First appearing as a series of letters to a local newspaper, “The Life Story of Me, Segilola” caused a sensation in Lagos in the late 1920s. The lifelike autobiography of a repentant courtesan, it regaled the reader with risqué escapades, pious moralising and vivid evocations of urban popular culture. The narrative and the commentary that sprang up around it in the Yoruba press offer a unique view of life in colonial Lagos. Today it is recognised as I.B.Thomas's work and hailed as the first Yoruba novel in a major African literary tradition. This volume presents the edited Yoruba text with translation, selected newspaper correspondence, and an introductory essay showing how the text emerged from the Yoruba print culture of the time. Print Culture and the First Yoruba Novel has won the Paul Hair Prize 2013!

"Toyin Falola, one of the most prominent interpreters of Yoruba History, has written an outstanding and brilliant pioneer book that reveals valuable knowledge on African local historians. This is one of the most impressive books on the Yoruba in recent years and the best so far on Yoruba intellectual history. The range of coverage is extensive, the reading is stimulating, and the ideas are innovative. This is indeed a major contribution to historical knowledge that all students of African history will find especially useful. This original study will find itself in the list of the most important studies of the 20th century." -Julius O. Adekunle, Monmouth University

This edited volume considers why the African language press is unstable and what can be done to develop quality African language journalism into a sustainable business. Providing an overview of the African language journalism landscape, this book examines the challenges of operating sustainable African language media businesses. The chapters explore the political economy and management of African language media and consider case studies of the successes and failures of African language newspapers, as well as the challenges of developing quality journalism. Covering print and digital newspapers and broadcast journalism, this book will be of interest to scholars of media and journalism in Africa.

In a disruptive media landscape characterized by the relentless death of legacy newspapers, Nigeria's Digital Diaspora shows that a country's transnational elite can shake its media ecosystem through distant online citizen journalism.

This study of the state of media law in Nigeria contains analyses of the interplay of law, politics, the economy and other social factors on the state of freedom of expression. Juxtaposed are the regime of media law and regulations, judicial interpretation of these laws, the existing environment for the realisation of freedom of expression and the associated general political, social and economic environment. Critical attention is given to the various enactments regulating freedom of expression and the provisions on freedom of expression in the 1963, 1979 and 1999 Constitutions of Nigeria. How national media laws compare with international treaties and how regulators influence media contents, are also examined. The book is addressed to a wide audience: mass communication and law students, lecturers and teachers in tertiary institutions offering relevant courses, legal practitioners, journalists and those working in the field of mass communication, human rights and political activists, politicians and party bureaucracies, policy makers, researchers and experts in think tanks.

Agbese examines the role and agenda of the Nigerian press in the democratization process, highlighting the grave challenges the Nigerian press faced in pushing for democratization in Nigeria.

This book brings together a selection of articles on newspaper writing and reporting. It represents a resource book intended to sensitize would-be journalists to the arts of reporting and writing, and to the ways in which newspaper readership can be sustained in the age of online messaging. It will provide students of journalism and media studies, particularly in Nigeria, with the skills required by newspaper journalism, and is a response to the poverty of literature on newspaper journalism in Nigerian universities and colleges.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ASAUK FAGE & OLIVER PRIZE 2020 'Honorable Mention' for the ALA FIRST BOOK AWARD - SCHOLARSHIP 2021 A path-breaking contribution to the critical literature on African travel writing.