Architect Chukwudi Eze graduated with triple-honours and a Phi-Beta-Kappa from Vassar College received the William Kinne Award during his master’s degree from Columbia University, New York and studied Creative Writing at the University of Toronto. He designed Obasanjo Presidential Library and was a design team member of the Enyimba City, Abia State. He is a member of Association of Nigerian Authors, the Canadian Authors Association and sits on the Advisory Board of Abuja Library Society. He has written five books; the most recent of which, The Return of Half-Something, was shortlisted for the 2018 ANA Literature Prize. Eze tells the captivating story of The Return of Half-Something in this interview with Deputy Bureau Chief, ONYEDI OJIABOR.
Congratulations for the short-listing of your latest book The Return of Half-Something for the 2018 Association of Nigerian Authors Literary Prize. How do you feel about it?
For one, I was surprised. Two, I’m humbled to be shortlisted for the prize out of the many books considered. It is a kind of peer review – the highest prize given by literary authorities in the written craft. As you know ANA was started by Chinua Achebe and other great minds of Nigeria’s literary body in the 1980s. It has grown to become the vehicle that encourages excellence among writers. I feel fulfilled and satisfied.
How do you describe your book, a fiction, a true life story or a biography?
Actually this is my fifth book. My books tend to be what I call factions; they are fictionalised facts. My books are an aggregation of different stories that happened to different individuals at different times and locations. They are brought together to create a brand new story using fictitious names.
One of the book reviewers said you have broken new grounds for African literature. What exactly did you do to break new grounds?
I think what he meant was that I had gone beyond the spatial constrictions that are prevalent in most modern African literatures, by reaching out into new frontiers of multi-culturalism and cosmopolitanism without losing my African rootedness. He believes that I’ve produced an African literature, solidly grounded in terms of its cultural context, the proverbs used and all of that, without losing its New York and western connectivity. You have this duality between the West and Africa, between the Jewish and Nigerian culture and so many things that gave it international perspective.
What is your take on the state of literature in Nigeria and by extension Africa?
The writing culture in Africa and in Nigeria especially is quite robust and there are a lot of brilliant works out there. Ironically, our reading culture does not match up with the kind of excellent works that are coming out of Nigeria and the continent. We need to encourage our young ones to read more. I submit to you that a lot of the problems we have with our political class is insufficient reading culture on strategic, security and global economic issues. Our readership culture can be enhanced with the building of public libraries where the young ones can have access to books they may not be able to afford as well as encouraging literary clubs like the Abuja Literary Society that is doing fantastic work with our youths.
Your book deals with complex themes: environment, racism, problems arising from inter-racial marriages and conflict between the modern and the old. How did you weave all these together?
I try to deal with contemporary issues. Right now the world is increasingly becoming a global village with universities that are becoming a melting pot, where students from different parts of the world find their spouses. As a consequence, we have an upsurge of inter-racial and inter-sectarian marriages and this is creating opportunities and problems. I give you an example. A few years ago in Canada, a Pakistani immigrant father, killed his wife and their daughter because his daughter was dating a Christian. It’s called “honour killing.” So you have this growing problem that is global in its reach, demanding for our collective responsible response. Then you have the next level of conflict arising from the children of such inter-racial and inter-sectarian marriages. It brings us to the title of the book: Half-Something, because Emmanuel was a half-cast. The book highlights these things and describes the challenges they produce as well as how the love between Emmanuel and Rebecca destroyed the artificial barriers that confronted them. And as the world increasingly witnesses more bi-cultural, bi-racial and bi-sectarian marriages, we’ll be compelled to look at the issues that they pose. Hopefully, this novel succeeded through creative plot lines to weave a successful point of view.
Are emerging issues of bi-racial marriages likely to change the world?
Absolutely! The growing rate of inter-racial, inter-sectarian and inter-cultural marriages across the globe enabled by growing human mobility is producing a new set of mankind who the book called humanoid. Even in Nigeria, we have many inter-tribal marriages. These people own the future as Emmanuel said in the book: “people that are defined as half-something own tomorrow.” An example is Tiger Wood whose maternal side comes from Asia (Chinese and Korea) with a father’s side of blacks and native American Indians now married to a white lady. So, you tell me, what is his children’s race if not humanoids or earthlings? The challenges that these things pose as their population grows are interesting.
Let us look at the title of your book, The Return of Half Something. The book was initially titled: The Return of the Native Son, because Emmanuel’s father came from Umuati, somewhere in West Africa and went to study in America in the 70s where he gave birth to Emmanuel.
The title The Return of Half-Something came as I went deeper into writing the book and realised that Emmanuel’s biracial, bi-cultural nature was central to the discourse in the book.
You also delved into ecological issues and the devastations caused to the ecosystem due to oil exploration and exploitation. What about that?
My book tried to address fundamental issues of concern regarding oil exploration and exploitation and their impact on the ecosystem. If you go to some places in Ogoni land and the Niger Delta, you will weep. There are parts that nothing can ever grow on the soil for the next 200 years because of the level of pollution.
Emmanuel likened the scene to Hiroshima’s eerie landscape where almost everything is still as the graveyard. The beautiful tapestry of green foliage is here
carpeted in dark canvass of crude oil. In that area, I was influenced by the excellent work being done by Bishop Matthew Kukah.
May be it is a function of government’s failure to do what is right?
Yes, yes, like Emmanuel said in the book, it is a consequence of the level of corruption that has eaten deep. Otherwise, there are very competent companies who are capable of exploration and exploitation of oil in a responsible way. So, we need to encourage those ones and we need to be responsive in our attitude to our ecosystem so that we can bequeath a descent environment to our children.
Your protagonist, Emmanuel is a biracial child struggling between two cultures but was rejected by both. How was this conflict resolved?
Emmanuel didn’t make himself a biracial child, the parents did. It is ironic that after suffering insults in New York, as a consequence of his bi-racial nature, some folks of Umuati refused to accept him as a full breed also and almost killed him. He refused to be defined by an external entity. He kept saying to anybody who cared to listen: “I’m Emmanuel, the son of Uchechi, grandson of Tochi and great grandson of Ebuka the great son of Umuati.” So, he kept affirming and reaffirming his rightful ownership to his ancestral space without apology to anyone. And it was that determination that is consistent with the kind of zeal we have in the part of West Africa where he comes from, which saw him through all the challenges that he confronted. Emmanuel was triumphant in the end.
Yes, because he came back ultimately as a king. Again, I must say this book is an advocacy too. I would advise that parents whose children are abroad or diaspora parents who want their children to return, should read this book because there are a lot of things there that they’re going to need to help them cope with the challenges that will arise. Emmanuel’s father did something that was excellent: he taught him the Umuati language from birth while in New York. That was what really helped him reconnected back with Africa. Because he could speak the language, his assimilation was easier. So, parents must make sure that they teach their children their local language.
Why did you choose this thrust?
This is because it is a fundamental problem. I have a friend from Anambra state who wanted to run for Senate. His mother is Irish and his father Igbo. You know, he couldn’t do something as fundamental as the breaking of the kola nut in Igbo language. That hurt him because he really wanted to be part of the political class. It is difficult to get elected in Igbo land without campaigning using the language with proverbs. My friend was frustrated that his father did not teach him their local language. Again, I didn’t just write for the sake of writing. I write for people to enjoy my work while learning new things.
Did you encounter any challenge in the course of this work?
Yes, the first challenge I encountered was that it took me six months to write the first four chapters and my friends in Toronto who are Nigerians advised me not to rush the book. So, I spent more time in research to give the book depth. At a point I realised that, although I had written four books without any kind of formal education, it was necessary for me to take a course in creative writing and learn the mechanics of the written craft. So, I registered in the University of Toronto where I studied creative writing. Of course, that took me to a new level of understanding because I now know the techniques that are necessary to do a better quality work.
What do you think readers will benefit from your book?
First, they’re going to find it an interesting read and secondly, they’ll learn a few important things. You won’t believe that there are some sentences that took me 30 minutes to craft. I write in prose and as an architect I bring my creative reflexes into my writing. While in architecture you build with bricks, in writing you build with words. But, in both cases, they must fit. There are architectonic issues of tonality, functionality, point of view, flow, context etc that I brought in to make my work a pleasure to behold, read and enjoy.
Finally who has shaped or influenced your writings?
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is clearly my earliest influence. Then, I had the persistent motivation by Odia Ofeimun to become more engaged with the written craft. Jenna Kalinsky, a professor of English in Toronto encouraged me with her wit and brilliance. I love Chimamanda Adichie’s doggedness and the path-finding niche she is creating on the global stage and representing our voices well. And then the big daddy of them all, is sharing a one-on-one personal conversation on writing with our mentor, Prof. Wole Soyinka. He is a colossus I’ve admired from my childhood.