Cash Daddy goes to Germany

A German television crew was in Lagos recently for an interview with Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, for a programme, 'Kulturzeit' on 3SAT, which we understand is shown in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The documentary should familiarise the programme's audience with the author, as the German edition of her novel 'I Do Not Come To You By Chance', to be titled 'Die Meerblauen Schuen Meines Onkels Cash Daddy', to be released next month.

Photo by MW

Nwaubani, Ngugi and the Nobel

The literary event of the last week has to be not so much the op-ed piece written by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani for the New York Times, but the reactions to it, of which there are many, the tones of which have been of the almost universally aghast kind.

My own reading of Nwaubani’s ‘In Africa, the Laureate’s Curse’ was predictably complicated. I am a great admirer of Mario Vargas Llosa (a worthy 2010 laureate) and many other Latin American writers, people in whose works I’ve found a world closest to that of the Yoruba, from among whom I’ve sprung.

That said, I wanted Ngugi to win the Nobel, it meant a lot to me. He has written great, visionary works. He’s an ideological writer, and without ideological grounding, a writer is just piffle, in my view. He has also demonstrated great courage over many decades and suffered terribly for his art and convictions. Ngugi’s ‘Decolonizing the Mind’ is one of the great theoretical works of African literature, or any literature for that matter. After reading it, you cannot be indifferent; you must take a stand, either you are for or against. I have always had great sympathy for Ngugi’s insistence that we should write in our mother tongues, controversial though the larger body of African writers say it is. And one cannot take from Ngugi the fact that he has put his writing post-1986 where his mouth is: writing first in Gikuyu then translating into English (he’s written his latest memoirs in English, but that is a matter for another day).

Ngugi has produced indestructible works in many genres: drama, novel, essay. ‘The Trial of Dedan Kimathi’ was a memorable playtext in my secondary school days. And what of ‘Weep Not Child’, which apart from introducing Njoroge and co, made me want to discover Walt Whitman’s ‘On The Beach At Night’ for myself? These are among the foundational works of my formative years. We used to chant the titles of Ngugi’s books as though they were mantras. I once thought that if I ever saw Ngugi, it would be like seeing man on the face of the moon. Great, almost mythical writer, who one later had the privilege of seeing in the flesh; and to see the radical writer so human, so aged, almost frail (from the detentions and cigarette torture burns). A beautiful mind surpasses the limitations of the physical body.

And to later discover 'A Grain of Wheat', ‘Petals of Blood’, ‘The River Between’ and of course, ‘Decolonizing The Mind’. Had Ms Nwaubani read enough Ngugi, she would never have written the following: ‘There’s actually reason to celebrate Mr. Ngugi’s loss.” There’s nothing to celebrate about Ngugi missing out on the Nobel, and it’s difficult to see how the prize going to someone else becomes a “loss” for Ngugi.

Furthemore, it’s baffling that, nearly 25 years after Nigeria bagged her own Nobel through Soyinka, a Nigerian writer saw nothing wrong in suggesting that a Kenyan should not get the prize. Ngugi, Soyinka and Achebe have since the 60s formed the great tripod of the humanising literature of Black Africa. Soyinka has his Nobel, Man International Booker winner Achebe has been celebrated to the heavens for ‘Things Fall Apart’, and suddenly it’s a Nobel for Ngugi that will spell the death of African writing?

Nwaubani’s argument is deeply flawed; and it is regrettable that someone with a platform like the New York Times to postulate about Africa, chose to use her new-found international voice in this manner. The author of ‘I Do Not Come To You By Chance’ must realise that it will not be by chance that her argument will play into Western prejudices about Africa and African writing. ‘Oh, let’s not give another African a Nobel because, knowing no better, they’ll only copy themselves.’ Might as well go the whole hog and cite Shakespeare’s Iago: “These Moors are changeable in their wills."

Arguing for the emergence of new styles of writing, Nwaubani lumps Achebe, Soyinka and Ngugi into a questionable sameness, purveyors of what she calls “an earnest and sober style”. But what is so “sober” about Soyinka’s plays, or his prison memoirs, ‘The Man Died’? Or indeed Achebe’s ‘A Man of the People’? Have the likes of Helon Habila, Chimamanda Adichie, Sefi Atta, Lola Shoneyin and Uzodimma Iweala come to prominence simply because they ‘copied’ Achebe and Soyinka? And which of these two has Nwaubani herself copied? Of the supposed sobriety of the triumvirate, Kinna says on the blog, “Soyinka is far from sober. And what of Ngugi’s ‘Wizard of the Crow’, which successfully mixes humour, satire and fantasy and is, in my opinion, one of the most entertaining books by an African author. Is sober the new word for old?”

The part of Nwaubani’s argument that has provoked the most consternation, is the suggestion that literature in the indigenous languages serve only to exacerbate “tribal differences”. She declares, “This is not the kind of variety we need.” Chielozona Eze issued an early rebuttal to Nwaubani’s “cowardly ideas, the core of which sought to suggest that it is separatist for a writer to write in his native language or even to claim that he is a writer from his ethnic group.” As for Carmen McCain, a Hausa literature enthusiast, writing in indigenous languages “is exactly the variety we need.”

My own imaginative universe has been formed to a significant extent by the works of D.O Fagunwa, which I devoured as a child and still marvel to read today, novels that form the bedrock of Yoruba literature, books which might not have had the same power written in English. And what of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and others, whose immortal works were not originally written in a Western European language? What of ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’, ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ and other works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Their initial publication in Spanish has done nothing to prevent them being read the world over through translation.

I suspect Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani could not have intended to be understood as saying a writer should not identify with an ethnic group. The bio on the UK edition of ‘I Do Not Come To You By Chance’ informs that the author “grew up in the eastern part of Nigeria, among the Igbo speaking people” – a construction that reads more like an ethnography citation from 70 years ago, but which nonetheless serves the purpose. But if Ngugi must be denied just so we don’t write Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba literature, it’s fairly standard that Nwaubani’s New York Times piece is a hard sell.
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Toyin Akinosho champions Adaobi, who reads today

Toyin Akinosho reads an excerpt from Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's novel, I Do Not Come To You By Chance

On Wednesday May 12, nearly everyone who was anyone on the Nigerian arts scene turned up for the first of events marking the 50th birthday of Toyin Akinosho, arts persona extraordinaire and General Secretary of the arts advocacy group The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA). Actor and member of CORA, Ropo Ewenla, moderated. There were lots of humourous testimonials from culture workers testifying to Akinosho's overriding passions for all things culture. With Ben Tomoloju, Chuka Nnabuife and Odia Ofeimun, I was part of a panel dicussing Art Advocation in Journalism over the last 2 decades.

Among those in attendance: Tunde Kelani, Frank Okonta (AGAN), Mobolaji Adenubi, Jahman Anikulapo (one of the key organisers of 'Toyin Akinosho @ 50'), Joke Silva, Bruce Onobrakpeya etc - and arts writers/journalists by the droves.

Sometime during the proceedings when Akinosho was called up to speak, he read to the over 200-strong gathering an excerpt from Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's novel, I Do Not Come To You By Chance.

Which brings us to Nwaubani, who gives her first public reading (in Nigeria) from the book today. Details below.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani Reads

@ Quintessence Bookshop

Falomo Shopping Centre

Awolowo Road

Ikoyi, Lagos

~

Saturday 15 May 2010

Time: 4pm.

Photos: Abiodun Omotoso

Kopano Matlwa and Wale Okediran share the WS Prize

This was the moment South African author, Kopano Matlwa found out she is a joint winner of the 2010 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. The honour - for Matlwa's novel, Coconut (published by Jacana, SA), was announced last night at the grand award ceremony, held at the Civic Centre in Lagos. The South African shares the $20,000 prize with Nigerian author Wale Okediran (who won for his novel, Tenants of the House). The third shortlisted writer, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, went without. Nwaubani had already won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best First Book (Africa Region) for her much talked about novel, I Do Not Come To You By Chance.

Organised by the Lumina Foundation (founded by writer Ogochukwu Promise), it was a grand event all right, but one bedevilled by dreadfully freakish, deafening feedback from the sound equipment, such that speakers often had to address the large hall without a microphone. But the award ceremony soldiered on regardless. The Crown Troupe of Africa (led by its founder Segun Adefila) provided most of the entertainment for the night. Amongst many performances, the Crown Troupe did opening segments of 2 Wole Soyinka plays: Death and the King's Horseman and The Trials of Brother Jero. The opening (church) scene of Jero was hilarious and brought the house down. Even Soyinka could be seen laughing where he sat.

Thankfully, unlike some Nigerian prizes whose award galas are dominated by useless politicians, only literary figures and, to a lesser extent, business people were given prominence at the WS award night; and the most distinguished guest of course was the man after whom the award is named.

"Thank you, Franco," said Wole Soyinka, when called by Francesca Emmanuel (member of the board of trustees for the Lumina) to speak. "I thought I'd just come here an sit down and be an icon. Icons don't make speeches," said WS. After complaining about Nigerian cameramen at events like this who don't take their shots and move on but block people's views, Soyinka humorously suggested guests use their dinner forks to poke "the soft backside of a cameraman."

More seriously, Kongi expressed concerns about Africa-wide prizes administered in Nigeria being constantly won by Nigerians. The first Wole Soyinka Prize (held 6 August 2006) was won by Sefi Atta, the second (2 February 2008) was won by Nnedi Okorafor. Soyinka noted that he was involved in an international painting competition administered from Lagos as part of the Black Heritage Festival earlier this month, and a Nigerian won that too. "It's embarrassing," he said, wondering if our style with political results was now creeping into the creative arena. He recalled judging a literature competition (names of writers withheld from him) only for the organisers to come back to alert him to the fact that a Nigerian was not among the winners. I imagine WS probably replying, "So what?"

To Okediran in the audience, the Nobel laureate said, "Wale, I'm sorry, but I hope you don't win tonight." Soyinka made clear that he has no involvement in the organisation or the judging of the WS Prize; his one commitment is to always - as long as he is able, even if on walking stick - turn up to present the prize to the winner (I guess every two years now, going by the regularity of the WS prize so far).

Anyway, Soyinka's message got through loud and clear at the Civic Centre: you can't have a Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa - won over and over again by Nigerians only. The press has also been highlighting the fact that the winners until this year, had been women - was it a women only prize? Quite what bearing any of this had on the eventual 2010 result of winners as announced by Chair of the judges, Olu Obafemi, may be debated. Other judges were: Id Shabbir (Algeria), Liesle Louw (South Africa), Sidaho Makubho (Cote D'Ivoire) and Solomon Mensah (Ghana).

Kopano Matlwa and Wale Okediran were jointly presented the $20,000 cheque by Wole Soyinka.

• Images by MW

Daddy, I won!

Breaking News: Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani wins the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Africa Region).

It was phoning galore this morning as the writer heard the news from South Africa. The first call was to her papa - "Daddy, I won!" Nwaubani won for her debut novel, I Do Not Come To You By Chance.

The author will now vie with winners from other regions for the overall prize, to be announced in New Delhi next month.

• Photos by Abiodun Omotoso
  

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani shortlisted

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is the author of a novel, I Do Not Come To You By Chance, chosen as one of the best fiction of 2009 by the Washington Post at the end of last year. But now Nwaubani has gone one better and started the new year on a roll, with the shortlisting of her novel for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Best First Book category for the Africa Region. Nigeria has 4 writers in the shortlist, but Ms Nwaubani has the distinction of being the only one fully based at home.

The the full list of the shortlists here (7 South Africans are also in contention).

With the release of the shortlist 2 days ago, a writer friend expressed surprise at the non-appearance on the shortlist of An Elegy For Easterly by Petina Gappah, who surely must be the undisputed breakout writer of the last year. Then it occured to me today: Zimbabwe (Gappah's country) is not in the Commonwealth. Yes, that must be it.

• Author's image: publicity photo