The re-issue of archival volumes ALT 1 to ALT 14 makes the complete series available and provides the historical perspective of these early contributions to the literature and its criticism. In this 10th anniversary volume, first published in 1979, Eldred Jones outlines the trend over the years since independence of a greater degree of alienation or dissidence of the principal writers from established regimes and a movement towards a closer identification with what they see as the needs of the ordinary people. Writers increasingly found themselves in difficulties with their respective governments, with ensuing consequences of loss of favour,of exile - enforced or voluntary - or worse still of detention or imprisonment in their own countries. This issue makes a reassessment of African writing with special articles on novels, drama and poetry and particular studies ofthe work of Kofi Awoonor, Ngugi, Ezekiel Mphalele, Richard Rive, Cyprian Ekwensi, Ayi Kwei Armah, Yambo Ouologuem and Arthur Nortje.