West Biokpo Joshua performed this poem at the last event, the poetry/Jazz evening, during the GCLF, 2012. The poem was rendered in pidgin English; got every one laughing and thinking. Enjoy it!
Noah's Boat by West Biokpo Joshua
Those days of Noah don come back
We dey defend; water dey attack
Minji don break bounary run enter town
YEEPA! disaster don wear crown
Pandemonium don get temporary shelter
We fast past Ben Johnson as we run helter skelter
The earth wet, no dry place
Laugh dry like kpanla for my face
As I see suffer in black and white
Inside some hearts, frustration don get permanent site
Eight years medicine school and Mmiri take my CV
Poverty don best some people wey I see for TV
Garri sink, hunger float
Nature dey boasyt, destruction dey gloat
Heaven pity our complain
The tears wey she rain don worsen our complain
Abegi, na where Noah boat dey?
Why una no tell me say e go be like this today?
God give Baba Noah warning: Flood dey come
But my people about salaries dey drum
With dem big agbada and labalaba sokoto
Dem dey tell me stories from Gbagada to Sokoto
Politician see water speak heavy grammar
Wey knock my head like say na sledge hammer
Relief Relief...make una wait for relief
And them wan me to believe
Wey I know say sa dem dey go
Dem promises dey follow.
Sunday, 25 November 2012
Saturday, 24 November 2012
Ngugi's House of Interpreters
Ngugi wa Thiong’o has a new book; it is a memoir. Reviews are already coming in; it is left for you to decide whether Ngugi does justice to his story, to history by reading a copy.
Scotsman.com writes;
This is a compelling memoir, and an interesting companion to his novels: I hope further volumes are being written. It is odd, however, that there is no note to tell the reader whether Ngugi wrote this first in English or Gikuyu, given how important the use of indigenous languages has been to him (indeed, it was the point of disagreement between Achebe and Ngugi). He has in the past translated his Gikuyu into English and spoken movingly about English having a redemptive role as a “meta-language” in allowing minority languages to communicate with each other. Either way, a fine and fiery book.
Hector Tobar of LA Times writes;
"In the House of the Interpreter," the new memoir by the celebrated African writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, takes us to the hopeful and turbulent world of 1950s Kenya. And it begins with a startling image.
Ngugi is a teenager, returning home from his prestigious boarding school. He's finished his first term at the top of his class and is still wearing his khaki school uniform and blue tie. Carrying his belongings in a wooden box, he reaches the ridge where his village should come into view. But it's not there.
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Favourite Five: Mazi Chiagozie Nwonwu
Mazi Nwonwu is a Lagos based freelance writer and editor. He writes non-fiction, science fiction, present reality and stories set in his world -- the fictional Land of the Seven Hills. His non-fiction has appeared in local and international publications, both online and offline. His fiction has been published by Storytime, African Writer, Sentinel Nigeria, Naijastories and others. He is currently trying to live up to his promise to review every African fiction he reads.
His short story collection Footsteps in the Hallway will be published in the first quarter of 2013 by Melrose books. He blogs at fredrnwonwu.blogspot.com and publishes his reviews via Africanwriterstrust.com and 7venhillsmedia. He also writes a column for DailyTimes.com.ng. We asked him to send us his favourite five books, he had this to say before the list "Five favourite books? Hmm. This is turning out to be harder than I thought. I have read thousands of books and dozens come to mind as I try to zero down on five. Ok. I think I may have to do this randomly."
His short story collection Footsteps in the Hallway will be published in the first quarter of 2013 by Melrose books. He blogs at fredrnwonwu.blogspot.com and publishes his reviews via Africanwriterstrust.com and 7venhillsmedia. He also writes a column for DailyTimes.com.ng. We asked him to send us his favourite five books, he had this to say before the list "Five favourite books? Hmm. This is turning out to be harder than I thought. I have read thousands of books and dozens come to mind as I try to zero down on five. Ok. I think I may have to do this randomly."
"Grass! Millions of square miles of it... a hundred rippling oceans, each ripple a gleam of scarlet or amber, emerald or turquoise... the colors shivering over the prairies... Sapphire seas of grass with dark islands of grass bearing great plumy trees which are grass again."
Thus did Grass, which surely will forever be on any favourite list of mine that is not restrictive, begin. Grass is a science fiction novel that will find space on any literary fiction shelf if language is a criteria. Marjorie Westriding Yrarier, the main character, is one of those that you want to meet in person and the conflicts are exquisitely handled.
If I didn’t buy Imajica from a bend-down-select bookseller at Ikeja Under Bridge some years ago, perhaps I would never have started writing a novel about a man who loved his wife so much that he felt it would be better to kill her than to lose her to another. Imajica is one of those books that cradle the world of science fiction, fantasy and horror, only this one does it better than any other I have read. Gentle, the main character stayed with me and the one-foot distance between parallel realms that have little in common was exhilarating.
Blackbird is beautiful, it is a book that I want to buy and gift to everyone that has ever told me “...but I don’t read Nigerian writers.” With Blackbird, Jude Dibia showed me that exquisite novels could be written by home based writers of my generation without pandering to script of western literary award organisers. Blackbird for me is one of those books you remember with a smile. Well written, balanced and delightful to read.
Eghosa Imasuen is a damn good writer. His word usage is the closest thing to Naija speak I have seen in any book. I wrote in my review of this book that it will inspire a new kind of Nigerian writing and I still stand by that. The story of many in my generation, Fine Boys is a statement; a poignant record of time’s passing. Yes, I also want to dash this one to everyone I meet.
African Delights is the first book I reviewed with a word count of over 2000, yet I still feel that I did not say all I wanted to say about the book. This short story collection could very well be a historical narrative of Sipiwo Mahala’s native South Africa. I loved every story in this collection. I loved the language, the unapologetic telling and the honesty it conveyed. Very few copies of this book exist in Nigeria at the moment and I am gloating over the fact that I own one. Will I buy it to dash? Sure, but my autographed copy won’t leave my house without me.
Five already? Well, as I said, this is random. Now I remember several other books that should be in my favourite five.
Commonwealth Writing Competitions 2013
There are two categories; the Book Prize and the Short Story Prize.
The short story prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2000 – 5000 words). Submissions must be made by the author of the short story. Regional winners receive £1,000 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Deadline for submission is Tuesday 4 December 2012 (12 noon GMT)
The book prize is awarded to any first full length novel for an adult readership is eligible for the Commonwealth Book Prize subject to the further eligibility clarifications. Drama, books written for children, anthologies of short stories, collections of poetry and graphic novels are not eligible. There are no restrictions on setting, theme or genre.
Click the links for more information on the competition. All the best!
Event: Book N Gauge 17
Book N Gauge has been a celebration of words, with seventeen editions now. This Saturday, 24th November, 2012, the event will feature some fine Nigerian writers. More details below and on the poster.
The Event
Book N Gauge, the monthly literary event hosted by Pulpfaction Book Club will host three authors on Saturday 24th November 2012. The seventeenth edition, will feature Betty Abah, Journalist, poet and author of the poetry collection, Go and Tell Our King; Andrew Oki, author of the recently published Bonfires of the gods and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, author of The Whispering Trees. The events will also feature the two singers Adeoya Ajibola and Olumide Oyibokure (Lumynos).
The event will hold at the Debonair Bookstore 294 Herbert Macaulay Way, Sabo Yaba Lagos.
Book N Gauge 17 will be hosted by Emmanuel Iduma, author of the Rave-making book, Farad.
Time is 2pm prompt
The Writers
Betty Abah is a Nigerian poet, journalist and environmentalist. She worked previously with TELL and Newswatch Magazine and had a stint with the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, CO, USA as an Alfred Friendly Fellow in 2006. Currently she works with the Environmental Rights Action as an environmental and gender rights advocate.
In 2006, she was awarded the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships, a six-month reporting fellowship which places young journalists from developing countries in American newsrooms. She is also a fellow of the John Knight Health Reporting Fellowships, the Kaiser Family Foundation Fellowship (2006) as well as the 2010 Global Tobacco Control Leadership Training at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Abah, 38, has authored two books of poetry Sound of Broken Chains and Go Tell our King, two inspirational pocketbooks, Pending Thoughts (Volume 1 and 2) and has published widely both in local and international journals.
Abah has read her works at several for a across the country. Earlier this April she was Guest Writer of the Month at the Abuja Writers’ Forum. She has read at the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Lagos branch, PEN, Lagos Branch and recently at the Garden City Literary festival in Port Harcourt. She is working on more literary works including prose and poetry.
Andrew Eseimokumo Oki, author Bonfires of the Gods
In March of 1997 violence broke out in the Warri area centered on the creation, by the then military regime, of a new local government area, Warri South-West, and the location of its headquarters. An Ijaw expectation based on official statements that the local government headquarters would be in Ogbe-Ijoh, an Ijaw town, was disappointed when the location published in the federal government gazette turned out to be Ogidigben, an Itsekiri area. From March to May, widespread clashes continued, in which hundreds of people from each ethnic group died. Bonfires of the Gods tells the heart-rending fictitious accounts of the real life experiences of people who suffered great losses during the violent outrage and one of the most unexpected and irrelevant wars the world had ever seen, throwing a once peaceful and lovable city into a massive chaos. The novel is set in the backdrop of the Ijaw-Itsekiri ethnic clash of 1997 in the city of Warri, Delta State of Nigeria. Bonfires of the Gods is a story of love and hate, life and death, and a quest for survival in one's own homeland.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim has dabbled into poetry and plays but is more at home with prose, where he likes to explore characters and plots. He won the BBC African Performance Prize in 2007 and the ANA/Plateau/Amatu Braide Prize for Prose the following year. He also emerged runner-up for the ANA Plateau Poetry Prize.
He is a fellow of the British Council Radiophonics creative writing workshop and has been selected for the Fidelity Bank Creative Writing Workshop as well as the Caine Prize for African Writing Workshop (2012).
He has been featured on several online webzines where his short fictions and essays have been well received locally and internationally. He has also been featured in Daughters of Eve and Other Stories from Nigeria published by CCC Press, London in 2010.
His debut collection of short of stories, The Whispering Trees, is published in Nigeria by Parresia Publishers, Lagos and has been described as a series of wonderful character portraits Educated at the University of Jos, Nigeria, where he Obtained a degree in Mass Communication, Abubakar had a stint with the Vanguard newspapers. He is currently the Arts Editor of the Abuja based Sunday Trust newspaper.
The Performers
Ajibola Adeoya
Adeoya Ajibola is a singer/song writer/ instrumentalist/ writer/ poet, A graduate of Industrial Chemistry from the University of Ibadan, he is the convener of SPIN Africa.
Olumide Oyibokure (Lumynos)
Lumynos is a vibrant, multi-talented and promising artist.
He is a powerful vocalist, song writer, composer and Guitarist. He plays a blend of soul, pop and soft Rock. Lumynos is known for his carefully selected lyrics, which carries a strong message of Hope, filled with depth and wits. He has performed in several shows and concerts which also include spoken words and poetry shows such as “chill and relax” and “word up” to mention a few. He wrote a jingle for a program on Top Radio 90.9 fm, titled “Top of the Morning” with Tosyn Bucknor, the jingle rose to become the program’s favourite among several others
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
A Coffee-Table Approach to Koko Kalango’s Nigerian Literature: A Coat of Many Colours
The book has 109 large gloss-pages, besides its 11 unnumbered preliminary pages. The preliminary pages comprise the title-page, the data (legal) page, the acknowledgement page, and the epigraph page which has a quote from Dr. Goodluck Jonathan; the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Next is Dr. Jonathan’s foreword to the book. The President’s foreword is followed by the map of Nigeria. Next is an Introduction written by Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Governor of Rivers State. Let us note that Dr. Jonathan and Rt. Hon. Amaechi, show a lot of passion for literature. It is indeed a breath of fresh air to see leaders who are genuinely interested in literature. They have added value to the book. The dedication page is next; the book is dedicated to the Nigerian Child. The next page is the contents’ page which bears the names of the 50 Nigerian authors who are listed in the book. There are 35 men and 15 women. Mind you, 15 over 50 is less than 35% affirmative action for women. But we shall excuse Mrs Kalango because the book is not based on quota system. Women stand with men. And they are all listed by surnames in alphabetical order. This is a very convenient way to list the writers. You know how writers are. They always bicker about who should stand first on the queue. Here, the alphabet has saved Mrs Kalango from being accused of bias. If you are a writer and you want to be listed first, in a subsequent coffee-table book, well, change your surname to Aaaa.
Under letter A, the listed writers are Chinua Achebe, Toyin Adewale-Gabriel, Chimamanda Adichie, Kaine Agary, Funso Aiyejina, Uwem Akpan, Zaynab Alkali, TM Aluko, Elechi Amadi and Sefi Atta. There are10 writers whose surnames begin with letter A. There are no surprise inclusions here. It appears that Aiyejina is the least known of this group on Nigerian coffee-tables and streets; the book states his well-deserved place. The younger writers have become quite popular in recent times and they deserve their placement amongst such daddies like Achebe, Amadi and Aluko.
There is no entry for letter B. And JP Clark-Bekederemo stands alone under letter C. I thought he has dropped Bekederemo! There is no entry for letter D. There are 3 entries for E: Cyprian Ekwensi, Buchi Emecheta and Akachi Ezeigbo. DO Fagunwa and Adebayo Faleti are listed under F. Faleti is not popular around Nigeria but he is a significant inclusion. He has been published since 1958 and he belongs to the first generation of our movers-and-shakers. Most of his works are in Yoruba. Therefore, his inclusion is an endorsement for the merit of the literatures of our native tongues.
Abubakar Gimba stands alone under letter G. Helon Habila and JE Henshaw are the only ones under H. There are 5 writers under letter I: Chukwuemeka Ike, Abubakar Imam, Akinwumi Isola, Esiaba Irobi, Festus Iyayi. Let us single out Imam from this group. Imam represents the Hausa language tradition in our literature. He is a great writer. He has earned his place. In this book, he is to Hausa what Faleti is to Yoruba. There is a problem here. Where are the Igbo and Ijaw equivalents? Are there no writers who have done great works in Igbo and Ijaw? Well, as I have said before, this is no quota system. But…. Let us move to letter N: Flora Nwapa, Adaobi Nwaubani and Onuora Nzekwu. Letter O has the highest entry, 12 in all. Odia Ofeimun, Ezenwa Ohaeto, Tanure Ojaide, Gabriel Okara, Wale Okediran, Christopher Okigbo, Ben Okri, Kole Omotoso, Chibundu Onuzo, Tess Onwueme, Femi Osofisan and Niyi Osundare. Ola Rotimi stands alone under letter R. Ken Saro-Wiwa, Mabel Segun, Lola Shoneyin, Zulu Sofola, Bode Sowande and Wole Soyinka are under letter S. There is something I do not want to tell you about the S group. I do not want to tell you that I suspect that a father-in-law and his daughter-in-law are in that group. They are Soyinka and Shoneyin. If my suspicion is correct, it is just great.
Under T, there is Amos Tutola alone. Chika Unigwe is under U alone. Mamman Vatsa is under V alone. Let us pause for a second on Vatsa. I think this book has marked his place in his true constituency. Soldiers might have denied him a foothold but his place is ever constant in Nigerian literature. Next is letter Y: there is Ahmed Yerima there, alone. There is no entry for Z as there are none for J, K, L, M, P, Q, T, W, X. The explanation is simple. The editor has set out to present only 50 writers. And 50 they are.
Let me admit too that 50 is too exclusive a number. It leaves out some worthy candidates: Lindsay Barrett, Biyi Bandele, Wale Ogunyemi, Unoma Azuah, Segun Afolabi, Promise Ugochukwu, Maik Nwosu, Ogaga Ifowodo, Akin Adesokan, Chimalum Nwankwo, Ifeanyi Ajaegbo, Nkem Nwankwo, Adebayo Williams, Chris Abani, etc. I can go on and on. Anyone can argue that some of these Rejects have more laurels than some of the Included. But we will not begrudge Mrs Kalango her prerogative of selection or rejection. The Rejects should wait for another coffee-table book. Mind you, I have not used the word Rejects in the sense in which Professor uses it in Wole Soyinka’s The Road. I have used it in a nice Biblical sense: the rejected stones are the chiefs of the corner. Your own coffee-table book will come. Take solace that I am one of the Rejects, and I have not raised an AK-47 to Mrs Kalango’s temple. Rather than do so, I have simply enjoyed this remarkable book. I say, Shame on you if you do not enjoy the book because you are excluded from the list of 50. Learn of me, so says the Good Lord.
There are four core angles to this colourful book. They are the biographies, the photographs, the selected works and the selected listing from each author’s corpus. The reader will enjoy the life-details of our writers. Two, the reader will enjoy the photographs: they tell deep stories, photo-logos. The photos are generally of good quality except for those of Okigbo, Fagunwa, Imam, Nwapa and Segun. Okigbo’s photo is actually the worst; he really looks dead. Well, you could leave Okigbo’s ghost alone. Go to the new generation of beautiful women who are writing today. God has been so fair to Nigerian literature. Believe me. Three, read the works/interviews which are published in the book. There is a piece from each of the listed writers. Imagine that most of us will encounter the writings of Imam, Faleti, Fagunwa, Isola, Vatsa, Aiyejina, etc for the first time. Four, find out the titles of the works which these writers have written. The listed titles are not exhaustive but you could find some revelations. Do you know that Adichie’s first book is a poetry collection called Decisions? Do you know the titles of Aluko’s autobiographies? Do you know the titles of Amadi’s plays? What do you know about Emecheta’s books for children? This is truly a book for researchers, young and old. Yes, our highly erudite critics will also benefit from this book. For instance, each of these entries is capable of being a trigger for an essay, even a polemical one. Let me prove it with two troublesome paragraphs on Achebe and Soyinka.
The first author that is listed is Achebe. The biography section loads Achebe’s illustrious career into a neat capsule. At a glance, the reader can tell that this great author is an avatar: a living ancestor to us all. Let me tell you a few things about Achebe’s photograph. I think he is a man who has grown very handsome with age; compare his earlier pictures if you doubt me. This particular photograph, I think, is the same on the cover of the Anchor Books edition of his Collected Poems. It is a lovely picture. Every inch of his sagehood is marked in the picture. We can relate his face to his impressive canon, some of which are listed, from Things Fall Apart to Anthills of the Savannah. There is something about the title of his first poetry collection. Is it Beware, Soul Brother, and Other Poems as Mrs Kalango wants us to believe? Or is it Beware, Soul Brother? For many years, I have thought that it is the American edition that goes by Christmas in Biafra and Other Poems. But never mind. Just look at the featured essay by Achebe: “What Nigeria Is To Me.” For this essay alone, Mrs Kalango’s book is worth its price. Believe me, I have read the essay before and it inspired me to write a poem entitled “Chinua Achebe’s Country”. It is the first poem in my newest collection, Length of Eyes. Who knows what the essay will inspire you to do.
Soyinka is number 46 in this book. Blame the alphabet. Or simply enjoy the excitement on Soyinka’s face in the photograph. The photo credit goes to TY Bello as expected. It is a great picture. You will see that Soyinka is what the old folks called Guy Man. My generation calls it swag. Soyinka really has swag. You cannot relate his relaxed mien to the WS of Fire who chased Gen. Abacha into an inglorious grave. You cannot relate the wise-looking old man to the story of the mystery gun-man. That is the story that excites me most about this great man. I had longed to re-enact that feat at the Radio Rivers in the days of the soldiers. A great feat! It is not mentioned in the biography, for want of space, of course. But the Pirates (?) Confraternity is mentioned. What is the official spelling? Pyrates or Pirates? Never mind. Go to the list of Soyinka’s works. Most of Soyinka’s recent works are not listed. It is a lost for the reader. Titles like Climate of Fear, The Unappeasable Price of Appeasement, Harmattan Haze on an African Spring, etc are not listed, for want of space, of course. Mrs Kalango appears to have compensated the reader with the featured essay, the Nobel Prize speech, I think: “The Past Must Address its Present.” Soyinka delivers the right punches on the Whiteman’s nose. But it is more than that. There is this epiphany on Africa which I find in the essay. It is one of the merits of Mrs Kalango’s effort. Now, let the word MERIT take us back to the big picture.
There are lots of merits in this book. One angle is the generational scope. Every generation of Nigerian writers is covered. But I am particularly excited by the attention which is given to our younger generation of writers. It represents quality support for my generation. It shows that literature has received a new burst of energy from the writers of my generation. The facts do not lie: Adichie, Atta, Adewale-Gabriel, Agary, Shoneyin, etc. It is not too early to sing the success of my generation. The likes of Soyinka became celebrities in their twenties and thirties; most of them achieved that on the strength of their first titles. It is good that Mrs Kalango has not yielded to the wrong reasoning of those who prefer to leave my generation in the box until we are grey. Literature is not gerontocracy. There should be more inclusive books on our writers.
Mrs Kalango’s effort is great. You will see her vision for our culture in the Publisher’s Note. You will see more in the note on the Rainbow Book Club. You will see a snippet of her profile on page 103. There is a good heart lodged in this woman. There are great visions in her heart. The visions are unfolding, already. This book is a new page on our literature. Our conversation on Nigerian Literature has turned a new page. There should be more books of this kind, I say again.
I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in Nigerian Literature. I recommend this book to everyone who is a lover of books. I recommend this book to you. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you.
This review was done by Dr Obari Gomba, poet, playwright and literary scholar. He teaches Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Port Harcourt. His poetry collections are Pearls of the Mangrove, George Bush and Other Observations, Canticle of a Broken Glass and Length of Eyes.
Monday, 19 November 2012
Elechi Amadi: Major Tools of Fiction
Novelists employ standard techniques which help them achieve success. The following are some of the important ones.
1.) Realism is achieved when the reader is led to suspend his disbelief, that is, to forget that what he is reading is imaginary and not true. To achieve this, the author should observe the following:
a) The setting, language and characterisation should be harmonized into a credible whole.
b.) The author should not allow any doubt or contempt for what he is describing because the reader will certainly share his attitudes.
c.) Where possible, details showing intimate knowledge of what the author is describing should be included.
d.) When convenient and plausible, the story should be linked up or have echoes of real life events. (For example, the influenza of 1918 in The Great Ponds)
2.) Suspense
a.) Throughout the story, there should always be something which the reader is looking forward to. This creates suspense.
b.) As much as possible, what the reader looks forward to, should be kept uncertain.
c.) When the end appears certain, there should be some side issues that should keep the reader in suspense. (For example, if the death of the hero is certain, then other things which should happen before the hero's death could sustain tension)
3.) Humour and Entertainment: Humour is strongly linked to entertainment and this must be kept in mind throughout the story. There must be enough humor here and there to relieve tension and amuse the reader.
4.) Irony: This is said to occur when an action produces an effect opposite to, or at least very different from that expected. Irony may be comic or tragic. E.g in The Concubine, Ihuoma's son kills Ekwueme while Ahurole's love portion drives Ekwueme into Ihuoma's hands. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo the hero of the tribe dies ignominiously and does not even get a decent burial.
5.) Flashback: By this technique, the author is able to suspend the narrative temporarily in order to recall past events. E.g. Alekiri's account of her war experience in Estrangement.
6.) Stream of Consciousness: By this technique, the author "plays god" by x-raying the minds of the characters and letting the reader know what they are thinking. This provides useful insight into their characters and motivations. E.g as seen in Estrangement, pages 86 and 100.
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