Tag: Literature

Title: My Literary Journey

Author: Bukar Usman 

Reviewer: Oluwashindara Oso

Pagination: 235

Publisher: Klamidas Communications Limited

Bukar Usman’s My Literary Journey is a captivating reflection on his life and the path he has taken as a public servant, writer, and storyteller. Since his retirement from service in 1999, he has devoted his time to creative writing, cultural research, and folklore revival in Nigeria.

Usman, a prominent Nigerian writer and folklorist, delves into his childhood, his education, and his early fascination with stories. He recounts his humble beginnings in rural Nigeria and the way his upbringing influenced his deep appreciation for oral traditions. These early experiences shaped his mission to preserve and document Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage through stories, folklore, and historical writings.

Usman veered into the imaginative world of fiction-writing, that realm where the writer attempts to ‘put head and tail back to the severed trunk of our tale,’ only after my retirement. He mentioned that his experience however supports the notion every writer is the one who ‘decides’ whether or not to be a writer. He mentioned that choosing to be a writer in his own case was “an involuntary decision, more like yielding to the impulse to yawn than choosing to have a walk.”

My literary journey was chronicled on how “the initial yawn became a walk and eventually a journey…” Usman never had any formal creative-writing training but the experiences he had gotten shaped him to become the creative writer he is.

In the book he mentioned that “Those folktale sessions, during which all the children gathered to listen to older members of the extended family, unconsciously, prepared me for the interest I later developed in folklore.” He was in the bureaucratic English business for 30 years. He mentioned that “As a public servant, I had a number of engagements with the public during which I delivered speeches on key policy issues. Writing those speeches, I might say, was the nearest I came to creative writing before 1992 when I began to write my autobiography, Hatching Hopes.” (33).

My literary journey by Bukar Usman is a literary memoir, an update of Bukar Usman’s autobiography, Hatching Hopes. The memoir is divided into five parts, with the first four chapters taking readers through his journey into writing, literary approach, selections from his published works, and reviews of his non-fiction and fiction works. Part one to four contains two chapters each and part five contains the appendices section where most of the reviews can be read in full.

In part I – II of the memoir, he took us through the various stations of his literary journey and approach. His delightful narrative introduces us not only to his writing but also to the unusual interaction he enjoys with his readers. In the book he stated that his style is like a conversation and he tries his best to anticipate their reactions. He said: “I write as I talk, or generally aim to do so … I like to write as if I am conversing with my reader.”

My key takeaway from My literary journey by Bukar Usman is the part where he talked on how one cannot train a person to become a writer. He said he “…never had any formal creative-writing training and it is very comforting to know that many writers, too, did not…”  He revealed he acquired his skills through reading, through writing and revising, and through the guidance of knowledgeable and literary-minded people.

Part III contained selections from his published works. Included in the selection were six readings from his non-fiction works and three readings from his works of fiction. Some of the selections include “My Home Town”, “Lagos lifestyle”, “Obama & King’s Prophecy”, “The Forbidden Fruit”, “A Tale of Two Betrayals” and others.

Part IV contains the reviews & commentaries on his non-fiction and fiction works. Part V contains the appendices section where most of the reviews can be read in full. It also features critical reviews of his works and his own reflections on Nigerian literature.

Usaman’s style is unique and different from any other autobiography. He cited a lot of writers and prominent people. Which shows that Usman is a vast reader and this is a challenge and motivation to people that they do not need to be taught to be a creative writer but they can improve themselves through wide and constant self-improvements.

The Africa Centre in Southwark was abuzz with excitement on Sunday, July 28, 2024, as renowned authors Michael Afenfia and Chimeka Garricks captivated an enthusiastic audience during a special book reading event. Organised by Paperworth Books and hosted by Bukola Akinyemi, the event was a resounding success, drawing literature enthusiasts from across London.

The occasion featured readings from Leave My Bones in Saskatoon by Michael Afenfia and Tomorrow Died Yesterday by Chimeka Garricks, offering attendees a unique opportunity to engage with the authors and gain insights into their creative processes. Both authors also discussed their contributions to the anthology Covik One Nine, edited by Ibiso Graham-Douglas.

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“We are thrilled with the turnout, the positive response from the audience, and the vibrant engagement,” said Ibiso Graham-Douglas, Founder and Publishing Director at Paperworth Books. “Events like these are vital for celebrating and promoting African literature on a global stage, and we are grateful to everyone who attended and supported this initiative.”

The Africa Centre provided a vibrant and welcoming atmosphere, perfectly complementing the engaging and thought-provoking readings. Attendees had the chance to meet the authors, purchase signed copies of their books, and enjoy a lively discussion about the themes and inspirations behind their works.

In this chat withEdozie Udeze,Abike Dabiri-Erewa of the Diaspora Commission states how literature, music and theatre can be used to disseminate information on brain drain, migration and all. She spoke in Abuja during the occasion of the premiere of a documentary film on brain drain.

Part of what the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has been working on is how to use documentary films based on genuine information to steady and control migration and brain drain all over the world. Also, Abike Dabiri-Erewa of the Diaspora Commission believes that when properly packaged with enough instructive education in it, a documentary film on brain drain or migration can be of help to those who wish or plan to migrate to other climes. These issues and other reasons for brain drain or migration which has suddenly become an issue reared their heads recently in Abuja. It was the occasion of the premiere of a documentary film on brain drain titled brain drain (the documentary) It was shown at the United Nations House in Abuja and Abike Dabiri-Erewa who was one of the guests at the occasion spoke to The Nation on the essence of the film and what her. Commission has done ever since to help Nigerian Diaspora who needed her assistance.

“This is a documentary on brain drain. And we all know how it is in the country today; how the brain drain situation is affecting the country”, Abike stated “This tells you also about Nigerians who have gone abroad and are doing well. So the documentary dwells on those Nigerians who have left to different parts of the world and have found their professional rhythm. But that is not all. They are passionate about their country. We are not saying they should come home. They can also invest in Nigeria from wherever they are. Wherever you are, for instance, let us have a connection. The good thing is that the love  they have for Nigeria has not faded”, she said.

At the Diaspora Commission according to Abike it is the responsibility of the Commission to ask for a platform. “We feel we can have that platform for the necessary connection. We have been working with them; talking with them for it is our duty to do so”. There are situations where these Nigerians have begun to invest in the ICT, in food business, in health sector and so on. The idea is to have more Nigerians in the Diaspora who are willing to invest their expertise in the country. That way too, there is technology transfer from Nigerians who have migrated to other climes back to Nigeria.

Abike put it this way “What we need do is to doctor it, structure it and see how far this system, how far this development can go to help us all”. In terms of how to get authentic information to help those who are migrating not to fall into wrong hands, she said “that calls for conversation which we will start with Immigration, Labour, Interior, Foreign Affairs and some other agencies directly or indirectly connected with how to help migrants migrate without let or hindrance”.

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This multi-agency collaboration between the ministries in this regard is what is needed urgently in order to avoid a situation where a migrant travels out and becomes a refugee in a foreign land. There are situations where, based on wrong information of the availability of jobs and so on, people arrived foreign lands only to be stranded. Such cases abound everywhere in the developed world. That is what the Diaspora Commission, alongside other agencies and the International Organization for Migration promise to work on for the good of all migrants all over the world.

The film handled some of these sensitive issues well. But it is still too early to say. More needs to be done in the area of information dissemination which will also direct people where there are jobs. Laurent de Boeck of IOM believes there are skilled and unskilled jobs here and there. All people need to do is to ask for information from the authentic agencies to get it right.

“Yes, it is all about awareness. In this regard, Nigerian music, theatre, and all can be used to preach this gospel. Nigerian literature and arts can also be used to pass the necessary information. But in all, we must celebrate ourselves wherever we may be. We are the best people in the world. Anywhere I find myself, I am proud to be called a Nigerian. There is something very strong and special in us as Nigerians. These are what we need to work on, hold on to, and then celebrate ourselves at all times”.   

Denja Abdullahi writes on the sentiments that guide and propel literary prizes world over.

Most literary prizes on offer today tend to be awarded on the basis of some (a times written) set of culture-specific criteria. Some however operate with undisclosed, even suspect criteria and motive. So often, prizes tend to have strings attached, perhaps the more prestigious the longer and tighter the strings.”

Saleh Abdu (2017)

The above assertion was made by Prof . Saleh Abdu in his keynote speech at the 37th International Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors(ANA) held in Makurdi, Benue State under the theme “ Canons, Prizes and Boundaries: African Writers and African Writings in World Literature.” This statement sums up the fact that behind any given literary prize, be it the Nobel Prize, Ako Caine Prize, Commonwealth Prize, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, NLNG Prize and even the ANA Prizes, there is always an underlying and overriding ideology or a principle of inclusion or exclusion. And as in Chinua Achebe’s words “no story is innocent,”  so also no literary prize is innocent of a certified bias or the other whether stated or inferred. Those who set up a literary prize have their reason(s) for doing so, they sometimes declare all or some of those reasons at the beginning but there is often no guarantee that those stated reasons are adhered to as the administration of the prize progresses. More often than not ,literary Prizes come with its expected or predetermined role playing by those who enter for them and the institutions set up to govern those prizes ; especially when the prizes are prestigious ones in terms of visibility and prize sum. Literary prizes in our world today have become powerful agents of literary canonization so much so that we now have an untoward situation of writers writing for literary prizes or playing extra-textual or extra-literary politics to gain literary fame. This is so, because it is  like  it is only those writers who win one prize or the other or who get involved in one literary controversy or the other that become famous and known as writers. Could this be the reason that in this part of our world, writers introduced themselves or are usually introduced with the appellation “award-winning” ?

 Let us start from the unarguably biggest literary prize in the world in terms of its great canonical propensity and prize sum, the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel bouquet of Prizes were instituted in 1901 as willed by the Swedish dynamite inventor and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel to be given to “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in the areas of physics,   chemistry, ,physiology or medicine, literature and peace. Since the beginning of the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature till date  ,it has had its fair share of controversies surrounding the secrecy behind its administration, its politics , the exclusion of some notable writers of the world from the prize over the years, its so-called fixation to awarding more European writers than those from other continents of the world and its penchant for garlanding obscure writers and their works. A few days ago , the Norwegian author, Jon Fosse, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”  The relatively obscurity of the winning author , at least to many other parts of the literary world, brought to the fore again the perception in some circles that the Nobel Prize is largely Eurocentric and often awarded to “relatively unknown but undeniably consequential writers” in the words of Okey Ndibe.

 When the Nobel Prize came to Africa in 1986, the winner Wole Soyinka was (is) a widely known writer ,both in Africa and in the world , so the tag of  the Nobel being given to an unknown writer did not stick with him but what rankled in some circles was that another very famous writer should at least have been awarded the first Nobel Prize to come to Africa; that writer was Chinua Achebe, often given the honorific as the “father of modern African literature.”  The literary accomplishment of Wole Soyinka meriting the Nobel was never in doubt but not a few people doubted the politics of the awarding institution itself as it was seen to have favoured the works of a writer that is not obviously anti-western as against an Achebe, though equally meriting the prize, but may not have been given because of his trenchantly anti-west literary rhetoric and politics. The Nobel Prize for Literature and its reception in African literature by its award to four other Africans since Wole Soyinka(1986) to Abdulrazaq Gurnah (2021),has thrown up the subtle but immense power of the literary prize in the canonization of certain kinds of writers and literatures. But there are many other notable, popular and accomplished writers in Africa and beyond that are yet to win the prize. Sifting deeper into unearthing the disclosed and undisclosed criteria for adjudging a writer as deserving of the Nobel Prize will ultimately reveal the politics of the prize itself and why some writers will win it and why others may never.

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 The other literary Prize or the range of literary prizes in our focus in this piece are the Association of  Nigerian Authors(ANA) Prizes, which came into being as soon as the association was established in 1981. The Association’s objective for instituting its literary prizes across all genres is without doubt developmental. ANA Prizes ,right from inception, have a developmental philosophy governing them. ANA Prizes were instituted originally to announce new writers and new voices into the public space; it is to sort of groom talents for later literary greatness. In the early years of ANA , there was a primer for the award of the prizes, developed by Lynn Chukwura and others,  containing the criteria for the adjudication of the prizes  and their justifications.  This primer was always given to the selected judges each year of the award of prizes as guidelines. I was directly  part of the Prizes administration for ANA for the years I was General Secretary (2005- 2009) and President (2015-2019) and I can vouch for the rigorousness and transparency of the procedures. Basically ,judges, about five, are chosen basically on the strength of their expertise across selected genres(mainly teachers of literature in Nigerian Universities) and they read the books independently, form their  opinions on winning entries after sifting through the whole pile(of 200 texts or a little below) and meet once to compare notes and harmonise positions. I have sat on a number of those final meeting of the judges and I was often amazed at the coincidences of their choices of exceptional texts and even when they did differ slightly, they argued it out objectively and arrived at a  consensus. There were few times when the judges tried to seek my opinions but I always declined as I was not charged with their task and I would not want my views to influence theirs. That was the procedure for the award of ANA prizes during my watch but I would not know what happened before my time and afterwards.   A study and review of the history of ANA prizes will reveal that many who won the prizes years back later went on to win other glamorous literary prizes at home and abroad; sometimes with the same books or with other books. ANA prizes were designed to build confidence in writers and boost their literary careers.  The ANA Prizes may have lost their shine today, firstly with their abandonment by past endowers such as CADBURY, Chevron, NDDC, Literamed, Spectrum, etc due to a myriad of economic reasons , secondly with the coming of mega prizes such as NLNG Prize, Caine Prize and the now rested Etisalat prize and thirdly with receding monetary value of the Prizes due to inflation. I was at the head of a team instituted by ANA in the past to review the Prizes and suggest possible ways of overhauling them. The team recommended the streamlining of the prizes, knocking off those that have outlived their usefulness and those whose administration have become difficult due to sponsors’ disinterest and fatigue. These recommendations were upheld and implemented and ANA now has even more new Prizes such as the Chinua Achebe Prize for Fiction being managed  amid the general problems besetting literary prize administration in the country. The obvious bias of ANA Prizes is that of its being attuned to midwife new writers, new voices and younger writers into the literary firmament. This is often manifested in a winning work of a younger writer in a head to head race with that of an older  writer and more established writer preferred and crowned.At other times , qualitative mere manuscript in a tight race with a published work in the same competition is also preferred by the judges.  Those who go about with the tale of  unholy behind the scene maneuverings surrounding ANA Prizes with regards to undue interference may just be “mouthing old wives’ tales” without any iota of fact. The only bias that may attend the ANA prizes is the literary biases of the judges and these are often mediated with that of other judges in the team.  

Another popular prize that has similar developmental objective as that of ANA Prizes is the Ako Caine Prize, formerly called Caine Prize for Africa Writings.   The prize is known to have midwifed many new literary talents in Africa to global reckoning of some sorts. Buchi Emecheta at the 2002 ANA International Convention which held in Asaba ,Delta State , told a bemused audience at a writers’ workshop on how a palm oil-stained script of Helon Habila’s short story “Waiting for an Angel” did not deter the judges ( she was one)from awarding him the 2001 prize because of the literary merit of the piece. We all know it was that prize that grew the literary career of Helon Habila to where it is today. Many other young African writers came to prominence via winning the Caine Prize. But the snag is why should a prize for African writings be established and administered outside the continent? This question became imperative at a point in the history of the Prize when it started breeding “poverty porn” literature about Africa as alleged by some critics. It was like to win the Caine Prize, you just have to set your story in a refugee camp and imbue your characters with all the indices and characteristics of a dystopian Africa and viola, the Caine Prize may be yours! The poverty porn genre, seen to be promoted by the Caine Prize,  was pummeled relentlessly by its critics until things started taking a new turn towards  “extroverted” and “diasporian positioning” of African literature by mainly Nigerian and African writers living in the West ,as posited by E.E. Sule.  It is apparent that at some point in the life of the Caine Prize, the dictum of he who pays the piper dictates the tune predominated and may still be relevant to the Ako Caine Prize and other prizes of that nature set up for a people and administered and controlled by others.

It came as no surprise that when the NLNG’s Nigeria Prize for literature was to be established in 2004, ANA as the only body with the expertise for literary prize administration in Nigeria as at then was consulted. ANA formed the bulk of the few experts who helped set up the prize and the primer for ANA prizes then was adopted and extended to establish the Nigeria Prize for Literature.  A lot has happened to the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature since then with its many controversies such as the initial confusion whether it was a prize for literature or publishing; the dissention between the gas company and the literary community in the administration of the prize; the exclusion of Nigerian writers living in the diaspora from the Prize; the initial  privileging of writers from the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria(the operation base of the gas company) or Niger Delta themed books as winners; the rather paltry prize sum compared to the huge amount spent on prize administration; the invitation of a “writer-killer” , General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida  to headline a literary prize award ceremony; the overextended stay of alleged old-school and literarily outdated scholars as members of the Advisory Board for the Prize; the secrecy surrounding the identity of the prize judges and the privileging of only persons from the academia appointed as judges for the prize. These and many other controversies NLNG has responded positively to, leaving some lingering issues still to be addressed. The total integrity of the prize in terms of the selection of winners is still in doubt. It is like NLNG there are still some hidden hands, hidden considerations and unwritten rules that determine who wins the prize in a particular year. There have been cases when in some years , the winning works , were seen as not better the others on the shortlist or even on the long list. There were years when the judges declared that no work was deserving of winning when actually the reading community held to the contrary. There are presently front burning issues regarding the Nigeria Prize for Literature such as the actual relevance of appointing an international consultant to make the final decision on a prize that is called Nigeria Prize for Literature. There is a subtle implication to the final determination of the winner of the prize by this arrangement which may not be obvious except analyzed against peculiar years of the prize award. There is the issue of the availability of the winning works pre and post award of the Prize. Many of the prize winning books are never found on the shelves before their wins and hardly afterwards. That shows that many writers write for and package their works mainly for the Prize and those works hardly travel much after they win. Of what canonical weight is the Prize when no one reads , performs or stage the wining works? Is it the fault of the writer, the book industry, the NLNG or the society at large? The most insistent issue right now being bandies in the literary community about the NLNG Prize is the winner-takes-all policy. In a competition where the three works that make the short list are often strong enough in  their individual capacity to win the Prize if not for the decision that a winner must emerge, that is often arrived at through subjective prism, why must the other two works not be rewarded in some ways for having come that far? Literature is unlike science, it is never precise but govern by subjectivities. A princely sum of $100,000(one hundred thousand dollars) cannot just go alone to a work which another set of competent judges for the same books on the shortlist may declare as not good enough to win. NLNG should rethink that aspect and find a way to compensate the works on the long list and shortlist. They must take cognizance of their operating environment and do much more to assist the literary community beyond just coming each year to revel in the glamour of literature.  The Nigeria Prize for Literature is not the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded for a lifetime career of writing and heaping too much money on a single text while neglecting other equal deserving texts on line will ultimately be counter-productive.

 Literary prizes as highly as they may come advertised as enablement of literary development or as salubrious to the career or writers and the health of the literary industry must be properly interrogated to reveal their positive or negative underbellies. Without doubt, literary prizes are powerful agencies for forming the canon, whether locally or globally, and can spring a writer or text unto hitherto unfathomed prominence, but we must look beyond them to discover other kinds of texts or writers that are necessary for cultivating wholesome literary taste. Literary Prizes have their politics, biases, intentions and objectives. Each Prize should therefore be approached within their peculiarity and context.  In a case like the Nobel Prize for Literature  over which Africa and the third world countries cry about its eurocentrism, Africa  or the black race can establish its own Prize in the magnitude of the Nobel with which its own literatures in both indigenous and colonial languages can be celebrated and awarded. Other regions and literatures of the world being excluded by the Nobel as presently constituted can establish their own similar prizes. If you do not want to be judged by other people’s parameters and paradigms then you must set up yours. If we do not want others to dictate to us the kind of stories we tell or the kind of stories we read, as literary Prizes are modeled to do today, then we must set up our own homegrown literary prizes that will project the multiplicity of our literary productions and worldviews to the wider world.

Olatunbosun Taofeek is first and foremost  a consummate writer, author and playwright. He is also a university don,literary scholar and instructor. He has so many publications to his credit especially plays where he has written quite a lot. Taofeek made the longlist of the Nigeria Literature Prize this year. His play was considered one of the best eleven out of the multitude of works that entered for the award. In this interview with Edozie Udeze he highlights the whole essence of literature what stands for in human life and what the longlist and more mean to him.

Literature is usually considered a way of life. As a literature teacher of many years, what are those elements that help you to impact this effectively to your students?

Literature is scientific before being spiritual. It is philosophical, psychological and political. It is a multidimensional as well as multifaceted discipline among all other disciplines. If I could have my way everyone who intends to be lettered in any form needs a strong dosage of Literature to be a complete man. Do you know who is a complete man or woman? Someone who has at least 30% of all life’s disposition. I am coining this from dramaturgy where we have someone known as the complete man of the theatre.  The complete man can discuss averagely on any subject because of his intellectual sagacity. A thoroughly bred literary scholar knows the modus operandi of life, the flux, the exchanges and the exigencies of the world. Thus, “we” are not being moved by anything happening around us, for they are just the same things coming in different ways.

Literature is too rich and deep to be studied as a discipline. Perhaps, I call it the faculty of all-knowing.  My greatest happiness is to have met literature in my lifetime. If I have the next opportunity to be in life, I would go for Literature. Let me start by telling you about one strange poem I have read in my lifetime by Edwin Robinson titled, “Richard Cory”. All through the poem, Richard Cory is a good man, quiet and loving. Everyone wants to be like him. They love him so much thinking he is everything, “And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—/And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine, we thought that he was everything/To make us wish that we were in his place.” but one day the same man of amiable character goes home and put a bullet through his head.” The question is, “What goes wrong with Richard Cory? Up till today, I am yet to know what goes wrong with Richard Cory to warrant his suicide. That is Literature. Except for the very best and most intelligent critic, no one can tell what goes wrong with Cory. For those who really understand, Literature is forensic, it is psychiatric and sociological at the level of interpretation(s).

Similarly, why would Okonkwo commit suicide in Things Fall Apart? This is a political question that many professors of Political Science may not be able to answer. These are the kinds of response attempts we make in literature. A wide, weird, whole discipline. The element that helps me in impacting is that I don’t take sides in arguments, indifferent. Everything that can not be scientifically proven, factuality, should be treated as a myth and suspension of human realities. No character, no one, is infallible. Life is too transient and short to be taken seriously. I don’t teach morals or immorality; I only teach life. Reading more is the benchmark for civility. These are the precipices upon which I lay my conversations.

Drama and Prose seem to dominate literary discourses most time. What then is the state of poetry both in the academic and social lives of the people?

Well, poetry is the eldest among the three. Although, it has been bastardized by recent poetic proselytizers who call themselves poets. In the real sense of literariness, poets are rated higher than a novelist or a dramatist. However, it is getting different. Unfortunately, in the Shakespearean days and the Miltonic times, your lines must be above board for them to be regarded as poetry. You know in poetry, if your lines have aesthetical pleasure, we call it beautiful; if it is unforgettable then they haunt the readers throughout their existence; they could carry the rhythm holding a heartfelt imagery that is soulful because of the condensed nature of the lines that are captivating and thought-provoking. This usually makes those lines not bound by era or time. For we can call poetic lines tranquil harmonious enigma. So, drama and prose are younger brothers to poetry. I think this generation favours prose because it is a lazy generation that doesn’t want to task the human faculty.  In my hierarchy of literariness, poetry comes before drama and drama before prose. A good drama should have poetic lines and good prose should have poetic words.

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Tell us elaborately what place the Nigerian Literature Prize has in your life as a writer.

Many writers who have won the Nigerian Literature Prizes have not lived up to expectations. Thus, it makes the prize look like a Ponzi scheme. Of course, it looks like a Ponzi scheme because 90% of the winners have been retired permanently through this prize or they were accidentally called off from the field of writing due to the money. To be frank with you, I am not a prize writer. I think one of the reasons I started writing was that I wanted to immortalize myself. I do know of great writers who have lived and survived more than a century without a prize attached to their careers. And there are a lot of writers with prizes all over them and they are already a shadow of yesterday among the global readers. A critical case study is T.S Eliot and George Orwell. In their lifetime T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Orwell never won anything. But guess? T.S Eliot has already been retired to the Department of English while Orwell soars every now and then from political science to anthropology, etc. Animal Farm is unforgettable; 1984 with the Big Brother concept is unimaginable. But please, if you are not an English student can you mention Eliot with any sense of belonging?  That is the difference between writing for prizes and writing for writing’s sake. I would prefer to be with the Orwellian than to be with the Eliots in canonization.

You made the longlist of the prize for Drama this year. What salient issues is your play addressing?

The judges referred to my play, Where is Patient Zero? “…as one of the finest plays on international politics of disease that threatens the existence of humans and the economy.” This actually is the hallmark of the play.

You moved from radio broadcasting to the ivory towers as a lecturer, how has the transformation helped you to find your rhythm?

That’s a great question. Finding my rhythm is a great effort and the theory surrounding my combination of some sort. In fact, in my Ph.D. final defense, this was what my external examiner said when he met me in person, “You speak better than you write. So, eloquent!” I even had a problem with one Professor on the panel. His problem with me was that I was too relaxed and talked as if I was not there for a defense. The secret was the rhythm I brought into the defense conversation. The rhythm was a combination of “literature” and rhetoric. On the radio, you need to be more relaxed to have meaningful conversations. Don’t try to stage-manage conversation, if you do you are likely to make it artificial and boring. Just rely more on your residual knowledge than you make a great conversation of anybody or topic. In most of my writing, my characters are great talkers. They can talk you to start thinking about what you won’t want to think.  Plato uses the same technique in his conversations style. In public speaking as a lecturer I was able to win a trophy for my former university at the University of Ife. It was a public speaking contest across Nigerian Tertiary Schools. I came first with my student Olaoluwa Ayorinde.  It was simple for me: employ literary metaphors to captivate them while computing it with good public speaking etiquette. Thus, my characters are always philosophical because their successes lie in their conversations rather than their actions.

What is happening to ANA, Lagos at the moment?

ANA Lagos is there! I am a member and I still belong to other writing organizations.

What next now that you have reached this apogee in your literary voyage?

I don’t think I have reached my apogee. I just started because the sky is the starting point. I pray for long life and good health, there are many more miles…I have caught the spirit of writing, I would be its slave. And in the midst of several writers, I shall create my space.

The judges of the 2023 James Currey Prize for African Literature have announced the shortlist of five finalists selected from the initial longlist of 11, earlier unveiled on August 10, 2023.

A release signed by the head of the 7-man jury, Henry Akubuiro, gave the shortlist in no particular order as: Bolga by Bus by A.G. Agambila (Ghana), Akala by William Ifeanyi Moore (Nigeria), Legend of a Beach House by Peter Ngila Njeri (Kenya), Black Fractures in Exile by Limpho Sechele (South Africa), A Dangerous Job for a Woman by Patricia Brickhill (Zimbabwe).

“The winner of the 2023 James Currey Prize for African Literature will be announced at the African Literature Festival taking place in Oxford, UK, 1-3 September, 2023,” stated Akubuiro, the journalist-writer, who is assisted in the jury by Nneoma Otuegbe, Tatiana Cassiano, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, Javier Gutierrez Lozano, Debbie Edwards, and Masande Ntshanga.

Giving hint of the contents of the five finalists, the jury explained: In Bolga by Bus, A.G. Agambila takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride from Tema in Ghana’s Greater Accra Region to Bolga in Northern Ghana, through the keen eyes of a teenager, Musah, told with a thrilling, descriptive power and a touch of history, with a whiff of epicurean culture. It is a journey of self-discovery, cultural immersion and self-sacrifice, signposting a holistic approach to human trafficking in contemporary Africa.

Akala by William Ifeanyi Moore is a surrealist fiction, replete with allusions, predicated on the historical intercourse between the West and Africa, set in a culturally thriving pre-colonial Nigerian society with an established code of conducts, justice system and social mores. It’s an exhilarating work exploring tragic destinies and liminal spaces with idiosyncratic idioms, against the backdrop of an emasculating war that leaves a trail of irredeemable, individual and collective casualties.

Legend of a Beach House by Peter Ngila Njeri is a haunting story  with a looping plot and a futuristic flavour, using the Beach House as a metaphor for human contradictions and soul searching. It flags deceptions and religiosity while exploring the schisms between sinners and “saints”. In re-examining the mysteries of life, it offers a deep insight into man’s nebulous, aerial  borders, as the author manages an intricate time warp.

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Limpho Sechele’s Black Fractures in Exile is a titillating read with snatches of longing and benumbing despair. At the heart of the narrative is unrequited love and lingering, tortuous pains that go with heartbreak. It’s a work that questions youthful exuberance, especially how carelessness could take the wind off the sail of a vibrant lover. Sechele takes more than a cursory look at human chemistry, burrowing into emotions and catharsis.

A Dangerous Job for a Woman by Patricia Brickhill is a cappuccino detective story, told with humour and a dollop of social commentary. It follows a female ZRP detective who gets wind of a crime about to be committed, trailing the suspect around Zimbabwe and to Mozambique, where matters come to a head, setting the tone for an engrossing ending.

The James Currey Prize for African Literature is sponsored by the James Currey Society, Oxford, UK, founded by the Nigerian filmmaker and writer, Onyeka Nwelue.

Photos in this order: tragic destinies and liminal spaces with idiosyncratic idioms, against the backdrop of an emasculating war that leaves a trail of irredeemable, individual and collective casualties.

Legend of a Beach House by Peter Ngila Njeri is a haunting story  with a looping plot and a futuristic flavour, using the Beach House as a metaphor for human contradictions and soul searching. It flags deceptions and religiosity while exploring the schisms between sinners and “saints”. In re-examining the mysteries of life, it offers a deep insight into man’s nebulous, aerial  borders, as the author manages an intricate time warp.

Limpho Sechele’s Black Fractures in Exile is a titillating read with snatches of longing and benumbing despair. At the heart of the narrative is unrequited love and lingering, tortuous pains that go with heartbreak. It’s a work that questions youthful exuberance, especially how carelessness could take the wind off the sail of a vibrant lover. Sechele takes more than a cursory look at human chemistry, burrowing into emotions and catharsis.

A Dangerous Job for a Woman by Patricia Brickhill is a cappuccino detective story, told with humour and a dollop of social commentary. It follows a female ZRP detective who gets wind of a crime about to be committed, trailing the suspect around Zimbabwe and to Mozambique, where matters come to a head, setting the tone for an engrossing ending.

The James Currey Prize for African Literature is sponsored by the James Currey Society, Oxford, UK, founded by the Nigerian filmmaker and writer, Onyeka Nwelue.