Review EXPLORING AND BIBLIOGRAPHING THE NIGERIAN ONITSHA MARKET LITERATURE AS POPULAR FICTION Stephen O. Solanke, PhD. Department of History and Languages, Faculty of Humanities and Management Sciences, Elizade University, Ilaramokin, Ondo State, Nigeria. Phone: +2348036661540. E-mail: myacada@gmail.com Accepted 1 December 2014 The lack of local literature bedevilled African and Nigerian literatures for a long time. This contributed in no small measure to a few critics averring that Africa and Nigeria lack literature of any major type especially of the traditional form. The twentieth century Onitsha Market Literature in Nigeria which came in pamphlets, novellas, and chap-books is just an example to disprove this assertion. Within this traditional but regional literature is a compilation of oral literary sourced works and documented solutions to modern life issues. It is a potpourri of life experiences of Nigerians within the colonial and post-colonial life. This paper, through pedagogical and bibliographical modes, situates the development and effect of this onerous popular fictional phenomenon as a relevant precursor to the origin and development of not only present day Nigerian Literature but also to a large extent, to the Anglophone West African Literature. Keywords: Popular Fiction, Onitsha Market Literature, Nigerian Literature, Pamphlets, Novellas, Pedagogical, Bibliographical Cite This Article As: Solanke SO (2014). EXPLORING AND BIBLIOGRAPHING THE NIGERIAN ONITSHA MARKET LITERATURE AS POPULAR FICTION. Inter. J. Eng. Lit. Cult. 2(11): 277-290 INTRODUCTION The literary phenomenon referred to as the Onitsha Market Literature, according to Larson (1978), could be traced to about twenty five years after the end of World War 11. This trend originated in Onitsha, a commercial city within the Igbo speaking region of South-East, Nigeria. It was also where the market so named was sited: it was (and still is to an extent) where one could purchase or sell, under the sun, anything worth selling or buying. This was a process helped by the character and happenings within the city of Onitsha as at the time. It is a city sited beside the River Niger serving as a link between Western and Eastern Nigeria. It continuously stands as the site of a great market „reputed as the biggest in the West African sub-region‟ (TELL Magazine, July 4, 2013). During the period in question, the city was International Journal of English Literature and Culture Vol. 2(11), pp. 277-290, December 2014 DOI: 10.14662/IJELC2014.075 Copy© right 2014 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article ISSN: 2360-7831©2014 Academic Research Journals http://www.academicresearchjournals.org/IJELC/Index.htm