Mark of the Cobra: How the Pacesetter Novels Shaped a Generation

I first discovered The Pacesetters African Series when I was 9 or 10 and had just moved to Sierra Leone. They were a collection of 130 fiction books written by authors from at least ten African countries. Each one was set in the authors’ home country except for “Meet me in Conakry”, where the protagonists journey across West Africa.  It is arguably one of the greatest Pan-African collaborations ever. Maybe I got my first copy from one of my cousins (I am no longer sure), but I clearly remember street vendors hawking them around in the middle of Freetown.  I remember because any pocket change I ever had at the time–perhaps all of it–ended up in the accounts of those vendors. I was determined to read every copy that I could lay my hands on.

Don’t get me wrong, these books were certainly not Ama Ataa Aidoo literary quality. They were more of the mass produced, Nollywood variety. In fact, with the exception of Buchi Emecheta, I don’t think I have come across any of the other authors outside of the Pacesetter world. However, I enjoyed them, they fascinated me, I got lost in them and simply couldn’t get enough. A hundred Leones, I thought, was more than a fair price to pay for first class hassle-free trips to Ghana, Nigeria, The Gambia, Uganda, Kenya etc.

At a very young age, those journeys nurtured in me an awareness, curiosity and respect for other African people, cultures and nationalities that has endured. I lost my collection during the Sierra Leonean war but as a young adult, whenever I would travel to a new African country I would try to recall if I had gone there on Air Pacesetter previously. So Nostalgic.

Pacesetters stopped publishing the African series a long long time ago, but it appears you can purchase copies here for a cool 5 Pounds if you are so inclined. I would like to eventually collect all of them for my library but my pockets remind me gently that they are not currently so inclined.  So I wait. A couple of my favorites were Symphony of Destruction by Sunday Adebomi and Bittersweet by Yema Hunter.

The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are fundamentally important to our collective esteem and how we regard each other. The “Africa Rising” narrative, the resurgence of the African middle class,  the active interest of Africans in the Diaspora in the continent are a few factors that  contribute to the renewed entitlement struggle for who should write the African story. Of course, for many of us, the answer to this question is quite obvious!

Chimamanda Adiche and others like her are at the forefront of this resurgence.  However, sometimes I wonder what the reach is back home?  With a robust and ever increasing African youth population, it is becoming more and more important to know what stories that demographic are sharing? What are they collectively telling themselves? How do they negotiate identity? Where and how do they situate their identity within the larger African context? Do they see a larger context?

Literature contains magic that can build that context.  It has the power to give the reader a wider and richer perspective outside the readers’ immediate surroundings. As we all work to own the African narrative, it would be a very good thing to have a similar platform where young literary stars rising up from different African countries can create and share.

A version of this post was written by FulaniGirl and originally appeared here. It is republished with permission.

…and some ARx Staff kitschy cover art and blurb faves from pacesetternovels.com…

 “An enthusiast of fast cars, Dela Boya has a passion for his country. No danger will stop him risking everything if he thinks there is a threat to its stability.  He is brave and well-trained in the martial arts – so woe betide the lawbreakers.”

“Bola, the Group General Manager of ABB International, has a passion for women, preferably the married ones. Set in the sinister underworld of Portkano, this is the story of a devious plan for revenge hatched in the twisted, bitter minds of the wronged husbands. Violet, the innocent wife of Bola, is mecilessly entangled in the net they set to catch her husband, but she too is to taste the sweetness of revenge.”

“Umar Khalil, chief executive of the highly prosperous Khalil Textiles Limited, is good-looking, rich, has a devoted wife and a beautiful daughter. But he is a man haunted by his past. What was the infamous act which has changed his destiny, and will he be brave enough to embrace his fate? This story shows how an incident from the past affects the lives of Umar and those around him.”

“If one man achieves a major breakthrough in solar technology – which gives him a world monopoly in solar weaponry, nothing will stop him from realising his ultimate plan. Such a man is Ca’fra Osiri Ba’ra, THE COBRA. Can Nigeria’s only remaining Special Service Agent, SSA2 Jack Ebony, overcome this sinister threat to mankind … or is it already too late?”