Tag: Udenta O. Udenta

By Wole Adedoyin

The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has officially announced Professor Udenta O. Udenta as the Keynote Speaker for its forthcoming 44th Annual International Convention. The event, which remains the biggest continental annual literary gathering, will hold from Thursday, October 30th to Sunday, November 2nd, 2025.

This year’s convention theme is “The Nigerian Writer and the Urgencies of the Nation-State.”

In a press statement signed by the General Secretary of ANA, Dame Joan Oji the choice of Udenta was described as deliberate and timely, considering his outstanding contributions to literature, cultural studies, public policy, and civil rights advocacy in Nigeria and beyond. His keynote address is expected to set the tone for critical engagements at the convention.

He is a renowned scholar of African and comparative literature, cultural studies, and aesthetic theory. He currently serves as Professor of Cultural Studies and Creative Writing as well as the Director General of the African Writers Institute, Abuja. His wealth of academic, literary, and policy experience places him among Nigeria’s most distinguished intellectuals.

Rising to prominence as a Senior Research Fellow in African Studies and Senior Lecturer at the School of Humanities, Abia State University, Uturu in 1996, Udenta’s career has been marked by rigorous scholarship and international exposure. Between 2001 and 2008, he undertook specialized training across institutions in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States, where he gained expertise in early warning conflict indicators, restorative justice, alternative dispute resolution, and post-conflict reconstruction strategies.

A prolific writer, he has authored and edited over 21 books and presented more than 100 scholarly papers at national and international fora. His works include groundbreaking studies such as “Crisis of Theory in Contemporary Nigerian Literature and the Possibilities of New Materialist Direction”, “Revolutionary Aesthetics and the African Literary Process”, and “Heroism and Critical Consciousness in African Literature.” His six-volume collection of fiction, drama, poetry, philosophy, and cultural essays underscores his versatility as a creative and intellectual powerhouse.

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Beyond academia, Udenta has served as Director of Strategy and Communications at the Centre for Alternative Policy Perspectives and Strategy (CAPPS) and as a Distinguished Fellow of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought. He has also consulted for global development and policy institutions such as the World Bank, DFID, UNDP, EU Nigeria Mission, and USAID on democracy, culture, conflict mitigation, and capacity building.

A committed democrat and civil rights activist, he played a leading role during the resistance against General Sani Abacha’s military dictatorship. As a member of the Eastern Mandate Union (EMU) and the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), he endured several arrests and detentions for his pro-democracy stance. His resilience culminated in his release in 1998 after the death of General Abacha, after which he became the National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) during Nigeria’s return to civilian rule.

His influence has also been global. with him addressing major institutions in Washington DC, including the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), International Republican Institute (IRI), International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), and the National Democratic Institute (NDI). These platforms enabled him to share insights on democracy, leadership, and policy at international levels.

The Association of Nigerian Authors has assured that the 44th convention will be an intellectually stimulating event, bringing together writers, scholars, cultural workers, and stakeholders from across Nigeria and Africa. With him delivering the keynote, the literary community eagerly anticipates robust discussions on the intersection of literature, national crises, and the role of the writer in shaping the future of the nation-state.

Professor Udenta O. Udenta is a literary scholar, author and human rights activist. He is known to have one of the richest and best stocked private libraries in Nigeria. A visit to his house in Abuja reveals this as reported by Paul Liam

Today, the 12 January 2025, a group of young literary critics had a robust discussion with the erudite scholar and renowned democracy and good governance activist Professor Udenta O. Udenta at his Guzape residence in Abuja. The conversation focused on strengthening critical culture, organising the voices of the emerging critics, and the formation of a collective of young critical thinkers who will engage and represent the collective vision of their generation’s literary outputs. He offered to serve as a motherboard to facilitate the realisation of the vision.

 He also shared with the young critics his inspiring journey as a scholar and public intellectual who, at an early age, fell in love with letters and scholarship. At 21 or 22, he said he had already registered his presence as an emerging literary scholar. He knew even at that young age that scholarship and literary theorisation was his stronghold. He said that there is no age that is too young to assert itself. He encouraged the critics to be bold in expressing their ideas and confronting the status quo or ideas of the older generation. He frowned at some young critics’ desire to be validated by the older generation, stating that the only validation they need is that of their own generation.

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He also expressed a strong need to encourage young female critics and expressed disappointment at the fact that only male critics were present. He said it is imperative to support young women in literary criticism. Of course, the critics had a filled day discussing various literary ideas, theories, and trends in contemporary Nigerian literature. Umar Abubakar Sidi’s novel, The Incredible Dreams of Garba Dakaskus, received scathing critique from most of the critics for failing to impress with its language and falling short of the critics’ expectations of a novel. This critic opined that majority of readers of the novel have misread it and disagreed with the positions of the other critics and attempted to establish the strength of the novel and why it should not be read solely from a socialist literary perspectives. The others were vehement in upholding their positions about the novel. This critic informed them that he is doing an analysis of the novel to debunk the misreadings and subjective responses it has received.

It was a heated engagement. The group discussed several other things, such as the dominance of grief motifs in contemporary poetry. A charge ascribed to Carl Terver. They also talked about Deborah, the young girl that was killed in Sokoto for alleged blasphemy by some Islamic fanatics and how her death inspired poets to write poems in her honour. Michael Isangedighi Imossan’s poem titled “Deborah” in her honour was also a subject of the conversation. Some of the critics expressed sadness over her murder as well as disappointment with how she failed to recognise peculiarities of her environment, thereby subjecting herself to untimely death. The death of Harira was also a subject of reflection by Carl and Imossan. Several other things were also discussed by the group, some this writer couldn’t remember.

There was also a lot of eating and drinking. Prof. gave copies of his critical works and a collection of poems to the critics. It was truly a hearty conversation that enriched everyone present. Prof’s humility stood out as the critics kept noticing and remarking about it to themselves. The group agreed to meet again soon and to develop a strategy that will lead to the establishment of a solid literary movement for the new generation. The collective is, by the way, for only critics.