As I pointed out in my book, The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage, though it is possible for adventure stories for African children to have been influenced by european and American adventure stories, they are often grounded in the reality of African children's lives. One such case pertains to the late Nigerian and West African writer, Cyprian Ekwensi (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/j ... obituaries" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), who was considered to be one of the most prolific, if not the most prolific of African children's writers. For most of his career, Ekwensi was aware of the responsibilities of an African fiction writer to his/her society as this aspect was very pertinent to a society that did not have much resources, politically and economically. According to Ekwensi, the African writer, for both children and adult fiction, was expected to interpret Africa to both its inhabitants and the rest of the world, personify the continent's conflicts, fears, frustrations, and hopes while remaining an exemplary educator that was above ethnic loyalties. As in Enid Blyton's, Cyprian Ekwensi's children's stories were highly didactic since didactisim was and is still accepted by Nigerians who were and are still accustomed to having moral lessons attached to the end of folk tales. Thus, by writing didactic stories for both children and adults, Cyprian Ekwensi cast himself in the role of of an educator, protagonist, and spokesperson of moral codes of conduct. He taught children that they would be punished for breaking school rules and that truancy from school and disrespect for teachers did not pay as had been the case in [/i] [iTrouble in Form Six [/i], and that stealing was wrong under all circumstances, while desiring material goods for their own sake often would lead to deep trouble as had been the case in The Drummer Boy and again in Trouble in Form Six, whose trajectory of some boys turning into bad apples is in some ways (coincidentally-my emphasis) similar to that in Enid Blyton's The Six Bad Boys.
Stephen Isabirye
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