This paper takes for its starting point research into a single Internet discussion group, soc.culture.nigeria. It aims to provide a broad overview of the group's characteristics for those readers unfamiliar with such groups, and to highlight some important issues surrounding this form of communication which could provide a basis for consideration of other online discussion groups in the context of African studies. In particular, as this essay originated with a conference on ‘African Readerships’, it addresses the changing nature of the reader/writer distinction, and the blurring of boundaries between such categories as ‘Nigerian’, ‘African’ and ‘international’. For instance, what is the relationship between these discussions, largely written in the US but read around the world, and Nigeria? How should we understand the term ‘Nigeria’, given the culturally and linguistically divided nature of the state, if not in terms of its geopolitical boundaries?

This paper is based upon the responses of a group of Scottish readers to Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart (1958). For almost all of the readers this represented their first encounter with African fiction. As the preceding quotation makes clear, it was not one that they had solicited and for some at least, it was not one that they relished.

The encounter came about as part of a pre-access course taught under the auspices of the Adult Education Department of Glasgow University. The course ran on two occasions in Stranraer and on one occasion in the Gorbals, a residential area on the south side of the Clyde.

At the 1998 Book Day Symposium organised by the British Council in Lagos, almost everyone who spoke lamented the near absence of a reading culture in Nigeria. As one of the guest speakers, I tried to highlight and discuss some of the factors that militate against the development of a reading culture in our society. Naturally I also suggested ways by which this anomaly could be remedied. Few or a negligible proportion of people read for pleasure in Nigeria. And among these, students at the various levels of formal education - primary, secondary and tertiary - constitute the greater part of the reading public. But unfortunately, these students read only to write and pass their examinations, which implies a wilful circumscription of books, especially literary texts. Even at the tertiary level, it is usually an uphill task persuading the students, even of literary studies, to go beyond the required or recommended texts in their reading.

This paper forms part of a larger thematic exploration of literature by women from Ghana. The discussion focuses on the handling of personal relationships in love stories by women. It will draw specifically on those narratives which appear in the women's magazine, Obaa Sima, from Ghana. It will determine a number of issues including the general definition of love in these stories, women's priorities and how they envision themselves when they create the space to make public their hearts’ desires. It will also probe the relationship between the reading public and the writing, as well as the overall vision emanating from these love stories. Other major interests of this paper are to examine the narrative point of view, the structure of the narratives and the concerns the writers raise about the inexhaustible subject of love in this popular outlet for Ghanaian women writers and readers.

The extensive body of scholarship on reading practices has established a number of ground rules. Some of these include the notion that literacy cannot be understood in a positivist way, that literacy is embedded in a social context, that there are multiple literacies rather than one monolithic literacy, and that reading tastes and practices are conditioned by a variety of social factors such as class affiliation, religious upbringing, and gender. Reading practices, literacy and conceptions around books are clearly interrelated issues that cannot be separated from one another. An understanding of reading and books among adults with a low level of literacy thus has to grasp all these issues simultaneously.

The findings of both Lyster (1995) and French (1988) highlight the idiosyncratic nature of reading preferences and practices among the participants of their studies.

As many others have pointed out, the profile of African language publishing in South Africa is highly distorted with almost all book production in this area being focused on the educational market (Maake, 1993; Machet, 1996). In addition, the stigmatisation of African languages through apartheid language policy has meant a low demand for leisure and general reading in African language material. English by contrast has come to be the language of status and the language in which many wish to read.

However, at the same time, the elevation of African languages to official status makes it necessary to develop a body of literature that will help in the growth of these languages. Given the de facto situation on the ground, the task is an overwhelming one, yet it is also crucial - both to overcome the linguistic inequities of the past and to expand the general publishing market in South Africa, currently dominated by the needs of a small white, middle-class, English urban sector.