*Ofeimun kicks the Biafra dust
By Anote Ajeluorou
Preparatory to October 9 announcement of the final
shortlist of three writers for the $100,000 prize money of the LNG-sponsored
The Nigerian Prize for Literature, eight out of the initial 10 shortlisted
writers exhibited their credentials to the literary public last Sunday
at Freedom Park, Lagos, at the 4th
edition of CORA-oraginsed (Committee for Relevant Art) yeary Book Party.
Seven out of the 10 writers were in attendance. There were
Vincent Egbuson (Zhero), Tricia
Adaobi Nwaubani (I Do Not Come To You By Chance), Jude Dibia (Blackbird) and Ifeanyi Ajaegbo (Sarah House). Others were Lola Shoneyin (The Secret Lives of
Baba Segi’s Wives), Olusola Olugbesan (Only A Canvas) and elder writer and author of Eze Goes to School, Onuorah Nzekwu with his entry, Troubled Dust.
Two writers based abroad, Chika Unigwe (On Black Sister’s
Street) and Ngozi Achebe-Onaedo (The
Blacksmith’s Daughter), and Minna, Niger State-based Emmanual Agya aka E.E. Sule (Sterile
Sky) could not make it to the event
but sent their regrets. Although Olugbesan (Only
A Canvas) and Egbuson (Zhero) could not personally attend, they had
representatives. Egbuson’s publisher, Mr. Steve Shabba (kraft Books) stood in for him while
Olugbesan (who was reported indisposed) had
his wife Nike standing in for him as well. He even wrote a letter to
explain why was absent, while expressing fraternity with his fellow writers on
the shortlist.
In spite of these absences, it was a remarkable event and
each of the authors had a moment to share his or her writing ideas with the
audience.
THE full-house event also featured a mixed grill of performances. Opening the floor
before the literary fireworks was Oluwapelumi Baba (Pelumi Lawal), a theatre actor cum technician now a Yoruba
hiphop rap artist, who playfully strung words together in the late Da Green
style to thrill the audience.the performance at first appeared too lightweight for
the nature of the gathering. But CORA Programme Chair,
Jahman Anikulapo, contradicted those who would ordinarily not allow that sort
of performance in a highly cerebral event as a literary one. He said willingly
or not, such performances had since permeated society and was possibly defining
its taste; any attempt, therefore, to pretend that such performances have no place
or out-of-synch
or not in harmony with even an intellectual
gathering is like attempting
to wish away current reality in the shifting
cultural taste and expectations of the society.
He charged the culture community to see Freedom Park, a
former colonial prison now remodeled as a scenic park, as space for artists to
engage themselves and to use it as a space for free expression. "We must
claim this space of our past pains and dehumaning experiences for our free
cultural expression where we celebrate the civilising and humanising principles
of the arts," he said, urging greater patronage for the facility, which
supprted the Book Party project through generous discount.
South African author Kgebetli Moele (author of Room 207 and Book of the Dead), who had been in Nigeria to participate in the
Nigeria-South Africa Week, read an excerpt from Book of the Dead. But before reading his piece, Moele did not only
express his delight in coming to Nigeria, he said the cross-cultural visit had
been a period of enlightenment, saying, “What I have seen in Nigeria has
changed my perception about Nigerians; the way Nigerians live is really great”.
Again, Anikulapo called
for greater sharings and literary and cultural exchanges between the two
nations, saying "we have no choice; South Africa and Nigeria, aside having
their respective capitals -- Jo'Burg and Lagos - as the cultural and economy
hubs of the continent, remain the faces of Africa in the global cultural scene;
and if we do not work together, we will only waste the inherent advantage and
resources in such cooperation."
IN setting the tone for the conversation, CORA Secretary-Genera, Mr. Toyin Akinosho, noted, “Everyone knows that we
produce remarkably good books in our country. But we also know that we don’t
discuss them enough; we are not made aware enough. The soft infrastructure of
the book reading culture is not aggressively under construction. We at CORA
have always felt that books that make it to this level in such a major award
system as The Nigerian Prize for Literature ought to be known about in every
community in the country. Our ambition is to help that to happen; to extend the
star attraction of the award winner beyond the Gala Night of the award.
“We have always maintained that the award is an opportunity
for a series of events to really make the Book look cool; a series of book reading and
discussions in as many crannies of the country as possible as well as on TV
discussions and radio shows. Most book readings in the country happen with the
effort of the writers themselves. Our country should get past that; we should
develop a community of book readership enablers; organisations that exist just
to share in the joy of reading. Book readership promotion should go beyond big
showpieces as Bring Back the Book
campaigns. It should be about how we as citizens engage the organs of the book
development in our communities”.
The audience digested Akinosho's word with the dessert of a drama
performance featuring the duo of Toyin
Osinaike and Simi Hassan of One-Six Productions. The versatile actors performed a drama skit ‘Wot’s this all about?’ -- a pidgin
adaptation of South Africa's Apartheid-era iconic play, Woza Albert; it was wildly exhilarating and the audience loved
it.
Art for art's sake?
FOR some of the writers on
the hot seat on Sunday, messages in literary works seem secondary or all
together not important in the process of creativity. This drew a little unease
and a bit of disapproval from some members of
the audience for whom the notion of art
for art's sake seems
discomforting,
especially in a society facing dire challenges of development.
It was filmmaker and actor, Mr. Francis Onwuchie, who first
fired his objection to what appeared a tacit agreement on the part of some of
the writers that messages are of less value in a literary work.
With the exception of Egbuson, Nzekwu and Olugbesan, the
others maintained that their works essentially asked probing questions with a
view to eliciting understanding from situations and characters and that they
had not set out to send any messages, to preach or to moralise.
Shoneyin argued, “I don’t actually have a message from my
book. I wasn’t preaching; I’m just asking questions in my writing. I’m hoping
that my readers also ask questions while reading. You can take whatever you
like from it”.
For Ajaegbo (Sarah House), stories come in different ways; he said “I may not be able to do something to change the
objectification of women, but I may have awakened people to do something about
it. No; I didn’t set out to moralise, to preach; I just wrote the book”.
Also for Nwaubani (I Do Not Come To You By Chance), not many readers seem happy with the way she ended
her work because she ostensibly avoided preaching to potential 419-ers to keep
to the narrow and straight road. Nwaubani tasked experts in psychology and
other behavioural sciences to come up with a holistic study and understanding
of the why behind people’s behaviour.
“What we lack is the why of behaviour,” she noted. “What
engineers behaviour? It’s difficult for me to say ‘take this or that!’ I can’t
tell you what is good or bad about my writing. I just show what people do. I
just sneak things into my writing. I highlight the mindset that lead to things,
crime and what have you. Everybody should write what is in their minds”.
But publisher Shabba, who represented his author, Egbuson,
would not
accept the idea of writing merely to show that one could write; he believes
that literary art is too important to be so consigned to ‘showing’
without holding up a standard of behaviour worthy of emulation. So, he argued
on the things that endear him to taking up a manuscript to publish: “What is
the role of the individual in a society with so much corruption? What happened
to honest hard work? Should we back down from being good?
“There are two reasons why I publish books: the first is to
encourage writers and for the work to correct society; Zhero is one such book out to correct society. In spite of
the turbulence in the country, there is hope for Nigeria if only Nigerians can
read Zhero”.
As a writer, Dibia (Blackbird) stated, “Mine is to find out how one person does one
thing and another person does another thing. A work is open to different
interpretations. I only hope to ask different questions. In society, there are
questions being asked; questions ought to be asked on how things are. We try to
interrogate ourselves when writing and that is very challenging. We try to
tackle different things in our writing, but not set out to preach or moralise”.
The oldest of the writers, Nzekwu
said that as a rule, when he writes, he gives his readers messages, noting, “As
a rule, I want to give my readers a message; sometimes, it’s to enjoy the book;
sometimes, it’s an open book and then a charge to learn from the book; the
standard’s in the book.
“Every writer has a message for the readers; it’s left for
the reader to find out what message he can get. You are now left to make up
your mind, which way you want to go. Some authors end up telling you where to
go. You either accept or reject where they want you to go. No author sets out
to moralise!”
On why he published Troubled Dust some 42 years after the Nigerian Civil War ended,
Nzekwu said getting the right publisher was a problem; and since he
didn’t want to dance to any tune a publisher might play, especially on the
issue of balance since the narrative concerned the acrimonious war, whose scars
are yet to fully heal, thus becoming an albatross in
the nation’s soul. Nzekwu said he intended his book to send a message and that
he wanted such message to be the way he originally conceived it.
Olugbesan said Only A Canvas has a message about the osu caste system, which the author researched and that
the novel is based both on fiction and factual accounts. In spite of education
and so-called civilization, Olugbesan maintained that nothing had changed as
the practice was still in place in some communities in the South East.
Lola’s many wives of
trouble
BY far the most controversial
author and book, as revealed at the party, is
Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives. It turned out that polygamy is such an explosive
issue with both the men and women. But Shoneyin was ready for the barrage of
enquiries on her writing about such a delicate subject from an equally
outrageous standpoint. Like a pundit, Shoneyin
stated, “Polygamy exists because of the failure of the state
and society not allowing women to be self-dependent. 30 per cent of women who
enter into polygamy do it either through greed or laziness; but the others are
women that have no alternatives. Society still defines women through marriages.
"As a woman, if you’re not married people look down on
you no matter how successful you are. The success of a woman is gauged by her
marriage; Miss this or Miss that does not guarantee you a place in society”.
Also, Shoneyin stoutly defended the charge that Bolanle, the
only educated lady in the polygamous relationship, is not well developed enough
to be regarded as a rounded character, arguing, “the woman in the novel is actually challenging
patriarchy. Bolanle’s story is actually a friend’s story of rape; it’s my
tribute to my friend. We’re so insensitive to women’s issues in this country. A
lot of women and men are a lot more fragile because of the harrowing situations
they are facing”.
Biafra echoes
ALTHOUGH there have been so
much published narratives about the ill-fated Nigerian Civil War, many
Nigerians, especially those who bore the brunt of the war the most, the Igbo in
whose enclave the bloody war was fought till it ended after 30 odd months, have
continued to write to exorcise the ghost of that conflict.
Nzekwu’s Troubled Dust on the race for the $100,000 prize is one such narrative. Also,
Africa’s best-known fiction writer, Prof. Achebe has just published his memoir,
There was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra. It’s Nwaubani’s wish that other Nigerians - Yoruba and Hausa - would write about the war so other perspectives could
emerge. She said her parents were still stuck to the Biafra ideal. For
instance, her father applauded Gabon when that country played against Cote
D’Ivoire in the last Nation’s Cup; Gabon was one of the few
countries that recognised and helped Biafra during the war. So, too, did
Tanzania.
But it was notable poet and essayist, Odia Ofeimun that
brought matters to a head when he declared leaders of Biafra war as 'criminals' that ought to be tried for committing genocide
against their own people.
Ofeimun charged, “Everyone who was a leader of Biafra ought to
be taken to a Nuremberg-type trial and made
to face a proper trial. They committed genocide against their own people. I
want to repeat it so that nobody gets me wrong. They knew that the Igbos had no
guns; they knew that; they did not prepare for it --
I have a small book published by a traditional ruler who used to be a reporter
before the civil war; he didn’t do the big things that all the others did in
their work but as you move from one part of the book to
another, you begin to see pictures that would annoy you in terms of leaders who
took the decision that led the whole people into that war. And because the rest of us were too angry, we allowed them to mislead us.
“Ojukwu said many
people had agreed. It is wrong to let your people choose the falsehood of
propaganda during the civil war to interpret their lives; it is wrong. What
they should never have done they did and the rest of us are being made to feel
guilty about a decision they should never have taken. Somebody needed to be
made to pay for it. What happened to the Igbos is a very bad thing. Those
people (so-called leaders) who took the decision to
take Biafra to war, they committed genocide against their own people.
“One was expecting
that Achebe would write the way it actually happened. If he told us all he saw,
he would either hate himself... And all the other
generals said ‘we are not ready to fight the war’. When Awolowo met Ojukwu, he
looked around and said he told the man himself, ‘you are not ready for this
war’. The story now has to be told properly because Chinua Achebe has literally
taken the genie out of the bottle... we need somebody from the inside to tell
us why people who were not ready for war went to war”.
The hall fell silent on Ofeimun's powerful presentation, and
incidentally a younger Igbo author, Ifeanyi declared in a post-event chat,
"I agree in total with the perspectives shared by Mr Ofeimun;
unfortunately a lot of Igbo are too emotional about the issue to do an
objective reading of the situation." Octogenarian Nzekwu sat pensive but
very attentive to every of Ofeimun's words, which drew resounding applause from
the mixed-tongue and age audience.
It was this closing shot at the Biafra narrative coupled with the
afro-jazz solo performance by dreadlock musician-dancer Edaoto Agbeniyi, that
escorted the guests out of the groundfloor of the Kongi Harvest's Art Gallery
into the Food Court of the Freedom Park, where the debate continued in a
mini-party over wining and dining.
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