Thursday 27 November 2014

Child artists, writers set on The Road to Sambisa



By Anote Ajeluorou


For the 2015 edition of ‘Vision of the Child’ art section of Lagos Black Heritage Festival (LBHF 2015) for children ages 8-12, it’s The Road to Sambisa, a theme Festival Director, Prof. Wole Soyinka has designed for them to solidarise with their yet-to-be recovered Chibok schoolgirls. This was announced last Thursday at the unveiling of next year’s edition of the contest at Freedom Park, Lagos.
  Each year children are given an idea to work on. Amazingly, the children have lived up to expectations, as their compositions have always been apt in dealing with otherwise complex themes, usually of the failings of adults world. Screening for the contestants starts January 12, as forms are now available at festival secretariat or online at www.votc.lagosblackheritagefestival.com.
  According to Soyinka, “The 2015 edition continues the innovation that was introduced in 2014, as an interactive test to stretch youthful imagination and skills across genres. Instead of the uni-disciplinary interpretation of the given theme, participants will express their vision in two creative media: Painting and the Literary Art – poetry, prose, fiction, or essay. The journey begins with the latter section – a poem, essay, or short story – on the chosen theme. Those who scale through this stage will then be invited to Freedom Park, provided with brush, paint and easel and set to illustrate their literary presentation in the complementary medium of –Painting”.
  While unveiling this year’s contest, Commissioner for Tourism and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Mr. Disu Holloway, said he thoroughly enjoyed the entire festival last year and invited the general public to be part of the forthcoming festival coming up in March/April next year. He also praised the young artists for their initiative in explicating somewhat difficult themes and giving them clarity on canvas.
  Holloway used the occasion to sue for corporate sponsorship of the festival, especially as many people urged that the age limit be extended beyond 12 years to accommodate more teenagers who pass through the lower age range. Holloway said supporting the arts was an avenue to lift the culture sector of the country and the state and meaningfully engage those active in culture production.
  “I’m throwing a challenge to other banks and companies to take up sponsorship from age 13-18 and above,” Holloway noted. “We invited other banks, but they have cold feet in sponsorship of this event. We will speak to Soyinka fi he can extend the age beyond 12. Banks should begin to show interest in things that are cultural and ennobling. We need funding top do it. We need the private sector to come in. Developing the child is becoming so important, and that’s why Lagos State Government will continue to sponsor this festival. We need to celebrate culture and the things that make us relax and enjoy.”
  Festival Secretary, Foluke Michael, said ‘Vision of the Child’ art contest took a different twist since 2012 with the incorporation of literary element to the contest, whereby contestants are required to write an essay or short story before illustrating it on canvas. She said so far, some 96 paintings have been collected at Lagos Black Heritage Festival Hall of Fame from paintings from the contest. Also, some 2,500 schools will be reached this year, with a road-show already in place.
  Michael said the festival was at the forefront of bringing out the best in children, just as the children have shown a knack for astuteness in the way they handle given subjects each year, adding, “From what these children have shown so far, we have brains, skills, intellect here in Lagos. We’re creating a solid platform for young people who have no voice. Our children need to be mentored and trained today for us to realize our tomorrow”.
  Michael disclosed that a top American IT company had seen the potential of the programme and was ready to get on board and be part of it.
  Some of the children, who participated in last year’s contest, were available to narrate their experiences. In sum, they described their experience as ‘exciting, interesting, amazing’, while some ‘felt on top of the world’; yet others thanked Diamond Bank for sponsorship of ‘Vision of the Child’ contest that has given them a platform to put their artistic talent to good use. A past winner said his prize money was safely lodged in Diamond Bank account.
  The bank, represented by its media official, Mr. Udoka Oguamanam, stated the bank’s excitement at helping to reaslise the vision of the child artists, and promised to continue its support for more children to be part of the ennobling vision.

Child artists, writers set on The Road to Sambisa



By Anote Ajeluorou


For the 2015 edition of ‘Vision of the Child’ art section of Lagos Black Heritage Festival (LBHF 2015) for children ages 8-12, it’s The Road to Sambisa, a theme Festival Director, Prof. Wole Soyinka has designed for them to solidarise with their yet-to-be recovered Chibok schoolgirls. This was announced last Thursday at the unveiling of next year’s edition of the contest at Freedom Park, Lagos.
  Each year children are given an idea to work on. Amazingly, the children have lived up to expectations, as their compositions have always been apt in dealing with otherwise complex themes, usually of the failings of adults world. Screening for the contestants starts January 12, as forms are now available at festival secretariat or online at www.votc.lagosblackheritagefestival.com.
  According to Soyinka, “The 2015 edition continues the innovation that was introduced in 2014, as an interactive test to stretch youthful imagination and skills across genres. Instead of the uni-disciplinary interpretation of the given theme, participants will express their vision in two creative media: Painting and the Literary Art – poetry, prose, fiction, or essay. The journey begins with the latter section – a poem, essay, or short story – on the chosen theme. Those who scale through this stage will then be invited to Freedom Park, provided with brush, paint and easel and set to illustrate their literary presentation in the complementary medium of –Painting”.
  While unveiling this year’s contest, Commissioner for Tourism and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Mr. Disu Holloway, said he thoroughly enjoyed the entire festival last year and invited the general public to be part of the forthcoming festival coming up in March/April next year. He also praised the young artists for their initiative in explicating somewhat difficult themes and giving them clarity on canvas.
  Holloway used the occasion to sue for corporate sponsorship of the festival, especially as many people urged that the age limit be extended beyond 12 years to accommodate more teenagers who pass through the lower age range. Holloway said supporting the arts was an avenue to lift the culture sector of the country and the state and meaningfully engage those active in culture production.
  “I’m throwing a challenge to other banks and companies to take up sponsorship from age 13-18 and above,” Holloway noted. “We invited other banks, but they have cold feet in sponsorship of this event. We will speak to Soyinka fi he can extend the age beyond 12. Banks should begin to show interest in things that are cultural and ennobling. We need funding top do it. We need the private sector to come in. Developing the child is becoming so important, and that’s why Lagos State Government will continue to sponsor this festival. We need to celebrate culture and the things that make us relax and enjoy.”
  Festival Secretary, Foluke Michael, said ‘Vision of the Child’ art contest took a different twist since 2012 with the incorporation of literary element to the contest, whereby contestants are required to write an essay or short story before illustrating it on canvas. She said so far, some 96 paintings have been collected at Lagos Black Heritage Festival Hall of Fame from paintings from the contest. Also, some 2,500 schools will be reached this year, with a road-show already in place.
  Michael said the festival was at the forefront of bringing out the best in children, just as the children have shown a knack for astuteness in the way they handle given subjects each year, adding, “From what these children have shown so far, we have brains, skills, intellect here in Lagos. We’re creating a solid platform for young people who have no voice. Our children need to be mentored and trained today for us to realize our tomorrow”.
  Michael disclosed that a top American IT company had seen the potential of the programme and was ready to get on board and be part of it.
  Some of the children, who participated in last year’s contest, were available to narrate their experiences. In sum, they described their experience as ‘exciting, interesting, amazing’, while some ‘felt on top of the world’; yet others thanked Diamond Bank for sponsorship of ‘Vision of the Child’ contest that has given them a platform to put their artistic talent to good use. A past winner said his prize money was safely lodged in Diamond Bank account.
  The bank, represented by its media official, Mr. Udoka Oguamanam, stated the bank’s excitement at helping to reaslise the vision of the child artists, and promised to continue its support for more children to be part of the ennobling vision.

Making a case for mother tongue in literacy, literary culture



By Anote Ajeluorou and Greg Austin Nwakunor

Language plays a crucial role in the socialization of an individual in any given society. But today’s reality is that many of the world’s languages are dying out due to lack of use, as they have been swallowed by other more forceful, global languages. This sad trend is even made worse in colonized societies where the different local languages or mother tongues have been effectively replaced by the dominant foreign language.
  Also, with the concept of globalization, which is just another term for colonization, with the entire world gravitating towards western, dominant cultures, the mother tongues in most third world countries are fast disappearing. Most culturally conscious individuals are raising alarm over the trend.
  How can the trend be stemmed in countries like Nigeria, with its multiplicity of local languages or mother tongues? What is the role of government in ensuring the survival of the various languages spoken in its diverse length and breadth? How can writers ensure that they do not practice their literary craft in the dominant, foreign language at the expense of their various mother tongues? What models are there for a country like Nigeria to copy to ensure balance?
  These were some of the questions that a panel on ‘What Language Means to Literature, Identity and the Importance of Literary Translation’ dealt with at Port Harcourt Book Festival 2014 that held last month. It was a panel that had an assortment of cultural workers speaking on a subject of inflaming passion from across all divides. It wasn’t any less passionate on this occasion, as it had Ken Saro-Wiwa Jnr pitched against Cassava Republic Press boss, Dr. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, just as poet laureate and PEN Nigeria President, Tade Ipadeola and Kenyan Africa 39 author, Stanley Gazemba added informed voices to the debate, with Caine prize Vice Chairman and Hay Festival official, Ellah Allfrey moderating. It was a PEN International Free the Word programme with the support of UNESCO.
  Ipadeola took the position of many experts on the subject like the late Prof. Babs Fafunwa, who successfully proved that mother tongue is critical to the development of the child, as first language of instruction. The child, Fafunwa had argued, would learn the second language at his pace as he grows up, as was the case with most African children when they encountered foreign language in school usually over the age of six and above and spoke it far better than what currently obtains with students’ poor grasp of English. This is even when English is the only language spoken at home.
  Therefore, for Ipadeola, “I prefer mother tongue to the term, ‘minority language’. We live in a complex world and we cannot learn that world without language. Without that language we will go nowhere as a society. It’s something we will continue to negotiate; it’s not something we resolve with a fiat. I grew up in a border territory and learnt many of the border languages effortlessly. So, if you can’t relate with your environment, you get stuck”.
  Bakare-Yusuf stated that the relationship between language and identity “is so crucial that cutting it off means you’ve gone adrift; you have language to fall back on. In colonized lands, people are neither at home with both languages – the mother tongue and foreign. In Nigeria’s experience, spoken and written English was a lot richer when children learnt mother tongues first before English. Now, they (children) are terribly lost, and impoverished in both languages. Identity becomes a fractured on. One needs cultural confidence to move on in the world; we’re losing confidence in our identity by abandoning our mother tongue that gives us the identity we need to move on in the world”.
  But Saro-Wiwa disagreed with Bakare-Yusuf, arguing that he didn’t need to speak any Ogoni language to be confident. He said he and his late father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, whom he described as “defender of minority rights”, never spoke a word of Kana to each other. In fact, Saro-Wiwa revealed that the Ogonis emerged from the Nigerian Civil war in 1970 a battered people, and said, “We weren’t proud of our heritage”, as they were called ‘Ogoni piopio”, as they engaged in all manner of menial labour at the time.
  He argued, “The notion of language comes from the political space. Preserving language itself isn’t about preserving culture as both change with time but language is dynamic. In their school in England, my kids are made to learn Latin, a dead language, but it’s regarded as bedrock; language is a repository of ideas and knowledge systems. English has borrowed from everywhere else; only about 5 per cent is original. So, I don’t have to preserve Kana for my kids to move on in the world. Besides, how do you preserve over 400 languages in Nigeria? Who needs them?
  “Of course, something gets lost in translation, but what do we lose? What we lose is the ownership of the culture; we preserve memories through the stories we tell, and we’re able to tell foreign interloper who invades our land, and say, ‘this is our language, this are our stories? Where are yours?”
  For Kenyan writer, Gazemba, from the Kimaragoli language group, whose senior countryman and literary icon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o has long abandoned writing in English, preferring his native Kikuyu instead and then having his works translated into English, the issue of language and identity is a tricky one. He narrated how the first songs he learnt at school was about ‘London bridge falling, falling’, and he used to imagine a bridge that was falling in some faraway land he didn’t know. His Kenyan experience is similar to other colonized Africans.
  He noted, “We were made to believe our mother tongue was backward and something we should be ashamed of. It’s why I tend to like Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart because it is the closest use of English to my own Kimaragoli language in its nuances and usage. That is the big struggle with the African writer telling a story. When we dream, we do so in our mother tongues.
  “People in authority try to impose on you the other language at the expense of mother tongue. The idea of forcing kids to speak a foreign language is absurd: Are we improving or inhibiting their creativity?”
  But Bakare-Yusuf faulted Saro-Wiwa’s seemingly contradictory argument, of not needing to preserve mother tongue, but being able to tell a people’s story in it at the same time, she said, “Every language is inherently dynamic. The moment you speak more than one language your intellectual horizon is expanding. In more than one language, you’re constantly in conversation with each of them. Right now, people are not sufficiently grounded in English and in their mother tongues, especially children, and this is affecting their overall performance in literacy, in the classroom. For these children, English is anaemic because they don’t have the broader meaning, and understanding of the language as against those grounded in their mother tongues”.
  Also a lawyer, Ipadeola looked at the broader, legislative picture of cultural survival, and stated that it wasn’t a matter of choice, as “What is important is that every language is important. What culture, history teach is that all of us are important. Mono-culture is wrong; we harm ourselves, we put ourselves in untenable position when we choose. The state has a duty, if necessary, to legislate that certain languages be preserved, and we will all be better for it, as the way of living, medicine and other self-preservation ideas peculiar to a people, our people, will be preserved for posterity”.
  Bakare-Yusuf agreed to the legislative mandate for local languages, and noted, “There should be legislation to avoid complacency for two to five languages because if we claim to be sovereign nation and for us to be taken seriously, we should root for diversity. We need to support publishing industry and fund it. Those writing books on local languages need support. How do we write science in local languages without support?”
  But Saro-Wiwa countered and said, “Language is a function of migration and isolation. How can you legislate over 500 hundred languages in Nigeria and still make sense?”
  For Gazemba, however, the market holds the answer for the writer in local languages, as he said, “The reality for the writer is that the market will become the medium to convey our story. Much as I’d like to write in Kimaragoli, it’s not going to help my career as a writer. Everyone seems to agree we should promote Kimaragoli, which borrows from all the regional local languages. So, I think the answer to this dilemma is to create in original, local language and translate into wider, global languages. It’s a challenge, but we have to find a away round it. But if we listen to the market, we will all sound the same and that will be boring. Unfortunately, we cannot insist on having it the way we want it”.
  To which Bakare-Yusuf responded, “How can indigenous languages survive? How does he shape his works, make them legible for western audience is what he is saying. At Cassava Republic Press, we’re interested in indigenous languages. We’re going to accept some Hausa manuscripts because of the population, but I can’t think of publishing in Igbo. They can’t seem to agree on the orthography of the language. What would it take to translate Saro-Wiwa into Kana if only 500 hundred people will read it?! That is key for us”.
  PEN Nigeria Secretary, Ropo Ewenla lent the earth conservationist angle to the debate when he said, “What mother earth left for us must be preserved. Variations must exist for us to live as a people. Government must legislate to preserve local languages. We must advocate that the classics in African literature are translated into local languages. It’s about reinventing our identity, of who we are. A whole industry will be created in translating into our indigenous languages”.
  Also for poet, culture and gender expert and university don, Prof, Omolara Ogundipe, it’s a question of which language people want to be their lingua franca or national language, adding that mother tongue is crucial in a child learning process. She noted, “In South Africa, there are 11 languages, all official languages. People write books in them, teach them, and legislate in them. Is Nigeria ready for such? Other European countries learn their national language and three other European languages. We shouldn’t individualise it. If you wrote in Kana, it can be translated into world languages for a wider audience”.



Three Caine Prize winners relive experiences




By Anote Ajeluorou and Greg Austin-Page Nwakunor

It’s not often that you find three Caine Prize winners on the same podium. But this happened at Port Harcourt Book Festival 2014 that ended last week. The three writers Rotimi Babatunde (Nigeria- 2012), Tope Folarin (Nigeria - 2013) and Okwiri Oduor (Kenya – 2014) were part of the ‘Africa 39’ writers that added excitement to this year’s book festival, writers under 40 Africa south of the Sahara, London-based Hay Festival partnership with UNESCO Port Harcourt Book Capital 2014.
  The Caine Prize (10,000) is perhaps Africa’s biggest literary prize for the short story, bigger than the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (USD$2,500) and prides itself as celebrating new writing from the continent. Although the biggest prize on the continent, it’s ironically administered from outside the continent - London, in fact. This fact has attracted the attention of many critics, who are skeptical about the true intention of prize and its administrators. They see it as another cultural imperialism with dubious intention, one that expects African writers to dredge up Africa’s many ugly sides for the entire world to stare at, and laugh.
  Elnathan John it was, who, shortlisted in 2013, with his story ‘Bayan Layi’, had expressed the wish that it would have been better if an African capital was playing host to the biggest short story prize honouring her sons and daughters rather than in London or any other foreign capital. But such sentiment does not fly in the face of philistinic economics of a continent that pays little regard to cultural productions of whatever hue. Critics of the Caine Prize say that the selection criteria are slanted towards stereotypical African images of poverty, war, child soldiers, prostitution and desperation.
  Others have, however, argued that since the prize is sufficiently competitive to bring out the best on the continent so be it, as it has since inception brought about a remarkable change in the fortunes of the winners, 15 in all so far, to tell a different story through their engagement in creative writing.
  These three writers are the latest addition to the list of winners since 2012 till date. Ibadan-based Babatunde won with his short story ‘Bombay’s Republic’ in 2012, a harrowing story of a Nigerian who fought in World War II in the dense jungles of Burma, and how the war changed him for all time; U.S.-based Folarin won with ‘Miracle’ in 2013, a story that treats miracle-peddling fad in church, and how it could all be a sham. Current winner and U.K.-based Oduor won with, ‘My Father’s Head’, of what a young girl remembers about her father, who died suddenly and how she begins to re-imagine what her father’s head looked like, as a way of dredging up memories of the man who left too soon, and thus conjuring him from the dead.
  Babatunde, Folarin and Odour all sat in conversation with Caine Prize jury Vice Chairperson, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, also of Hay Festival, last Saturday, the closing day of events at the book festival at the Tent, Hotel Presidential. It was a fitting climax to a weeklong festival that had several panel discussions, seminars, workshops, residency and a showcase of young talent in creative engagement.
  Babatunde recounted that the most memorable part of the prize was the grand ceremony around it, which usually held at Oxford University’s Boldein Library. Also, he noted, “The connection between the writers is unbelievable. You won believe they are competing for the same prize, the camaradiere”. He recalled how the ‘Africa 39’ writers at the festival easily blended as if they’d known each other all their lives. “It’s amazing how the 39 have been working things among themselves. We’re just a single family, and it just happens.”
  For the only female, Oduor, “You get to meet other writers, and it’s incredible. The Caine Prize is intense, nerve-wracking situation, but you feel a sense of solidarity from the other writers”, and added that she didn’t know if the prize had wrought any changes in her since winning it a few months back in July. “I don’t know if anything has changed,” she said in her sonorous, romantic voice. “But I’ve received marriage proposals on Facebook!”
  For Folarin, who was born in the U.S., and has lives there, the Caine Prize experience was simply awesome. Although he’d written a couple of stories, ‘Miracle’ became the real miracle turning point in his life. He expressed how a single story turned him from an anonymous individual to the status of a star overnight. “I went completely from being anonymous to being known, and people were saying, ‘who the hell is the guy?’ I had to quickly adjust to being a public figure. The prize confers legitimacy on you as a writer. All of a sudden I was being called upon to speak on writing at important events! I’m incredibly glad I won the prize. And there’s a lot of pressure here, too, because everybody wants more, a book from me.”
  Babatunde also had his own share of pressure just after wining, with journalists crowding out his space eager to have him share his unique experience with the public. “What I felt was exhaustion because of the pressure,” he said, “it took a while to decompress. Meanwhile, it was the story that won, not me.”
  Like every writer, Oduor devotes a lot of her time reading other writers. But it is fellow female writers like America’s Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morison among others that appeal more to her “because they speak to me and show me the light. I find their writing rich…”
  Already, Babatunde and Folarin are hard at work for their debut novels. Like his Caine Prize story ‘Bombay’s Republic’, Babatunde is still fascinated with material history; his new work is on historical fiction, and it’s situated in the Niger Delta. The three writers read excerpts from Africa 39, an anthology of new writing.