BOOK REVIEW: 
THE NIGERIAN FILM/TV INDEX AND THE 
NIGERIAN LITERARY INDEX 
y undertaking the task of 
putting together the The Ni 
gerianFilm/T. V. 
Index (NFTI) and theM^e 
rian Literary Index (NLI), 
Afolabi Adesanya was carrying out a risky 
adventure, I felt, with potentially great nonfinancial 
rewards but laden with inherent 
land mines and booby traps. 
Anyone who has attempted gathering information 
of this nature would know the pain 
and sweat that it involves and thus for 
Adesanya to have actually succeeded in doing 
as much as he has done requires some 
form of congratulation. 
The NLI is full of information on the Nigerian 
literary 'industry' with various sections 
dealing with the writers, the creators of the 
literary works, starting with profiles on some 
selected writers, followed by a comprehensive 
'who is who' of Nigerian writers, and 
then a section on critical works. The NLI also 
lists various national and international awards 
given to Nigerian writers. Publishers whom 
most writers love to hate are equally listed, 
both Nigerian and Foreign, thus sign-posting 
useful addresses for aspiring and many times 
rejected writers newer avenues tor them to 
try out. 
The NLI is all about information basically, a 
no-thrills, no-frills reference and this is obvious 
from the design, printing and aesthetic 
finish of the book. 
Referentially a look at the book immediately 
indicates the sorry stale of affairs in the 
country and the publishing industry specifically 
as the book is printed on newsprint 
giving the book a basic primary school text 
feel. It is believed that the use of newsprint 
was an economic decision without which it 
would not have been possible to publish the 
index. The typesetting and printing also underlines 
the undesirable state of publishing 
in Nigeria whereby such a lofty project as the 
NLI finds it impossible to attract the sort of 
financial backing that would have allowed 
MAKIN SOYINKA 
the it to be published with material that measure 
up to international standards. 
As much as the above factors seem to fall 
outside the publishers/editors' fault, there arc 
certain careless aspects of the publication 
which are quite disturbing. 
A number of pictures of authors are used but 
practically all of them are not titled, so we 
have pictures of Femi Osofisan, Bode 
Sowande, etc. but no name tags to tell us who 
they are. It is fine for a Nigerian literary 
enthusiast who has seen them before but not 
so for a person who is just hearing of these 
writers or for foreigners who have not had the 
chance to sec them or_see their photographs. 
There is also an over-reliance on sketches 
taken from newspaper cuttings, rather than 
actual photographs. This tends to give the NLI 
an air of informality. Such is usually best 
reserved for full length profiles in newspapers 
or magazines. 
In the day and age when the most basic of 
desk-top publishing equipment produces well 
laid out clean copy, a book like this should not 
have resorted to cut-and-paste methods of 
publishing. 
The publishers brilliantly disclaim liability 
'...for any damage caused by errors or omissions 
whether such errors or omissions result 
from accident, negligence or any other cause' 
as it is quite obvious reading through the 
Index that there are quite a number of omissions 
especially in terms of categorisation of 
works into genres. A few authors were left 
out. Tunde Thompson and his book. Fractured 
Jail Sentence for instance were significantly 
omitted. Other glaring instances also 
stand out such as Wole Soyinka's A shuttle in 
the Crypt being classified as drama instead of 
poetry and Ake also being erroneously classified 
as drama instead of novel. For anyone 
using this index as research material, these 
mistakes could have serious consequences. 
Even though the publishers do not claim the 
NLI to be the definitive resource book on 
Nigerian literature, care musl still be taken 
with facts. 
The NLI is interesting and usefully beefed up 
with two articles on the book industry in 
Nigeria by Muritala Sule and Bodunde 
Bankole. both knowledgeable participants in 
the book industry. They raise quite interesting 
thought-provoking though at times contentious 
points. Bodunde Bankole' s article is 
written mainly from the publishers' profitmaking 
perspective thus making him focus 
solely on textbooks, known to be the most 
profitable aspect of publishing and therefore 
does not strike a note for the promotion of 
enhanced publishing and sales of purely literary 
works. 
In the next edition of the NLI, it is hoped the 
author would tidy up certain layout/design 
misnomers such as the throwing of a list of 
notable critics into some obscure corner of 
the book in-between a list of press contacts 
and journals. It really beats the imagination 
to know what that list of notable critics is 
doing in that position. It gives the impression 
of being added just to fill up space. If not for 
the fact that Adesanya is himself a critic, one 
would have been tempted to conclude that 
the positioning of the list was an indication of 
his regard for critics, a feeling many writer 
will share with him. 
The NLI as a first edition and probably the 
first of its kind in Nigeria is important for 
plugging up a yawning gap in our nation's 
literary endeavour and it is this role of filling 
an essentially black hole that the first edition 
of the Nigerian film/T.V. Index published in 
1992 did for the film/T.V. industry in Nigeria 
and which its second edition published two 
years later due to the 1993/94 political crises 
has set out to do. 
A foreign filmmaker upon reading the first 
edition of the NFTI said 'you mean all these 
exist in Nigeria?' The issue being that nobody 
knows anything is going on in the film/ 
T.V./video business in Nigeria. All foreigners 
knew about African film was that the 
Francophone countries produced all the films 
62
of the continent. It is this sort of erroneous 
impression which the NFTI corrects. 
In terms of quality of layout, design and 
print, the NFTI has an advantage over the 
NLI. This seeming 'preferential' treatment 
however may not be as a result of Afolabi 
Adesanya's being a filmmaker himself? 
The NFTI is an amazing compendium of 
information on the film industry as various 
films and especially adaptation of popular 
drama and books have been filmed which 
many people are not aware of. 
As part of the package, there is a section on 
films from West African countries which is 
quite interesting but sadly suffers from the 
major oversight of country names not being 
indicated against the films, neither producers 
HIGHLIGHTS OF 
afriraQS 
Patrons: Her Majesty The Queen, President 
Nelson Mandela, and President Leopold 
Sedar Senghor 
Programmes in London, Birmingham, Manchester, 
Leeds, Wakefield, York, Exeter, 
Cardiff and many other UK locations. 
2 AUGUST -16 SEPTEMBER 
SELF EVIDENT 
Ikon Gallery, John Bright Street, Birmingham 
Studio Portraiture from Mama Casset, Senegal 
and Seydou Keita from Mali, PLUS 
new commissions from UK based Oladele 
Ajiboye Bamgboye, Ingrid Pollard and 
Maxine Walker. 
ADMISSION FREE. Information: 0121 643 
0708 
2 AND 3 SEPTEMBER 
INTERNATIONAL SCULPTURE WORKSHOP 
AND OPEN WEEKEND 
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Bretton Hall. 
Wakefield 
Twenty sculptors from eleven countries in 
Africa, the UK and USA will work together 
in the beautiful surroundings of the Yorkshire 
Sculpture Park for three weeks in August. 
This open weekend will provide an 
opportunity to meet the sculptors and view 
their work. 
ADMISSION FREE. Information: 01924 830 
302 
• Supported by Arts Council of England, The 
British Council and Visiting Arts. 
and directors, such that other than a few 
recognisable names and a bit of guesswork it 
is impossible to know which countries produced 
what. 
In some cases when information is seriously 
in doubt it would seem that the best thing to 
do is to leave out such information. For 
instance in the listing of cinema houses in 
West Africa, only one cinema house is listed 
for Ghana while several are listed for Liberia 
and Ivory Coast giving the false impression 
that the list is comprehensive and thereby 
implying Ghana has only one film house. 
Like the NLI, the NFTI has one article. It 
examines the issue of involvement of foreign 
crews and directors in the production of 
Nigerian films. The article, written by the 
author himself, regrettably deals sketchily 
with the resolution of the conflict of opinions 
13 SEPTEMBER -10 DECEMBER 
VITAL: THREE CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN 
ARTISTS 
Tate Gallery Liverpool, Albert Dock, Liverpool 
Farid Belkahia, Cyprien Tokoudagba and 
Touhami Ennadre are based respectively ,n 
Marrakech (Morocco), Abomey (Benin) and 
Pans. This exhibition established connections 
between these artists who practice in 
on the issue of involvement of foreign crews 
especially directors in the production of Nigerian/ 
African films. Do they bring something 
additional or do they subtract from the 
vision of the stories of the films they deal 
with? Is 'Tarzanisation' impossible or inevitable 
with a foreign director? These and 
some other important questions are left unanswered 
in the article. But he gives interesting 
information about the history of Nigerian/
foreign collaborations over the years, 
and the subsequent emergence of practically 
all-Nigerian crew productions. This adds up 
to a little pot-pourri of information well 
written but not with an analytical verdict of 
the issue being pronounced. It is hoped that 
in the next edition these shortcomings would 
be addressed such that the indexes, NLI and 
NFTI would be elevated to be the benchmark 
and standard reference points in Nigerian 
literary and film discourse. GR 
different cultural contexts and share a common 
interest in trance. 
Information: 0151 709 0507 
14 SEPTEMBER -14 OCTOBER 
SIGNS, TRACES AND CALLIGRAPHY 
Concourse Gallery, Barbican Centre, Silk 
Street, London EC2 
This exhibition shows the evolution of calligraphy 
in the work of several contemporary 
North African artists. Artists included are 
Osman Waqialla (Sudan), Ahmed Mustafa 
(Egypt), Ali Omar Ernes, Rachid Koraichi 
(Algeria), Nja Mahdaoui. 
ADMISSION FREE. Information: 0171 588 
9023. 
• Sponsored by Citibank 
27 SEPTEMBER - 26 NOVEMBER 
SEVEN STORIES ABOUT MODERN ART 
IN AFRICA 
63