Creative writing, publishing
and the future
of Nigerian Literature
By Prof. VINCENT CHUKWUEMEKA IKE
Creative writing, publishing
and the future
of Nigerian Literature
By Prof. VINCENT CHUKWUEMEKA IKE
Special to
USAfricaonline.com
USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
NigeriaCentral.com
As I wondered what to say on this memorable occasion, my thoughts flashed back to the words of the English poet, Thomas Gray (1716-1771) in his 'Elegy written in a Country Church - Yard', one of the poems we learnt at Government College, Umuahia;
Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Pondering over the unrealised potentials of some of the persons laid to rest in the cemetery, Gray speculated that "some mute inglorious Milton here may rest."
Chike Momah's two published novels, Friends and Dreams (1997) and Titi: Biafran Maid in Geneva (1999) have brought to light what some of us who have known the author from his days at Government College, Umuahia, have always known: that he is a literary gem of purest ray serene. Over the years, over the decades, we used various strategies to prevail on him to stretch out his wings and fly, to allow the world to enjoy his literary sweetness. I thank God that he did not die to be mourned as a "mute inglorious Milton."
Friends and Dreams, Chike Momah's first novel, was published in 1997. Aged about 67 at the time, the author had already retired from United Nations service. In Nigeria, a country whose military dictators had an allergy for age and experience, he would long have been declared unproductive, unwanted old cargo, and booted out. His emergence as a creative writer of note at that age, and the speed with which Titi: Biafran Maid in Geneva, followed in 1999, brings out one of the important characteristics of creative writing. Mgbe onye jiri tete, o buru ututu ya, as the Igbo say: 'It is from the hour you wake up that your own morning dawns.' There is no statutory age range for creative writing. It is my prayer that other senior citizens with bottled up literary gems reading about the Momah success will follow suit.
In the 1980s it was fashionable for young Nigerian writers who felt marginalised by the established writers to call on the latter to retire, to clear the stage for the young ones. The budding writers saw that as the only chance they had to shine. As long as the old, celebrated writers remained in the glare of national and international publicity, the young writers would never receive attention and, consequently, stood no chance of becoming famous themselves, nationally and internationally.
One can appreciate the consternation of the young Nigerian writer, pitted against the Nobel Laureate for literature Wole Soyinka, and one of the most decorated novelists of the 20th century, Chinua Achebe. My quarrel is with their diagnosis of the cause of their dilemma. They see a creative writer's career through the jaundiced eyes of a society allergic to age and experience, a society which celebrates massive public service "purges" as the key to an efficient civil service, a society which dumps as unproductive any peson above 60, or any person who has served his country for up to thirty-five years.
Chike Momah's two brilliant novels in two years, with more in the pipeline, demonstrate eloquently that there is no retirement age in creative writing. Dr. T.M. Aluko, now in his 80's and battling with a stroke, has demonstrated that literary creativity has no age limitations. I am outdooring my next novel, Conspiracy of Silence, to be published by Longman Nigeria, on the occasion of my 70th birthday next month. My short stories will appear in a collection titled The Accra Riviera published by Oyster St. Iyke (Ltd.). Only death can silence the creative writer.
I said a little earlier that my disagreement with our young writers is over their diagnosis of the cause of their dilemma, a diagnosis which reminds me of the Igbo proverb about the chicken in a soup pot blaming its tragic circumstances on the soup pot rather than on the person who slit its throat. The present day Nigerian writer is unable to receive appropriate attention not because the established writers stand in his way but because the environment which pitchforked Nigeria's celebrated writers into international prominence does not exist in Nigeria of the late 20th century and early 21st century.
Nigerian writers who made their debut in the 1950s and 1960s were invariably published in Europe, by foreign publishers who used their multinational networks to promote their books. You received international attention with your first book, more or less. The multinational publishers also took extra pains to promote promising authors. Alan Hill brought Achebe to the literary world. Rex Collings did the same for Wole Soyinka.
The major literary awards which serve as parameters for evaluating the greatness of a Nigerian creative writer are also foreign based and controlled. It was the British Booker Award which automatically conferred greatness on Ben Okri. As for the Nobel Prize in Literature, that is considered the highest crown of glory on earth (by the Western World) for any writer. It is a well known fact that no Nigerian writer, however brilliant, can hope to win the prize unless he has a powerful lobby in Europe or the USA. The world acclaimed scholars of African literature whose verdicts determine which Nigerian writer is worthy of international attention are also foreigners who have been joined in their foreign countries by many Nigerian literary scholars.
We rejoiced that a new era had dawned when the Obasanjo administration conferred a one million Naira literary award on visiting Prof. Chinua Achebe. It soon became obvious that the administration was more concerned with making a fitting cash presentation to Prof. Achebe than with instituting a major literary award to promote Nigerian literature.
Where does all this leave the Nigerian writer? And Nigerian literature? The once famous Heineman African writers series which brought Achebe, Aluko, Ekwensi, Amadi, Nwapa, Munonye and many others to prominence ran aground decades ago. Fontana Books which brought Ike, Soyinka, Obi Egbuna, Adaora Ulasi and others into the limelight died in the early 1980s. The economic downturn which began in the 1980s and has since continued, dealt the knockout blow on foreign publishing. The abysmal value of the naira meant that a foreign publisher could not market the published books in Nigeria, which has constituted a major deterrent.
The Nigerian publisher is too apathetic and preoccupied with competing for textbook adoptions to fill the vacuum. The Nigerian government has remained indifferent. Its shocking lack of appreciation of the centrality of culture to national development is clearly written in the fortunes of our ministry of culture.
Within two years of its creation as a separate ministry, in the euphoria of a still born 1988 national policy on culture, it had four ministers.
Within the less than two years of the Obasanjo administration, culture has had two bedfellows - firstly, information, currently tourism; worse still, the ministry has had three different ministers in less than the two years, and President Obasanjo appears more concerned with zoning headship of the ministry to a section of the country than the relevance of the credentials of the minister of culture.
God has blessed Nigeria with Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka,
brilliant writers any country can justifiably be proud of. But the
Igbo say that one pair of feet alone cannot keep a homestead clean.
The works of two writers cannot make a national literature.
Unfortunately Nigerian literature is fast becoming an endangered
species, and urgent remedial action is imperative if 21st century
Nigeria is to produce its own crop of brilliant writers. One crucial
step in this direction is for the appropriate organ of the federal
ministry of culture and tourism to organise a national conference on
Nigerian Literature in the 21st century to diagnose the major
problems and chart the way forward.
•Prof. Ike, former registrar of the WAEC and author of
several books and novels, made this presentation at the launch of
Chike Momah's book, 'Titi: Biafran Maid in Geneva and Friends and
Dreams' co-hosted by the Nigerian Chartered Institute of Bankers, in
2001.
TRIBUTE
Chinua
Achebe:
The Voice of Ancient and Modern Africa.
Achebe, scholar, social conscience, cultural
historian and globally-acclaimed writer, has been a
significant and binding source for an engaging understanding
of African pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial history
and realities. I believe that such insight has made him a
favorite of African-Americans, and other scholars and
regular folks in search of a better, realistic understanding
of Africa, at least, from Achebe's utilization of his rich
and dynamic Igbo ancestry, in south eastern Nigeria. I share
the same ancestry, and he's one of my mentors. By
Chido Nwangwu
A Tribute to
V.C.
Ike at 70. By
Prof. Chinua Achebe
|
Creative writing, publishing and
the future of Nigerian Literature. By Prof.
Chukwuemeka Ike
|
Nelson Mandela, Tribute to the world's political superstar and Lion of Africa Martin Luther King's legacy, Jews and Black History Month Ethnic Cleansing and slaughter in the Sudan by Dawud Ibrahim Salih, Muhammad Adam Yahya, Abdul Hafiz Omar Sharief and Osman Abbakorah, representatives of the Massaleit community in exile, Cairo, Egypt Why International community should note  the
old military dictator in Obasanjo is abusing
human
rights of Igbos,
others in
Nigeria. By
Egbebelu UgobeluOkigwe killings: A possible prelude to a pogrom? by Dr. M. O. Ene |
A
trial of two cities and struggle for 
CONTINENTAL
AGENDA
he
said that "Africa will not be an area of priority" in his
presidency has been questioned by
USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido
Nwangwu. He added that Bush's "pre-election position was
neither validated by the economic exchanges nor
geo-strategic interests of our two continents." These views
were stated during an interview CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw
and senior analyst Jeff Greenfield had with Mr. Nwangwu on
Saturday November 18, 2000 during a special edition of
'Inside Politics 2000.'
