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'The life history of me, Segilola': early print culture in Lagos and the first Yoruba novel

“我的生活史，塞吉洛拉”：拉各斯的早期印刷文化和第一部约鲁巴小说

基本信息

批准号：
AH/H004629/1
负责人：
Karin Barber
金额：
$ 6.1万
依托单位：
University of Birmingham
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2010
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2010 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FH004629%2F1
关键词：
life history me Segilola early

项目摘要

The Life History of Me, Segilola, Endowed with fascinating eyes, the lover of a thousand men'In 1929-30 the story of Segilola created a sensation in Lagos. It took the form of a series of letters to the editor of the weekly newspaper Akede Eko, from an aging prostitute now on her deathbed. In demotic Yoruba, Segilola tells of how in her youth she gradually slid from flirtation to gold-digging and finally to full blown harlotry. She mixes repentance and moral warnings with gleeful memories of her irrestistible sexuality. The story was written by Akede Eko's editor-proprietor, I.B.Thomas. But he took such pains to make it appear true that many readers, apparently, were taken in - one, moved to pity by Segilola's sufferings, even sent in 10 shillings towards their relief. Others pleaded with Thomas to reveal the heroine's true identity. Regular contributors to the paper wrote columns drawing out the moral lessons of her tale; there was a spate of commentary on the increasing laxity of Lagos life and the culpable frivolity and greed of the city's women. So popular was this serial that, after its conclusion in March 1930, I.B. Thomas immediately republished it as a book. The following year he serialised a somewhat abridged English translation for the benefit of those citizens who were avid to read the story but unable to read Yoruba.The text has several claims to our attention. (1) It is generally credited with being the 'first Yoruba novel', and thus with standing at the head of a tradition of creative writing in Yoruba which later became one of the largest, richest and most diverse in Africa, boasting hundreds of titles and constant innovation. Both the seamy realism and the profuse moralising of Segilola were echoed in successive waves of Yoruba fiction. Any literary history that omits this narrative is incomplete. Yet it has been out of print for many years and there has been no detailed study of it.(2) The narrative, with its intense investment in realism, furnishes details of popular life and culture in late 19th and early 20th century Lagos which are not otherwise well documented: popular songs, fashionable dances, anecdotes, slang and popular sayings. It paints a picture of a cosmopolitan popular culture oriented along the coast to Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast rather than inwards to the Nigerian hinterland. (3) The linguistic interface between English and Yoruba is an important feature of 20th century culture in Yorubaland. English was spoken by the westernised elite. But as the first tentative experiments in electoral democracy were inaugurated, they increasingly used Yoruba to forge alliances with a less-elite primary-school educated population who could read Yoruba and could potentially be mobilised in the political contests of the day. The speedy creation of the English version of Segilola - and the significant ways in which it differs from the Yoruba version - provide a rich case study through which to explore the social and political implications of this linguistic interface.(4) The fascinating play with fact and fiction, revelation and concealment in this story allow us explore the question of the ways in which early print culture addressed and convened new publics. The text's strategies of addressivity are complex and shifting. The narrative is a confessional but reveals no inner life. The authorial pseudonyms are pasted over the identities of the highly visible members of a sociable elite whose activities were scrutinised minutely by their contemporaries. The putative community that is being convened through print expands and contracts from moment to moment.(5) The serial, epistolary form allows us to observe a new genre emerging almost under our very eyes. The readers' responses helped shape the narrative from week to week. Narration and interpretation grew up together. This enables us to investigate, close-up, how social and textual environment can inspire and sustain a new genre.

我的生活史，塞吉洛拉，拥有迷人的眼睛，一千个男人的情人。1929-30 年，塞吉洛拉的故事在拉各斯引起了轰动。它采取了一系列信的形式，写给周报《Akede Eko》的编辑，这些信是一位临终的老妓女写的。塞吉洛拉用通俗的约鲁巴语讲述了她年轻时如何逐渐从调情滑向淘金，最后沦为彻底的卖淫。她将悔改和道德警告与对她不可抗拒的性欲的快乐记忆结合在一起。这个故事是由阿克德·埃科 (Akede Eko) 的编辑兼老板 I.B.托马斯 (I.B.Thomas) 撰写的。但他煞费苦心地让许多读者看起来是真的，显然，许多读者都被塞吉洛拉的苦难所感动，甚至还捐了 10 先令来救济他们。其他人恳求托马斯透露女主角的真实身份。该报的定期撰稿人撰写专栏，汲取她的故事的道德教训；人们对拉各斯日益放纵的生活以及该市妇女应受谴责的轻浮和贪婪进行了评论。这部连续剧非常受欢迎，以至于在 1930 年 3 月完结后，I.B.托马斯立即将其重新出版为一本书。第二年，为了那些热衷于阅读这个故事但无法阅读约鲁巴语的公民的利益，他连载了略为删节的英文翻译。该文本有几个值得我们注意的地方。 (1) 它被普遍认为是“第一部约鲁巴小说”，因此处于约鲁巴创意写作传统的领先地位，约鲁巴创意写作传统后来成为非洲最大、最丰富和最多样化的小说之一，拥有数百个标题和不断的创新。塞吉洛拉的阴暗现实主义和大量的说教在约鲁巴小说的连续浪潮中得到了呼应。任何省略了这一叙述的文学史都是不完整的。然而，它已经绝版多年，也没有对其进行详细的研究。(2) 这部叙事作品对现实主义的强烈投入，提供了 19 世纪末和 20 世纪初拉各斯的流行生活和文化的细节，这些细节在其他方面没有得到很好的记录：流行歌曲、时尚舞蹈、轶事、俚语和流行语。它描绘了一幅面向塞拉利昂和黄金海岸的国际化流行文化的图景，而不是向内延伸到尼日利亚腹地。 (3)英语和约鲁巴语之间的语言界面是20世纪约鲁巴文化的一个重要特征。西方化的精英们说英语。但随着选举民主的首次尝试性实验开始，他们越来越多地使用约鲁巴语与受过小学教育的精英人士结成联盟，这些人可以阅读约鲁巴语，并有可能被动员起来参加当时的政治竞争。《Segilola》英文版的快速创作——以及它与约鲁巴语版本的显着区别——为探索这种语言界面的社会和政治影响提供了丰富的案例研究。(4) 这个故事中对事实与虚构、揭露与隐藏的精彩演绎让我们能够探索早期印刷文化如何向新公众诉说和召集新公众的方式问题。文本的寻址策略是复杂且不断变化的。叙述是一种忏悔，但没有揭示内心生活。作者的笔名被贴在社交精英中引人注目的成员的身份上，他们的活动受到同时代人的仔细审查。通过印刷品召集起来的假定社区时时扩张和收缩。(5)连续的、书信体的形式使我们能够观察到几乎在我们眼前出现的新流派。读者的反应帮助塑造了每周的叙述。叙述和解释一起成长。这使我们能够近距离调查社会和文本环境如何激发和维持新的流派。