space across Africa, and not least ofall dealing with the writers themselves - with their ambitions, their temperaments, their financial needs and, at time, their perception of a colonial relationship between themselves and a European publishing house.' - Clive Wake,Emeritus Professor of Modern Languages, University of Kent at Canterbury. North America: Ohio U Press; South Africa: Wits U Press; Nigeria: HEBN; Kenya: EAEP; Zimbabwe: Weaver Press