decades since Chinua Achebe 
played his part in exposing the 
inadequacy of the colonialist 
narrative by the way in which he 
recorded the decision of the District 
Commissioner in Things fall 
Apart to devote 'a reasonable 
paragraph' to the 'story of a 
man (Okonlcwo) who had killed 
a messenger and hanged himself.' 
British writers, some of 
them district officers, had written 
too many 'reasonable paragraphs' 
about Africa, distorting 
the continent's history for too 
many for too long. By the Fifties, 
a shift was long overdue and 
Achebe's voice was among the 
most eloquent of those raised to 
write the new history. However, 
it is now appropriate to look at 
some examples of the anti-colonial 
narratives, and the cultural 
nationalist narratives that occasionally 
accompanied them, to 
see how adequately they presented 
events. This is a vast 
topic, but my concern is very 
narrow. It involves, as my title 
indicates, Martin Banham and 
the links between Leeds and 
Ibadan. The intention is to assemble 
a variety of voices in 
order to challenge some of the 
over-simplification and mis-representation 
that has affected the 
writing of literary history in Nigeria.
According to the book which 
prompted my title, Toward The 
Decolonization of African Literature (hereafter 
Decolonisation), Martin Banham 
was a reactionary influence in West 
mm 1 African wuai 
on the Arts 
Vol 2No 3 GLENDORA '•«'•* 
• 
James 
Gibbs 
adanConnection 
Africa and played a decisive role in the 
'inculcation of Euromodernism in Nigerian 
poetry.' Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa 
Jemei and Ihechukwu Madubuike, the 
authors of the influential study, incorporate 
imagery and biographical details 
into their analysis so as to suggest 
Banham was a British agent working 
against the evolution of a confident, 
positive and progressive African tradition 
of writing. The University of Leeds 
and University College, Ibadan, of the 
late Fifties and early Sixties are presented 
as institutions promulgating 
narrow, reactionary ideological dogmas, 
with students at the latter as 
intellectual infants. 
While it must be recognised that 
Wole Soyinka is the real target of the 
three Nigerian critics, Banham (the focus 
of my attention) comes under intense fire. 
Chinweizu etal., 'out' him as an agent of 
neo<olonialism and 'other him' as a 
reactionary force. They regard the kind 
of work he encouraged as a 'poison', 
and write: 
A search for the fountainhead 
of this poison leads to an examination of 
the Leeds-lbadan connection, personified 
in the roles of Martin Banham and 
Wole Soyinka. (Chinweizu, etal : 7980 
196.) 
1 want to use the points made in 
Decolonisation as away into presenting 
a quick sketch of Banham from the mid- 
Fimes to the early Sixties. In the process 
1 shall challenge several of the
assumptions made by Chinweizu and his 
collaborators, and draw attention to some of the 
problems involved in writing literary history. I 
hope tosettheassertions made in Decolonisation 
against the evidence provided by Banham's 
writing and against statements made by African 
writers. 
First, more about the 'fountainhead of the 
poison'. The triumvirate of authors of 
Decolonisation continue from the sentence quoted 
above with information and images that repay 
examination. A lengthy quote but an important 
one: 
In 1954 Soyinka left Ibadan and 
proceeded to the University of Leeds to complete 
his undergraduate studies. There he was a 
contemporary of Martin Banham who was then 
working for his MA. In October, 1956, Martin 
Banham joined the English Department at the 
University of Ibadan, and during the following 
school year he, in his own words, 'persuaded (the 
undergraduates) to start a small cyclostyled verse 
magazine,' The Horn, under the founding editorship of J.P. 
Clark. 
For the next several years, the pages of The Horn would 
serve as the weaning ground for the most prominent members 
of the Ibadan-Nsukka school of poetry. Soyinka on his return 
from Leeds in I960 used the pages of The Horn to publish both 
poetry and assorted pieces of cultural propaganda. Several 
lesser members of the Ibadan-Nsukka school would make their 
appearance in The Horn and also make their indoctrinating 
pilgrimages to Leeds at various points in their careers. Thus, 
both the Leeds-lbadan conduit of ideas, and the magazine 
through which its influence was most sharply brought to bear 
upon a coterie of nascent poets and critics, deserves serious 
examination. 
The two principal impacts of tutelage on The Horn are 
easily traced in the records. They are (I) the dominant 
cultivation of England's poetic tradition, especially the 
onglomodernist sensibility and mannerism, (2) a determined 
fight to wean the poets away from any stirring of African 
notionalist consciousness and to indoctrinate them with a 
"niversalist-individualist outlook (Chinweizu etal.: 1980, 196- 
7) 
There are statements in this passage that might 
confuse: at Leeds, Soyinka did a full undergraduate degree 
-he did not'complete' a degree already embarked on, and 
Banham did not take up a post at 'the University of Ibadan' 
since the institution did not exist. He was employed by 
'University College, Ibadan1 that only subsequently became a 
fuHy-fledged university. 
I 9/Nn 3 GlENDORA 
Professor Martin Banham of Leeds University 
(middle) at the Theatre for Development 
workshop in Ibadan 
These, however, are relatively minor points. Of greater 
interest is the unjustified and tendentious tone of the passage. 
I object, for example, to 'weaning ground,' and'indoctrinating 
pilgrimages.' And I note the way in which the ideas embodied 
in these inaccurate expressions reappear. For instance, we 
encounter references to'(weaning) the poets away from,' to 
'assorted pieces of cultural propaganda,' and 'to indoctrinate 
them.'The impression created is that African poets were 
babies who came under the sway of propaganda agents 
skilled in the arts of waging a war for cultural domination. This 
is patronising towards the African writers, and the passage 
creates a mischievously inaccurate portrait of Banham, the 
University he attended, the University College he was 
employed to teach, and his colleagues 
In the pages that follow, I want, while dallying on 
occasions to point out career developments, to look at 
Banham at Leeds, and to examine the young lecturer's 
research interests while in his first teaching post. I will go over 
his involvement with The Horn, and examine the charges 
levelled against him. This discussion will take me through some 
eight pages of Decolonisation, and will continue up to the 
reference to Wole Soyinka being parachuted in (1960) from 
Leeds and the Royal Court Theatre... and (going) into action 
to flush out and swat the remnant of the native resistance to 
Anglo-Saxon pseudo-universalism. 
| have already engaged in a controversy with 
Chinweizu over those lines and the paragraphs that follow 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts
The famous West Yorkshire Playhouse, Quarry 
Hill, Leeds 
(Chinweizu: 1 986 a, b; Gibbs: 1 986 a, b) Here my concern is 
with the presentation of Martin Banham. 
Martin Banham at Leeds, 
some glimpses 
Banham was a student of English at Leeds during a 
period of considerable excitement. The staff of the English 
Department was particularly stimulating, the presence of 
Bonamy Dobree, Arnold Kettle and George Wilson Knight 
ensuring lively controversy rather than comfortable orthodoxy. 
Undergraduate life offered variety and creativity: student 
elections were hard fought, the Theatre Group pioneered 
productions of adventurous continental work, during Ragg 
Week the carnivalesque annually erupted into the streets of the 
post-war city, and the debating society ensured that every 
idea was dissected-before being voted on. In this community, 
Martin Banham was a busy, prominent, and appreciated 
student. 
When, at the beginning of 1 955, he stood for the post 
of 'Junior Vice-President', Alan Smith a notable debater, 
confidently and eloquently recommended him to the student 
electorate: 
Martin Banham is the embodiment of reliability. He 
exhales confidence and quiet common sense as lesser men 
exhale cigarette smoke. Calm and unruffled in a crisis, 
resourceful in extremity, his immense fund of good humour and 
tact enable him to rise to any occasion with unassuming dignity. 
GLENDORA...... 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts 
Vol. 2/frlo, 3 
(Union News, 4 March 
1955, p. 1) 
The interest of this 
paragon were not confined 
to student politics, 
and the following month 
found him reviewing'A 
Mighty Othello,'(Union 
News, 29 April 1955, 
p. 2) This provoked a 
rejoinder by Roderick 
Knight, and the following 
month Banham 
waded back ('calm and 
unruffled') into the controversy 
with 'Othello 
Discords'. (Union News, 
13 May 1955, p. 6) He 
was clearly a man of 
ideas with an interest in 
the theatre, and a critic 
with opinions he was prepared to defend. 
Banham was a member of the Rag Committee and, not 
surprisingly given his theatrical interests, part of the 'admirable 
team' that was responsible for the 1 955 Rag Revue, a 
'Magnificent Production.' (Union News, 20 September 1955, 
p2.) Incidentally, the full production line-up consisted of 'the 
Misses Buckle, Bear, Goldring and Statman and Messers 
Banham, Cryer, Gill, Green, Robinson andTate. 'Cryer', Barry 
Cryer, made distinctive contributions to Leeds Rag Revues for 
several years and his wit has been enjoyed, mostly thanks to 
radio programmes, by generations of listeners. A photograph 
taken during Rag Week 1955 show Banham collecting 
money for rag with a member of an earlier generation of 
broadcasters, Wilfred Pickles. (Union News, 4 October 
1955, p. 1) 
During the Autumn of 1955, Banham was part of a 
different kind of team, one that defeated a Hull University 
debating squad that included Roy Hattersley, (Union News, 
11 November 1955.) Two months later an item entitled 
'Debaters win again' indicated the future professor's move 
from the local derby towards national competition. The 
student paper reported that: 
Mr. Alan Smith and Mr. Martin Banham, well-known 
figures in the Union and regular speakers for the Debating 
Society, are to go forward as the Leeds team to the Northern 
Semi-Final at the end of this month. (Union News, 20 January 
1956)
That, however, seems to have been the end of that 
particular road for young, Banham. Alan Smith, however,
won his way to the NUS Debating Tournament Final. (Union wrote: 
News, 3 February 1956.) ...» was the experience of social and economic 
Wole Soyinka, with whom Banham was much later to relations in Britain, more than Kenya, that actually settled 
linked in 'The scandalous Connection,' was, incidentally, Ngugi's socialist convictions Starting from a common sense 
|s0 involved in the areas of University life with which I have appraisal of the sitvation in his country at independence, in 
O
ssociated Banham. From 1954 to about 1958, the Nigerian particular, the need for a redistribution of wealth in the 
Writer was a student in the Leeds English Department; he acted interests of a deprived peasantry Ngugi arrivd in England 
ith the Theatre Group, sang in the Rag Revue and was a jn 1964 and settled into the revolutionary atmosphere of Leeds 
member of the Debating Society. Furthermore, both he and University where he studied for the next few years. Extensive 
Banham were part of the community that produced a modest, ,rave/5 arounj Britam and Europe, acquaintance with some 
weekly magazine, Poetry and Audience, the publication that emjnenf British socialist scholars, including his supervisor, Dr 
"rovided the model for The Horn. In its pages, poems appeared Am0\^ Ken\e Ond discussions with the radical student group 
beside articles discussing such basic literary issues as the /e j fcy A / a n Hunt • these revealed that the root cause of 
function of poetry. This controversy was characteristic of Leeds incessant industrial strife in Britain was no more than the old 
in the mid-Fifties where there was an acute awareness of ;nter<lass hostility inherent in the capitalist system Thus Leeds 
'ideological issues. Given the presence of Kettle, a card- provided an ideological framework for opinions that he had 
carrying member of the British Community Party and a major already vaguely held. (Ikiddeh in Ngugi: 1972, xiii). 
Marxist literary critic-historian, this could hardly have been So m u c n for m e 'shrine' to which the authors of 
otherwise. It was however, a nuanced debate: Kettle himself Decolonisation write in such condescending terms of students 
being the quickest to expose criticism by numbers or'vulgar ma|<jng 'indoctrinating pilgrimages'. In Ngugi's Leeds, the 
M a r x i s m ' atmosphere was 'revolutionary,' the supervisor 'socialist,' the 
The suggestion, put forward by Chinweizu et al, in the students'radical'. 
passage quoted above, that studying at Leeds was like an As for Banham, to return to the main narrative, it is worth 
indoctrinating (pilgrimage)' to a citadel of 'Anglo-Modernist listening to his account of the attitudes he took with him when 
pseudo-universalism' is nonsense bred of ignorance. In this after completing his MA, he took up a teaching post in Ibadan. 
context, the experiences of Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong'o He is on record assaying: 
are so illuminating that brief quotations are apt. | went out there as a young socialist, fire in the belly and 
Soyinka has written of the importance of Leeds in all the rest ofit, thinking that I was going into a situation with 
introducing him to materialist debates. In a paper given in all the cliches of colonialism... {Wren: 1991, 32) 
1977, he said: The quotation is taken from an interview with Robert 
The author of Death and the King's Horsemen first Wren, one of a series that appears in an investigation into the 
encountered Marx (apart from name) through Dr. Arnold source of <tne common energy that Achebe, Soyinka, Okigbo 
Kettle, an avowed communist who taught at the University and Clark drew on,' the energy that established Ibadan 
ofleeds. Theyear was 1955. In response to a remark in which between 1948 and 1 966 as the crucible of Nigerian 
I called his attention to the threats posed to individual Literature. Why were those, in the phrase that Banham used 
freedom by any form of totalitarian state-Dr. Kettle quietly in his interview and that Wren took for his title, Magical Years? 
reminded me of the far more devastating encroachments on | w i | | draw repeatedly on Wren's transcriptions, convinced 
individual self-fulfillment by the private exploiter of others' ,hat/ while memories are fallible, his volume is a much more 
labour. The revelation was that simple and total. (Soyinka: honest and reliable guide to the Ibadan of Banham, Soyinka 
1988 11 / ) ant^ ^ e Horn than Decolonisation. 
Soyinka continued by describing the interest he took 
in 'Dr. Kettle's circle of communists,' and the reading list he Martin Banham at Ibadan, 
struggled with. The University of Leeds offered a broadening m o r e g | j m p s e s 
of horizons through a series of confrontations with a starkly The b r j e f ,ist o f publications at the end of this paper, 
contradictory, firmly anti-colonial force. One of the influential based Qn b i b | i o g r a phi e s prepared by Bernth Lindfors and B. 
African writers who followed Soyinka to Leeds was Ngugi 0| u k e m i T o y e i n d i c a t e s some of the young lecturer's areas 
wa Thiong'o. He went there to study Caribbean writing and of j n ( e r e s t A n e a r , y p r o j e c t involved an examination of 
left, without completing his degree, having improved his Nigerian students'reading habits, from which emerged cause 
radical, nationalist credentials by writing A Grain of Wheat. for c o n c e r n a b o u , %e , a c k o f r e a d i n g habits and fascination 
In the 'Foreword' to a collection of Ngugi's essays, Homecom- wjth ,h e p o s i t i o n e n j o y e d b y British authors, particularly by 
ing, Ime Ikiddeh, himself a contemporary of Ngugi's at Leeds, 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts 
Vol 2/Ho 3 GLENDORA-*™
the near-universal admiration 
for Shakespeare. 
Clearly anything that was to 
take placewould be against 
a background of respect for 
English literature University 
College, Ibadan, was at the 
pinnacle of an Education 
system that involved English 
students in reading 
Chaucer's 'Tales,' 
Macaulay's 'Lays of Ancient 
Rome' and selections 
from A Pageant of Longer 
Poems. The volume included 
work by Gray, Crabbe, 
Coleridge, Browning, 
Lawrence, and, the examiners' 
favourite, Alfred, Lord 
Tennyson. Those who were 
allowed to study for English 
degrees had proved 
they were familiar with the 
English tradition. 
The ambitions of 
these graduates are found 
in a continuation of the quotation 
about'the cliches of 
colonialism.' Banham said 
that he discovered he was 
in the middle of a body of very elite young men and 
women whose main concern in life was how soon they could 
get their car allowance, and their car, and take over this or 
that position. (Banham: 1958a) 
In other words, the young socialist was surrounded by 
students in whom the individualist outlook was already deeply 
rooted.
Banham's interest in what was happening around him 
soon began to express itself in response to the Nigerian 
cultural scene, particularly to drama. The list of his 
publications soon takes a strongly theatrical flavour. Some of 
the contributions are to University College's newly established 
flagship publication Ibadan, others to new foreign journals, 
such as New Theatre Magazine (Bristol), African Forum (New 
York), The Bulletin for the Association of African Literature in 
English (Fourah Bay) and The Journal of Commonwealth 
Literature (Leeds). He also sent a number of reviews of texts 
to Books Abroad, published in Norman, Oklahoma. However, 
while drawing the attention of a wide readership to 
what was going forward in Nigeria, he did not neglect the 
local debate: he wrote play reviews for The Horn, and he had 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts 
Vol. 2/No. 3 GLENDORA . 
Wole Soyinka in the late '50s 
a piece on the Nigerian 
theatre in Flamingo. 
Looking back on 
what was happening in 
Nigeria during the late 
Fifties and early Sixties, it 
is easy to be aware of the 
role of LJHi Beier as 
editor, of Geoffery 
Axworthy as director, of 
ChinuaAchebe as novelist, 
of J.P.Clark and Christopher 
Okigbo as poets, 
and of the sheer versatility 
of the new Nigerian 
Renaissance figures. 
While admiring the richness 
and energy, it is appropriate 
to recognise 
Banham's role as a critic 
and promoter. The bibliography 
is the skeleton; 
the flesh is the writing 
itself: crisp, positive, serious 
but not solemn, confident 
but not arrogant, 
excited by developments 
but not uncritical or condescending. 
Thus, writing 
of A Dance of the 
Forests, The Lion and the Jewel and Three Plays for Books 
Abroad in 1 964, he expressed a view that he has repeated 
down the years: 
These three volumes will serve to introduce Wole 
Soyinka to the wider audience he merits. A Dance, which I 
see as a pageant, has certain deficiencies of organisation but 
remains an imaginative feat of considerable stature - a great, 
rolling, strident play (Banham: 1964a) 
At the same time, and responding to a talented 
playwright, poet and editor, he described the author of A 
Reed in the Tide, as 'a writer of wit and sensitivity.' Balancing 
censure with praise he added. 
Whilst in some of his work a slight strain of imagery 
is noticeable, (Clark) nevertheless compensates for this by the 
easy use of the natural and everyday, presented with startling 
force... (Banham: 1964b) 
In a typescript review headed 'For the Daily Times' that 
may not have actually reached the Nigerian reading public, 
Banham was appreciative and authoritative in writing of a 
production of Clark's Song of a Goat. Prepared to draw
attention to shortcomings with wit and untempered censure, he 
included the following: 
The mad aunt...Francesco Pereira deserved make-up 
that would have given her greater age (she looked more like 
mad niece.)... the lighting was badly mishandled and 
distracting. (Banham: 1964b) 
The Banham who emerges from these and other reviews 
is open, frank and encouraging. The fact that he championed 
Soyinka's work from a very early point will not impress 
Chinweizuandhis colleagues, indeed for them such approval 
is confirmation of the 'Scandalous Leeds-lbadan Connection.' 
Many of the rest of us will, however, be impressed. Banham 
was sensitive to a creative and progressive use of indigenous 
material byaclutchof authors. His subsequent appointment as 
Deputy Director to Geoffrey Axworthy in the newly-founded 
School of Drama was just reward for his achievements and 
commitment. 
Martin Banham and The Horn 
Having glanced at Banham while he was at Leeds and 
having drawn attention to some of his work at Ibadan, I want 
to return to the allegations made against him by Chinweizu 
etal. in relation to The Horn. Banham promoted and (initially) 
funded The Horn, which, it will be recalled, was described 
in Decolonisation as a 'weaning ground,' as containing 
'assorted pieces of cultural propaganda,' as cultivating, 
through 'tutelage,' 'the anglo-modernist sensibility,' and as 
providing the base for 'a determined fight to wean the poets 
away from any stirring of African nationalist consciousness and 
to indoctrinate them with universalist-individualist outlook.' 
Anyone wishing to make a 'serious assessment' of The 
Horn has to start with an essay by W. H. Stevenson entitled 
'The Horn. What it was and it did.'But research must not end 
there. The authors of Decolonisation quote extensively from 
Stevenson and, there is no evidence that they went further. They 
do not, for example, mention the factthat Banham had his own 
poetry published in the magazine - even though this could 
be seen as serving his neo-colonial turn. The'decolonisers' do 
not appear to have analysed the publications for themselves, 
nor to have consulted the two Nigerians closests to the birth 
of The Horn, both men of stature in the world of African 
literature. The founding editor was J. P. Clark, and a successor 
was Abiola Irele. Fortunately for the more dispassionate and 
more curious researcher both have put relevant thoughts and 
recollections on record. 
By 1957, Clark was already a practised writer - he had 
completed a novel even before embarking on his undergraduate 
career and then published poetry in The Beacon and The 
Bug. His independence of spirit was well known, and the 
editorial in the first issue of the magazine was a call to 
Negritude. Decolonisation quotes Stevenson at some length
at this point: 
The editorial in the very first issue, presumably written by 
J. P. Clark, declaied, 'We venfure to submit "Negritude" as 
a most compendious word!... it stands for .. that new burning 
consciousness of a common race and culture that black men 
in America, the West Indies, and Africa are beginning to feel 
towards one another.' Later he says, 'It is to arrest such subtle 
imperialism (i.e. by Western education) that we join those 
already fighting to preserve our heritage by launching this 
magazine.' (Chinweizu, et al.: 1980,200.) 
The triumvirate acknowledge that this'sounds a positive 
and welcome note on Negritude and on black cultural 
consciousness.' Butthen continue to summarisethepublication's 
position thus: 
Two issues later, John Ramsaran (the British 'house 
nigger1 from another part of the Third World), promptly weighs 
in with all his professorial authority and issues an encyclical, 
warning the restive undergraduates against this 'heresy.'Then, 
two issues later, properly chastened, J. P. Clark surrenders 
before the authority of the encyclical and publishes his 
recantation. However, a few others, notably Abiola Irele, 
persist as dissenters before foreign professorial pressure, and 
proceed to state and restate the 'heretical'position. (Chinweizu 
etal.: 1980,203) 
Chinweizu et al, acknowledge the persistent calls to the 
banner of Negritude, while assailing the ears with the sound 
of axes being ground. Quite simply, Ramsaran and Clark are 
both misrepresented. For example, Ramsaran was not a 
professor and Clark was not the sort to be impressed by 
authority. 'Encyclical,' which introduces into the debate the 
weight of the papacy, the authoritarianism of the Catholic 
Church and the odour of infallibility, is characteristically 
provocative, an attempt to bamboozle. It is heavy-handedly 
reinforced by the use of 'heresy'and'recantation'. The facts 
are more awkward and the personalities involved less 
compliant than Decolonisation allows; readers are, surely, not 
impressed by such manipulative language. 
The Decolonisation tie themselves in knots, desperate to 
have everything every way. They argue that The Horn was 
reactionary, even though theyadmitthe first editorial was pro- 
Negritude. They argue that it went on being reactionary even 
though Irele and others persisted instating and restating the 
case for black cultural consciousness. 
Had The Horn really been established as an anti- 
Negritude forum then Clark and Irele would have been among 
last people to whom editorial authority would have been the 
allowed to pass. To discover what really happened is 
impossible, but versions of events that avoid the tortuous 
special pleading of Decolonisation emerge from the 
interviews conducted by Wren during 1982-3. Banham 
questioned in Leeds, is quoted on The Horn. 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts 
Vol. 2/No. 3 OLENDORA
The little magazine which J. P. and I started together 
•my money, his editorship... The creation of The Horn. That was 
something that I'm really proud of. It did so very much to 
concentrate the minds of some of the youngsters on writing. 
And you know there's an interesting range of people 
represented on the pages of The Horn, Soyinka, of course, and 
Clark himself. (Banham quoted in Wren: 1991, 29). 
This statement brings out the pedagogic intent and the 
pleasure that a teacher took in a project that provided a focus, 
that'(concentrated) minds.'Inevitably, Banham had hopes and 
aspirations for the little magazine, he must also have had 
preferences and, perhaps, even prejudices, but there is no 
evidence that he had a 'hidden agenda'. 
Clark provided Wren with a paragraph on Banham and 
The Horn that underlines the (readily acknowledged) Leeds 
inspiration of the idea of a student literary magazine and 
reinforces the idea of 'concentration' - putting things together 
in one place. Only the full interview does justice to the 
pugnacious Clark, a writer quick to take and to imagine 
offence, author of the prickly America, Their America, and a 
man for whom a challenge from a lecturer was like a proverbial 
red rag to a proverbial bull. He told Wren: 
Banham, Martin Banham, for instance, was a young 
tutor there, a young lecturer. He brought the idea of starting 
this magazine, and has never liked me calling myself the 
'founding editor' and for refusing him my poems when he 
compiled his collection of Nigerian Student Verses out of 
contributions to The Horn of which I was the major contributor. 
My objection was that I wrote poetry not'student verse.'(The 
Horn) was an idea he brought from Leeds: with all these things 
we were doing, couldn't we put them all together in one place? 
And we said, yes, fine. We chose an editor straightaway, and 
I was the first editor, and I gave it the life it had. 
He added: 'Banham's a good man; he wasn't much 
older than many of us students. We got on very well ' (Wren 
1991, 101-2) The Horn came up at other points during 
Wren's wide-ranging interview with Clark and it is worth 
quoting relevant assertions to set beside the narrative 
presented by the decolonisers. For example, Clark said: 
We were Negritude poets ourselves, 'in our own way. 
You recall some of the editorials we wrote in The Horn. They 
were fighting editorials, and our English teachers didn't like 
us for it. (Wren: 1991, 100) 
He maintained that he was writing of political poetry 
from an early stage: 
You'd sme certcin things some of us were beginning to 
assert belonged to us. Nationalism. When you wrote about 
a girl bathing in a stream (Clark's 'Girl Bathing') you were 
making a statement. They were all political poems. (Wren: 
1991, 109. Wren's parenthetical comment.) 
Clark states his case forcefully, occasionally wandering 
GLENDORA 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts 
Vol. 2/No. 3 
into a battlefield that bears a superficial resemblance to that 
conjured up by Decolonisation, an area in which, for example, 
teachers, 'didn't like us' for our 'fighting editorials.' But there 
is little ground for agreement between Clark and the authors 
of Decolonisation: he reports that the professor of English, 
Molly Mahood, repeatedly queried him about his extraordinary 
fondness for Keats. Clark was obviously not a babe in 
swaddling bands, Mahood not his wet nurse, Banham not his 
ideological minder. 
For a calmer recollection from a less embattled source, 
it is a relief to turn from Clark to Abiola Irele whose 
recollections of events surrounding the establishment of The 
Horn are lucid and have the ring of authenticity: 
Well, what happened was this: I remember this very 
well. Martin Banham made this proposal (to start a literary 
magazine). He called a meeting and we discussed it. And 
it was unanimous thatj. P. would edit it. And we all got together 
and worked on it and called for poems. There was no vote 
or anything - he stood out and was the obvious choice for the 
editor because he had already started writing poetry 
anyway, on his own. He was more or less designated by 
general acclamation. And we agreed on the format and things 
like that. Actually, I wasn't on the editorial board in the first 
year, that first year, '57. When he finished, then he handed 
it over tome. It was the pragmatic English tradition-you don't 
vote - things just emerge. I'm sorry that many of those poets 
who wrote quite good stuff during that period - they've sort 
of gone into oblivion now. They didn't keep it up. Molly 
Mahood provided the material support, in the form of paper 
and stencils and so on (after Banham's start-up money). And we 
typed the things ourselves and did the stencilling. (Wren: 
1991, 1 15. First parenthetical insertion byGibbs, second by 
Wren).
At that point, Wren pertinently asked'Was Mahood a 
good influence?' And Irele responded in a manner that 
entirely supports the impression created by Clark and 
completely demolishes the relationship imagined, and 
proclaimed, by Decolonisation: 
Well, there was absolutely no direction from them; I 
mean we ran it the way we felt like. And all we did at the end 
was to give her a copy for herself, in recognition of her 
support. But there was absolutely no interference from the 
staff. It was a purely student affair. No dictation as to what 
to put in, no suggestions whatsoever. The thing just grew by 
itself that way. (Wren: 1991, 1 16.) 
Had Banham really been trying to fund a publication 
that would wage a cultural war on behalf of imperialism, he 
would have been well advised to keep it out of the hands of, 
first, Clark and then Irele. To argue, as Chinweizu and his 
colleagues do, that he had fashioned some incredibly devious 
plot, and was effectively 'teleguiding' - to use a term once
popular in West Africa- intelligent Nigerians is hard to credit. 
Proof certainly requires much closer analysis than 
Decolonisation provides. 
It would be comforting to feel that Chinweizu, Jemie 
andMadubuike were minor figures in the writing of Nigerian 
literary history. Unfortunately they are not: the vigour with 
which they have presented their conspiracy theory has 
impressed many. There are some who think that Leeds was a 
right-wing think-tank, that University College, Ibadan, was an 
educational maternity ward, that Banham was a cultural 
warrior running Joes in the neo-colonial battle for hearts and 
minds through poetry. An indication of the status of the critics 
is provided by the correspondence printed after the essays 
that form Decolonisation began to appear in Okike. Dennis 
Brutus singled out the contribution for special praise, (Brutus: 
1957) and Andrew Salkey wrote: 
/ am very, very impressed by Chinweizu. We must 
treasure him along with his two other brothers. They are our 
new truth-sayers, and with them we will all find our way back 
home, I believe. The things Chinweizu says badly need 
saying: I am very happy about his clear alternative voice. 
A new broom, at last! (Salkey: 1957] 
Selected Bibliography 
Banham, Martin 
1955 'Mighty Othello', Union News, 13 May, p.6 
1957 'Drama at University College', Ibadan 1 pp.22-23 
1958 a 'Students' Reading Habit (Including some 
comments upon the lack of them)', Ibadan 3, pp.21-24 
1958 b 'Plans for the Future' (poem), The Horn 1/2, p.9 
1958 c 'The End1, The Horn 2/3, p.1 
1958 d Key to Love', The Horn 2/3, p.4 
1960 a 'Drama in the Commonwealth: Nigeria', New 
Theatre Magazine 4 (Bristol), pp.18-21 
1960 b 'A piece That we May Fairly Call Our Own', 
Ibadan 12, pp. 15-18 
1960 c The "Wandering Players" - Three for the Price 
of One', The Horn 4 / 1 , pp.17-20 (On one-act plays: 
Eson's Don't Say it in Writing, Aig-Imoukhuede's 
Woman Palaver, and Soyinka's Brother Jero) 
1961 'At the Arts Theatre: Three Nigerian Plays - Two 
Viewpoints', The Horn 4/4, pp. 10-12 (Reviews of 
Ogunlade's Anatomy of Folly, Nwankwo'sThe 
Heritor, and Aig-Imoukehuede's The Curse). 
1962 a 'The Beginnings of a Nigeria Literature in 
English', Review of English Literature 3/2, pp. 88-99 
1962 b'Plays at Mbari', Typescript Review'for the 
Daily Times' (Review of Clark's Song of a Goat and 
Soyinka's Brother Jero) 
1962 c 'Review of A.L. MacLeod: The Commonwealth 
Pen', Ibadan 35-36. 
1962 d With John Ramsaran, 'West African Writing', 
Books Abroad 36/4 (Norman), pp37-4 (Refers to 
Easmon and Soyinka) 
Chinweizu has been given access to the pages of 
international publications and the Times Higher Educational 
Supplement has welcomed him as a commentator. (Chinweizu: 
1989.) The praise and the support were misplaced, the 
research on which the reputation rested is inadequate; the 
chapter in which 'The Scandalous Leeds-lbadan Link' was 
'exposed'does not stand up to close reading. The presentation 
of Banham is a travesty. 
For a description of Martin Banham, the reader is 
advised to avoid the vituperation of Chinweizu, Jemie and 
Madubuike, to recognise his progression from Leeds, where 
he was'the embodiment of reliability/ debater, critic, and rag 
revue artiste, to Nigeria, where'the fire in the belly socialist/ 
was reviewer, essayist, researcher, teacher, and, most 
importantly here, initial supporter of the The Horn. Somewhat 
surprisingly even the founding editor, the irascible J. P. Clark, 
got on well with him, describing him as'a good man.'Clark's 
successor, the immensely respected Abiola Irele, was even 
more generous: when he set up an independent publishing 
house, he called the venture, with a glance back over the 
years, 'New Horn Press.' GR 
1964 a 'Review of a Dance of the FoWt,Th* Um and 
the Jewel and Three Plays', Book Abroad 38/1 
(Norman) p.92 
1964 b Review of Reed in the Tide, Books Abroad 
38/1 (Norman). 92 
1964 c Drama at Ibadan: an exciting prospect for the 
theatre in Africa', Flamingo 3/10, pp.18-20 
1956 a Review of J. C. de Graft: Sons and ug 
West Africa', Journal of Educat.on 9/2 (Ibadan), p.105 
1965 b Theatre on Wheels' African Forum 1/1 (New 
York), pp.108-9 . 
1965 c Review of Durop Ladipo: Three Yoruba Plays, 
Books Abroad 39/3 (Norman), p.367 
1966 Notes on the Nigerian Theatre: 1966' Bullehn 
for the Association of African L.terature in English 4 
(Fourah Bay), pp.31-36 
1967 'African Literature 11: Nigerian Dramatists in 
Eng.isi and the Traditional Nigerian Theatre , ournal 
of Commonwealth Literature 3 (Leeds), pP97-102 
1968 a Nigerian Dramatists and the Traditional 
Theatre', Insight 20, pp.29-30 
1968 b "Review of Ozidi and Kongis Harvest , Books 
Abroad 42/1 (Norman), p.170 
1969 Review of Ozidi and Kongi's Harvest Journal 
of Commonwealth Literature 7 (Leeds), pp.132-6 
Brutus, Dennis 
1975 Letter', Okike 8 (Amherst), p.101 
Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa Jemie, Ihechukwu Madubuike 
1980 Toward the Decolonization of African Literature 
(Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1980) 
African Quarterly 
on the Arts 
Vol. 2/No. 3 GLENDORA
1986 a Gibbs' Gibberish', Research in African 
Literatures 17/1 (Texas), pp.48-52 
1986 b Gibbs Just Won't Give up!' Research in African 
Literature 17/2 (Texas), pp.322-23 
1989 Cries of Freedom', Times Higher Education 
Supplement 17 (London), P.13 (Without mentioning 
Soyinka by name, Chinweizu uses the 1986 Nobel 
Prize on argue that European values are being 
imposed on African literature. This article provoked 
letters by Gibbs and A. N. Other in the same 
publication, 24 February) 
Gibbs, James 
1986 a "Larsony' with a Difference: And Examination 
of a Paragraph from Toward the Decolonization of 
Africa Literature', Research in Africa Literature 17/1 
(Texas), pp.39-47 
1986 b Letter', Research in African Literatures 17/2 
(Texas), pp.318-22 
Ikideh, Ime 
1972 'Foreword' in Homecoming, Ngugi, 1972 
Lindfors, Bernth 
1975 A Bibliography of Literary Contributions to 
Nigeria Periodicals: 1946-1972 (Ibadan: Ibadan 
University Press, 1975) 
Ngugi wa Thiong'o 
1967 Interviewed by Fellow Students at Leeds', 
Cultural Events in Africa 31 (London), p.2 
1972 Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean 
Literature, Cultural and Politics (London: Heinemann, 
1972) 
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DRAMA 
Salkey, Andrew 
1975 Letter1, Okike 9 (Amherst), p.132 
Stevenson, W.H. 
1976 The Horn: What it Was and What it Did', 
Critical Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, ed. Benth 
Lindfors (Washington D.C.: Three Continents, 196=76), 
pp.215-4! 
Soyinka, Wole 
1960 a Poisoners of the World', 'Proverb: Okonjo de 
Hunter', The Horn 3/3, pp.4-7,9 
1960 b 'Audience to Performer', Stage', The Horn 4/ 
l.p.l 
1960 c The Future of African Writing', The Horn 4/1, 
pp.10-16 
1961 a Season', The Horn 4/2, p.2 
1961 b Committee Man', The Horn 4/3, pp.10-11 
1962 a Epitaph for Say Tokyo Kid, The Horn 4/5, 
pp.10-11 
1962 b'Death in the Dawn, The Horn4/6, pp.2-3 
1988 Art, Dialogue & Outrage (Ibadan: New Horn 
Press, 1988) 
Toye, B. Olukemi 
1976 Drama in Africa: A Preliminary Bibliography 
(Ibadan: International Literature Conference, 1976) 
Wren, Robert M. 
1991 Those Magical Years: The Making of Nigerian 
Literature at Ibadan: 1948-1966 (Washington D.C.: Three 
Crowns, 1991) 
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