By Henry Akubuiro
Zoomers, iGeneration, Centennials, Post-Millennials, Generation Z: they mean one thing – individuals born between 1997 and 2012. They are also called digital natives, having grown up with the internet and immersed in various new technologies in the 21st century. They grew up with smartphones and iPads. If you hide anything anywhere on the internet, the digital natives would fish it out in an instant, and their views and experiences are shaped by the internet, which have made them responsive citizens.
In literature, Gen Z has contributed to publishing revival with remarkable sales recorded in young adult fictions in the US. It is a reading generation that reads both print and e-books. A good number of Gen Z respondents interviewed in the US (about 70 percent) reported reading print books – apparently, the tactile feel of a book still holds an attraction to the younger generation – while 42 percent read e-books. In the UK, 80 percent of books purchased by 13-24 year olds were printed books, with e-books accounting for the rest. The good news is that Gen Z reads despite distractions posed by visuals. Over 80 percent of US adults aged 18-29 say they read regularly. In the light of this, having an author’s books in both print and e-books can broaden the reading audience.
One Nigerian author who has taken the bull by the horn to appeal to diverse readers is Hon. Jerry Alagbaoso, ex lawmaker. In the last decade, he has swelled Nigerian bookstores, libraries and classrooms with paperback editions of his creative works. In the last three years, too, he has catered to the interests of the digital natives by publishing e-book editions of his bestsellers. Thanks to UBEC, which, at various times, purchased his books in large quantities, Alagbaoso’s books have become popular among secondary school students in the country. Some of his titles have also become staples in theatre arts departments — he is primarily a playwright.
A big plus for e-books and audiobooks is that they are convenient and accessible anywhere and any time for busy individuals. It has been predicted that the future of the book would be dominated by both print and digital formats, the latter including audio books. E-books are projected to reach a market value of $32.19 billion by 2032. Enticed by personalised reading experiences, multilingual translation, and affordable subscription options, digital formats of reading will be adopted by many Nigerians in the next ten years, with the younger generation predicted to lean towards it more than the older generation. Globally, the e-book market is expected to reach 1.2 billion users by 2027. Also, the global e-book market is projected to be worth $32.19 billion by 2032. Ai and machine learning is tipped to play a big role in e-book conversion and distribution in future.
In 2017, Alagbaoso reissued 11 of plays published by Kraft Books, Ibadan, with new covers: The Armchair Parents, The First Lady, Mine: An Enduring Heart, Specks in Our Eyes, Ina-Aga, His Excellency and the Siren, Signs and Wonders, Oh! My Rolls Royce and My Fairly Old Wife, Honourable Chairman, Sorters and Sortees, and The First Day. Two years earlier, the author had reprinted his two-decade dramatic oeuvre as three collected plays, grouped by their thematic preoccupations, and published by Kraft Books. They were subsequently approved for use by UBEC and circulated over schools across the country.
The 2017 singles, said Alagbaoso, were aimed at making the book more affordable to students and other readers. “The collected books published in 2016 were well received throughout the country, but there were complaints that they were voluminous and a bit expensive to the average student to afford. Therefore, we have to reprint them as single, cheaper plays with slim volumes and attractive covers,” he told The Sun. Alagbaoso is also the author of the novel, Officers and Men.
The author currently has twelve titles in the popular book site, Goodreads. Published as Kindle editions, they include Specks in Our Eyes, What a Man Can Steal, Wise Wives of Old, Sorters and Sorties, The First Day, Let My Husband Be, The First Lady, Armchair Parents, Mine and Enduring Hearts, Oh! My Rolls Royce and Family Old Wife, Honourable Chairman, and His Excellency and the Sirens.
Alagbaoso’s writings are steeped in realism, depicting post-colonial African social conditions with emphasis on his native country, Nigeria. For instance, Specks in Our Eyes is a satire on community leadership and administration, particularly on the lawmaking and oversight functions in the Ama Ihite community, where roles are played by the executives of the Ama Ihite Development Union (ADU). Important as these roles are, there must be a moral high ground where caution and punishment are to be meted out and it is in this respect that the ADU is lacking. In the book, a loss of respect for the corrective institution of the ADU ensues when they take on the Principal of the Community School. The central concern of the dramatist is that corrective institutions must be credible, else they become ineffective.
What a Man Can Steal is a political comedy of errors that depicts the moral decadence, exploitation and corruption that characterise contemporary society. It shows the greed and abuse of power that are very common in governance today. The playwright goes further to emphasise that corruption has no gender.
Apparently, Alagbaoso has found a niche in juvenile literature, though the books are relevant to adults, with comedy as a vehicle and didacticism as a legacy to be bequeathed to the younger generation and the general reader. The author has, so far, been self-effacing as a writer, but it is glaring Alagbaoso is on his way to canonisation as more readers, far and wide, read his works with increasing thumbs ups.