Category: Arts & Life

Professor Hope Eghagha is the Head of the Department of English, the University of Lagos.  A poet, dramatist, novelist and social critic, his works include Death, Not a Redeemer, Rhythms of the Last Testament, This Story must be Told, The Governor’s Lodge, Emperors of Salvation, Premonition and other Dramas, Mama Dances in the Night and so many others.  In this encounter with Edozie Udeze he digs deep into his creative exploits, writing style and his love for myths, traditions, short stories and lots more.

What sorts of books do you like most?

Well, I read all kinds of books.  I love biographies.  At this time, I read biographies a lot.  I can’t really explain, but that’s the way it is now.  As a young man growing up, I read all kinds of books – thrillers – this was when I was in the university.  Of course, I was compelled to read all kinds of books – classics, African writers.  Now may be because I am into biographies, I read autobiographies.

When you read, what are the salient things you look out for?

I look out for the basics that will help me in life.  Every life that is documented, there’s a lot to learn from it.  Then you ask yourself, is it possible for me to do well?  Is there anything very special in this person’s life?  So, I look out for such things a lot when I read a book, things that will help me in life.

Who are your favourite authors?

Hmmh, well, in Nigeria, I love Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.  These are my most favourites when it comes to Nigerian authors.  Outside here, even then, it depends on categories.  You know, I said I love autobiographies, biographies.  I love Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela and all the rest.  For such men who have made profound contributions to world affairs, and to life itself, I try to see how they made it – the beautiful sides of their lives.  From their beginning till late and then I see what lessons I could learn from their lives.

When and where do you like to read most?

I read in my office a lot.  But don’t laugh.  I like to read in the toilet a lot.  When I am in the toilet, doing the real thing, I like to read there.  This is so because nobody disturbs me, although your office and your study are there.  But while in the toilet nobody comes to disturb you, for obvious reasons.  If I have a book that’s interesting, of course, I can stay much longer.  In the toilet I am safe – sometimes my wife would say – are you okay?  And I’d say, I am very okay.

What is your preferred literary genre?

Fiction – prose fiction.  Yes, I love short stories, because within a short time, they are able to do what a novel could do in a whole book – two hundred and ninety pages and so on.  A short story could do this in fifteen pages.  So, I love fiction.  I love short stories, and in the last ten to fifteen years due to inadequate time, I read poetry a lot.  I read Christopher Okigbo a lot.  He is interesting to read.  You can read a poem within five and ten minutes.  So the time you would use to read a novel, if you’re busy and on the move, you’re able to do so.  In fact, sometimes, I am reading two or three novels at the same time.  I was reading My Name is Okoro, by Sam Omatseye and Baba Segi’s Wife by Sola Soneyin at the same time.  I couldn’t finish either.  So it is like that.  But if it is a poem you can read and interrogate within one hour and move on to another poem.

You were enamoured by theatre at a time?

Yes, I have moved away from plays now.  I can’t say in the last one or two years, I have read any play, except the ones I teach here at the department of English.  But to wake up and pick up a play to read, I’ve not done that in a while.

Then, what books have had the greatest impacts on you?

The greatest book, I have read?  Well, emh…  The most profound book I have read is 1984 by George Orwell.  But what broadened my imagination about the possibility of the novel, may be because I read it in year one, in the university.  It taught me a lot.  So, when I read 1984, I saw the way a writer could enter the mind of a reader…  How he could enter the past, the present and the future.  It is amazing the way he did it, I mean Orwell.  That had a profound effect on me.  Another one is A Brave New World by Huxley.  I read that one too and it had its effect on me.  But when it comes to African writers series, it is Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe and not Things Fall Apart.  I am fascinated by the character of Ezeulu, the chief priest.  The way he is presented by Chinua Achebe is amazing and fascinating.  Way back at the University of Jos, the thrillers were it – I read James Hardley Chase a lot.  I read Sydney Sheldon.  These are not classics.  You see, even before I went to America, I knew what America was like through these books.  Those thriller writers made it possible for me.  Well, those were what we read in school as past time.  So when it comes to classics, the novels that have been admitted into the canon have been it for me.  When you are talking about Charles Dickens and all the rest of them, the way they were able to describe situations and character development and all that, from the time they had, to elaborate on all of these things…  Reading Great Expectations, for example, you see what I mean?  Well, I don’t have time to go back to prose fiction most of the time.  I teach drama here.

As a child, what books intrigued you most?

Oh, as a child?  King Solomon’s Mines; She who must be obeyed.  Yes those fantastic tales they created about Africa.  Of course when I matured and was able to interrogate those novels – those books, I knew that was somebody’s fantastic imaginative re-creation of African experience, about wild territories that white men had to come and conquer.

Yes, those days those were the books.  But then reading the Bible, the Holy Book of God, talking about the Old Testament, for instance, held me spellbound.  My background, my upbringing is particularly dictated by my Christian consciousness.  Those stories in the Bible, the story of Goliath, for instance, that of David too, went beyond what I saw in the Bible.  I was a David, coming from a humble background and the world had to be conquered.  Then I was a David, facing the world that was a Goliath.  And I am sure Sam Omatseye has the same kind of story.  Most of us did.  You had a lot of obstacles on the way but you were not deterred.

At what point in your life did you want to become a writer?

I had always wanted to be a writer, very early in life.  I started writing when I was in secondary school.  In fact, I did my first staged performance when I was in secondary school.  I wrote the play within an hour.  I had always known I could write.  I wanted to write; to develop short stories.  Sometimes I wouldn’t be able to complete it.  I wrote plays.  It was much later that I went into poetry.

You were once into myth.  What happened?

Yes, that also came very early.  My mother used to tell us stories and you know, my father was the typical Christian who could not tolerate such stories, such myths in the house.  Yet my father could not understand all those things about tortoise – tortoise did this, tortoise did that.  Sometimes my father would say wetin?  Were you there when it happened?  So, she did it usually when my dad wasn’t there to teach us songs and all.  So, I grew up in love with myth that very early.  But when I went to the university I heard my teacher talking about my native experience and I said oh, this resonated very fine with me.  So I was fascinated by such stories and the story of an Okpe King (In Urhobo land) who would tell his people to fell a tree that would not get to the ground.  His subjects would go there to catch the tree so that it would not touch the ground and so on.  That forms the outline of my second play.  Such myths attract me but it is not even a myth.  It is a history; the story of a people.  It is part of our history and that was why there was almost an interregnum for a hundred years.  And the Okpe people did not have a king until sometimes in the middle of 20th century.  So, I have been fascinated by myth like my friend Omatseye has noted.

So, how has writing shaped your life?

Shaped and reordered my life?  Oh, you see, as a writer you have to show obligation to rise beyond the ordinary.  You don’t have to be pedestrian.  No!  You have to evaluate every story, every picture totally, in the sense that people learn a lot from you as a writer.  You’re a teacher of values; cultural values and as it were, you have to live above board.  So, when you are writing and pointing out things, you have to teach people…  Let us be frank, inter-ethnic marriage.  As a writer, you have to see that the tendency to be good is universal.  You don’t have to say I won’t marry an Igbo girl because she is Igbo.  You’ve risen beyond that.  Yes, you have!  You don’t have to advise your daughter not to marry an Igbo boy, because he is Igbo.  No!  You have to look beyond that; that in every culture, in every clime, in every geographical space, there are good people.  And if love can bind two different people from two different cultural backgrounds, what right have you to stop them? If you see yourself face-to-face with your favourite author, what is the first question you’d ask him?

How did you achieve this?  How did you achieve this feat?  Ah, I love D. H.  Lawrence – Sons and Lovers and all his novels.  My best is Sons and lovers – the way D. H. Lawrence captured that story, created all the imagination, how he was able to go into the spirits of those characters.  He so painted the characters as if they had lives of their own.  I was enamoured; I was attracted to D. H. Lawrence and I said could I write like this?  And then the drama of his own life; the way he wrote it, and all that.  He died very young of tuberculosis and if he had lived now he would have lived longer.  But the short time he lived, he was able to create literature for humanity.

Of all the plays you’ve read, which character struck you most?

There’re so many characters in all the plays I’ve read…  Elesin Oba in Death and King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka struck me most.  I mean a man who is created in that kind of dilemma, put in a position that his life is terminated, particularly as recreated by Soyinka…because the historical Elesin is different from the dramatic Elesin created by Soyinka in his play.  But you see, looking at that character, the dilemma he faces and finally the choice that he makes put that within historical context, I was so fascinated by his character that I did a play along same line.  Yes, I did that.  I recreated him.  He actually rejected that role because of his Christian background.  Now we are exporting Christianity back to the white man.  We are more involved in it and more proactive.  We are more passionate about it, may be because of our poverty.  But we are keen on it all the same.  Christianity creates a room for you for therapy.  Instead of being in the laboratory creating energy, you’re in church singing and dancing away for God.  Yes, the contradiction is an irony.  By 7 o’clock in the morning, a Professor of Nuclear Physics is in a church singing and clapping.  But the scientist in America is in the laboratory early in the morning working and discovering new things and ideas.  So, those are part of the ironies that we face.  But it is still part of our own experience here in Africa.

What book do you plan to read next?

Oh, I have not made up my mind yet.  Yes, I bought some books of recent, books that I have not read.  Some of the books I bought them when I was in government but I have not read them.  So, I have not really made up my mind which of them to read next.

How do you arrange your library?

I do not have a library at home.  What I do when I get home is to surrender myself to …   But all my books are here in the office.  It is a personal decision not to have a library at home.  I have libraries in the village house, I have in my Warri house.  But here, when I sit back, I pick a book from my shelf and begin to read.  It is like meeting a beautiful woman for the first time.  The encounter of a beautiful book, that smell, you see, I love it.  You can’t replicate it.  I am not fascinated by e-book or the like.  If you smell a book, man, you are in a world of your own.  So, as I said, I buy all kinds of books, from political science, to philosophy and science and so on.

Are you a re-reader and how often do you do that?

I go back to some books I have read before.  Yes, I do that and it depends on the mood I am in.  Yes, if I want to write or recreate, I go to Okigbo.  Sometimes too, I go back to the classics especially where I am fascinated by the character.  So I go back even to Shakespeare due to the use of language that you can capture there.  Sometimes too I have had to go back to Clinton.

Title: Nigerian Women
Pioneers and Icons
Authors: Prof. Bolanle Awe
Year of Publication: 2016
Review: Festus Adedayo

The list of unfavourable prejudices against women in the world is endless. History, religion, culture, language, etc over the centuries, were skewed in her disfavor. The history, for instance, was his story and never her story. In the developing world for instance, culture and religion were her major snares, with grossly skewed foundations that were basically woven together to put her down. These cobbled together a mindset that makes the female gender inferior to her male counterpart. From creation, women have struggled against the machination of an environment which sees them as second class and appendages to their male counterpart.

Until the huge mobilization for its stoppage in the nineteenth and twentieth century Britain that culminated in the ceding of right to vote to women, this discrimination was part and parcel of the British system. It was followed by the growth of feminism and its objective fight against long-held beliefs that put the woman down. The emergence by Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of Britain in the 1980s was a direct win of this centuries old fight of the place of women in societal equilibrium.

Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan and Emeritus Professor of English in the same university sides with the above claim. In a foreword to the book Nigerian Women Pioneers and Icons, Banjo traced the history of prejudice. The world, he said, has witnessed the enactment of different forms of discrimination which he said is the foundation of the race problems in the United States of America and the former Apartheid system in South Africa. He submitted that this discrimination is pernicious as it is based on irrational prejudice due to its erection of “a hierarchy within the one and indivisible humanity, suggesting that some human beings are intrinsically superior or inferior to others.”

Banjo likened the above arbitrary classification of human beings which he called “falsely designed hierarchy within one humanity” to the discrimination against women. To him, in spite of the mileages achieved in the fight to properly situate women in the world, women are still far away from redemption. Women are still subjected to highly unfavourable societal codes, bend over backwards to demonstrate the deposit of leadership acumen in them and in many cultures, suffer from profiling that situates them as mere societal lubricants while their male counterpart are the engine whose wheels are strategic to the running of the world.

Even America which claims to hoist the lantern of civilization, according to CNN’s award-winning journalist, British-Iranian Christianne Amanpour, has not been weaned of this discriminatory tendency. The CNN Chief Correspondent, in a reaction to claims that Hillary Clinton was unfit for the American presidency because she was wheeled out of the 9/11 memorial celebration in New York, attributed this gender hostility to heightened “media conspiracy” against Clinton.

“But surely this can’t be a case of a human being having an off day. Nope like so many things Hillary, the media are having a field day, off to the races with another debilitating case of indignant outrage. This must be another typical Clinton conspiracy to fool them with a total transparency break down. Talk about a transparency break down, what about Donald Trump’s tax returns – where are they? Can’t a girl have a sick day or two? Don’t get me started because when it comes to overqualified women having to try a hundred times harder than unqualified men to get a break or even a level playing field, well, we know that story,” Amanpour had said.

It is against these age old prejudices and discrimination that the book Nigerian Women Pioneers and Icons is coming on the shelf. It comes with the admittance that though Nigerian polity, culture and history are ranged against women, they have managed under this rigid profiling to emerge as icons and colonizers of their societal limitations. In a collection of essays that holds the dual purpose of a recorder of history and a fillip for would-be women icons who are yet held down by the gruff of culture and time-worn beliefs, Bolanle Awe, professor of history, retired Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan and former commissioner in the then Western Region, a woman renowned to be a voice for womanhood through her incessant interventions in issues of our contemporary society, relives the conquest of womanhood.

Nigerian Women Pioneers is a chronicle of Nigerian women whose lives and achievements have distinguished as outstanding individuals who have made notable contributions to the development of Nigeria. As pioneers who attained leadership positions in their chosen fields of human endeavour in spite of erected male gender-made roadblocks, they are potential role models for young Nigerian women in this byzantine jungle of a highly patriarchal Nigerian society.

On the inspiration for the focus of the Amazon achievers, Professor Awe said that until recently, the focus of attention was on the men who had made good as leaders and scant attention for their women counterpart and this venture is aimed at singing the song of the unsung women. “The emphasis on male achievements is partly due to the traditional notion that the woman’s role is to look after the home front as wives and mothers contentedly attending to the family’s domestic needs,” she said, citing examples from other lands where women interspersed these roles with leadership like Madame Curie of France and Mary Wai Maathai of Kenya, the former who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine and the latter, the first African woman to win a Nobel prize.

“When viewed comparatively, the percentage of (these) women to the overall female population is insignificant; indeed they only serve to demonstrate in a small but important way the greatness of female potential. Truly the number of outstanding Nigerian women achievers seems rather inadequate considering that women make up almost 50% of the nation’s population,” she said.

In all, 33 women were showcased in the volume. They are Nana Asmau, the legendary poet; Hajiya Fatima Lolo, pioneer female musician; Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti; Wuraola Adepeju Esan, educationist/politician; Lady Kofoworola Aina Ademola, foremost Oxford graduate; Margaret John Ekpo, foremost politician and pioneer parliamentarian; Irene Modupelola Thomas, renowned medical practitioner; Folayegbe Akintunde-Ighodalo, First Lady Permanent Secretary; Ladi Kwali, world acclaimed potter; Adetowun Ogunsheye, pacesetter in education; Mabel Segun; Flora Nwapa Nwakuche; Folake Solanke, first lady SAN; Grace Alele Williams, scholar; Bolanle Awe; Gambo Sawaba;Francesca Yetunde Emmanuel; Oyinade Olurin; Batule Aleke, pioneer and Queen of Waka music; Bola Kuforiji-Olubi; Oluwatoyin Olusola Olakunrin; Jadesola Akande; Aisha Bridget Lemu; Aderonke Kale, first Lady Army General; Aloma Mariam Mukhtar; Joy Ogwu; Hansine Napwanijo Donli; Zaynab Alkali, novelist and feminist; Folorunso Alakija; Onyeka Onwenu; Bilikisu Yusuf, first woman newspaper editor; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Chioma Ajunwa and Chimamanda Adichie.

In the book, the reader is given an unprecedented insight into the quality lives of the pioneers, their environmental and existential limitations that almost conspired to put them down and their victories over these militating circumstances. More fundamentally is the corrosive contributions of the male gender in the conspiracy to limit them, fuelled by an incandescent history, culture, language and custom.

Explaining this, Awe said the imbalance is so widespread that the woman would be lucky to escape its dragnet. “This gender imbalance in practically every field is certainly not because women are created inferior to men but rather because women have not been afforded a level playing gield. Indeed it is a scientifically proven fact that the human brain is the same in both males and females. Women, however, are subjected to numerous constraints; there is a general and totally unsubstantiated belief that women are inferior to men and can only perform certain duties – mainly domestic ones of looking after the home, their children and husbands,” she said.

For instance, Batule Alake, born in 1935 from Okesopin quarter in Ijebu Igbo in Ogun State, pioneer of a genre of music called Waka in Yorubaland, without formal education, waded through the typecast of women singers as promiscuous and emerged as a model for younger musicians. She made an indelible mark in the highly competitive world of Nigerian music. Of Alake, the author said “the artist who has blazed the trail for several others, who have continued to demonstrate great industry and courage in spite of their limited access.”

The Special Adviser on Diaspora matters to the President, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in the foreword to the book, called for an understanding of the difference between the modern woman and her foremothers.

“The modern woman’s work differs considerably from that of her grandmothers and great grandmothers. The most significant difference is that the modern woman works and earns a living most of her adult life, whereas her forerunner, once married, stays at home and takes care of domestic affairs,” she said, asking for the striking of balance by the modern woman in her different roles.

Dabiri-Erewa is of the opinion that the incongruence of profiling women with the menace of the few bad women in society is obliterating what she called “the unquantifiable contributions of women to the social, political, economic and religious cum cultural spheres of Nigeria.” She believes that the history of Nigeria can never be complete without the mention of these women of note.

The 161-paged book was written in fluid and engaging prose which affords its reader a window into the uncommon strides of the 34 women and by that, women in general. Its crispness of tone and coffee table reading inviting layout, interspersed with artistic imageries of the Amazons, also make it reader friendly and unputdownable. It affords the reader an opportunity to see how long-held but wrong beliefs, cultures and practices have held down women who could have liberated the clime long before now.

Against the backdrop of a raging rumour that vaginal cancer, caused by soap douching of the private part, is on the rise in the country, Dorcas Egede and Doris Ofoeze sought out the views of  Dr Kehinde Okunade, lecturer/consultant, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos. He spoke on the causes, prevention and treatment amongst other issues.

Not too long ago, a message circulated on the social media warning of vaginal cancer and cautioning the female-folk on the use of soap (of any kind) in washing their vagina. The message went further to warn that there is a particular chemical in soaps generally, that is dangerous and which possibly causes the cancer. It further said cases of cancer of the vagina are on the rise in most of the government hospitals, including teaching hospitals and general hospitals.

 The message actually began with the lead: This is a serious caution from medical practitioners (LUTH) to all female beings, be it infant, baby girl, ladies, and mothers.

Even before this particular one was ascribed to medical practitioners in LUTH, several other such warnings had pervaded the various social media, especially facebook and WhatsApp but many began to take it seriously after this last post.

Many have however dismissed it as another social media hoax, saying there is nothing like vaginal cancer and that it must be cervical cancer, which to some extent is already well-known.

A quick online search however showed that indeed there is a disease called vaginal cancer, as distinct from cervical cancer.

Online medical journal, MedicineNet wrote: Vaginal Cancer is a disease in which malignant cells form in the vagina. Vaginal cancer is not common. (But) When found in the early stages, it can often be cured. There are two main types of vaginal cancer: Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma.

According to Dr Kehinde Okunade, lecturer/consultant, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos/ Lagos University Teaching Hospital, vaginal cancer is an abnormal growth of cells of the vagina. It is a rare gynaecological tumours accounting for only 1-2% of all gynaecological cancers and usually occur in the sixth decade of human life between 60-65 years.

Okunade says little is known of vaginal cancer, except that it shares similarities with cancer of the neck of the womb (cervix).

On the spreading (social Media) rumour that soap douching the private part predisposes the female-folk to vaginal cancer, Okunade said there is no evidence to that effect.

He also stated unequivocally that “No, the number of cases of vaginal cancer seen in our hospitals has not increased in recent time,” sweeping the carpet off the feet of the rumour mongers. Is there increase number of cases of vaginal cancer in hospitals?

Nevertheless, he warned that “women are strongly advised against douching or genital watching with soap as it can predispose them to various types of vaginal infections, such as bacterial vaginosis and vaginal candidiasis. During douching, there is a clearance of certain protective bacteria of the vaginal, which then create room for the harmful germs to grow uncontrollably.”

He explained that as symptoms, “a woman who has vaginal cancer may give a complaint of vaginal discharge, which is usually offensive or blood-stained and occasionally bleeding after sexual intercourse. There may be urinary or rectal symptoms in advanced cases.”

For clinical signs, the doctor said a growth is usually seen or felt in the vagina on examination. “It may be ulcerative or friable. It may also bleed readily to touch. The neck of the womb should also be carefully examined to exclude its involvement.

The test for vaginal cancer, he said, involves taking of a small sample of the mass of tissues in the vaginal (biopsy) and then sending it for a test called histology. “The procedure is usually done in theatre while the patient is sleeping and the final test entails looking at a prepared sample of the tissues under the microscope by the Pathologists, who may then tell if there are cancer cells or not and the type, if present.”

Treatment/cure

Okunade is of the opinion that vaginal cancer is an extremely difficult cancer to treat. He said “definitive treatment in the early stage involves the removal of the womb and the vaginal and other surrounding tissues. However, for majority of our patients who usually present in the late or advanced stages of the disease where cure is virtually not possible any longer; treatment option is mainly radiotherapy. The treatment-related complications can be very significant. Sexual dysfunction due to shortened vaginal length and damage to the bladder and rectum are not infrequent.

Chances of survival

“The survival rate of vaginal cancer, just like cervical cancer, depends mainly on the stage at presentation and treatment; and it is calculated in terms of how many treated patients were able to survive beyond 5 years. Women who are diagnosed with the earlier stages of the disease have better survival rates compared to women at the later stages.” Okunade said. He also revealed that the quoted overall five-year survival rate is 30%.

Prevention

“Cancers that originates primarily from the vaginal are extremely rare. Majority of cases of cancers seen in the vaginal are from the neck of the womb (cervix), therefore strategies to prevent vaginal cancer are mainly directed at preventing cancer of the cervix and these may include lifestyle changes such as minimising the numbers of sex partners, avoidance of smoking, treatment of HIV infection in women who are positive and the control of diabetes. Other recommended strategies include having regular cervical screenings such as Pap smear and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) test among others.

“We can also prevent vaginal cancer through immunisation of adolescent and younger girls (before the age 27 years and before any sexual exposure) with the HPV vaccines, which can provide lifetime immunity against the acquisition of the causative virus of cervical cancer and thus indirectly vaginal cancer. “

On his advice to the public regarding vaginal cancer, especially on the backdrop of the raging rumour, the consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist said “Cancer originating primarily from the vaginal is extremely rare.

He however said it is important for members of the public to know that just like any woman who has ever had sex is at risk of having cervical cancer; they are also at the risk of having vaginal cancer. Regular cervical screening tests, such as Pap smear, are the best ways of preventing cervical cancer. Getting an abnormal or positive screening test does NOT mean a woman has cancer. It just means that you are finding a potential problem now, which should be treated, before it is too late. Women should also generally remember that “PREVENTION IS CHEAPER THAN CURE”.

 Lifestyle changes such as avoidance of multiple sexual partners and smoking will also play very significant roles in its prevention – he said