by Paul Kleppner
Univ. of N.C., 1979
424 pp. $2 1
by Edward Schillebeeckx
Seabury, 1979
767 pp. $24.50
by Michael Mandelbaum
Cambridge, 1979
277 pp. $14.95
by J. Wayne Flynt
Ind. Univ., 1979
206 pp. $12.95
by E. H. Gornbrich
Cornell, 1979
41 1 pp. $38.50
by Emmanuel Le Roy
Ladurie
Braziller, 1979
400 pp. $20
Sayre P. Schatz
Few visitors to the seaside city of Lagos ever forget it.
With boundless vitality, it has grown since 1965 from a city of 300,000 souls to a sprawling metropolis of 3.5 million. Al- ready the city has spilled over from its original islet, one-tenth the size of Manhattan, to the adjacent islands and the mainland. New comn~unities take root at the fringes every year. In all of "greater Lagos," there are perhaps 10 million people.
The city boasts a modern university, a...
Few visitors to the seaside city of Lagos ever forget it.
With boundless vitality, it has grown since 1965 from a city of 300,000 souls to a sprawling metropolis of 3.5 million. Al- ready the city has spilled over from its original islet, one-tenth the size of Manhattan, to the adjacent islands and the mainland. New comn~unities take root at the fringes every year. In all of "greater Lagos," there are perhaps 10 million people.
The city boasts a modern university, a sports arena, a...
's chief means of mass transportation. One of the favorites: "No condition is per- manent," a suitable motto for a people that has experienced the heights of optimism and the depths of despair over two turbu- lent decades.
When sub-Sahara Africa's richest and most populous state achieved its independence from Great Britain on October 1, 1960, it was widely hailed as a "showcase of democracy" with a bright economic future. The Times of London waxed euphoric:
Rarely, if ever,...
ns.
Why? The Nigerians' most obvious asset has been their per- severance despite such severe national upheavals as repeated coups and the 1967-70 Biafran war. Even in formerly French Africa, the most talented authors either have been silenced by government censorship or have slackened their efforts.
Numerous factors combined to give Nigeria its preemi- nence.* Nigeria's large population (35 million in 1959, just be- fore independence) with its increasing literacy (6.1 percent in 1952, 25 percent...