The Diaspora Generation of Nigerian Literature

I think it is equally important to touch on what I see as an unnecessary dichotomization of the Nigerian literary scene. I do this, not only because I was born in an age in which the essentializing of artificial differences between ethnic groups led to a war and to enduring unfair levels of developments in different parts of the country, and I have had my own share of the resultant misery; I touch on this binary spirit because it is essentially unhelpful to us all. Let us recall Emmanuel Sule's words:

Beyond the Marxist infection, we are faced with another self-destructive disease which is the unthoughtful Americanization of our literary language. You may have noticed that Nigerian writers are not just enthusiastic about hopping into the United States of America under the disguise of self-exile or the search for greener pasture, they are also quick in surrendering to the watery diction of American literature.

I am not sure what Americanization of our literary language means. Of course America is such a huge country that any person can pick up anything from anywhere. But if any Nigerian can pick up Toni Morrison's language, or Jamaica Kincaid's, or Ralph Ellison's, Susan Lori Park's or James Baldwin's etc – I have only mentioned names of people who look most like Nigerians – then he or she might not have had an ugly influence. Given that more than seventy percent of significant members of the Third Generation Nigerian writers reside outside Nigeria or draw their inspiration from without, yet write about Nigerian experience, it is correct to call them Diaspora Generation. But this is not actually the bone of contention here. The most important thing, for me, is that one tells important stories of Nigerian (actually human) experience, as the two ladies above have. Does it really matter from where one learns?

Nigeria, unfortunately, has failed to provide us all with an effective intellectual community. We all are to blame for that. I am not in the habit of condemning or commending any human being who has left or who has not left their country. However, I know that many people were basically forced to leave Nigeria while many others, like other citizens of the world, chose to go to places they can expand their opportunities. They need not be damned for that. Some Nigerians sold basically everything they had and set out in search of opportunities that their country denied them. Some struck success overseas; many were repatriated while some came back in coffins. To dismiss some of these as merely "hopping into the United States of America,"or to qualify most of our honest effort to establish ourselves in spite of many odds as "disguise of self-exile" reveals a reluctance to understand the plight of others. It is unfair.

NNLG literature prize excluded Nigerians living abroad for the reason that these Nigerians ostensibly have better opportunities to write than homegrown Nigerians do. What an irony. So far Nigerians abroad have written the country back into the literary world and we all are happier and intellectually richer for that. I think that the most important thing for the Nigerian mind and the literary scene now is to welcome anything that can truly enrich our humanity and create opportunities for all of us. We increase the sum total of our humanity when we become more inclusive than exclusive, more positive-minded than negative.