Ebigwei: Promoting the game of Chess

By Anote Ajeluorou

For Dr. Silvan Ebigwei, the intellectually stimulating game of chess has been a life-long passion to which he devoted both his time and resources to develop in Nigeria. Ebigwei first encountered chess as a 15 year-old schoolboy at the famous St. Patrick College, Asaba in 1960. His American teacher, Mr. R. Scarpura introduced him to the game of royalty. He showed early promise when he beat another American teacher, a friend of his mentor.

  The book, Chess: A National Legacy (Worldwide Controls Nig. Ltd, Lagos; 2011) is edited by Emiko Bake, Isaac O. Isaac, Sony Neme and Uzo Odikpo.

  From that early start, through university and adult life, Ebigwei took to chess with uncommon zeal. At the University of Lagos in the 70s, he started organising small groups or clubs of like minds. Even when he did his post-graduate studies, he never let go of chess. As medical practitioner, chess still ran deep in his veins. Indeed, Mr. Chess as he became fondly called, Ebigwei is reputed to have single-handedly founded the game of chess in Nigeria and brought it to international reckoning and recognition.

  The Opanam, Delta State native, also took Nigeria and some African Chess Federations to the international body. As he put it, “I became the president of College of Medicine chess club in 1973 with Boniface Adeniran as my secretary and between us we mapped out a strategy, which led to the formation of All Nigerian Universities Chess Association, with me as the first chairman. And since then I was resolved to popularise the game among intellectuals of this country. One of the major assignments executed in those infant years of chess in Nigeria was to invite the president of the World Chess Association, Prof. Max Euwe of Holland in 1975”.

  According to the editors, “Prof. Euwe’s acceptance to come to Nigeria on the invitation of a friend, Dr. William Zeylstra, then Royal Dutch Ambassador to Nigeria, and his eventual arrival opened up a new page in Ebigwei’s marble-cast of achievements for the chess game in Nigeria. Euwe’s visit aided tremendously the formation of Nigeria Chess Federation with world renowned economist, Dr. Pius Okigbo as president, Dr. J.T. Cole as vice president and Dr. Ebigwei as secretary-general; Ebigwei later became president. The same year, Nigeria was affiliated to the World Chess Federation”.

  Ebigwei’s towering achievements included affiliating the Nigerian Chess Federation to the world body, starting the 38-member nation Commonwealth Chess Association and helping other African countries like Libya to gain affiliation into the world body. Ebigwei also helped to fight Apartheid regime in South Africa when the chess federation money was invested in a South African company. He mounted serious campaign with other colleagues and got the money withdrawn eventually.

  As a pioneer in the game of chess, he helped to plant the game in all schools and extend the frontiers of the game in the country. He encountered certain difficulties in penetrating the usual bureaucracy. But he forged ahead nonetheless.

  An exceptionally brilliant fellow, Ebigwei sums up his involvement with chess thus, “I founded and brought chess to Nigeria and posterity is there to tell the story”.

  Among those who bear witness to Ebigwei’s legacy in the game of chess is a former NTA director, Dr. Victoria Ezeokoli, who, through the death of her son, who was a young master at the sport, became chairman of Nigeria Chess Federation. She states, “Everybody in chess in Nigeria will say he is their mentor. Some of them he picked up from secondary schools, coached and mentored them, and sponsored them to chess tournaments where they excelled. He used to pay their affiliation fees… He made sure that not only Nigerian but other African countries continued to be relevant. Without Ebigwei, there would be no chess in Africa today. It takes that kind of sacrifice, commitment and passion to give birth to an activity like chess and to sustain it”.

  Ebigwei’s son, Olisa says of his father, “Concerning chess, that is his passion. I can say chess is another child of my father. He is so passionate about chess that he gave up family time for it… He goes as far as secondary schools and the armed forces to recruit people to play chess. He was eating and waking up chess. As a matter of fact, his practice as medical doctor also suffered because of chess”.

  However, Chess: A National Legacy is a fine tribute to the efforts of Dr. Ebigwei in his pioneering role in the formation of chess game in Nigeria. Although he is now retired from active participation, what he established still lingers on and is the bedrock on which other achievements are currently being built in the game of chess.

  However, the book Chess: A National Legacy suffers serious editorial flaws. The editors did a shoddy job of stringing the story together. They kept going round the same things over and over again and repeating the superlative achievements of Ebigwei. For instance, there’s hardly a need for this, “So, who is the one, that one who brought the chess game to Nigeria? Who is the one, that one who does not feel but believes that he did more to chess establishment in Nigeria? Who is he who gave his home, who gave his job, who gave his knowledge, who gave his money, who gave his all to the transportation of chess game across the country than Dr. Sylvan O. Ebigwei?”

God’s call changed my life, music, says Ben Orise

By Anote Ajeluorou

He started out as a circular artiste in the late 1980s and early 1990s and led Tony Osei’s Youth Generation band. While at it, he had a swell time scouring the nightclub scene and other performance places in Lagos and environs. But all that was to change for Ben Orise in Conakry, Guinea where the band was on tour for UNICEF. Orise was actually on his way out of the country to Holland to try out his luck.

  But that was how far he could go. He had the good fortune to attend a church in Conakry. When the altar call came, Orise could not resist the force that pulled him towards it. According to him, “I experienced wilderness in Conakry. I resigned from the band; I ended the contract and had no money on me. It was in the band I met my wife, who also resigned from the band for gospel music. But that was her own decision; I didn’t influence her.

  “As God would have it, the band owner, Osei also got converted and changed the band to a gospel band. So, at the church in Conakry I got the call to go into gospel music. I no longer had satisfaction in circular music I was playing. I was in the band on tour of West Africa and on my way to Holland. I didn’t know I was in a place where God wanted me to be. If I had gone to Holland I might not have been changed; God might not have had my time. It was a total experience that was also a revolution as the band changed to a gospel band”.

  Orise, who was in Hot & Nice band in the 80s and 90s led by Lance Perry (a former Lagos PMAN chapter chairman), did not find things easy when he returned to Nigeria after the tour in 1998. He had to limit himself to studio work since he could not perform circular music and gospel music was at its infancy, with little or no popularity to it. Ever since also, Orise has been a church music director with Redeem Christian Church of God, where he also worships.

  He conceded that gospel music in Nigeria had seen phenomenal growth in recent years. Orise said gospel music wasn’t doing badly as it was years past when he newly converted in the late 1980s and early 1990s; gospel music had very little chance or future, and therefore no encouragement from any quarter.

  But all that has changed with the likes of Sammie Okposo, Midnight Crew and several other gospel artistes on the scene. As he noted, “Gospel musicians are not doing badly at all. They have taken gospel music to places, not what it used to be. There’s an explosion; it has gone nuclear and comparable to what we have abroad. It is now a revolution unlike in those days when nobody wants to play gospel music, as there was no encouragement. People shied away from it”.

  For Orise, his new music entitled Celebrate is “about singing gospel music to the ends of the earth to reveal Christ to the people. Celebrate is about sharing God’s love to the unsaved for them to also receive God’s redemptive power”.

  Other tracks in Celebrate include ‘Thou art worthy’, ‘Trust’, ‘Onyeoma’, ‘My son’, ‘Unconditional love’, Lift up’, ‘Seek’, ‘None like you’ and ‘I go worship’. Launch for Celebrate has been scheduled for May although no specific date has been fixed yet.

Race for Africa’s biggest literary prize 2013 begins today

By Anote Ajeluorou

For Nigerian poets both within and outside the country, today marks the end of submission of entries for the 2013 edition of the $100,000 worth The Nigerian Prize for Literature in the poetry category. It also marks the promise of an exciting year for poets who have had to wait for a circle of four years to have a chance at the mouth-watering prize sponsored by Bonny-based gas company, Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG).

  Although it is too early in the day to make any prognosis, Nigerian poets would have been learnt their lessons from 2009 when a verdict of poor outing was given on entries for that year. That judgment sparked off prolonged controversy between writers and critics on the one hand and the advisory board for the prize largely made up of university professors.

  Last year, which was for prose fiction, was won by Belgium-based Chika Unigwe. She won with the novel On Black Sisters’ Street, a work based on Nigerian young women sold for sex work abroad by traffickers on the illicit trade in feminine flesh. However this year, poetry takes centre-stage. Ibadan-based PEN Nigeria Centre President and poet has stared into his crystal ball for this year’s poetry contest and has come up with a verdict: “The one safe prediction that can be made is that whoever wins this year would be a poet with strong bona fides and a vision. There is just no room for the poetaster or for jejune juvenilia. It is a strong field and the strongest contenders will be from home and exile. It will be interesting to see how the vision of the poets intersect, how their craft carries their message. It will be really interesting to see how the long list crystalizes into the shortlist. It will be a great year for poetry, no doubt”.

  Judges for this year’s prize include Prof. Romanus Egudu (chairman), Prof. Abiodun Omolara Ogundipe and Dr. Andrew Abah as members. Prof. Kofi Anyidoho has been announced as the international consultant. Advisory Board chairman remains Emeritus Prof. Ayo Banjo while Dr. Jerry Agada and Prof. Ben Elugbe as members.

  This year also, some innovative ideas have been brought to improve the prize, organisers announced recently. An external consultant would be brought from outside Nigeria to complement judges’ efforts, especially when the final three writers would have been announced and shortlisted. Advisory Board chairman for the prize and Prof. Emeritus Ayo Banjo said the initiative would give the prize both international status and enhanced credibility.

  Another novel idea to the prize regime also announced recently was the ‘Critical Essay Prize’ worth N1 million. This prize will be awarded for a critical essay or review of a Nigerian literary work each year. It must be published in a renowned international journal by Nigerian critics both home and abroad. According to organisers, the Critical Essay Prize takes cognizance of the pivotal role critics play in the evolution of literary creativity.

Politics and literature are inseparable, says Omotoso

South Africa-based Nigerian intellectual Prof. Bankoe Omotoso, author of the provocative fact-fiction Just Before Dawn, will be 70 on April 21. Various activities have been lined up to celebrate this Nigerian icon of letters in his home state, Akure, Ondo State. But in this online interview with ANOTE AJELUOROU, Omotoso engages some of the issues confronting the country of his birth and why he had to leave when he did

Congratulations on your 70th birthday, Prof.! What does it mean attaining such great age? How would say life has treated you?

  One of the joys of living long is watching your children bring up your grand children!

It’s such a long journey from years back till now. What happy and sad landmarks can you point at in retrospect?

  Too many of both but on balance same-same

Your book Just Before Dawn, often seen as a biography of Nigeria, stirred a lot of controversy at the time, which is also at the heart of Nigeria’s evolution as a country. What did you make of the controversy? Has anything changed ever since?

  It saddened me that it caused any controversy! A lot has changed. The army is not in power. There's less misappropriation at states level. Private business is beginning to get out of the embrace of politicians.

Nigerians are often seen as a people that suffer from collective amnesia. How much of this is at play in the country’s historical evolution?

  It is not collective amnesia. Just that different people remember differently. Our future wars will be fought on the different remembering. How we remember our past will decide how we build our future.

The theme for your birthday lecture echoes your book, ‘Radicals, Literature and Nigeria: Just before 1914’. How far radical do you think Nigerian literature has been? Has there been any achievement in social, political orientation, if any, with that radicalism?

  Our literature has been our greatest export. Followed by our films. Imagine if petroleum had been able to bring us as much positive as these two how much greater Nigeria would be?

Do you think literature has made any appreciable impact on the basic psychology of Nigeria as a nation?      

  I still feel Nigeria has a future behind it! Unfortunately!!

You always castigate younger writer, even including your daughter, Yewande, who doesn’t reside in Nigeria, for not being politically engaging enough in their works. Do you think that criticism is fair, seeing how averse the public has become to reading literary matters, and the kind of political culture at play in society?

  It is good young writers are not obsessed with the politics of the nation as we are. All the same politics and literature, the greatest literature, are inseparable!

In spite of its imperfections, the political culture of South Africa, where you reside, has a measure of sanity even if power is in the hands of blacks. What useful lessons can Nigeria learn from her?

  In South Africa power is not the monopoly of one particular group. Blacks have political power. Whites have economic power and there are trades off between different seats of power. Banks are well-run and infrastructure is the business of everybody. Governments at national provincial (state) and local levels have to get annual account certificate! All the same inequality is still too high and unacceptable.

A large pool of Nigerian intellectuals resides and works abroad like you. Is such absence from home still tenable given the onerous rebuilding work needed all areas of national life in Nigeria? How can intellectuals abroad be lured back home?

  Each time I'm asked this question, I tend to laugh. When you are unable to effect change in your environment, when you cannot dislocate the wrong doers, you do not join them. You relocate. You relocate in the hope that you will empower yourself on your return to dislocate the enemies of progress. Dislocate or relocate. As at now the balance is still in favour of those who don't want change. The day enough Nigerians refuse to use generators and insist that NEPA or PHCN must deliver, then coming back will be in sight.

Give insight into some of your recent writings, especially drama and short fiction? Are we expecting a major fiction work from you soon?

  I don't speak of my writings. I expect those interested to do their homework!

Conversation With Four African Female Writers On Residency At Ebedi

By Anote Ajeluorou

Perhaps for the first time, four female writers converged in Nigeria’s only residency for writers in Iseyin, Oyo State, to complete ongoing literary projects. They are author of Bom Boy and Nigerian-Barbadian, naturalised South African, Ms Yewande Omotoso; author of Victor and Ugandan writer, Agiresaasi Apophia; author of Abamo and indigenous language writer, Rukayat Olaleye and author of Eno’s Story, Ms Ayodele Olofintuade.

  The Ebedi International Writers Residency was instituted a few years ago by medical doctor-turned writer, politician and former President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Dr. Wale Okediran. It’s situated at the foot of a hill in the serenity of Iseyin community.

  Omotoso said she came to the residency through a friend, Samuel Kolawole’s recommendation. She got to know about Ebedi Writers Residency Programme from fellows she met last year at a writing workshop in Lagos. According to her, “So, I got curious; because it’s a big opportunity, and we need to publicise it.

  “I’m working on the first draft of a book set mostly in South Africa and the two main characters are 80-year-old women, neighbours. It’s basically a story about their relationship. They hate each other but are dependent on each other. It looks at South African dynamics, the racial problem 20 years’ on after a democratically elected government in 1994. What are the racial dynamics that exist in the Western Cape. There is segregation by class and colour in Cape Town 20 years on. So, I’m just looking at why that is the case”.

  Although she hopes the new work would be different from Bom Boy, Omotoso remarked, “Because I’m not only South African; I think whenever I write, for instance, my character is West Indian, and the other character is a white South African. I feel like when I write, I need to put a character there that relates to my experience, which is me being a foreigner. So, I can write from a West Indian perspective in South Africa, and she also comes to Ibadan. You know, I’m Nigeria but I’m not really Nigerian so I can write from West Indian perspective. I always need that perspective that I know”.

  Bom Boy won her South African Literature First Book award, and it’s about her roots in Nigeria, but she countered easily, saying, “It’s not directly my story because it’s not autobiographical but it is about somebody who doesn’t fit in and who is struggling to find his place. I can relate to it in some degrees because that is what life in South Africa is to me. Otherwise, I’m not that weird”.

  Although they are a band of four female writers holed up in the same setting, they have their individual work schedules, as Omotoso noted, “Everybody works differently. For me, I take it as a really amazing opportunity and I’m not prepared to waste it. I came really serious; I have my calendar and what I need to accomplish when I leave here. I mean, who else is going to give me a place to work? I’m really grateful for it. So, I have managed to finish the first draft in the space of five weeks. And I agree, it’s because of focus, you come with the intention; it’s intentional. Everything is geared towards producing”.

  Omotoso would gladly recommend the residency to anyone willing to really work, stating, “My intention is to recommend it widely, and my intention is to interact with Okediran seeing he is very open because I have some suggestions that I think will help make it a little bit more organised. I think it can be international. You can have writers from all over the world wanting to come here. It works. Any writer wants this. It’s such a big deal; we have to shout it and be proud of it. I think it works.

  “And I feel that we can make it more popular, which I also think will help with the funding. It’s very brilliant; there is no question about that; it’s such a great idea, a great project”.

HER friends had gushed so much about Ebedi that a usually skeptical Olofintuade wanted to see for herself. As she put it, “I got a call from President, Ibadan chapter of Association of Nigeria Authors (ANA), Uncle Akin Bello. He was like, ‘do you want to go to Ebedi?’ and I said, ‘why would I want to go to Ebedi?’ I was just kidding. He asked me if I wanted to come to Ebedi, and of course, I know about Ebedi. Almost all my friends have been here. Everybody comes back from here and says, ‘oh my God, you should go for it’. I got in touch with Dr. Okediran and we got talking... I just made up my mind to come and I have no regrets.

  “I wanted to come and start a new novel, Shina Rambo, but when I got here I got a mail to do a first draft of the one I was working on before I got here. So, that is what I’m doing and I mean, it’s just been totally amazing, a great experience. It’s called Lakriboto Chronicles. In Yoruba land, lakriboto is an independent woman, whom a lot of men see as sexless, a woman who doesn’t bow down to men. I’m examining the African community. Is there really a community? Are we really as cohesive, as close and as family-oriented as everybody claims we are?

  “That’s what I’m questioning and I’m also questioning the way people with mental illness are treated in our country. The story is about three women, one of them has mental illness; they are just girls that were growing up in a typical Yoruba family. There is a kind of loss involved so they were moved around among relatives as house-helps to take care of the children. I’m following the journey of these three women”.

  If anyone would do a controversial theme, it has to be Olofintuade. Her lakriboto story has all the elements of stirring the hornet’s nest with its tendency towards gay issues, as she said, “My understanding of lakriboto may be wrong; it may be about lesbian. It’s amazing, you can’t be a lesbian and have no sexual organs. What I also want to examine is the fact that we all say, ‘we are Africans and being gay is not part of our culture’. The question is, where does lakriboto come from if it is not part of our culture? And how can you be a lesbian and you don’t have sex parts? You are supposed to be a sexless person basically because you don’t have sex enough”.

UGANDAN health worker and writer, Apophia, knew about Ebedi as a member of FEMRITE, which is Uganda Women Writers Association. Two of her compatriots – Doreen Baingana and Barbara Oketa – had previously had residency stints there. She said, “Oketa was asked to recommend somebody and she picked me. I applied online but it took some time and I didn’t get a reply so I asked Barbara whether she had given me the right address and she gave me Dr. Okediran’s email; then, I applied to him directly. I sent a letter, my CV and a sample of what I was working on. I was accepted and I had to apply to Art World Africa for my air ticket.

  “Ebedi is getting popular, especially at FEMRITE where other writers have also applied but are not sure if they would get funding for air ticket. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to come because Ebedi replied over a month ago and I have been here only two weeks while the others have been here for a month. But the residency is becoming very popular.

  “I had thought I was going to work on a novel but since I came here I’ve been working on a series of short stories and I have finished seven of them. I’m right now working on the eighth. Of course, they are addressing different themes and are all set in Uganda, fortunately or unfortunately. There is high level of unemployment, the patriarchal tradition and how women are being repressed and are trying to rise to the top; they are also on love and life generally.

  “The quiet environment here really makes you want to work, and you have to be committed because you have nothing else to do. We are not cooking or cleaning the house so you are just in your room - eat, read and write. Also, this is not a city. Perhaps, if it were in Lagos we would have been tempted to go to the bar or places like that.”

  The Ugandan writer freely expressed her views about her host country, Nigeria and what she thought about its people, saying, “I find Nigerians warm, receptive; so, I haven’t had any major challenges. I have learnt a lot from them. Of course, I’ve met many Nigerians in meetings at international conferences. I’ve seen them make presentations. I know they are very brilliant, hardworking and it is the same thing I find here. People have come here and written a lot in one month. So, they don’t waste time. I realise that maybe in Uganda we are in some kind of trauma. Nigerians are just the people who are aggressive, eh?”

  However, Apophia wants some improvement on how things are run at Ebedi Writers Residency Programme, noting, “I think that on a weekly basis we should have someone write a brief report, get an excerpt of what the residents have done. Then, at the end of the six weeks, the residents write a report”. 

FOR Olaleye, an indigenous language writer, who lives at Apete, Ibadan, Ebedi has been the right place for her to be holed up with fellow female writers and really write to her heart’s content. She has finished work on a book Olori Asake since getting to Ebedi. According to her, “Now I’m working on a collection of poems. I write poetry, prose and drama”. She is enthralled by the environment at Ebedi, which she described as a haven for writers.

‘We Are Not Nigerians By Mistake’

Titi Horsfall recently launched her new novel, From an Orphan to a Queen Esther, a bible-based story of a Jewish girl, who became a queen in a foreign land and did great things like her great forebear, Moses. In this interview with ANOTE AJELUORU, Horsfall highlights the significance of the Esther story in modern times. She sees it as a product of her environment, a poor girl who rose to overcome challenges through God’s help and which should serve as example for modern-day individuals for their respective societies

In projecting Esther in fiction, were you responding to a need to create heroines for a world largely dominated by men?

  On the contrary, the story projects hope to anyone who is under the impression that life gave him or her, the short end of the stick. The circumstances in which Esther grew up were most pitiful and disheartening. Through conscious acceptance of her ‘silver linings’-that is, identifying and preserving the ‘good’ in her bad situation, she secured her future.

  Some are born great, but encase their dreams within the limiting circumstances around them. We are to believe in ourselves and what God has put into us. We can all aspire for greatness; for there is a drop of greatness and a seed of favour in every man, irrespective of gender. Even our President Goodluck Jonathan exhibits this Esther story: rising from a repressible foundation to a height of unimaginable glory. Esther is, therefore, a person worth celebrating, irrespective of her sex. She lived an exemplary and outstanding model of life.

What do you expect your readers to take away from the life of Esther?

  While the novel is on Esther’s life, her exploits were not achieved in isolation. She worked in tandem with people who I would call, “helpers of destiny”; people who keyed into a single vision and persevered to see its realization. The various characters in the novel throw in our path many life lessons. Many consider this novel to be a life manual.

  On Esther in particular, she is a product of a good heritage. In local terms, we would say, “she is a well brought up girl”- train up a child in the way s/he should grow and when s/he is old, he or she will not depart from it. This is an advice to all parents. This was what God was projecting to all parents. Have you considered the fact that God could not risk sending just any maiden to the palace to fulfill His purpose? It had to be someone who would not be entrapped by the palace grandeur and lewdness which harem life may stir up. In maintaining a purposeful and Godly life, Esther was a good candidate for God’s use.

  We are not Nigerians by mistake. We were born for a purpose and it is my hope that in our individual and collective yearnings, we will find, understand and fulfill our purpose.

Why did you choose to fictionalize Esther’s story instead of through pamphleteering?

  Pamphlets show a writer’s opinion or partisan stand on an issue. My writing is not aimed at portraying a female leader (if you want to consider this as an issue, of which I may be making a case for). I fictionalized the story of Esther in much the same way an anthropologist would visit the ancient ruins of Persia, take up all the factual evidences on ground and attempt to re-enact and explain the kind of society in which Esther lived in.

  Fictionalizing Esther’s story came to the fore through inspiration. There are the facts, as laid down in the Bible. There are further evidences recorded in secular history. Then, there are the expected interplays in human engagements as seen in everyday living. Herein, lies the fiction.

How did you manage to achieve a recreation of the world Esther lived in at the time?

  Recreating Esther’s world was a journey through a time capsule. I looked into history to determine the exact time scale and geography, and then fit in the bits as they relate to the landscape - weather, architecture, food, clothing, names, culture, customs and traditions. The rest, however, is not history. As the legendry Gabriel Okara puts it, “This century old biblical story has been brought to life and relevance, for lovers of good literature”.

Critics might question Esther’s ambition for her son as ungodly, in view of the strife it engendered... What is your response?

  Let me point out that the absence of strife in one’s life is not an indication of the presence of God. Strife may sometimes push us to our places of glory. That said, leaders are generally chosen by God. Years before Esther’s son was born, it had been prophesied by Isaiah that a king chosen of God will restore his people to the land of their fathers. Did this happen? Yes. Esther was just an instrument to serve that purpose, with the storyline further portraying a basal human instinct to preserve self and lineage.

What Esther quality does modern society lack? How can this be remedied?

  Esther displayed great humility. She was humble enough to take direction and advice even as a queen. When she was crowned queen, her outlook on life did not change. She was still in touch with who she was and what her people meant to her.

  As a society, we should believe in ourselves and play our respective roles in securing our future, positively. No matter how we are created, we are meant to complement ourselves in building strong frontiers.

What other literary projects are you working on?

  I have a few ideas, which I am contemplating. For now, what is foremost is listening and sharing with my readers, on how this novel is transforming their outlook on life.

Thread of Gold Beads… A historical, coming of age, adventure story

By Anote Ajeluorou

There are very few historical fictions on the African continent, especially Nigeria. There is now a gradual or total loss of the stimulating ambience of folk or oral narratives in which young ones get firsthand historical re-enactment of the founding of their race. This is further compounded in Nigeria with government’s anti-intellectual stance with the non-teaching of history in schools. Indeed, all the great empires and kingdoms stand to be forgotten with the general populace none the wise for it.

  But U.S.-based Nigerian, Nike Cambell-Fatoki has in part rescued from the ashes of forgetfulness the history of one of Africa’s great kingdoms with her new novel Threads of Gold Beads (The Three Magi Publishing, U.S.; 2012). Her restoration effort on the kingdom of Danhome, with its famous Abomey capital, is a worthy literary enterprise that traces the Republic of Benin back to its ancient roots before and during the French invasion that routed the kingdom and left it in ruins.

  But it is not all about the ancient history of Danhome that she has recounted. Campbell-Fatoki has also told love stories, of a king’s love for Amelia, his precious daughter, which endangers her life; how an entire kingdom also falls in love with its princess and how she becomes the army general’s wife. It’s also the story of a mother’s love for her only daughter, who soon inherits the burden of a falling kingdom and her personal odyssey through thick and thin to survive and how she reincarnates into her own mother’s former existence and then finds what she had lost to war and the vagaries of life.

  Campbell-Fatoki’s Threads of Gold Beads, relates the life of the last great king of Danhome, Gbenhazin. Soon to-be-king, but he must remain on the outskirts of the capital and must not live in the same palace as the reigning king. At the death of Glele, an elaborate coronation ceremony is held to install King Gbehanzin, who is secretly taken away at night from his palace on the outskirts of Abomey. With the support of Kamlin, the Kpojito, one of the former wives of the late king, Gbehanzin is able to ascend his father’s throne in spite of opposition against him from other princes.

  He proves a great king like his ancestors but the advancing French did not please Gbehanzin; it eventually led to war that was to ruin a great African kingdom just like many others in the hands of European encroachers.

  Largely from oral accounts, historical records and creative ingenuity, Campbell-Fatoki is able to fictionally reconstruct the kingdom of Danhome, the only kingdom that had a standing a female army in the world; called ‘mothers’, they functioned as the secret service that protected the king, his household and other high-ranking officials.

  Amelia, the king’s favourite princess, is a young woman whose destiny is closely intertwined with that of Danhome kingdom. Her mother, Ajoke, was abducted from Abeokuta in one of Danhome’s wars of conquests. She is adopted by Gbehanzin’s mother, a woman who must suffer pariah from the kingdom she gives an heir out of a custom that forbids the heir-apparent’s mother to live once she has discharged her fateful duty of siring the king-to-be. Having survived her ordeal, she surfaces to claim a place in the king’s heart and ensures Gbehanzin marries Ajoke.

  Eventually, the army general Dossou, marries Amelia, the love of his life from childhood. But by then, the forces of disintegration have set in. Danhome is at the verge of collapse. While Dossou is gone to war, Amelia’s mother and grandmother, the king’s mother, summon her and task her to leave the kingdom at once with the king’s recade, his symbol of power, to neighbouring Abeokuta to seek refuge at the court of Alake of Agbaland. Gbehanzin and his entire palace officials, wives, children and army flee into the forest to wage a gorilla war against the French. Not even having to sacrifice his own mother to the gods is able to save Danhome from collapse.

  The journey through the unknown jungle proves a test of great proportion for the newly married woman. She arrives with her brother, Dare, the son of the woman with whom Ajoke was carried off into captivity years back. A combination of incidences and Amelia unknowingly finds self in the care of her mother’s sister, Madam Titilayo. From here, life takes a new turn; she gives birth to Dossou’s son but forces around her connive to deny her the joy of motherhood until much later when she reunites with Dossou, again at the verge of marrying another man.

  Indeed, Campbell-Fatoki’s Threads of Gold Beads is a great historical account of a kingdom at its twilight, a kingdom with a great culture, a kingdom that celebrated Africa’s quintessential virtues and vices. In telling Danhome’s story, Campbell-Fatoki has told the story of old Africa and its glorious and sometimes inglorious ways. Essentially, it’s also a story of Africa’s collision with the West and how the continent emerged worst off and broken under superior firepower. It’s also the story of the regular intrigues in a typical palace, how a favoured child falls on the wrong side of things. It’s also a story of redemption or reuniting of blood relations previously violently separated – Ajoke’s daughter, Amelia, reunites with her lost aunts, Madam Tilayo and Jumoke, Ajoke’s half-sisters.

  But Campbell’s story reads false in a particular respect. Dossou and Amelia’s love seems too modern; their courtship and even after is not exactly reflective of love relationship in old Africa, with its strictness and non-contact of the sexes, even when betrothed. It’s a love that is acknowledged rather than expressed. Theirs is too expressive and not particularly true of the timeline being recounted.

  Also, the first person narrative format is suspect for a non-literate person like Amelia. Campbell-Fatoki could have chosen to write the story otherwise. But overall, Threads of Gold Beads is a great creative effort for which the author is to be commended.