Book contents
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Producing Print
- Chapter 1 The Press at Work
- Chapter 2 Expansive Languages in Nineteenth-Century Central Africa
- Chapter 3 Print Cultures and Printing Diasporas
- Chapter 4 George McCall Theal’s Urge to Publish and His Collaborative Printing Process, 1862–1882
- Chapter 5 A Tale of Two Print Cultures
- Chapter 6 Still Images, Moving Images
- Part II Readers and Audiences
- Part III New Genres
- Part IV Worlds of Print
- Index
- References
Chapter 5 - A Tale of Two Print Cultures
Hausa Texts in Ajami and Roman Script
from Part I - Producing Print
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2025
Book contents
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Producing Print
- Chapter 1 The Press at Work
- Chapter 2 Expansive Languages in Nineteenth-Century Central Africa
- Chapter 3 Print Cultures and Printing Diasporas
- Chapter 4 George McCall Theal’s Urge to Publish and His Collaborative Printing Process, 1862–1882
- Chapter 5 A Tale of Two Print Cultures
- Chapter 6 Still Images, Moving Images
- Part II Readers and Audiences
- Part III New Genres
- Part IV Worlds of Print
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter considers the history of the introduction of printing presses in northern Nigeria and demonstrates how changes in technology facilitated change both within the world of manuscript culture and within roman script book culture in Hausa. Developments in the reproduction of one form of written expression, roman script, had a radical effect upon the other, ajami (Hausa written in the Arabic script). The move from letterpress to photo-offset printing opened up a new field of reproduction for handwritten ajami and Arabic language manuscripts. The chapter traces the establishment from 1910 of the earliest letterpress in northern Nigeria, a Christian mission press. The education department of the colonial government made use of the mission press until the establishment of the Gaskiya Corporation in Zaria, intended as a training and collaborative enterprise for the production of roman script Hausa literature, along with literature in other languages of northern Nigeria.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- African Literature in TransitionPrint Cultures and African Literature, 1860–1960, pp. 112 - 128Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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