Guest Writer: Noo Saro-Wiwa

Noo Saro-Wiwa was born in Nigeria in 1976 and raised in England. She attended King's College London and Columbia University in New York and has written travel guides for Rough Guide and Lonely Planet. She currently lives in London.

Favourite Five: Ukamaka Olisakwe

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

There are books that are shaping Africa, and this book is number one on my list.  There will never be a second Things Falls Apart because we have fallen, truly, apart, and we must pick up our very many broken pieces and make sense of each jagged edge, fix the fixable up, and move on.

Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

If you want to understand what being a mother is all about, then you must read this book. Though it falters once in a while with 'long' story, but Ms. Emecheta sure knows how to bring you back. The story of Nnu Ego will make you cry, just as the story of a hard-working mother is supposed to do. And after her children left her, you can't stop the emotions that overwhelm you. This is one book that made me want to write only about women.

One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainana

It takes great courage for a writer to tell about his story, warts and all, and Binyavanga is one fine writer every African must read. His memoir is fearlessly told and knowing who he is -- with the award winning article on 'How To Write About Africa', he sets a standard that will not easily be forgotten. He is opinionated; he is quick to give you his thoughts and if you don't like it, then go scrub your face on the roughest wall you could find. I love that man!

Disgrace by J. M Cotzee

J.M Cotzee is an enigmatic writer. His book was given to me by a friend -- Gimba Kakanda. I was taken in by his strong in-your-face and to-the-point style of writing. Disgrace is the story of Professor David Lurie and his disastrous affair with his student. He lost everything and his trials did not stop even after he went to settle in his daughter's farm. This story makes want to know more of this writer who hates having his picture taken.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This remains my best of Adichie's works , until, maybe, I get gobsmacked by her upcoming book. Kambili was just me growing up --without a voice of my own, with my own fears. Though I didn't experience her abuse, but I could relate with her. Or perhaps, Chimamanda perfectly worked on my psyche -- made me feel like I  was Kambili and was experiencing those harsh realities. That's what a good book does to you: it never leaves you. It is like a first love and the memory will not go away easily.

Ukamaka Olisakwe is the author of Eyes of  Goddess published by Piraeus Books

Paris Literary Prize Calls for Submissions

The Paris Literary Prize will be awarded for a novella, written by a previously unpublished writer. Please carefully read all eligibility terms and conditions before entering.

Eligibility Terms and Conditions to Enter The Paris Literary Prize. General Submission requirements include:

• Entrants must be individuals and not a company or organization.
• Entrants must submit their work using their real name.
• Entrants must be over 18 years of age at the time of submission.
• The competition is not open to employees of Shakespeare and Company, FestivalandCo, The de Groot Foundation or members of the judging panel. Family members of any of the aforementioned are also not eligible.
• The 2012 Paris Literary Prize competition is open to unpublished writers only.

More information on their website

Richard Ali: From Oil City to Book Central!

I was happy to hear of the success of the Port Harcourt bid especially because I had read the bid document, an elegant 23-page write-up, which set out how a successful bid would benefit not only the city of Port Harcourt, but also Nigeria as a larger geography, and Africa in general. But perhaps the first great significance of the Port Harcourt bid is the massive and positive media coverage that followed—just about every newspaper in Nigeria ran the story of the win, many rendering it as a Great Victory, and the beating of Oxford was especially noteworthy, even for the BBC. And what was that victory for? It was for books, books & more books! Perhaps no other event, not even the recent Bring Back the Book campaign of the Federal Government, has situated the written word so highly in the public perception of Nigerians as this win. While The Guardian, the conservative and widely-read Nigerian newspaper, went to press with the headline “Port Harcourt wins bid as World Book Capital”, the popular youth-centred news website YNaija ran with the gleeful “We beat Oxford! Port Harcourt is UNESCO World Book Capital 2014”. The idea of a pugilist victory was furthered in national terms by a local news service stating that Oxford, no doubt in the sense of being the flower of Britain’s intelligentsia, had lost out to Nigeria! The reason for this excitement is, of course, the fact that the English language, my country’s official language, as well as Western Education, largely in English, together with its tool, books, came directly from Britain during the colonial relationship. In popular opinion, Port Harcourt’s win had shown that Nigeria had bettered a British bequest so well that it now could stand a head higher than Great Britain. Regardless of the rotational nature of the World Book Capital designation by UNESCO, it is our success at this post-colonial matchup that has aggrandized writing and books in the public mind and space.

Read more on BellaNaija

Richard Ali is the author of City of Memories

GCLF 2012: Books of the Festival

Death and the King’s Horseman, by Wole Soyinka

Elesin Oba, the King's Horseman, has a single destiny. When the King dies, he must commit ritual suicide and lead his King's favorite horse and dog through the passage to the world of the ancestors. A British colonial officer, Pilkings, intervenes.

The Concubine, by Elechi Amadi

Ihuoma, a beautiful young widow of exemplary character, has the admiration of the entire community in which she lives, and especially of the hunter Ekwueme. Obedient to the expectations of the traditional society they belong to, they forswear their love so that Ekwueme can marry the girl to whom he has been betrothed since birth. But their passion is fated, and jealousy, a love portion and the closeness of the spirit world, lift this simple tale on a tragic plane.

The Spider King’s Daughter, by Chibundu Onuzo

Seventeen-year-old Abike Johnson is the favourite child of her wealthy father. She lives in a sprawling mansion in Lagos, protected by armed guards and ferried everywhere in a huge black jeep. A world away from Abike’s mansion, in the city’s slums, lives an eighteen-year-old hawker struggling to make sense of the world. His family lost everything after his father’s death and now he sells ice cream at the side of the road to support his mother and sister. When Abike buys ice cream from the hawker one afternoon, they strike up a tentative and unlikely romance. But as they grow closer, revelations from the past threaten their relationship and both Abike and the hawker must decide where their loyalties lie.

Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria, by Noo Saro Wiwa

At its heart Noo Saro-Wiwa's Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria is both a travel memoir and a search for closure. Noo Saro-Wiwa, the daughter of the world-renowned anti-corruption and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was brought up in England but regularly visited Nigeria every year, that was until her father was executed in 1995 by the military government of Sani Abacha. After her father's murder Noo Saro-Wiwa decided that she would rather not have anything more to do with Nigeria and stayed away from the country for 10 years. Looking for Transwonderland is Noo Saro-Wiwa's attempt to rediscover and come to terms with Nigeria, to connect with her family history and heritage through experiencing Nigeria's rich diversity and to understand its complexities.

Tropical Fish, by Doreen Baingana

Tropical Fish follows the three Mugisha sisters, as they grow up against the backdrop of Uganda in the 1980s. Patti is a born-again Christian; Rosa is adventurous and sexually precocious. The star of the show however is Christine. We travel with her as she takes her first wobbly steps in high heels and later encounters the alienation amidst material wealth of America, before her final return home.

The Blind Kingdom, by Véronique Tadjo

This multi-layered narrative comprises a series of interwoven short stories and poetic texts which can be read within continental Africa, the African Diaspora and beyond. Véronique Tadjo imagines an African society on the brink of total collapse, yet there is no doubt that the story resonates in unsettling ways with recent political and social unrest in Côte d´Ivoire. This is a lyrical and yet haunting story, a book of love with fresh insights into the unfinished and complex struggles for African independence. Tadjo envisions a new world where outrage and chaos — necessary for change — generate hope, creativity and renewal.

Joys of Motherhood, by Buchi Emecheta

Nnu Ego is a woman devoted to her children, giving them all her energy, all her worldly possessions, indeed, all her life to them -- with the result that she finds herself friendless and alone in middle age. This story of a young mother's struggles in 1950s Lagos is a powerful commentary on polygamy, patriarchy, and women's changing roles in urban Nigeria.

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, by Lola Shoneyin

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is a book that explores the dynamics of a polygamous home in urban (circa 2001) Ibadan in Nigeria. It is told with a dry wit, very satirical and earthy. A stirring tale of men and women, mothers and children, servitude and independence, Shoneyin's novel illuminates the common threads that connect the experiences of all women: the hardships they bear, their struggle to define themselves, and their fierce desire to protect those they love.

***These books may be the focus of the festival but there are many other titles available for sale at the book fair. You don't want to miss out on these treasures. Happy New Month readers!

Onyinye Ihezukwu: The Consequence Of Good Noise

Onyinye Ihezukwu works as a broadcaster in Lagos, Nigeria.

From Guerrilla Basement: Nigerian youth are said to constitute over seventy percent of the country’s population and one thing lies at the mind base of this human swarm. It has to glitter like Facebook and Blackberry and twist like Azonto. This is the major driving force of the psyche of this vital group that constitutes the bulk of the nation’s intelligence. But when this dazzle and glitter flashes from a totally different direction: books, the story assumes a different dimension. Literary achievement leaves a distinct variety of clatter.

The naming of the city of Port Harcourt as UNESCO World Book Capital for the year 2014—the first sub-Saharan African city ever to hold this title—has turned this time, the good eyes of the world on Nigeria. This is an achievement set to reposition and usher in the Niger delta (known for youth militancy and kidnappings in recent past) and Nigeria as a whole to an advantaged position that cuts across psychological, economic, political and intellectual revitalization.

The seeds for this potent outcome are contained in the projected marathon of events to underscore the 2014 World Book Capital year. Spearheaded by the Rainbow Book Club (organizers of the Garden City Literary Festival), these events are tied with the strings of one theme—Books: Window to Our World of Possibilities. Potent and prophetic.

Continue reading.

Wole Oguntokun: The Trouble with Nigerian Theatre

On set

A thirteen-man cast and I just returned from performing the London showing of Shakespeare’s play, The Winter’s Tale, on a stage built in honour of the bard himself. Shakespeare’s Globe is a replica of the one William Shakespeare practised on as an actor and playwright, and it played host between late April and early June to thirty-seven international touring companies from around the world including the Nigerian-based “Renegade Theatre” of which I am artistic director.

The play was staged twice at the globe, meeting near-frenzied responses from a crowd made up of Africans and Europeans and even though it was in the Yoruba language (none of the thirty-seven plays was in English) the audiences at both presentations showed their appreciation. The cast had to take a bow four times after the presentation on the final day, sent back on stage each time by the Globe’s resident stage managers, Becky and Adele, who stood backstage studying the audience’s moods through television monitors.

At the end of it all, The Director of the Festival, Tom Bird, came backstage to hug cast members, later describing the play as “an unforgettable coup” and a “mind-blowing show”. The Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe since 2006, Dominic Dromgoole, came backstage also, pumping hands enthusiastically with cast members. He told me a few times, ‘You must be exceedingly proud of yourself’. I was.

At the reception organised for the cast by the Globe which went on till the early hours of the morning, Dominic described us to a jammed venue as having put fire in the belly of the play, and blood in its veins, making it unlike any production of The Winter’s Tale he had ever had the opportunity to see. Some audience members who had bought tickets for every play in the Cultural Olympiad (they were called Globe Olympians) told us of how highly placed they considered our production amongst all the shows they had seen. One said she had not seen an encore like ours in watching plays for twenty years at the Globe.

Sometime between May and June last year, I had commissioned the Oyo State-based Chief Tade Ipadeola to translate Shakespeare’s play into Yoruba but then came the problem of what to do with the translation. From a play notorious for being one of Shakespeare’s most difficult and which has always been known to have a sad and wistful air about it, I decided to make the two Kings (Leontes and Polixenes), the Yoruba gods, ‘Sango’ and ‘Ogun’, and Hermione, wife of Leontes, ‘Oya’, the Yoruba goddess of the whirlwind. I took a non-linear approach to the play, starting it in the middle instead and in the process removing one of the most improbable stage directions ever written by Shakespeare, ‘Exit, pursued by a bear’. For one, there are no bears in Yoruba land and we settled to have armed bandits attack Antigonus (Agbomabiwon) the King’s messenger instead. Unlike Shakespeare’s end and our commissioned translation that had Hermione come back to life and everyone as happy as they could be, I directed she should first come to life and then become a statue once more, seeing that in many of our stories, there are always ‘just deserts’. In this case, it would be Leontes (Sango) learning the true consequences of his unpardonable behaviour.

Professor Julie Sanders, Chair in English Literature and Drama as well as Head of the School of English in the Faculty of Arts at Nottingham University in her published review, described our production as ‘a show that reworked, rethought and intervened in Shakespeare’s play in all kinds of exciting and memorable ways’. She described cast member Sunkanmi Adebayo who played Camillo (Adeagbo) as having put up a ‘crowd-winning performance’, Motunrayo Orobiyi as singing ‘glorious framing songs’, and wrote that the interpretation of ‘Autolycus’ (Ikoko), “in a gender-bending, audience-challenging performance by Anike Alli-Hakeem was a brilliant interpretation”

According to her, ‘the Globe danced, sang and answered back quite willingly on Friday night leaving the audience with an experience that stayed as they headed for a bus back along Thameside...leaving the audience with energy and with a different kind of choreography in their bodies’

In the UK’s Guardian Newspaper of Wednesday the 30th of May, Imogen Tilden’s review wrote that ‘despite a startling twist, the Nigerian production of Shakespeare’s late romance translates it into something rich and strange, while keeping its magical essence at its heart’. According to her, ‘Leontes (Olawale Adebayo) is a powerful presence and hugely impressive as a King while Hermione (Kehinde Bankole) shines with inner and outer beauty; so winning are her smiles, so generous her attentions to Polixenes, that you can almost sympathise with Leontes’ jealous fantasies’. She considered Hermione coming back to life and then turning back to a statue as ‘the most dazzling theatrical coup of the play’

Mark Hudson, multiple-award winning writer and journalist, described the play on www.theartsdesk.com as being about ‘cultural discovery for non-Yoruba speakers, paralleled by trying to keep up with the action’ and went on to say ‘it was a dynamic interpretation that blurred the boundaries of drama, music and dance’

From all over the world, there have been messages of congratulations. In Lagos on Sunday the 20th of May, just before we departed for London, we had put up the show to work out its kinks in collaboration with the British Council and the Muson Centre and had been pleased at how proud the audience was of us and what we would be showing to the world.

On the closing night in London, the cast and I were congratulated by everyone we met at the reception and we all were giddy with the exhilaration of having put up a greatly appreciated show. Undergraduate and Postgraduate Nigerian students of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) told us of how proud they were, and up and down the venue, theatre lovers celebrated us and we revelled in it.

What, you may ask, does all this have to do with the trouble in Nigerian theatre? I received a call late on Sunday the 10th of June from Winter’s Tale cast member Anike Alli-Hakeem that there had been a ‘vindictive’ review of our London play published in the Guardian in Nigeria that day written by one Lookman Sanusi. I was unable to connect any real theatrical problems to ‘The Winter’s Tale’ showings in Lagos or London but Anike had not been far off the mark in describing the ‘review’ that way. The piece written by a former dramatist with an obscure career in children’s theatre at one time in Lagos was vitriolic to say the least, stating among other things that we did not use the space of the Globe well, a bit odd as the Artistic Director of the Globe, Mr. Dromgoole, the Festival Director, Tom Bird, and many other members of staff of the Globe Theatre could not get over telling us how well we took possession of the stage and had made it our own. The condemning article using a lot of theatrical jargon made me wonder if it was the same play received so well that was being described.

He wrote condescendingly about cast members being more excited about visiting London than about being on stage, a bit silly, seeing quite a number of them had visited the United Kingdom before. Basically, the point of the article was for me to learn from him and his likes. This was ironic as years before this reviewer decided to leave the practice of theatre behind and resettle on distant shores; he had asked me for advice about finding audiences for his plays, as he had staged several that would often have only one person in attendance.

Still, I was puzzled. There are no perfect shows and there is not one above criticism, but this article had been crude in its savagery on the one hand while the organisers, reviewers and audience members at the festival in London had gushed over the play on the other. The views were two opposite ends of the spectrum and simple logic made it clear one side could not have any idea what it was saying.

However, the truth came to me as I mulled over these very different opinions on the same play, no matter that the article our play had been savaged in was a minority report. While anxious for financial support for ‘The Winter’s Tale’ months ago, I had informed the Globe I would be looking for sponsorship back home, a request the organisation readily agreed to as long as the businesses of my eventual sponsors did not clash with those of their own sponsors.

A close friend and collaborator of the caustic-penned reviewer who likes to consider himself a person in the know where theatre is concerned had approached me in Lagos asking to be ‘technical director’ and saying he could help get sponsorship for a cut of the sum. When he returned with the terms of support he had ‘worked out’ with the ministry of the arts and culture of one of the Western States, it was to declare that my theatre company would be paid ten million naira as sponsorship (the equivalence of forty thousand pounds sterling) , a lot of money by all standards. He went on to introduce me to the Special Assistant to the Commissioner in charge of Culture-related affairs in that state. Just as the cast and I started to rejoice at our company’s stroke of good fortune, a condition was added (fourteen conditions, actually). My ‘benefactor’ informed I was to add fourteen extra people to my cast and crew which was already fifteen men-strong when I went to apply for visas, an act that would have swelled our numbers to twenty-nine. According to him, ten of the additional fourteen would be performing members of the arts and culture council of the said State’s Ministry of Culture and the remaining four would be officials of the ministry sent to “accompany” their members. It was a crazy request and I balked at a doubling of the cast size I had agreed with the Globe Theatre after intense discussions, for actors that would be chosen on my behalf by unknown people.

One didn’t have to be a genius to recognise this for the scam it was, an attempt to use my show as a vehicle to transport people who had nothing to do with the play to the United Kingdom.  The gentleman friend of my reviewer who had brokered this deal on my behalf without consulting me on the terms asked when he saw I wasn’t willing to go ahead, “Don’t you need money?” He tried to persuade me that the Cultural Olympiad and World Shakespeare Festival which “The Winter’s Tale” was a part of, was the perfect vehicle to get visas for his people. In this arrangement with the State, he would earn at least the same amount that he was offering my theatre company as sponsorship.

I could understand any organisation or government wanting to use the World Shakespeare Festival as a podium to express its interest in the arts, but to ask me to include fourteen of its staff members on my team? I was ready to put the sponsor’s name on t-shirts, place them on printed brochures and roll-up banners, perform at designated halls of their choice, put their logos on our website, shout their name from every rooftop I could find but not accept “human trafficking” terms that would jeopardise my company’s future as an international touring one that could be trusted.

I rejected his offer by e-mail in February, (Yahoo! Mail automatically saves sent messages), informed my cast and crew of the decision I had taken and then told Tom Bird, the Festival Director at the Globe, in person, of the attempt to hijack the Nigerian production. Tom (and his colleagues) could not get his head around it and kept on asking himself, “Why?” It was a good thing I chose the higher road. In the month of May and barely two weeks to our showing at the Globe, the British High Commission rejected the Entertainer Visitor visa applications for all fifteen genuine cast members.  It took the combined strength of the British Council, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Olympic Committee in London to make the High Commission consider re-visiting the denials. A week to our opening in London, the High Commission called to inform me it had rescinded its own decisions and I was to travel to Abuja to pick up the visas. There would have been no explanation for the doubling of the cast size either to the High Commission or to the Globe itself if it had been an application with thirty people as my “dealer” had tried to persuade me to agree to.

I still blanch at the thought of how close it had been. The trouble with Nigerian theatre is that visas are not issued us to display our strength in other places because the issuing authorities know there is someone in the background scheming to hijack genuine applications as was attempted in our cases. I have received calls from places as far as Lithuania and the United States seeking to verify the authenticity of drama troupes seeking to take work out. The trouble with Nigerian theatre is that some here will ensure the outside world closes doors of opportunity for other practitioners because of misuse by these same people who “claim” to be veteran practitioners. This man knew the bridge of opportunity for other practitioners would blow up after him if he could manage to get his own extra hands across but didn’t really care.

The trouble with us is that we blame Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Femi Osofisan and that generation for not showing us how they became giants on the world stage but the mindless desire for self-promotion by some in our midst today far exceeds anything the older generation of dramatists can begin to fathom. They shrink away instinctively, knowing we are not driven by passion but by a burning lust for advancement at whatever cost.

Wole Oguntokun

I made real enemies because I did the right thing in rejecting a criminal offer while simultaneously dashing this man’s hopes for immense monetary gain. When I see acerbic and unwarranted comments on the pages of newspapers made by those who are close comrades of my “new enemies”, I remember what the trouble with Nigerian Theatre really is.

I might have become ten million naira richer but the High Commission would probably not have given a visa to another Nigerian theatre practitioner for ten years after the extra fourteen they planned to foist on me would have scattered across the hills of Britain. In our case, the original crew of fourteen went to the United Kingdom, put up a grand show and returned at the same time. So much for people who were only excited to be in England.

I regard this review as the equivalent of a drive-by shooting, a concerted retaliation for not towing a crooked line, and I submit that as long as certain people are in the Nigerian Theatre industry, the day will come when practitioners who attempt to do the right thing will be shot at some crowded shopping mall as payback for not obeying extortionist demands.

There are many problems with Nigerian Theatre, but Renegade Theatre is not part of these problems. We will have many more great shows at home and abroad irrespective of one malicious pen.

Wole Oguntokun runs the Renegade Theatre Company based in Lagos. He facilitated a workshop for Theatre Directors at the Garden City Literary Festival, 2011.