Since 1960, there has been a steady flow of novels, plays, poetry, and short stories, many of these re-creating oral traditions. Drama, myth, story, song and dance, and poetry often of epic proportions have always been part of Black African culture, many elements of which were tenaciously maintained by slaves carried to the New World. The fact that English was an alien language caused heated debate both before and after independence. Such writers and their followers have proposed the use of African languages, including Ewe, Kikuyu, Igbo, Yoruba, and Swahili, the last being recommended as a pan-African lingua franca. Many writers, including Achebe, have supported the use of English, emphasizing its international status and readership, its ability to be moulded to reflect African culture and traditions, and the role it has played in Africa's liberation movements.
Most African writers look for ways in which to put their writing at the disposal of their people.
They use English but are aware of their limited readership in countries where universal education is not always the norm. In trying to reach their audience, they have developed a unique English that incorporates the legacy of a communal oral past. Many West African writers make use of Pidgin English as part of the spectrum of Englishes available to them. In Nigeria, Achebe has used it in prose, Aik-Imoukhuede in poetry, and Ola Rotimi in drama. Literature is also being provided for an African audience through the medium of radio and television, which broadcast poetry, plays, stories, and serials by local writers who often write both in English and in their mother tongue.