While I was away

By Olayinka Oyegbile

When we ate

Toads for Supper

we met

The Naked Gods

And danced by

The Potters’ Wheel

before

Sunset At Dawn

and witnessed

Expo ’77

before the arrival of 

The Chicken Chasers

who gave us

The Bottled Leopard

as game because

Our Children Are Coming

before this

Conspiracy of silence

It is nice to be back after the break that this column went on towards the end of last year. The last time we communed together was on December 15, 2019 when I announced that like the ram which beats a retreat to gather momentum and power, I needed a retreat. It is gratifying to note that a few of those who perhaps missed the announcement got across to me by mail and some by text messages asking what was amiss.

As the Yoruba proverb says, “Shut your eyes and feint dead to know who truly loves you.” Through these messages I was able to know that this column was being read and appreciated and it goes to confirm that Nigerians still read and if you give them what they want they would.

In the meantime, while this column was on a break; a lot of things happened on the literary scene both at home and abroad. Also, because we were on break before the end of the year we were not able to do our usual Book of the Year. Last year, no doubt, was a good one in terms of literary production. Many literary awards were won and many events held. The greatest by some distant relation to Nigeria was the joint Booker win by Bernardine Evaristo. She won the prize jointly with the ageless and ever bubbling literary icon Margaret Atwood. Evaristo’s father is said to be a Nigerian. Her novel with the curious title Girl, Woman, Other won the prize with Atwood’s The Testament.

So what great book did you read last year; it doesn’t have to have been published that year. It could well be a classic that you read for the first time.

Also while this column was on break, we lost one of our country’s greatest writers. Eze Chukwuemeka Ike; one of the most enduring writers of his time who many people of my age grew up reading joined his ancestors. His departure from the mortal body has no doubt solidified his place in the pantheons of our literary gods who through their writings shaped our psyche and literary tastes and preferences.

The opening epigram is an attempt to write a poem with the title of the books of the author that I have read. In those nine novels Eze Ike demonstrates very rich imagination and profundity of language that is unique to him. His stories are taken from everyday life and experiences that the readers of his books are bound to associate with and see his vision.

His first book deals with the issue of inter-ethnic marriage and the problems that the couple faces and how to deal with it. Many years after, this experience cannot be wished away because they are still with us today.  In the second, he deals squarely with the issue of juju in our ivory towers and the rat race to become vice chancellors. It is such a graphic prediction of what the universities have today become with the almost bitter war to hold offices. It is perhaps recourse to solve these bitter wars that led to making the tenure of vice chancellors a non-renewable five year term!

The third is perhaps the most popular of his novels among secondary school students in my days. This is because of the boy who lives with his teacher who is made to spell difficult words, which many thought he would not be able to spell a particular word and which he eventually spelt with precocious ease. Eze Ike was not left out of the coterie of writers who wrote about the Nigeria civil war. The scandal that attended the West Africa Examination Examinations of 1977 didn’t escape his attention so was the intrigues that led to his exit from the leading regional examination body.

The next returned to the magic of childhood and what tricks youngsters play and the one about the future of our children and how silence of those who should act is a bad omen for the society.

It is also important to remember that one of the big events of the time was the passage of Chief Arthur Nwankwo, the activist, author and publisher. Chief Nwankwo would be remembered as the publisher who dared and published great books. His ouvre of publications were not limited to fiction, it extended to memoirs, biographies, treatises and political tracts that brought Enugu to the centre of publishing world in the country. His Fourth Dimension Publishers no doubt published great books that contributed to political and literary discourses in the country.

It is sad that the two great men of letters from the east of the Niger are no longer here with us, but as I always write when writers like these die, they are only gone in body but their works are everlasting because they wrote great books that have contributed to the corpus of knowledge in our country and world.

Is that not why we are writing about them today?

It’s going to be a greater year than it was last year, I can assure you.