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  • Nigerian writers ready for creative economy

    Nigerian writers ready for creative economy

    As the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) gets set for this year’s annual convention in Abuja with the theme: Nigerian Writers and the Creative Economy, Edozie Udeze takes a look at what is at state and what writers have to do to key into the mood of the moment.

    Most artists have come to accept the creation of the Ministry of the Creative Economy by the federal government as one of the fastest and surest ways to boost the art and culture sector. Overtime, artists have begun to nurse renewed hopes, hinging their aspirations upon the fact that the nomenclature is meant for good. But beyond the nomenclature itself and beyond the nuances of the creation of the Federal Ministry of Creative Economy, what is the real and proper direction of this exercise? Is it an exercise in futility?

    And should artists key in to ensure that this new creation works? How can they gain from it in practical and real terms? This and more formed the reason the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has themed its international convention this year as Nigerian Writer and the Creative Economy. But how does the creative economy work? Or is it only a propaganda? In this regard some writers have expressed their joys over the theme while some others insisted that government has to put a few structures in place for the creative economy ideals to function well. “Artists have to first of all understand their place and role in this whole matter”, a young and aspiring writer said with a nod of the head.

    So as Nigerian writers get set to bubble over the theme and find plausible ways to key into this creation, let them also impress it upon the government to start henceforth to open up series of grants for writers. Abroad, where the creative industry is well respected and allowed to function, bubble and prosper and then create jobs for stakeholders, arrangements are made regularly to give series of grants to writers. The grants assist artists in producing more works, works that zero into the core nuances of the society. Works that portray certain economic values of the people. Indeed, works that convey meanings and dig deep into the fabrics of a society be they good or bad.

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    Some of these works dwell on aspects of everlasting literary legacies and values while some others are done into films and cultural promotion for the good of the people. It is as well as that; artists residency programmes are put in place with government and the private sector and some well-meaning individuals providing conducive environments for writers to stay and work and produce remarkable works. The residencies are normally situated in different locations of the country. This is one of the ways to encourage creative economy to creatively function. It is not a mere paper work or creating high sounding words for which the Nigerian society is known. It is not also copying something from abroad without applying the principles wholeheartedly. This time around government and those concerned must be seriously proactive.

    That is why Akan Essien, chairman of Akwa Ibom State chapter of ANA put it this way: “What does an average Nigerian creative writer know about creative economy?

    Is it the peanut earnings he or she gets from creative works that are heavily pirated at every corner of our society? Unless the phrase creative economy is beyond what the creative writer experiences in our clime, the unbundling of this theme will be akin to pouring of water on a fowl’s body”.

    But in a way of balancing the argument and setting the record straight, Mallam Denja Abdullahi, a former president of ANA said “The theme of the forthcoming ANA Convention is apt and auspicious because the writer today has to locate his or her place in the burgeoning discourse and played-up emphasis on the creative economy. The creative economy also called the orange economy is the hub of wealth and job creation all over the world. Those in the music, film, design and fashion industry have started reaping from the positive manifestations of the creative economy.

    The writer seems to be left behind and the policy makers have not properly located the place of the writer in the creative economy. Incidentally, like in the publishing industry, the writer is at the fountain of the ecosystem of the creative economy. The writer operates in the realm of conceptualization and verbalization that gives birth to all other aspects of the creative economy. Film, music, comedy, theatre, skits, content creation etc are all about words first before they are processed into what become those art forms. Writing is also resilient and can continue to generate wealth and income many years after it is first produced. The writer today is displaced, unsupported, materially shortchanged by publishers and others who live on his creativity.

    The writer must be properly situated within the creative economy, rewarded and protected in order to sustain his creativity”.

    Therefore this statement makes a clear case for ANA as writers gather at Mpape, Abuja, the headquarters of ANA as from October 31st to square up with the theme and find practical ways to gain from the creative economy

  • Nigerian writers mourn Pius Adesanmi

    The community of Nigerian writers, scholars and journalists yesterday expressed sadness over the sudden death of Prof. Pius Adesanmi. He was aboard the Ethiopia Airlines Airbus 737 MAX 8 that crashed in Addis Ababa.

    A statement by the author of the Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Lives, Lola Shoneyin, on behalf of the writers’ community said he was en route Nairobi as a participant at the ECOSOCC Meeting organised by the African Union.

    The late Adesanmi was born in Isanlu, in Yagba East Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria.

    He took a BA (First Class Honours) from  the University of Ilorin in 1992, then a Masters in French from the University of Ibadan in 1998, and a PhD in French Studies from the University of British Columbia in 2002.

    From 2002 to 2005 he was Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, USA.

    Adesanmi joined Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada in 2006 as a Professor of Literature and African studies. He was previously a Fellow of the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA) from 1993 to 1997, as well as of the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) in 1998 and 2000.

    A poet and essayist, Prof. Adesanmi, who is survived by a wife and two daughters, was a public  intellectual without peer. He was active on social media where he flagellated the Nigerian ruling class with well thought out interventions, amassing a huge following in the process.

    For many years, Adesanmi maintained a regular column for Premium Times and Sahara Reporters. His writings were often satirical, focusing on the absurd in the Nigerian social and political space. His targets often included politicians, pastors, and other relevant public figures. He spoke truth without fear or favour.

    An award winning author, he was a highly sought after speaker and facilitator whose expertise and breadth of knowledge was a delight to all who had the pleasure of hearing him speak.

    In 2015, he gave a TED talk titled “Africa Is The Forward That The World Needs To Face.”

     

     

     

  • Young Nigerian writers shaping the world

    In the past few years, the literary scene in Nigeria has been kept afloat and agog with vibrant young Nigerian writers who have been winning awards, prizes and grants and residencies to square it against their counterparts in other climes. Edozie Udeze writes on these authors, their story-telling patterns, their effusive recourse to details, prizes and awards so far won, and lots more.

    They are called the new Nigerian writers.  Their ages range between seventeen to thirty-five years and they have chosen to give the Nigerian literary scene the concerted attention it deserves.  In the past five years or so, these young literary eggheads who are scattered here and there in the world, have been writing, winning awards and prizes and seriously committed to ensuring that Nigerian literature does not wane or flicker or abate.

    Whenever the idea of Nigerian literature is mentioned these days, attention is no longer focused exclusively on the older ones and those who have been there for a while.  As these young and vibrant writers seek out burning issues to write on, their total concentration centre around culture and tradition, those social sensitive issues that define the whole essence of a people.  In Anthropology, for instance, it is called piercing the old ideas of the people to reconstruct their life styles, pattern of habits or mode of settlement and lots more.  These are what constitute Nigerian literature of today, helping to expand quite impressively the realities of the country’s social processes.  In this way, these writers have been deep-neck in exploring the dynamism of social and cultural issues from women’s rights and feminism, to Boko Haram; migration, racism, tribal jingoism, dwelling more extensively on post-war and post-colonial identities and so on.  Literature is once more alive and expanding.

    This crop of writers emerged due mainly to fill the yearning gap between the people and their persistent expectations and the need to see the current society through the keen eye of literature.  They tell these stories vividly.  They reflect a society in dire need of progress, a society where issues of varied hue and cry becloud the whole essence of civilization, growth, development, sincerity, love for one another and more.  Even though their names and styles vary from topicality to manner of approach, these contemporary writers and story tellers have brought form and vibrancy to the Nigerian literary scene.  They have captured the world; they have equally raised the tempo and standard on thematic themes of abuse, class, violence, sex, beauty, avarice and hate.  This way, literature is gradually coming closer to the people, to those whose interest in reading these works have now been sharpened by the availability of these works and the issues they portray.  It is a new era indeed.

    This is not however a platform to look at the distinctiveness or otherwise of these stories or who the tellers are.  What matters most is that the concept of story-telling , this age-long tradition has not ebbed.  These writers have indeed set out on their individual journeys to create the concept of new generation Nigerian writers, seizing every bit of space, every available opportunity in time and tradition to freely tackle burning subject-matters across Nigeria, Africa and the world.

    Some of these writers include Chigozie Obioma, Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Tolu Akinyemi, Anietie Isong, Ayobami Adebayo, Arinze Ifeakandu.  Others are Chikodili Emelumadu, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Akwaeke Emezi, Chibundu Onuzo, Rasaq Malik Gbolahan, Saddiq Dzukogi, Romeo Oriogun, Kechi Nomu, Jowhor Ile, Kelechi Njoku and many others.

    Romeo Oriogun won the Brunel International African Poetry Prize in 2017.  A prize that quickly put him on literary map of those whose deep poetic offerings define the society, Oriogun currently is working on more literary offerings.

    Born in Umuahia, Abia State, Akwaeke Emezi, a writer, filmmaker and video artist writes in a vivid style.  Widely known as Chimamanda Adichie’s protege, Emezi is also being represented by Sarah Chalfant, Adichie’s literary agent.  She is, in fact, an alumnus of Adichie’s prestigious Farafina workshop, done periodically to help aspiring young writers.  Emezi’s autobiographical novel, Freshwater in 2017 and Winter in 2018 have been acclaimed as two classical works of art.  Freshwater has already been selected as one of the best books of Winter/Spring 2018.  It was also included in The Guardian Best Books of 2017 as well as Elle Magazine’s best books for winter 2018.  In addition, her short film titled, Ududeagu won the Audience Award for the Best Short Experimental film at the 2014 Black-star Film Festival.  To cap it all, in 2017, her short story titled Who Is Like God, won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa.  For now, she is working on new ideas for more books.

    Tolu Akinyemi, although born and raised in Ondo, now lives in England where he devotes most of his time to quality writings.  He began as a poet in 2009.  In 2013 he released his first collection titled Your Father Walks Like a Crab, dwelling on the many hyperbolic tendencies of life.  His writings have since appeared in remarkable anthologies world-over.  Two of such works are Verses From The Sun and A Way With Words.  For now, he has crossed over to writing short stories and plays.  In The Big Society, a didactic play on socio-political tendencies, written for The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust in London, Akinyemi showed impressive approach to problems.  This was why the play was staged at The Greenwich-Lewisham Young People’s Theatre in London.  In subsequent moments, he was named among the Nigerian writers’ Award list of 100 Most Influential Nigerian Writers under 40.  In 2017 he won The Poetry Writer of the year and thus reaffirmed his strong hold on the muse.

    Chigozie Obioma suddenly metamorphosed into the literary scene in 2015.  Termed the young Chinua Achebe, he is currently an Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.  His first novel – The Fishermen, basically set in Igbo-land of his birth was published by the Prestigious Little, Brown and Company and was shortlisted for The Booker Prize in 2015.  Thus, he became at 28 one of the youngest to make that list and with a debut offering.  In 2015 also he was named as one of the 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine.  Even then, a short version of the Fishermen and a poem, The Road to The Country appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, this is in addition to several short stories, poems and essays he has written to further entrench his ideals in the literary firmament of the world.  He has yet more to offer.

    Anietie Isong is popularly known for his powerful poems and short stories anchored around Nigeria’s immediate environment and problems.  He set out as a broadcaster with the Radio Nigeria, Lagos and later worked with Metro FM as its main scriptwriter.  He also worked with Shell Petroleum as a speech writer before delving into copious writing.  He has won the prestigious MUSON Poetry Award with his work titled These Many Rivers.  He equally got the Commonwealth Story Award for his Diary of an ECOMOG Soldier.  In addition, he garnered the inaugural Olaudah Equiano Prize for Fiction.  Equiano was the first liberated slave from the shores of Igboland to pen down his sojourn into slavery in the Western world.

    Ijeoma Umebinguo is a poet, thoroughly schooled in the art of poetry rendition.  In 2016, she was named as one of the Sub-Saharan Africa’s greatest contemporary poets.  So far, her poems and short stories have been published in various magazines and reviews across the world particularly in The Stockholm review of Literature, The Wildness, The Rising Phoenix Review and The MacGuffin.  As it is, her works have been translated into Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Spanish and French.  Her works hover around live, passion, her own personal journey into life.  For every of her works, she breeds power, succour, opulence and more.

    Arinze Ifeakandu also began as an alumnus of Adichie’s Farafina workshop in Lagos.  At 22, his work was shortlisted for the Caine Prize as its youngest ever author.  The work is titled God’s Children Are Little Broken Things.   One of those young authors to be published by Brittle Paper Publishers, he began as an editor for his university journal, The Muse, where he took time out to pen down series of short stories, poems and non-friction.  His most outstanding non-fiction, the New City, an exploration of the city of Kano in Northern Nigeria which is also his personal memoir, became a turning point in his writing career.  It was titled What it Means to Feel Adrift.  It was also published by Brittle Paper.  He has been shortlisted once for the BN Poetry Prize in 2015.  BN Poetry prize is given to those whose works have created the desired impact and made the necessary inroads in the society.

    Lesley Nneka Arimah is a foremost story-teller who focuses on the lives of girls and women in the society.  She loves short stories told to expose and explore profound issues.  In her debut work – What it Means When A Man Falls From the Sky – a collection of short stories – she delved into the social life of the girl-child.  This collection made the final list of the Kirkus Literary prize.  This earned her grants and awards from different quarters and institutions.  In 2016, she made the shortlist of the Caine Prize for African writing.  This also enabled her to participate in the Caine Prize Workshop in Tanzania in 2017.  Earlier in 2015, her exciting story titled Light won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa Region.  Glory, another fantastic story of hers won the 2017 O. Henry Literature Prize.  To date, her works have appeared in The New Yorker, Harpers and other notable and well-acclaimed world publications, journals and reviews.

    Ayobami Adebayo is indeed a big star in the horizon.  With her debut work titled Stay With Me, published in 2017 by Canongate Books, she made the shortlist for the 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.  The novel does not only explore feminism, it dwells on new ways to enhance relationships.  The New York Times once described her as “Writing not just with extraordinary grace, but with genuine wisdom about love and loss and the possibility of redemption.  She has therefore written a powerfully magnetic and heartbreaking book”.  She has for an all time record been a writer in residence at Ebedi Hills, Ledig House Omi, Hedgebrook, Sinthian Cultural Institute, Ox-Bow School of Art and more.  She was in 2013 also shortlisted for the Kwani Manuscript Project in Kenya.  A versatile writer and gifted story-teller, Adebayo is geared towards total feminism writing for the liberation of women.

    Chibundu Onuzo is a world-class writer.  Noted for her deep-rooted stories on her personal encounters over time, she has made headlines on the BBC, CNN and other equally big outlets world-over.  She began to write at 17, got her first agent at 18 and then signed a two-novel contract with the British Publishing House, Faber and Faber at 19.  This has made her the first ever youngest female author on their bill.  Her first book, well-received by the literati titled The Spider King’s Daughter released when she was 21 immediately grabbed the Betty Trask Award.  She was then shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize as well as the Commonwealth Book Prize.  She also made the Etisalat Prize for Literature thereafter where she was among the longlist.  Her second book was published in 2017 titled Welcome To Lagos.  The novel shows her ability to act as a flange, sort of an insider into the foyers of Lagos life; a place she holds with unwavering fondness, bitter-sweet memories.  She has a natural tendency to re-enact characters and make them breed and breathe and blossom into bigger images and phenomena.

    Chikodili Emelumadu is a writer, broadcaster and blogger.  She is known as the one who runs How to love Igbo Things, where she talks about Igbo culture, music, foods and where she pesters people about her growing up days in Nigeria and lots more.  Emelumadu debuted with a short story titled Bush Baby which was published in African Monsters.  In 2017, it was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing.  She has equally appeared in the Apex Magazine, and Sub-Q with her short story named Candy Girl.  In 2015 she was one of the Shirley Jackson nominees, a prize that puts a writer on an enviable pedestrian.  For now, she is working on her new book and lives in the UK with her family.

    On her part, Munachim Amah has won the Writivism Short story prize.  She is one of the young Nigerian writers firing from all cylinders from the Diaspora.  Her works depict and interrogate society at the crossroads of innocuous ideas and so on.  Also Jowhor Ile who has won the Etisalat Prize for Literature before, is a force to reckon with.  The 15,000 pounds literary prize shows Ile as a writer in the threshold of history.  There are other young Nigerian writers who are making waves at different levels in different parts of the world.

    In all, these writers have continued to set the pace in the contemporary literary world of Nigeria.  Their sheer clarity of purpose and lucidity of language help to confront issues across board and so on.

     

  • Nigerian writers are obsessed with the Caine Prize

    Nigerian writers are obsessed with the Caine Prize

    Since you won the Caine prize in 2010, what has been your preoccupation in the area of writing these past years?

    I won the prize in 2010 and I moved to Germany to join my partner who I have since married and I continue to write. I have done residencies and fellowships, published more short stories and essays in the United States, Europe, Kenya and South Africa. I have also judged the Miles Morland scholarship prize for two years running and written a Zimbabwean-German theater production Kuenda 2015, which will tour Germany this year. Right now, I live in the United States and I am trying, very slowly to write a novel.

    How long have you been into writing?

    I started writing in 2006.

    What do you think about the Caine prize?

    The Caine prize has grown. The winner of the 2013 Caine prize who grew up in the United States, Tope Folarin goes to far more festivals and book readings events than I did. The reach and the influence of the Caine prize have grown. I think it plays a very important role in the development of writers. That said Binya is right when he says that folks here in Nigeria are obsessed with the Caine prize.

    Why did you say that?

    There are Nigerian writers and commenters who seem to think you can win the prize by writing in a particular way.

    Many have criticised the Caine prize, whether it is an African prize, or Africans should be interested in the Caine prize. What is your take on that?

    Until someone in Lagos or in Nairobi or in Johannesburg is willing to put up ten thousand pounds for a literary prize that will be based in Africa. It’s fatuous to complain about the Caine prize.

    Do you think the location in which the Caine Prize is being awarded every year should remain?

    If the money comes from London, it should be in London. When the money comes from Lagos it can be in Lagos, when the money comes from Nairobi then it can be in Nairobi.

    What do you think about writers critiquing the Caine prize?

    They are entitled to their opinions and the process of reading and picking a winner is a subjective one.

    What kind of short stories will you like to read?

    Hmm, I want to read ground breaking stories that are innovative, curious and works that engage us. I find unfortunately that real deep imagination seem to be lacking in our stories. There are exceptions of course but as much as eighty-five percent of our stories that come out today, I have no time for.

    Including the ones in the Caine Prize shortlist?

    I think there are some good stories on the Caine Prize shortlist.

    Which do you consider the greatest African novel that has ever been written?

    I am going to say, controversially, Heart of Darkness, A bend in the river and J.M Coetzee’s Disgrace. But I’d also include The poor Christ of Bomba by Mongo Beti.

    What is your next novel about?

    The only thing I can say is that it is set in South Africa.

    You were once a journalist before you became a writer. What was the experience like?

    Yes. I was a freelance journalist in Kenya and South Africa.

    The experience was fine. I went to primary school in Nigeria.

    Was that why you are named Olufemi?

    I was given that name in Sierra Leone.

    Can you speak Yoruba?

    No I cannot.

    When did you leave Nigeria?

    I left Nigeria in 1987, but in  1982 I had been going to boarding school in England, so I was in Nigeria for only two or three months every year.

  • Towards a Nigerian writers’ series

    Towards a Nigerian writers’ series

    The naming theory, pristine but ever so elastic, has indicated that there are objects out there, waiting to be named.

    There could, in addition, be a retinue of concepts, orientation or convention, deserving linguistic attachment or association, for purposes of identification or classification. Either way, lexicon has gotten accustomed to linguistic coloration or attachment by adjectives, graphical details, noun or noun verbs such as “international”, “European”, or “American” to anything sublime, of value constellation or world view as to reduce any parallel, cress-culture association to mere image-boosting propaganda, ambitious avowals, speculative orientation or inferiority complex.

    Linguistic etymology espouses the intrinsic or extrinsic connotation deriving from location, or the culture, in situ. The dynamism in language ensures that symbols, which can be environment or generation-specific, are concomitantly irrepressible, are open to trespass and/or cannot be quarantined. English language especially enjoys motivation or attraction from French or Latin, yet many French or German words do derive their translations in their near-English alternatives and vice-versa.

    In one word, linguistic symbolism is interwoven without necessarily engendering sociological incompetence or culture surrogacy.

    There always seem to be some form of in-built existential nihilism, or epochal grandstanding when linguistic attachment is meant to impact, to leverage, to adapt or to influence development or heeded change. Yet, it is to some form of credit that the modern world, having refused to remain on the same spot, has continued to deploy intellectual ups-winging albeit, within decorum.

    The association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), tagged its November 2013 convention in Akure, Ondo State. “The 32nd International Convention of Associaltion of Nigeria Authors”, because, according to its President, Professor Remi Raji, the time has come to enlist Nigerian writers in the diaspora, into ANA and to establish a Nigerian Writers’ Series, while the African Writers’ series is not destroyed or annihilated,

    As is embellishing ANA’s new impetus, the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Humanities Chair, Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Series Edition of Rochester Studies in African History and The Diaspora, as well as Series of Carolina Studies on Africa and Black World, Profession Toyin Falola, in bhis Convention keynote address disclosed that Yorubas, for example, carried their pathogenic creativities with them to the diaspora, consequent upon the transatlantic slave trade.

    Indeed, towards the second quarter of the 15th century, the King of England had begun dispatching emissaries to hitherto unknown parts of the world. One of them, Christopher Columbus, arrived Nigeria in 1472, one decade before similar gestures were extended to America by Britain. Almost immediately afterwards, however, the trans-atlantics slave trade, which ravaged many coastal parts of Africa, began and officially lasted till 1773, when Abraham Lincoln legislated against it. They are the survivors of this trade, who constituted the first generation of Africans and/or Nigerians in the diaspora, their black skin, their natural response stimuli, their costume and worship mode, giving them out. In progression, they acquired the western form of formal education.

    The second group consisted of recruited, able-bodied Africans who fought the world wars but decided to stay back, their transborder trading, artisanship-driven professionals, stowaways, etc counterparts who crossed carnivorous Sudan, Libyan or Algerian desert, or the island or Lampedusa; relocated to other parts of the world.

    The third group, perhaps the most vulnerable, the most lugubrious, consists of highly educated Nigerians, the “Brother Andrews” of this world who have obtained their degrees at home, are in the worlds of Barrack Obama, “simply expelled out of the country” for lack of employment. It is to mediate the foreignness, to showcase and protect the Nigerianness in the literary exegetes amongst them that ANA is internationalizing its programmes. Already, according to its re-elected President, Professor Remi Raji, ANA has branches in other countries in the West-African sub-region. ANA also intends to begin a Nigerian Series, very soon.

    From immemorial, authorship has always influenced development in many areas. Socrate’s school of philosophy that around 300 B.C midwived empirically-based discipleship in Logic, Physics, Ethics, Geography, Mathematics, Meteorology etc. pitched against Monarchy and gods which Monarchy worshiped in Macedonia” For a long time, it went under.

    However, the Lutheran Movement against Episcopal hypocrisy and the convocation of writers, authors and other categories free thinkers in refugee city of Antwerp in Belgium. In the 16th Century went 1.800 years back to non-fiction authorship that activated the European revolution. That revolution, has today remained unreserved such that since the 1998 Kyoto Convention the entire world has continued to pleas that the western world mediate tropical deforestation and reduce the industrial emission that characterizes the ozone layer.

    Another convention speaker, Engr. Moses Idowu, observed that Nigerian writers of today perhaps shy away from non-African fiction authorship that requires fact-finding and meticulous assemblage of dad. Additionally, perhaps because non-fiction writers require ability to say the truth and stand by it, the generation of people like Tai Solarin, Gani Fawehinmi, Kanmi Isola Osobu, Bade Onimode, Prof Mr Mrs Edwin Madunagu, Teacher Amachri, etc is fast disappearing. In this perspective, Guest Lecturer, Toyin Falola, regretted that the frustration in the Nigerian writers resides in the continuous recycling of societal ills which writers have been writing against for a very long time.

    By the end of the Convention, ANA’s new impetus’ seemed to tilt towards non-fiction, target-audience, attitude changing, development-directed authorship, as against culture-bound fairy tales, mendacious love stories and others that tend to divert the people from the harsh realities of the day-to-day existence.

    ANA recognises efforts by sister or ancillary Art Associations promoting categories of art works and may partner authorship of publication that promise ascertainable percentaul payback. To aid book dale, Nigerian authors are to employ simple, interactive, transactional languages, as against highfaluting, wall-destroying grammar that usually attracts head nods or mere familial handshakes after narrow-casting to small but customarily scholastic audiences.

    ANA signposts India, a fellow British colony, where publishing has been a catalyst. India ranks amongst the top seven publishing nations of the world, Self-publishing private house, exclusively devoted to academic articles, research results or technological breakthroughs in academic journals are being continuous accredited since 1998. She leads the world in pharmaceutical products; she’s the second, largest world’s cotton producer, after U.S.A, and the second in the world’s total farm output. In India, there are seconds of third generation families who live or have lived exclusively on proceeds of book writing.

  • Telling their own stories

    Telling their own stories

    Edozie Udeze writes on a new generation of Nigerian writers who have been winning laurels and telling the stories of their people in ways that keep astounding the literary world

    In the past one year, young Nigerian writers have been dominating world literary firmament with their brilliant prose fictions and poetry. These writers seem to be in tune with the observation of Ray Bradbury, a renowned critic and author who once said that “if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must then write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next…”

    This observation by Bradbury sounded right in the thinking of Tope Folarin who last year became the 14th author to win the prestigious Caine Prize for African writing. Folarin, a Nigerian resident in the United States of America was one of the four Nigerians who made the shortlist for the 2013 edition. His short story – Miracle, was considered the best in this 10,000 pounds literary prize.

    Gus Casely-Hayford, chair of the judges, described Miracle as another superb Caine Prize winner – a delightful and beautifully-paced narrative that is exquisitely observed and utterly compelling.” He also described the works of three other Nigerian shortlisted authors, namely El-Nathan John, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim and Chinelo Okparanta as truly compelling, transcending boundaries and barriers.” Miracale is the story of life; the story of a pastor and his congregation who took the story of the wonders of God from Africa to America.

    Chibundo Onuzo, a Nigerian resident in England, was born in 1991. Before she graduated in History at King’s College, London, last year, she had already made name as the youngest African writer to make the shortlist of the prestigious Dylan Thomas Literature Prize. Her novel, The Spider King’s Daughter, was adjudged a wonderful tale hovering between the rich and the poor and set in Nigeria’s most populous city of Lagos.

    Last year too, Onuzo won the Betty Task Book Award. Besides that, she made the Commonwealth Book prize list and was also longlisted for the Desmond Eliot prize for young writers. The story, in the reckoning of critics, depicts the pretentious lifestyle of most rich people in Nigeria; a place where affluence and poverty exist hand-in-hand to belie the true condition of most people. Onuzo raised several salient issues where the gap between the rich and poor keeps widening and corruption has taken the centre-stage in all facets of people’s lives.

    Onuzo is among the new generation Nigerian writers who have refused to lose grip with their primary sources. She believes that the story that catches world attention comes from the writer’s cradle. “This is where we come from and we need to keep telling the world who we are and what we stand for. Our stories have to be told by us to show the way we feel and see things.”

    Taiye Selasi who wrote the book Ghana Must Go was born in London to Nigerian and Ghanaian parents. Apart from being a photographer, a screen-writer and television presenter, she has chosen to be a full-time fiction writer. She graduated summa cum laude from Yale University. Ghana Must Go, her first novel, is a book that has been rated one of the best in 2013 by the Washington Post and other literary journals across the globe.

    Selasi whose title is named after the Nigerian phrase directed at fleeing Ghanaian refugees during the political and economic crisis of the 1980s, was also voted a promising young writer by the Magazine of New writing Editor. She has told the story of a family torn apart with glittering poetic command. It is the story of Kwesi Sai, a Ghanaian surgeon who suddenly falls dead. As a renowned surgeon, he couldn’t succeed as a husband and a breadwinner. Even though his sudden death stunned his people, the story opened up more cans of worms.

    In reacting to some of the sentiments trailing her work, Selasi said: “Oh yes, I’m very willing to follow my imagination.” Told to reflect two different societies and cultures, the book has familiar elements of both Nigerian and Ghanaian peoples. Using flashbacks to remind readers that people are basically the same all over the world, Selasi succeeds in dissecting the two worlds. There is a lot of crying in the book because the author writes with deep emotional outburst and conviction. The novel is full of ironies of life where one can safely conclude that even in the household of the rich, lack of wisdom can easily cause misery and agony.

    Another Nigerian writer making waves in the literary world is Yewande Omotosho whose novel, Bomboy, has received wide range reviews in literary circles since last year. Yewande, daughter of Nigeria’s literary guru and novelist, Professor Kole Omotosho, is an Architect by training but says she prefers writing because it gives her the kind of bliss and fulfillment no other career can give her. She also says she loves writing about multicultural characters and issues because they portray most the images and messages she has for her readers.

    A naturalised South African, and born in 1989, Omotosho is in constant touch with her roots from where she gets some of her sources. Once, she confessed that to be an artist is like being a hustler. For her, a writer is ever restless, sitting all day penning down his critical observations of what the world does and what the people commit themselves to day-in-day-out.

    A South African critic took a critical look at the book and described it as a “well-crafted and complex narrative written with a sensitive understanding of both the smallness and magnitude of a single life.” It is a book meant to re-examine salient family issues that tend to tear the people to pieces. Omotosho has been traversing the world with her book, doing public readings and sensitising the public on the cogent issues she raised in the book.

    In her work entitled Daughters Who Walk This Path, Canada-based Nigerian novelist, Yejide Kilanko, has been able to open new frontiers about the coming of age of certain traditions in Ibadan land. When the book was released last year, Toronto Star, one of Canada’s most respected newspapers, quickly drew world attention to it through its expository and remarkable review. Part of that review says: “This is a book that will make you laugh and cry, while you travel along with the author to her cradle.” Also the National Post, another Canadian daily with critical literary eye for the best described it as “a sophisticated and beautiful work. It is indeed a story that is universal and many women around the world can relate to it.”

    Kilanko, who lives with her family in Ontario, Canada, tells the story of Murayo in modern day Ibadan. Murayo has just come of age in a society where child abuse is rampant and where no one seems to be interested in the girl-child’s welfare. Kilanko draws people into this alcove; into this abuse and then she uses profound narrative writing skill to point out ways where government and individuals can come in to save the situation. A moving story, the primary thrust is a web of oppression in which Murayo is deeply and intricately involved. It is a deliberate tale to draw attention to what young women suffer in a male-dominated society.

    Tade Ipadeola, a lawyer and poet who won the NLNG Nigeria Literature prize last year, was born at Fiditi, Oyo State, in 1970. His winning work, The Sahara Testament, beat other 201 entries to clinch the coveted prize. The Nigeria Literature prize is one of the most prestigious in the world today. With the prize money now as high as 100,000 dollars, Nigerian writers have been made to raise their writing acumen and standard in order to be good enough for the prize.

    No doubt, his collection of poetry is remarkable in its blending of elements from two traditions of the epic. It is broad and sweep of the narrative and the intellectual rigour of the philosophical, with the haunting immediacy of the personal lyric. It is a work that transcends all corners of Africa, telling the poetic stories of its peoples from Cairo, to Cape Town, from Lagos to Dakar.

    There are other writers who are constantly in the news. They include Chuma Nwokolo, A. Igoni Barrett, Chimeka Garik and many more. Above all, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has made the most strides among her peers. Currently, she is the most sung Nigerian writer whose works have continued to generate world attention. Having been voted one of the best ten authors for 2013 with her book, Americanah, both by the New York Times and the BBC, Adichie’s moment of glory is obviously here.

    As the world moves on in all spheres, more Nigerian writers keep doing the best they can to move with the tide of time. The stories, like Adichie often says, “have to be told in such a way that the world will see us as who we are.”

  • How Nigerian writers are shaping the nation

    How Nigerian writers are shaping the nation

    As Professor Toyin Falola, renowned historian and prolific author traced the developmental stages of Nigerian literature from 1914 to date during this year’s convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) which held in Akure, the Ondo State capital, he equally challenged Nigerian authors to do more to raise the tempo of intellectualism in the society. Edozie Udeze who attended the convention reports on this issue and others that preoccupied the authors for three days.

    In spite of the sluggishness which usually characterises almost all the yearly conventions of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), what stood out at this year’s edition held in Akure, the Ondo State capital was the quality of participation by members.

    Three of its former presidents in the persons of Professor Femi Osofisan, Dr. Wale Okediran and Odia Ofeimun who graced the convention from the beginning to the end showed how this year’s convention was topical to the Nigerian writers. With the theme as Literary Imaginations and Nation Building in Nigeria since 1914 and handled by Professor Toyin Falola, a historian and the vice-president of the International Scientific Committee of UNESCO on Slave Route Projects in Africa, Nigerian authors were taken down memory lane on the genesis and development of Literature in Nigeria.

    Falola, a professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin, USA, reminded authors that even though Nigeria in more ways than one was an imagination and invention of those for whom nation-building and development were hardly a priority, the Nigerian writer has never waivered in his audacious ability and resilience to constantly recreate the society where he has found himself. For the author, his primary calling is to write and remake the society.

    Even when people have been divided along religious, ethnic, political and social lines, what has been uppermost in the mind of the writer is to ensure that these indices of separateness do not debar him from looking at the issues at hand from the critical eyes of a writer. “Yes, colonialism created a bipolar world in which citizens and subjects were constituted as separate identities. In other words, tribes became authentic identities, with so-called particularities that ignored the normativity of nationalism…Nigerians also inherited most of those assumptions regarding the divisions of people into races, places, ethnicities and states”.

    Role of literature

    Even though the idea of the ethnic nations and the Nigeria nation emerged simultaneously, Falola reasoned that “Literature and performance have indeed responded to this dual identity thereby embracing and promoting fractional nationalism. But then, the nationalist project, identities and related notions and so on, have today become part of world literature and Nigeria has never been an exception.

    His contention was that while these poignant issues of divide along social issues predominated in Nigeria, nay Africa, some prominent writers emerged to champion and reshape the face of the society. When in 1952, Amos Tutuola published his famous the Palm-Wine Drinkard, marking a critical moment in the history of Yoruba and Nigerian literature, it became obvious that an era of literary awareness had set in. Now, conceived of as progressive and developmental, writers began in earnest to use poetry, prose and drama to dissect the many and diverse issues besetting the society.

    Beyond finding their voices in the face of mounting problems of poverty, colonialism, illiteracy, and more, writers formulated ideas on political, economic, social and other-related areas for proper commentaries. At this stage, various new poems and stories that related to the people began to capture the age. And they equally sought ways to express political position. “D. O. Fagunwa’s traditional fiction and Amos Tutuola’s six narratives then provided people with the necessary clues to the mix between politics, culture, tradition, modernity and notions of the mole of literature in shaping the society.

    Falola, known globally as Africa’s foremost historian in the Diaspora, opined that henceforth both Fagunwa and Tutuola created platforms for social and political discourses that finally set the stage for modern Nigerian literature. “Henceforth, writers became opposed to colonial domination, equating it with an evil king, the monarch who killed without reason, who took other people’s wives and who collected unjust amounts of toll and tributes. These writers equally proffered belief systems that supported equality, using the language of opportunity for all, encouraging mobility and aspirations. They were supporting agendas for solidarity and communal projects, to engineer changes and manage the institutions of modernity…”

    What authors should do

    Essentially, he challenged more writers to emerge with the same strength, voice, power, attitudes and potency displayed by the likes of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo and others to give total ideological direction to the people. To him, the responsibility of the writer is to give issues the attention they deserve and in a way to find the appropriate voice for the deprived and depraved. Writers, he said, should desist from following the footsteps of the oppressor who provided the enabling environment for ethnicity to thrive. Such writers, he noted, do not portend any good for anybody. “Texts should be used to generate progressive consciousness and progressive politics. Literary texts, most often, have to be used as expressions of power. This was how the colonised societies emerged from the status of the marginalised to that of empowered citizens. By this, they were able to create mass movements, especially in the cities to support decolonisation and make a strong case for the necessity of democracy.”

    With the presence of many established authors in the hall and the general acclaim given to him by the audience, Falola asked, “where then do we find ourselves today? Sure, we cannot put all the blame on politicians and the military. Intellectuals who preach one thing and do another must also take some responsibility. Words and actions do not get married and when they do, divorce should be expected, just as a socialist can turn a socialite.”

    He went on: “However, it is difficult to put much blame on the poverty of ideas. What I have pointed out, as a historian, is how each phase in the country’s history has been marked by the production of a large body of ideas, some of which found their ways to policies and many of which were discarded, ignored or shelved when they gathered dust.

    “And so, generally, there is no deficiency of, or limitation to, the literary imagination and the connection between that imagination and political and social realities which is deeply phenomenal. Writers have to critically connect texts and imaginations with policies and politics. Literary imaginations should continue to portray the political attitudes of the people; their feelings, their bent up emotions, quest for order and justice, the desire for social movements to produce a total revolutionary change in the society and lots more.”

    Expectedly, Falola’s lecture generated heated and intellectual reactions from writers. There was a consensus of opinion by many that time had come for authors to write and tackle issues that have direct impact on the people. “Writers have to brace up now,” was how Ikeogu Oke of Abuja ANA, put it. “And while we do so, we have to critically look at the quality of what we write so as to carry the people along.”

    Looking ahead

    Apart from the second paper on the role of children’s literature for the sake of continuity delivered by Camillus Ukah of Imo ANA, the overall concept of this year’s convention was to give a new and meaningful face to ANA and ensure that membership was taken seriously. “Henceforth”, said ANA president, Professor Remi Raji, “membership in terms of qualification to contest for elective positions have to be based on the quality of works one has produced.”

    Raji was irked, however, that a lot of members find more time for ANA politics than writing. “If you call yourself a writer, then be serious about it; sit down and write. It is what you’ve been able to produce that qualifies you to be an author ,” he said, noting, however, that “our writings should say who we are.”

    Another salient issue that also came up was the status of ANA plot of land in Abuja. In a press conference, Raji made it clear that although parts of the land have been encroached upon by some people, efforts are being made to build structures there. “Part of the land was given to the police, yet, we have decided to embark on the development of the remaining portions to avoid further encroachment,” he said.

    Raji, who, was re-elected for another term promised to take the association to an enviable level. “First, there’s no division in ANA EXCO. What we do now is to build more bridges, empower the association and run a transparent tenure. We need to grow in terms of quality of content and our commitment to the act of writing. This is our goal which we have decided to pursue to its logical conclusion.”

    The convention which began on the 7th of November and ended on the 10th and was hosted by the Ondo State government.

  • Exciting moment for Nigerian writers

    Exciting moment for Nigerian writers

    During the week, the advisory board of the Nigerian liquefied Natural Gas(NLNG), led by Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo, announced the shortlist of three names for this year’s Nigerian Literature Prize. The three poets are Tade Ipadeola, Chijioke Amu Nnadi and Promise Ogochukwu.

    Born in 1970 at Fiditi, Oyo State, Tade Ipadeola one of those short-listed, is a lawyer and a writer. His entry work, The Sahara Testaments, is a poetic satire on the generic problems besetting Nigerians. Tade who has chosen writing far and above his law profession finds fulfillment and satisfaction, in being a writer.

    He once said, “Once, before man conquered nature to the extent to which he now has, and before law and order took root in our rainforest society the way it now has, a tiny band of men settled on a nameless knoll, named the knoll, found themselves women, had children, died and got buried.

    The original expedition that came to rest on the knoll was typical in that it was called, in Yoruba, ajorin ( a wayfaring – or journeying –  band). It was foolish to travel alone in those days.”

    To him, poetry is a passion, a very beautiful way to look at the society and tell the world what it looks like. To close watchers of NLNG Literature Prize over the years, his work appears very critical and closer to the heart of the matter

    Ogochukwu Promise, who calls herself the girl next door, is a multi-award-winning writer. Her entry work, Wild Letters clearly distinguishes her among her peers. As she always says “I put to good use, my God-given talents.”

    This is more or less what she has brought to bear on her effort in this work which has seen her come this far. Her work is not only incisive, it is brilliant and well packaged.

    Besides poetry, she also writes fiction, nonfiction, motivational books and does abstract painting, all of which have earned her multiple awards and fellowships. She lives with her family in Lagos.

    Among the awards she has garnered are 1999 Cadbury Prize for poetry, 1999 Spectrum Prize for prose,2000  Okigbo Poetry Prize for Poetry in Africa, among others.

    Chijioke Amu-Nnadi is an old horse in the business of writing. A former staff of the Daily Times, Chijioke is known to be very witty, boisterous and punchy in his writings. His entry work entitled Through the Widow of Sandcastle is a bustling encounter with what the society looks like presently.

    Chijioke’s work pierces the heart of the matter and shows the world that the Nigerian society and beyond are ripe for change. From the title of his work, it is easier to glean through the heart of the writer and what must be done to set the necessary agenda to make the world a better place.

    On October 19, the whole suspense will be laid to rest when the final winner of this $100,000 literary award will be announced.

  • Four Nigerian writers among five shortlisted for 14th Caine Prize

    Nigeria yesterday made history as four of its writers were among the five shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African writing.

    It is the first time any country on the continent would have such a number on the prestigious literary shortlist. The prize started in 2000.

    The shortlist for the Caine Prize for African Writing – the 14th in the series – was announced yesterday.

    The Chair of judges, Gus Casely-Hayford said: “The shortlist was selected from 96 entries from 16 African countries. They are all outstanding African stories that were drawn from an extraordinary body of high quality submissions.

    “The five contrasting titles interrogate aspects of things that we might feel we know of Africa – violence, religion, corruption, family, community – but these are subjects that are deconstructed and beautifully remade. These are challenging, arresting, provocative stories of a continent and its descendants captured at a time of burgeoning change.”

    The winner of the £10,000 prize will be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England, on July 8.

    This year’s shortlist comprises entries by Elnathan John (Nigeria) with Bayan Layi, from Per Contra, Issue 25 (USA, 2012); Tope Folarin (Nigeria), with Miracle, from Transition, Issue 109 (Bloomington, 2012) ; Pede Hollist (Sierra Leone), with Foreign Aid, from Journal of Progressive Human Services, Vol. 23.3 (Philadelphia, 2012) ; Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria), with The Whispering Trees, from The Whispering Trees, published by Parrésia Publishers Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria), with America, from Granta, Issue 118 (London, 2012).

    A statement yesterday by the organisers said the stories will be available online “on our website, www.caineprize.com, and will be published with the 2013 workshop stories in our forthcoming anthology: A Memory This Size, in July by New Internationalist and seven co-publishers in Africa”.