Sola Osofisan
12-21-2009, 03:29 AM
2009... mixed fortunes for Nigeria's fiction, poetry, drama
By Anote Ajeluorou
Writers do not write for prizes, it is often said. Yet the modern literary landscape has made prizes a vital aspect of the creative process. So much so that when a writer has written his piece, he inevitably looks forward to the possible ovation his work will generate or indeed the non-applause or criticism that is also part of the creative process from a discerning readership.
Prizes confirm legitimacy, seriousness, and prestige on writers; they recommend writers to the reading public. And, in an environment like Nigeria, where consumption of creative materials like literary books takes the back seat of people's lifestyles, prizes ultimately become the only reward there is for writers to savour.
Nigeria's prose fiction has been at its lowest ebb this year. There is hardly a work one could point to that made a definitive statement in the novel category. There were a few works here and there but they were caught up in the nagging problems associated with a pauperised publishing environment. Where they exist, either they were poorly edited or poorly packaged such that they do not recommend themselves to any reader with taste.
Perhaps, it is only Prof. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo's Trafficked that is worth mentioning as a work of merit. Though published 2008, it was made public this year. Bisi Daniels' The Girl from Nigeria though dwells on the same subject of female trafficking as Ezeigbo's novel, it is executed in a curious, thriller style that makes it almost foreign writing. These two works deal with the sensitive issue of trafficking in human beings, a business that has attracted world attention to the extent that resources are being deployed to check it worldwide.
The only other novel of note to have appeared on the Nigerian prose fiction genre by a writer who is Nigerian by half is Sarah Ladipo Manyika's In Dependence. It was recently presented to the public. With a Nigerian father and a British mother, Manyika is married to an East African but lives in the United States. Her novel strides Africa and the West and also periods in the colonial and post-colonial eras. She chronicles both the optimism of the era and the pessimism that soon followed and the attendant drift that has characterised Africa's independent nation states ever since.
Onyeka Nweluea also published The Abyssinia Boy to signal the trans-continental relationship between Nigeria and India. It is a work much cherished by the Indian community in Nigeria as it explores the dialogue that could take place between continents and the possible positive results it could yield.
Not to be left out is T.M Aluko, who at 91, still made a strong showing with Our Born Again President. His untiring effort at 91 commands respect and younger writers will do well to follow his footsteps.
Nevertheless, 2009 could be described as the year of poetry. Many poets showed their skills both in publishing and oral performance as the various WorldSlam sessions showed. For a society that is said to read very little, it is surprising that there could be such an avalanche of poetic offering, especially when viewed against the background of the intellectual exertion it requires to understand poetry. This was no deterrent to the nation's poets as they seized on the poetic medium to express themselves.
There's Toni Kan's Songs of Absence and Despair Jumoke Verisimo's I Am Memory, Larry William's Heartlines on Drumcalls. Prof. Adimora-Ezeigbo also published a collection of poems this year. But the most publicised poems are by the famous nine poets that made the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Prize for Literature longlist. Although they were called but they were eventually not chosen as poets of distinction, a situation that drew the fury of literary enthusiasts across the country about a prize possibly fast loosing touch with the Nigerian literary reality.
The poets are Ahmed Maiwada author of Fossils, Diego Okenyodo of From a Poem to its Creator, Musa Idris Opanachi of The Eaters of the Living and G'Ebenyo Ogbowei of Songs of a Dying River. Others are Omo Uwaifo with Litany, Ademola Omobewaji Dasylva with Songs of Odamolugbe, Lindsay Barrett of A Memory of Rivers), Hyginus Ekwuazi of Love Apart and Nengi Josef Ilagha, author of January Gestures.
Although these works were published last year, they were brought to public consciousness early this year. It was also the year that recognition by way of award eluded them save Opanachi's The eaters of the Living, which got the ANA/Cadbury for 2008.
However, the flurry of media blitz that accompanied the LNG Literature Prize robbed off tremendously on these works to the extent that poetry that usually occupied an obscure, intellectual corner waltzed its way into public sphere. So that while the poets lamented their sad fate in not being able to win the $50,000 prize money, they went away far more popularised than they would ever have imagined from their poetic efforts. Sad as this may seem to the nine poets, it is a plus of sorts for literary endeavour in a country with waning literary enthusiasm. Poetry, nay, writing of any sort has benefited hugely from the raging controversy that attended the non-award of the LNG Prize for Literature this year.
Drama didn't fare too well this year either. Very few serious works were published this year although there was a couple of theatrical outings that stimulated stage performance. Prof. Ahmed Yerima had his unpublished work, Little Drops... staged at the National Theatre, Lagos. Also, Wole Oguntokun also staged his yet-to-be-published Tarzan Monologues that explores men's sexuality problems in the face of women's onslaught that tend to render then a little less potent than they actually are. The Jos Repertoire also did a lot during the year to lift theatric expression.
But Peter Olaide-Mesewaku's Awhangan, a play that deals with internal democracy and how a people rose to defend it against the threat of tyranny, makes an absorbing read. It is based on the history of the slave port town of Badagry long before the slave trade began and probably ranks as the best literary effort to have come out of the sleepy border town known for its annual slave history carnival.
Will 2010 be different? Will there be better outpouring of creative efforts next year by Nigerian writers to titillate Nigerian readers? Already, there are indications that this may be so. Dr. Ogochukwu Promise has signaled her interest to come out with a book of immense possibilities. Kan has also indicated his literary direction with another collection of short stories that will continue on the theme of extravagant sexual remiss that promises to be bolder than Nights of the Creaking Bed. And, who else? Time will tell.
Guardian (http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/arts/article01//indexn3_html?pdate=211209&ptitle=2009...%20mixed%20fortunes%20for%20Nigeria% 27s%20fiction,%20poetry,%20drama&cpdate=211209)
By Anote Ajeluorou
Writers do not write for prizes, it is often said. Yet the modern literary landscape has made prizes a vital aspect of the creative process. So much so that when a writer has written his piece, he inevitably looks forward to the possible ovation his work will generate or indeed the non-applause or criticism that is also part of the creative process from a discerning readership.
Prizes confirm legitimacy, seriousness, and prestige on writers; they recommend writers to the reading public. And, in an environment like Nigeria, where consumption of creative materials like literary books takes the back seat of people's lifestyles, prizes ultimately become the only reward there is for writers to savour.
Nigeria's prose fiction has been at its lowest ebb this year. There is hardly a work one could point to that made a definitive statement in the novel category. There were a few works here and there but they were caught up in the nagging problems associated with a pauperised publishing environment. Where they exist, either they were poorly edited or poorly packaged such that they do not recommend themselves to any reader with taste.
Perhaps, it is only Prof. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo's Trafficked that is worth mentioning as a work of merit. Though published 2008, it was made public this year. Bisi Daniels' The Girl from Nigeria though dwells on the same subject of female trafficking as Ezeigbo's novel, it is executed in a curious, thriller style that makes it almost foreign writing. These two works deal with the sensitive issue of trafficking in human beings, a business that has attracted world attention to the extent that resources are being deployed to check it worldwide.
The only other novel of note to have appeared on the Nigerian prose fiction genre by a writer who is Nigerian by half is Sarah Ladipo Manyika's In Dependence. It was recently presented to the public. With a Nigerian father and a British mother, Manyika is married to an East African but lives in the United States. Her novel strides Africa and the West and also periods in the colonial and post-colonial eras. She chronicles both the optimism of the era and the pessimism that soon followed and the attendant drift that has characterised Africa's independent nation states ever since.
Onyeka Nweluea also published The Abyssinia Boy to signal the trans-continental relationship between Nigeria and India. It is a work much cherished by the Indian community in Nigeria as it explores the dialogue that could take place between continents and the possible positive results it could yield.
Not to be left out is T.M Aluko, who at 91, still made a strong showing with Our Born Again President. His untiring effort at 91 commands respect and younger writers will do well to follow his footsteps.
Nevertheless, 2009 could be described as the year of poetry. Many poets showed their skills both in publishing and oral performance as the various WorldSlam sessions showed. For a society that is said to read very little, it is surprising that there could be such an avalanche of poetic offering, especially when viewed against the background of the intellectual exertion it requires to understand poetry. This was no deterrent to the nation's poets as they seized on the poetic medium to express themselves.
There's Toni Kan's Songs of Absence and Despair Jumoke Verisimo's I Am Memory, Larry William's Heartlines on Drumcalls. Prof. Adimora-Ezeigbo also published a collection of poems this year. But the most publicised poems are by the famous nine poets that made the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Prize for Literature longlist. Although they were called but they were eventually not chosen as poets of distinction, a situation that drew the fury of literary enthusiasts across the country about a prize possibly fast loosing touch with the Nigerian literary reality.
The poets are Ahmed Maiwada author of Fossils, Diego Okenyodo of From a Poem to its Creator, Musa Idris Opanachi of The Eaters of the Living and G'Ebenyo Ogbowei of Songs of a Dying River. Others are Omo Uwaifo with Litany, Ademola Omobewaji Dasylva with Songs of Odamolugbe, Lindsay Barrett of A Memory of Rivers), Hyginus Ekwuazi of Love Apart and Nengi Josef Ilagha, author of January Gestures.
Although these works were published last year, they were brought to public consciousness early this year. It was also the year that recognition by way of award eluded them save Opanachi's The eaters of the Living, which got the ANA/Cadbury for 2008.
However, the flurry of media blitz that accompanied the LNG Literature Prize robbed off tremendously on these works to the extent that poetry that usually occupied an obscure, intellectual corner waltzed its way into public sphere. So that while the poets lamented their sad fate in not being able to win the $50,000 prize money, they went away far more popularised than they would ever have imagined from their poetic efforts. Sad as this may seem to the nine poets, it is a plus of sorts for literary endeavour in a country with waning literary enthusiasm. Poetry, nay, writing of any sort has benefited hugely from the raging controversy that attended the non-award of the LNG Prize for Literature this year.
Drama didn't fare too well this year either. Very few serious works were published this year although there was a couple of theatrical outings that stimulated stage performance. Prof. Ahmed Yerima had his unpublished work, Little Drops... staged at the National Theatre, Lagos. Also, Wole Oguntokun also staged his yet-to-be-published Tarzan Monologues that explores men's sexuality problems in the face of women's onslaught that tend to render then a little less potent than they actually are. The Jos Repertoire also did a lot during the year to lift theatric expression.
But Peter Olaide-Mesewaku's Awhangan, a play that deals with internal democracy and how a people rose to defend it against the threat of tyranny, makes an absorbing read. It is based on the history of the slave port town of Badagry long before the slave trade began and probably ranks as the best literary effort to have come out of the sleepy border town known for its annual slave history carnival.
Will 2010 be different? Will there be better outpouring of creative efforts next year by Nigerian writers to titillate Nigerian readers? Already, there are indications that this may be so. Dr. Ogochukwu Promise has signaled her interest to come out with a book of immense possibilities. Kan has also indicated his literary direction with another collection of short stories that will continue on the theme of extravagant sexual remiss that promises to be bolder than Nights of the Creaking Bed. And, who else? Time will tell.
Guardian (http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/arts/article01//indexn3_html?pdate=211209&ptitle=2009...%20mixed%20fortunes%20for%20Nigeria% 27s%20fiction,%20poetry,%20drama&cpdate=211209)