An intellectual group, known as the Calabar Study Group, is set to celebrate a renowned Nigerian poet and scholar, Joseph Akawu Ushie with a conference.
Prof Ushie is a third generation and a leading scholar of African literature at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The conference is billed to hold from April 25 to 28, 2018, in the University of Calabar, Cross River State.
With the theme of the conference as Joe Ushie @60: Otherness, Marginality and Social Justice, Ushie is one of the strong voices that have, by their consistency and creative industry, established their identities in the canon of Nigerian poetry in the millennium. Along with other poets in his generation, he has provided the creative trough that defines contemporary Nigerian and recent African literature at large. Characterised by a peculiar lachrymal tone, definitive of the poetics of his generation, Ushie poetry is unique for its compelling eco-consciousness and intemperateness with the social injustice of the present day Nigeria. That eco-concentricity is, In turn, steep in the idiom and cultural mores of his Bendi people of South-South Nigeria.
Beyond his poetry, Ushie has committed himself to the creative revival of his people’s folk performance and systemitasing them for a new world. This can be seen in his patronage and investment in creating two different Bette-Bendi women and men performance troupes- “Litong” and Bendi Traditional Marriage Theatre.
Ushie has been a long–standing member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) where he had used his experience and expertise to mentor a lot of young and upcoming writers to become compelling writers and scholars. He was one-time chairman of the ANA chapter in Akwa-Ibom when the chapter hosted its 31st International Convention in 2012.
The ANA President, Mallam Denja Abdullahi, has pledged the support of ANA for the conference, saying he has served the association most diligently in several capacities and the apogee. For example, he co-edited two commemorative books on Chinua Achebe’s works with the Mallam Abdullahi in 2009 and 2017 respectively.
The said books are Themes Fall Apart and the Centre Holds (2009), commemorating the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Things Fall Apart and Arrows or Gods? Essays on the Leadership Question in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God (2017) which also marked the 50th Anniversary of the publication of the Achebe book in 2014.
The forthcoming conference has as confirmed keynote speakers and lead paper presenters, Prof Obododimma Oha (University of Ibadan); Prof Oyeniyi Okunoye (Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ife) and Prof. A.S Adagboyin (Ambrose Ali University).
“ANA hereby identifies with this milestone celebrative conference in honour of one of its brilliantly dedicated member and enjoins members of the Association in the South –South axis and beyond to find time to attend this important conference to honour one of our own”.