Sola Osofisan
05-13-2007, 03:39 PM
By UZEZI EKERE
These days, when book prizes are awarded in Nigeria the air is rent with muffled protests and comments that ostensibly aim at disparaging the winning authors' achievements or contributions to the swelling pool of Nigerian literature. In 2006, the first ever Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa was awarded to Sefi Atta's first book, Everything Good Will Come. Ever since it was awarded to the book, prize has been trailed by controversy. The first shot came from unexpected quarters, from Ahmed Maiwada, an aspiring writer whose flak was first directed through an Internet list-serve comprising members of the Nigerian literati resident at home and in the Diaspora.
In a recent publication, Maiwada, a lawyer by profession based in the north, pilloried the decision of the judges who he described as awarding the prize to a book that is trash. But his comments have not gone down well with a critical section of the writers' community in Nigeria who consider them as malicious. Maiwada called the judges who gave Sefi Atta the first Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, mediocres, while describing as second class.
The prize is an initiative of Lumina Foundation, a pet project of Dr. Promise Okekwe. Okekwe, a multiple award-winning author and a frontline female writer. In a recent interview, she disclosed was set up four years ago to help people grow their minds. “We want to redirect the minds of people from mundane things, towards those things that last, that are really edifying,” she said. “Things that will actually help to lift the social system upwards, because we believe that if the individual is developed, that's how you get a developed nation.”
Ahmed Maiwada's opinion on the prize seems to cast aspersions on its credibility.
“I don't have any regard for our literary judges,” Maiwada was quoted to have said. “For those who judged the first Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa to select Sefi Atta's book as the winner is an embarrassment to Nigeria literature. If you read Jackie Collins novel, Lucky, her novel is structured the same way: we have the same characters who are females and party freaks. Are the judges encouraging popular fiction? For Sefi's thrash to beat Remi Raji's entry, Love Song For My Wasteland, a good literary work, shows that there's no hope for Nigeria. Any writer who wants to get a deserved award should look towards the West.”
Contrary to this posture, other Nigerians have expressed confidence in the intentions of Lumina Foundation as regard the prize. “It is to encourage writers, reading, good writing, good publishing. The Wole Soyinka Prize isn't just about getting the $20, 000. It is a celebration of people who have excelled around the arts. Even corporative institutions, that has over the years being very active in fulfilling their social responsibilities. It's to celebrate excellence, it means you have to encourage people to work very hard. Encourage people to look inward and see how they can be developed” Okekwe was moved to say, in reaction to the endorsements.
Apparently all that did not impress Maiwada and as Wole Oguntokun, another lawyer who is a prolific playwright put it: “The man is mentally ill. He is mentally disturbed. The book is brilliant and the narrative is descriptive and very powerful. I don't know what that man (Maiwada) was talking about.”
Not even Odia Ofeimun thought the book was bad enough to be called thrash and second rate. Odia Ofeimun, one of the first people to read the book, wrote a blurb which appears on the back cover of the book.
Says Ofeimun: “Sefi Atta's first novel has the nerve to redirect existing traditions of African story telling. It confronts the familiar passions of a city and a country with unusual insights and a lyrical power pointing our literature to truly greater heights.”
Although Ofeimun is well-known for his self-opinionated views, not a few observers are inclined to accept that he is given to impartial assessment of literary quality. A fine stickler for quality and high standards, he is respected for his judgement of literary quality and standard.
Angela Anyanwu said she read the book in 2005. “I was at the mall when the book reading was going on. I had no idea what it was about, but because I saw people gathered, I asked and was told. I have always loved books, but haven't patronized Nigerian writings. That day, with what they were saying there, I bought the book, and read it, and since I have been reading many Nigerian books. I don't think that comment is fair, but that is his opinion, and personally, he would have kept it to himself, because people will think he is envious of her achievement. His comment isn't encouraging. If I am a writer, that will discourage me” she said, referring to Maiwada's scathing opinion on the book.
But it is doubtful that such comment would discourage hard-boiled writers like Sefi Atta. In a recent interview with National Mirror, she sounded visibly excited about her book: “The prize from the Lumina Foundation is a blessing. Truly. I also take it as a responsibility because many Nigerians work hard and they never get this kind of huge remuneration. I got it for doing what I love and I will support Lumina as much as I can to benefit other writers.”
When asked what inspired her to write Everything Good Will Come, she added: “I have not read one like it before, told from the point of view of a woman like Enitan, born in the 1960s. I just had to tell the story.”
Sefi Atta just finished work on a collection of short stories entitled Lawless. And her second novel entitled Swallow will soon be out under Farafina Books.
http://www.nationalmirrornews.com/mirror/content.php?section=10&readnews=22&story=6580
These days, when book prizes are awarded in Nigeria the air is rent with muffled protests and comments that ostensibly aim at disparaging the winning authors' achievements or contributions to the swelling pool of Nigerian literature. In 2006, the first ever Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa was awarded to Sefi Atta's first book, Everything Good Will Come. Ever since it was awarded to the book, prize has been trailed by controversy. The first shot came from unexpected quarters, from Ahmed Maiwada, an aspiring writer whose flak was first directed through an Internet list-serve comprising members of the Nigerian literati resident at home and in the Diaspora.
In a recent publication, Maiwada, a lawyer by profession based in the north, pilloried the decision of the judges who he described as awarding the prize to a book that is trash. But his comments have not gone down well with a critical section of the writers' community in Nigeria who consider them as malicious. Maiwada called the judges who gave Sefi Atta the first Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, mediocres, while describing as second class.
The prize is an initiative of Lumina Foundation, a pet project of Dr. Promise Okekwe. Okekwe, a multiple award-winning author and a frontline female writer. In a recent interview, she disclosed was set up four years ago to help people grow their minds. “We want to redirect the minds of people from mundane things, towards those things that last, that are really edifying,” she said. “Things that will actually help to lift the social system upwards, because we believe that if the individual is developed, that's how you get a developed nation.”
Ahmed Maiwada's opinion on the prize seems to cast aspersions on its credibility.
“I don't have any regard for our literary judges,” Maiwada was quoted to have said. “For those who judged the first Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa to select Sefi Atta's book as the winner is an embarrassment to Nigeria literature. If you read Jackie Collins novel, Lucky, her novel is structured the same way: we have the same characters who are females and party freaks. Are the judges encouraging popular fiction? For Sefi's thrash to beat Remi Raji's entry, Love Song For My Wasteland, a good literary work, shows that there's no hope for Nigeria. Any writer who wants to get a deserved award should look towards the West.”
Contrary to this posture, other Nigerians have expressed confidence in the intentions of Lumina Foundation as regard the prize. “It is to encourage writers, reading, good writing, good publishing. The Wole Soyinka Prize isn't just about getting the $20, 000. It is a celebration of people who have excelled around the arts. Even corporative institutions, that has over the years being very active in fulfilling their social responsibilities. It's to celebrate excellence, it means you have to encourage people to work very hard. Encourage people to look inward and see how they can be developed” Okekwe was moved to say, in reaction to the endorsements.
Apparently all that did not impress Maiwada and as Wole Oguntokun, another lawyer who is a prolific playwright put it: “The man is mentally ill. He is mentally disturbed. The book is brilliant and the narrative is descriptive and very powerful. I don't know what that man (Maiwada) was talking about.”
Not even Odia Ofeimun thought the book was bad enough to be called thrash and second rate. Odia Ofeimun, one of the first people to read the book, wrote a blurb which appears on the back cover of the book.
Says Ofeimun: “Sefi Atta's first novel has the nerve to redirect existing traditions of African story telling. It confronts the familiar passions of a city and a country with unusual insights and a lyrical power pointing our literature to truly greater heights.”
Although Ofeimun is well-known for his self-opinionated views, not a few observers are inclined to accept that he is given to impartial assessment of literary quality. A fine stickler for quality and high standards, he is respected for his judgement of literary quality and standard.
Angela Anyanwu said she read the book in 2005. “I was at the mall when the book reading was going on. I had no idea what it was about, but because I saw people gathered, I asked and was told. I have always loved books, but haven't patronized Nigerian writings. That day, with what they were saying there, I bought the book, and read it, and since I have been reading many Nigerian books. I don't think that comment is fair, but that is his opinion, and personally, he would have kept it to himself, because people will think he is envious of her achievement. His comment isn't encouraging. If I am a writer, that will discourage me” she said, referring to Maiwada's scathing opinion on the book.
But it is doubtful that such comment would discourage hard-boiled writers like Sefi Atta. In a recent interview with National Mirror, she sounded visibly excited about her book: “The prize from the Lumina Foundation is a blessing. Truly. I also take it as a responsibility because many Nigerians work hard and they never get this kind of huge remuneration. I got it for doing what I love and I will support Lumina as much as I can to benefit other writers.”
When asked what inspired her to write Everything Good Will Come, she added: “I have not read one like it before, told from the point of view of a woman like Enitan, born in the 1960s. I just had to tell the story.”
Sefi Atta just finished work on a collection of short stories entitled Lawless. And her second novel entitled Swallow will soon be out under Farafina Books.
http://www.nationalmirrornews.com/mirror/content.php?section=10&readnews=22&story=6580