Gbemisola Adeoti is a professor of English Language at the Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU) Ile-Ife, Osun State. He is also the director of the Institute of Cultural Studies of the same institution. In this encounter with Edozie Udeze, he bares his mind on the place of traditional literature in Nigeria and why fifty years after the death of D.O. Fagunwa who wrote in Yoruba language, his works are still relevant not only in Nigeria but across the globe. The conference on Fagunwa was organised by Fagunwa Study Group and the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), in Akure, Ondo State, last week
What does this conference on D.O. Fagunwa mean to you and to Nigerian Literature?
The conference is titled Fagunwa: Fifty Years After. It is basically a conference to commemorate the 50years of D.O. Fagunwa’s death. It is also an opportunity for scholars to come together and reflect on Fagunwa’s contribution not only to the indigenous language literature in Africa, but to African literature generally. D.O. Fagunwa was a pioneer writer who adopted the Yoruba language as his mode of communication. It wasn’t that he was not proficient in English. He was a teacher, a grade two teacher who then used the opportunity to travel to several parts of Africa. So, he was also exposed.
So, he wrote in Yoruba and was survived by five major novels. They include Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole, Igbo Eledumare, Ireke Onibudo, Irinkerindo Ninu Igbo Elegbede and Aditu Eledumare. Some of these works have been translated into English, at least four of them. Some also have been translated into French. So a pioneer writer like this deserves the honour and also further critical writing and studies on his contributions to African studies, African philosophies, African cultures and his reflections on literature, language and so on. This is why this conference is being organised by Fagunwa Study Group in collaboration with the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), also supported by the Ondo State government. So this is why we are holding it in Akure.
Ordinarily, Oke-Igbo, the hometown of the author , would have been ideal for it. But since the state government decided to host it, we have to be here for it. It is part of the state government’s contribution to the promotion of our culture. So that’s the major aim of our having to be here for the conference.
Your topic is on the Memorandum of Understanding or Misunderstanding Fagunwa and the Adaptations. What does this mean?
Well, my paper is looking at these works of Fagunwa that have been translated into English. Somebody has translated the Ireke Onibudo into French. But I am not literate in French. I have to limit myself to the four that have been translated into English. These include Forest of a Thousand Demons by Wole Soyinka, In the Forest of Olodumare by Wole Soyinka, Dapo Adeniyi’s Expedition to the Mount of Thought and Olu Obafemi’s The Mysteries of God which is the translation of Aditu Olodumare. I want to look at the works and see how a non-speaker of Yoruba will be able to understand the culture, the issues and so on that are being discussed in the translations. I identified the problems and the indigenous contributions of these people to the understanding of these issues. The translators are themselves writers and they are bringing to bear their own individual styles in the translation. So, I looked at it as translation by experimental and made my own evaluation as a literary scholar.
How does the story of Igbo-Olodumare of Oke-Igbo relate to the larger forest that is Nigeria today?
Well, the forest was just a screen for Fagunwa’s dissection of his contemporary society. He used it to make moral judgment and moral comment. Apart from entertaining, generating the necessary humour, the story is meant to impart morals on those who read the books. Don’t forget, he was a school teacher, and a Christian who grew up in the Bible tradition. He saw his writing as an extension of that moralising platform, a platform also offered by the church. In those forests, you have creatures like human beings, like comic, like trees that behave like human beings and so on. The inhabitants of those forests have human attributes. But the books also contain the laziness of some characters there and some of the issues you can find in our society these days. All these were represented in human and non-human elements and creatures so that people who read those works can stand back and look at what befalls those who radiate those excesses and learn from them.
So, Fagunwa as a writer made it; oh, this is the misfortune that would befall you if you do so and so in life, especially people who are greedy. Therefore, you need to avoid it and be of good conduct. These forests are jungles but are critical comments on our society. Don’t forget that the values being preached, the virtues being exposed are of universal essence. They are still relevant today. In fact, you get to some situations that remind you of the foolish people in Irinkerindo Ninu Igbo Elegbede, people whose values are upside-down. There, fathers prostrate to their children, wives send their husbands on an errand and so on. It is therefore a reversal of normal values in a society and that is what we are having in Nigeria today.
Then, what is the responsibility of a traditional literary writer in a society like ours today?
The problems we have today are getting bigger and bigger than the period under Fagunwa. When Fagunwa was writing, the colonialists were here. Then there was the hope that with independence, things would get better. Several years after, that has not been done; things have not got better. And so, the writer should dwell in that tradition, producing works not only to entertain people but to have clear, sharp commentaries on issues so that may be one day, somebody will learn one lesson or two from the book. Apart from that, I also think writers should look at the issue of directly engaging politics and make that difference in terms of their comments and so on.
It is now clear that social media has been affecting the standard of English among students. What is your comment on this?
The reality is there…But the thing about us from this part of the world is that we always want to borrow from the West, from Europe and so on. Rather than emphasising the values or merits of what we borrow, we use it to destroy. Often, we use such for our own retrogression. In the first place, even before the advent of social media, people were not learning the language very well. They did not have the passion for it. So now, social media has come out and they are still catching in on it to worsen the situation.
Whereas the social media, when properly applied, is supposed to aid the English Language; all we have now is the reverse. The students have to sit up and that’s the only way they can learn the English very well and speak it fluently.
Do you have conscious programmes in the universities to encourage students to show maximum interest in mother tongues?
Yeah. I think that is the essence of this conference. We need to start now to show the interest. People like Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and Fagunwa have shown that it is better to be proficient in your local language as a literary person. However, in the first year we have a course, an introduction to fiction. In the first year, I have insisted on teaching Fagunwa’s texts.
Thank God, we have more translations now. It is not as difficult now to teach his works. Every year, I would like to teach one of those texts, because this is the only opportunity to teach this sort of traditional writing which people have adopted. There are also other courses that equally encourage the interest in local language and literary appreciation. Even in drama, I also emphasis interest in local and traditional languages that can also lead to the development of drama. Yes, in our own little way, we try to do that, although the challenges are overwhelming by the day. But, we can’t resign to fate; we need to keep pushing because it is our duty to do so.
The level of reading culture has declined. What do you think can be done to redeem the situation?
The development has to start from the beginning. You do not develop reading habit from age twelve or so. It is what you cultivate from age four or five. I think the parents, the family and so on, owe it a duty to encourage their children to read. You can allow them to watch television, time them, but then there has to be time for reading. It is the duty of the father or the mother to draw such a time table to enable the children have time enough to read and still watch TV.
Reading therefore should be formalised, it should be a habit from the family and then we should also acquire books for them or encourage them to visit places where they can see and feel books. Children can also be encouraged to learn how to buy books by themselves. I think if we do that, we begin to make an impact. And it doesn’t have to be in English alone. There has to be books in indigenous languages too, to encourage them start from that level. You cannot be a better speaker of a foreign language when you are deficient in your mother-tongue.
