Sola Osofisan
09-17-2007, 04:04 PM
By MCPHILIPS NWACHUKWU
Professor Tony Afejuku of the Department of English, University of Benin, is a poet, a critic and an activist. As a scholar-activist, he is very passionate about issues that attempt to devalue the integrity of scholarship and artistic essence. Hence, last week on a brief stop over at Lagos airport on his way to the United States, he spared some moments to respond to the ill pronouncement alleged to have been made by the Bayelsa State governor, Timipre Sylva, that humanistic studies are no longer relevant to the developmental needs of new Bayelsa State. He also spoke on some other engaging literary issues. Excerpts.
PROF, how are you? It’s been a long time...
Hee Mcphilips! It is my pleasure to see you again. Thank God for your life. I made several attempts to see you that time you were down. But, before I could reach you, you had already been flown to South Africa for treatment. I’m pleasantly happy to see you healthy again. And you, Madam? (referring to my wife) nice to see you again. Still looking pretty. Thank you for taking care of my friend.
And where are you hopping to this time?
Oh, I’m travelling to the States.
What’s happening there? Is it for the Okigbo conference in Boston?
No, not really. Just to catch some rest and to do some scholarly things, though I might still hop in to see what’s happening in Boston, if I’d still be in the States till then.
That’s good. And I have been meaning to reach you to give you a copy of my collection; So Long A Night?
Congrats, by the way. I have read reviews of the book in the papers and more so, I got a copy of it from one student from Igbinedion University, who said they read it for a course. I think I find it interesting and have also recommended it for my MA graduate class in African poetry.
Oh, thank you Prof. I'd like to see how graduate students respond to it. Luckily for me too, Part three Sandwich English class in the University of Lagos used the text last year and Professor Ezeigbo, who taught the class, invited me to interact with the students in one of their sessions, and I must say that the encounter was quite fascinating.
Really?
Yeah. But, I frankly wanted to see you that time when Governor Timipere was alleged to have said that humanistic education are no longer relevant to the developmental needs of the new Bayelsa State and also that the College of Arts and Science in the state should be merged with the Faculty of Law of the Niger Delta University. I wanted to know how you would have responded to such a high profile disturbing pronouncement?
Very quickly, I must say. If actually such thing was said, it must have been a very stupid thing. But, the governor is said to have since denied the statement or called it back or withdrawn it. At that time he was said to have made the pronouncements, he was seriously lambasted by many newspaper columnists and media houses. I remember a very interesting and sweet article that I read on that by Dr. Hope Eghagha of the Department of English, University of Lagos. The article was published in The Guardian Newspaper. In that article, Eghagha gave him a thorough dress down. And, since then, I must say that the man has since eaten his words. Let us take it that he never said that.
But, I want to believe, anyway, that he said it. And, after the many lambasting he got from critics, he began to do a turn around by recanting the statements, which I think is a very stupid thing to do. More so, one has since discovered that the man is a graduate of the Arts, do they say, a graduate of English for that matter. But, power is a very terrible thing.
That was a very disappointing thing for the number one citizen of that state to do. But, we know today from that singular action that those who run our affairs in this country are either ill informed, stark illiterates or terrible human beings masquerading as intelligent representatives of the people. Power is a very terrible thing. Once somebody has power, even if it is a local power, he begins to dream and dream nonsensically.
Look Prof. Let us remove sentiment from all this. I can feel the sentiment running in you. Let us not waive what His Excellency has said away like that. Maybe there might be some truth in his positions after all. By the way, you, yourself, are a scholar, teacher and student of humanities. Would you be fair enough to give us an assessment of the continued relevance of humanistic education in the present times?
With all humility, I say to you that humanistic studies rule the world. Whatever achievements today that you see in the realm of science started or had their off shoots in the humanities. You will not believe this, but, the poet, for instance, has always been a dreamer, a possible dreamer as it were. Let us go back to a writer like George Orwell, all the predictions he made in his novel, 1984, many years ago are finding fulfilment today.
All the great discoveries that abound in the world today that are explained with different philosophical and scientific theories were first given humanistic pulse through creative thinking. Without the arts, we will not have the world. There is a strong relationship between science and the arts. And, again, humanistic studies make people more humane in their relationship with fellow human beings and the universe and even with animals created by God in such a way that enables the world to move on towards further discoveries and advancements.
If these brilliant achievements are all enhanced through humanistic studies, why is there still this disturbing unappreciation of the arts. In this country, for instance, federal government admission policy to tertiary education is still in favour of scientific and engineering education and, in like manner, society seems to honour and respect science and engineering graduates more than arts graduates. Maybe the governor was responding to a communal unconscious thinking...?
I must say that leaders in this part of the world are genetically evil. They have primordial sensibilities and the leaders are concerned only with how to grab and grab at the expense of the led with little regards to how governance could benefit the masses. And nobody asks why? If not for this reason, why would a governor be credited with such a pronouncement. And why is it too that the state of our nation is what it is today? Something must be wrong in the black man, something must be wrong with his sensibility or thinking faculty.
It is a pity that we are intelligent and we must regret being intelligent and that is why idiots would make such pronouncements without qualms and take over the realms of governance. We shouldn’t have gone to school in the first place. We shouldn’t have acquired our degrees. It is unfortunate that all those who govern us and oversee the life of this nation have little or no consideration for how to turn this immensely gifted and rich country into what is expected of it.
You don’t think we should leave Nigeria and her leaders alone and talk about our own forsaken country- the land of literature. How can we describe the direction of Nigerian writing today?
Nigerian writing today is rudderless. When we talk about direction, what exactly do we have in mind? It is a pity that we have no schools. Today, we have Achebe, the father of African novel. But, we don’t talk about the Achebe school or Soyinka school or J.P.Clark school or Okigbo school or Ekwensi school.
No. They are not there. We just keep on writing without trying to say that this writer is an offspring of Achebe or Soyinka or Clark or Ekwensi. We can not say that and we are not doing that. And, as it were, these writers were given birth by one generation and they constitute the aristocratic icons of Nigerian writing. And this accident of birth has its own problem too. Who then will you name the school after? Achebe or Soyinka or the other big names?
Soyinka, for instance, has won the Nobel prize and, whether you like it or not, he has won the Nobel, even though it is a western thing. Ironically, even those who talk so passionately and approvingly of Soyinka and Achebe refuse to be identified as belonging to either of these writers' schools. Except now we agree to do a re-working, the writing tradition in the country will remain rudderless. Take, for instance, Adichie.
Though I have not read her, but, the views that I have read about her writing in the papers have not identified her with any of these schools. You, for instance, write good poetry, but nobody can say that you belong to either of the schools. I have been thinking along this line whether it is not possible to have schools. Nothing stops us from having agricultural poets or environmental poets and all that.
Maybe you should explain more...
I mean schools of writing in terms of influence, in terms of subject matter, forms, content and all that. In England, for instance, there was the age of Chaucer, the Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan, Augustan, etc. And each period was marked by certain defining attributes and writers. Such categorization helps to understand both the historical, cultural and social growth of a nation. And, primarily, it helps to provide deeper understanding of the literary forth of a nation.
Vanguard (http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/features/arts/at109092007.html)
Professor Tony Afejuku of the Department of English, University of Benin, is a poet, a critic and an activist. As a scholar-activist, he is very passionate about issues that attempt to devalue the integrity of scholarship and artistic essence. Hence, last week on a brief stop over at Lagos airport on his way to the United States, he spared some moments to respond to the ill pronouncement alleged to have been made by the Bayelsa State governor, Timipre Sylva, that humanistic studies are no longer relevant to the developmental needs of new Bayelsa State. He also spoke on some other engaging literary issues. Excerpts.
PROF, how are you? It’s been a long time...
Hee Mcphilips! It is my pleasure to see you again. Thank God for your life. I made several attempts to see you that time you were down. But, before I could reach you, you had already been flown to South Africa for treatment. I’m pleasantly happy to see you healthy again. And you, Madam? (referring to my wife) nice to see you again. Still looking pretty. Thank you for taking care of my friend.
And where are you hopping to this time?
Oh, I’m travelling to the States.
What’s happening there? Is it for the Okigbo conference in Boston?
No, not really. Just to catch some rest and to do some scholarly things, though I might still hop in to see what’s happening in Boston, if I’d still be in the States till then.
That’s good. And I have been meaning to reach you to give you a copy of my collection; So Long A Night?
Congrats, by the way. I have read reviews of the book in the papers and more so, I got a copy of it from one student from Igbinedion University, who said they read it for a course. I think I find it interesting and have also recommended it for my MA graduate class in African poetry.
Oh, thank you Prof. I'd like to see how graduate students respond to it. Luckily for me too, Part three Sandwich English class in the University of Lagos used the text last year and Professor Ezeigbo, who taught the class, invited me to interact with the students in one of their sessions, and I must say that the encounter was quite fascinating.
Really?
Yeah. But, I frankly wanted to see you that time when Governor Timipere was alleged to have said that humanistic education are no longer relevant to the developmental needs of the new Bayelsa State and also that the College of Arts and Science in the state should be merged with the Faculty of Law of the Niger Delta University. I wanted to know how you would have responded to such a high profile disturbing pronouncement?
Very quickly, I must say. If actually such thing was said, it must have been a very stupid thing. But, the governor is said to have since denied the statement or called it back or withdrawn it. At that time he was said to have made the pronouncements, he was seriously lambasted by many newspaper columnists and media houses. I remember a very interesting and sweet article that I read on that by Dr. Hope Eghagha of the Department of English, University of Lagos. The article was published in The Guardian Newspaper. In that article, Eghagha gave him a thorough dress down. And, since then, I must say that the man has since eaten his words. Let us take it that he never said that.
But, I want to believe, anyway, that he said it. And, after the many lambasting he got from critics, he began to do a turn around by recanting the statements, which I think is a very stupid thing to do. More so, one has since discovered that the man is a graduate of the Arts, do they say, a graduate of English for that matter. But, power is a very terrible thing.
That was a very disappointing thing for the number one citizen of that state to do. But, we know today from that singular action that those who run our affairs in this country are either ill informed, stark illiterates or terrible human beings masquerading as intelligent representatives of the people. Power is a very terrible thing. Once somebody has power, even if it is a local power, he begins to dream and dream nonsensically.
Look Prof. Let us remove sentiment from all this. I can feel the sentiment running in you. Let us not waive what His Excellency has said away like that. Maybe there might be some truth in his positions after all. By the way, you, yourself, are a scholar, teacher and student of humanities. Would you be fair enough to give us an assessment of the continued relevance of humanistic education in the present times?
With all humility, I say to you that humanistic studies rule the world. Whatever achievements today that you see in the realm of science started or had their off shoots in the humanities. You will not believe this, but, the poet, for instance, has always been a dreamer, a possible dreamer as it were. Let us go back to a writer like George Orwell, all the predictions he made in his novel, 1984, many years ago are finding fulfilment today.
All the great discoveries that abound in the world today that are explained with different philosophical and scientific theories were first given humanistic pulse through creative thinking. Without the arts, we will not have the world. There is a strong relationship between science and the arts. And, again, humanistic studies make people more humane in their relationship with fellow human beings and the universe and even with animals created by God in such a way that enables the world to move on towards further discoveries and advancements.
If these brilliant achievements are all enhanced through humanistic studies, why is there still this disturbing unappreciation of the arts. In this country, for instance, federal government admission policy to tertiary education is still in favour of scientific and engineering education and, in like manner, society seems to honour and respect science and engineering graduates more than arts graduates. Maybe the governor was responding to a communal unconscious thinking...?
I must say that leaders in this part of the world are genetically evil. They have primordial sensibilities and the leaders are concerned only with how to grab and grab at the expense of the led with little regards to how governance could benefit the masses. And nobody asks why? If not for this reason, why would a governor be credited with such a pronouncement. And why is it too that the state of our nation is what it is today? Something must be wrong in the black man, something must be wrong with his sensibility or thinking faculty.
It is a pity that we are intelligent and we must regret being intelligent and that is why idiots would make such pronouncements without qualms and take over the realms of governance. We shouldn’t have gone to school in the first place. We shouldn’t have acquired our degrees. It is unfortunate that all those who govern us and oversee the life of this nation have little or no consideration for how to turn this immensely gifted and rich country into what is expected of it.
You don’t think we should leave Nigeria and her leaders alone and talk about our own forsaken country- the land of literature. How can we describe the direction of Nigerian writing today?
Nigerian writing today is rudderless. When we talk about direction, what exactly do we have in mind? It is a pity that we have no schools. Today, we have Achebe, the father of African novel. But, we don’t talk about the Achebe school or Soyinka school or J.P.Clark school or Okigbo school or Ekwensi school.
No. They are not there. We just keep on writing without trying to say that this writer is an offspring of Achebe or Soyinka or Clark or Ekwensi. We can not say that and we are not doing that. And, as it were, these writers were given birth by one generation and they constitute the aristocratic icons of Nigerian writing. And this accident of birth has its own problem too. Who then will you name the school after? Achebe or Soyinka or the other big names?
Soyinka, for instance, has won the Nobel prize and, whether you like it or not, he has won the Nobel, even though it is a western thing. Ironically, even those who talk so passionately and approvingly of Soyinka and Achebe refuse to be identified as belonging to either of these writers' schools. Except now we agree to do a re-working, the writing tradition in the country will remain rudderless. Take, for instance, Adichie.
Though I have not read her, but, the views that I have read about her writing in the papers have not identified her with any of these schools. You, for instance, write good poetry, but nobody can say that you belong to either of the schools. I have been thinking along this line whether it is not possible to have schools. Nothing stops us from having agricultural poets or environmental poets and all that.
Maybe you should explain more...
I mean schools of writing in terms of influence, in terms of subject matter, forms, content and all that. In England, for instance, there was the age of Chaucer, the Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan, Augustan, etc. And each period was marked by certain defining attributes and writers. Such categorization helps to understand both the historical, cultural and social growth of a nation. And, primarily, it helps to provide deeper understanding of the literary forth of a nation.
Vanguard (http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/features/arts/at109092007.html)