New Caine Anthology

Congratulations to Jude Dibia whose short story, A Life in Full, written at the Caine workshop in March, provides the title for the 2010 Caine Anthology, published July 1.

The anthology also contains this year's 5 shortlisted stories, available to read online now.

Here's an excerpt from shortlisted writer Namwali Serpell's short story, Muzungu - about an expatriate child's sudden jolt into an awareness of racial difference...

Ba Simon was singing softly under his breath. He’d probably picked up some nasty song from the shabeen, Isa thought emphatically, repeating in her head a condemnation that she’d heard a thousand times from Ba Gertrude, the maid. There are three kinds of people in the world: people who unconsciously sing along when they hear someone else singing, people who remain respectfully or irritably silent, and people who start to sing something else. Isa began singing the Zambian national anthem. Stand and sing of Zambia, proud and free. Land of work and joy and unity. Ba Simon gave up on his quiet song, smiling down at Isa and shaking his head while he flipped steaks he wouldn’t get to eat. Ashes from the brai drifted and spun like the children playing in the garden.

• Read Muzungu

The other shortlisted stories

• The Life of Worm by Ken Barris (South Africa)
• How Shall We Kill The Bishop? by Lily Mabura (Kenya)
• Soulmates by Alex Smith (South Africa)
• Stickfighting Days by Olufemi Terry (Sierra Leone)

Namwali Serpell is Zambian. Winner of the 2010 Caine Prize will be announced in Oxford on July 5.

Sammy and Ignatius, nice guys

Here in the middle is Sammy, one of the key officers on the Gallmann Memorial Foundation conservancy. Here he's flanked by Mamle Kabu and MW. The amiable Sammy was a lovely presence at Ol Ari Nyiro, attending to the participants' needs with good humour. We in turn made him into an avid reader of our writings; he read many of our draft stories and engaged with the themes therein.

Sammy's here flanked by Mamle Kabu and Jude Dibia. Kabu who lives in Accra, was shortlisted for the 2009 Caine Prize for her short story, The End of Skill. Dibia is the author of two novels, Walking With Shadows and Unbridled. The pavillion in this photo was one of the best spots for internet reception this end of the resort.

Ignatius (seen here with Nick Elam) also works at the resort, acting as guide on game drives and providing lots of invaluable service and advice with equanimity. He gave a wonderful lesson in astronomy under the stars one night.

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Michaela Wrong reads in Lagos

Acclaimed journalist and writer Michaela Wrong, author of 'It's Our Turn To Eat' and 'In The Footsteps of Mr Kurtz' - does a book blitz in Lagos over the coming days. Today's events below:

• 11am-1pm @ The Jazzhole, 168 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
• 3-5pm @ The Silverbird Galleria on Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos - Wrong features in the first BookJam alongside writers: Kaine Agary (author of Yellow Yellow), Jude Dibia (author of Unbridled) and Eghosa Imasuen (To Saint Patrick).

more dates to be added...

Also today

Pat Oyelola launches her book, Nigerian Artistry:
Harmattan Gallery
10 Elsie Femi Pearse Street,
Off Kofo Abayomi
Victoria Island, Lagos.

Time: 4pm

Update 2 March

More Michaela Wrong dates...

She's been busy, having discussed her books in Terra Kulture (Feb 28) and the University of Lagos (yesterday). But here's more:

• 2 March - that's today - @ Quintessence, Falomo Shopping Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos. Time: 3-5pm;
• 5 March - in Abuja - Adamawa Room, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja. Time: 6pm-8pm.
  Read more...

Agary wins the NLNG

11 October: The MUSON Centre, Lagos - Debut novelist, Kaine Agary emerged the winner of this year's NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature for her book, 'Yellow Yellow'.

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See Victor Ehikhamenor's images from the award night, attended by a slew of dignitaries. 'Dignitary' in the Nigerian sense almost always means the movers and shakers of the political class; and so in this case we had former President of Nigeria's 2nd Republic, Alhaji Shehu Shagari - who has the decency after all these years to look exactly as he did back then, only greyer. Senate President David Mark - who kept a straight face when the comperes of the occasion read out his biography for tediously long minutes, right down to his hobbies - ahead of his speech - as he perfectly expected them to. No one told the Senate President he was coming to a literary award presumably, for he gave the same old speech, about the Senate's deliberations on constitutional reform - not a mention of a book. Senator Chris Anyanwu - who despite being a famed broadcaster and author not to mention a statuesque beauty over 50, might have gone unmentioned - thankfully for her, she had the good sense to have become a politician in the interim; and so in time honoured Nigerian tradition, she got mentioned in full observance of the so called 'protocols'. Ndubuisi Kanu - who didn't like his seat and left within 5 minutes (who do they think I am? he must have asked himself). King of Bonny, Transport Minister Diezani Allison-Madueke (who I might have actually liked to see in the flesh, but who was lost in the throng of dignitaries, Nigeria's once Interim leader (of the oft derided 'Fidihe' government in Yoruba popular lore) Chief Ernest Shonekan.... etcetera etcetera.

A true literary great, octogenarian Gabriel Okara, author of the classic 'The Voice' was in the audience - and went unmentioned. A crime, surely. At least Okara got to have his day when the winner was announced (Agary had been in the running with Jude Dibia, shortlisted for his second novel, 'Unbridled') and the old man, himself a Niger Deltan, got to embrace and do an impromtu lap of honour with Agary, who won for a Niger Delta novel. Some might have noted that she won for a story on the Niger Delta experience (an experience not unconnected with environmental degradation) from an energy company. The rest, quite frankly, is literature.

Kaine Agary won $50,000 - and vowed to visit Cuba before Castro dies. Easy enough, with all that cash.

• Images © Victor Ehikhamenor - more of his photos - here.

Book Moves

Whilst Wordsbody was sleeping, the world of books has rolled on, as it should. Here are just a few happenings we've been unduly silent on...

Jude Dibia went down south for the launch of the South African edition of his second novel, Unbridled, published by Jacana. The Pretoria News said of the author: “He is lively, interesting and willing to have a laugh at himself... [a] talented young Nigerian voice.” The judges and organisers of the richest literary prize in Nigeria seem to be in agreement, and Dibia is one of two shortlisted authors (alongside Kaine Agary, author of ‘Yellow Yellow’) contending for this year’s NLNG Prize, worth $50,000. Read Lauri Kubuitsile’s review of Unbridled – here. The winner of the NLNG Prize 2008 is announced at the Muson Centre, Lagos, on October 11.

Meanwhile, Uche Peter Umez, winner of this year’s BSU Creative Writing Competition, went on to participate in the Iowa International Writers’ Program.

Women Writing Zimbabwe, a new anthology edited by Irene Staunton, came out, with contributions by the some of the most vibrant females writing out of Zim today, including: Blessing Musariri and Wadzanai Mhute. In there also is Petina Gappah who has been making transatlantic publishing waves with international deals for her forthcoming books – yes, not one but two – An Elegy for Easterly (a collection of short stories) and a novel, The Book of Memory (lovely title). Read all about it on the author’s blog.

In the Women Writing Zimbabwe anthology is a writer who straddles straddles Zim and Nigeria and other places/heritages besides. Her name is Sarah Ladipo Manyika, and she’s going to be making waves of her own. Her novel, In Dependence, is published this month by the UK’s Legend Press. An Anglo-Nigerian tale by an Anglo-Nigerian writer, In Dependence will be published later in a West African edition by Cassava Republic.

We hope to stay awake as books move on...

• Sarah Ladipo Manyika's image © Robert Birnbach

Writers in the news

I had planned to make Sulaiman Addonia's reading of 30th June here in London but my good intentions went to pot. And so I was glad to see this profile of the writer in the Metro just days later. Click on the black & white page on the left for a better read of the article on the writer, whose novel, 'The Consequences of Love', is out now.

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*Meanwhile, Nigerian Jude Dibia made the South African press recently (see below, right), discussing his second novel, Unbridled, which is now published by Jacana in SA.

Dibia & Nukoya in Ife

O.A.U Hosts Jude Dibia and El Nukoya

Words & Images by Adedotun Eyinade

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, is fast becoming every author’s delight. Only last August it hosted the Orange Broadband Prize winner, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the Kenyan winner of the 2002 Caine Prize for African writing, Binyavanga Wainaina, for a reading, the first in a Nigerian university after the former won ‘the Bessie’. The campus, on Saturday November 24th 2007 lived up to its literary tradition when it hosted yet another award winning duo - El Nukoya and Jude Dibia.

The literary event aptly captioned ‘3-2-1’ three books, two award winning authors, one afternoon was the brain child of the Association of Campus Journalists (ACJ), Obafemi Awolowo University. The event which took place at the auditorium 1 of the faculty of Arts was graced by a motley crowd of book lovers and the literati who turned out to celebrate the works of the writing duo.

Jude Dibia, author of the ground-breaking Walking with Shadows and Unbridled (ANA/NDDC Ken Saro-Wiwa prize for prose), accompanied by Dr Chijioke Uwazonmba of the Department of English and Literature, sauntered into the venue clad in a navy blue short sleeve shirt at about 2.30pm. The programme commenced with a book signing session as students armed with copies of the author’s works took their turn to get the books autographed by the writer. In what could pass as an attempt to fill the seats of the auditorium, the students did not allow the moment to slip past them as they trooped out to get copies. Twenty minutes into the book signing the winner of the 2007 ANA/Jacaranda prize for prose, El Nukoya, arrived. The author of Nine Lives, in blazer and denim jeans, breezed into the venue to resounding applause from members of the audience eager to see the face behind the award winning thriller. He joined Dibia on the dais and the programme soon commenced.

Dr Nwazonmba in his opening remark welcomed the authors to the campus. He applauded the Association of Campus Journalists for taking the initiative of bringing the authors closer to the readers, as it would strengthen discourse and revive interest in the reading of literary works. Three budding poets: Oni Afolabi, (A4), Ima Iduma and Pheabian Alao set the tone for the event as they performed their poems.

El-Nukoya was the first to read. The bespectacled management consultant cum writer read excerpts from Nine Lives, the 490-page story of how Olupitan Ogunrinu confronts the vicissitudes of life. A few members of the audience who could not resist the reading raced out of the auditorium to get copies of the book. The reading was interspersed with a performance by O.A.U’s leading cultural troupe Ajankoro Dugbe who thrilled the audience with a graceful dance drama.

Jude Dibia thereafter read from his two works: the controversial Walking with Shadows and Unbridled. The NASELS drama troupe delivered a short satirical play titled ‘Justice Justus’ that threw both the guest writers and the audience into girth-racking bouts of laughter. The audience was literally screaming ‘encore!’ when the troupe left the stage for an engaging question and answer session where the audience took the authors to task on the themes addressed in their works. Expectedly, the first salvo for Jude Dibia was his seeming fascination with taboo subjects like homosexuality and incest. El Nukoya was not spared either as he was asked the plausibility of Olupitan keeping a chance picture for years only to use it as an object of blackmail. The questions ran the whole gamut from what informed the choice of the name ‘El Nukoya’ to what writers and intellectuals could do to engage issues in the body politic. In his response, the author of Nine Lives contended that the name El Nukoya was a pseudonym that gave him a distinct identity without intruding into his other professional engagements. “I would not like a situation where I would be in the board room and a fan would identify me and be discussing fiction when we are talking business,” he added.

Jude Dibia in his reaction to issues raised on his obsession with sexuality said he noticed that the issues were deliberated avoided as people only talk about them in hushed tones. “I am not gay but I feel everyone has a right to his/her own sexuality,” he retorted, when the question of his stance on homosexuality was posed.

The event was graced by Professor Adebayo Lamikanra (poet, pharmacist and convener of the Ife festival of Poetry) - and Dr Chima Anyadike who was instrumental in the hosting of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie earlier in the year. The two authors evidently had a great time as they promised to return to the campus in the future.

“I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I loved the professors that came and their comments,” Jude Dibia enthused after the event. “I loved the performances as well as all the students who came to personally meet us, take our autographs and then snap pictures with us... everything was good” he added, beaming smiles.

• Words & Images © Adedotun Eyinade

Jude Dibia Reads

Association of Nigerian Authors
ANA Oyo State Chapter

cordially invites you

to its LiteraryLAUGHTER

LiteraryLAUGHTER is comprised of readings, performances, interactions, jokes, munching etc.

Host/Guest Writer: Jude Dibia
(Novelist, Visual Artist & German Language Expert)

Venue: Educare Trust Exhibition Centre, Goshen Superstores Building, beside Coca-Cola, Sango, Ibadan.

Date: Saturday August 25, 2007 Time: 4: 00 P.M

RSVP:

Ebika Anthony
Chairman
+2348034822937

Jude Dibia Competition Result

Update on the Jude Dibia competition posted here a month ago. Blog readers had to answer the question: In Walking With Shadows, what is the name of main character's wife?
The answer - Ada

Congratulations to Daria Tunca (Belgium) who was first in with the correct answer!

A copy of Dibia’s second novel, Unbridled, is in the post to Daria.

• Meanwhile, the blogger Eshuneutics continues his/her examination of Dibia's work - see Androgyne 1, 2 & 3.

Doing the LBF

I merely dropped by at the last London Book Fair (these pics from 16 April) in the sense that I had no real business there. But I went there to fraternise with 3 Nigerian writers/publishers who were in town. My involvement, as it were, went no further than the front steps of the Earl's Court One venue. I hob-nobbed and 'met' with my people on this frontage. Muhtar Bakare (above left; publisher of some top Nigerian writers & Farafina Magazine) and Bibi Bakare-Yusuf (below; publisher @ Cassava Republic Press) had gruelling daylong engagements inside the fair. But writer Jude Dibia (right; author 'Walking With Shadows' & 'Unbridled') found it a bit hard-going, which made me relieved I never went inside.

• Since this blog is going to be taking a short break, how about we run a little competition?
• Win a copy of Jude Dibia's second novel 'Unbridled'.
• All you have to do is answer this simple question: In Walking With Shadows, what is the name of main character's wife?
• Answers by email to: laralara8@hotmail.com - first correct answer in my inbox, wins. Please include your name and city/address. Winner to be announced at the next blog update.

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf is the face behind Cassava Republic Press. She is the Nigerian publisher of Helon Habila & Abidemi Sanusi - with more writers being added to the roster. Diligent, soft-spoken and highly principled, books are not just a business for Bibi. She sits on the Roundtable at the Caine Prize Colloquium in London today.
Bibi and I have been friends for nearly 15 years, and it's been wonderful to evolve not just as friends on a personal level, but also as voices on the Nigerian literary scene. Whenever we get the chance to catch up these days (which is not often, since Bibi is based in Abuja and galivants all over the world in her spare time) we talk, talk, talk - until time itself runs out. Her sister & my friend Sisioge (aka Ireti Bakare-Yusuf; I am her son's godmother) stubbornly injects fashion and other matters into our 'literary' conversations; Bibi and I just roll our eyes and carry on talking, which infuriates Ireti.

When Bibi's day was done at the LBF, we sat on the front steps and talked, talked, talked - till the event closed and hundreds of bookfair goers flowed out of the venue, past us and into Earl's Court Station across the road. And there we were talking books. Ah, bless!

Jude Dibia reads

Jude Dibia

~

Author of Walking With Shadows & Unbridled

Reads from his books and short stories

~

@ Terra Kulture

Victoria Island, Lagos

~

Saturday 30 June

2 to 6pm

~

Q&A follows the readings

Plus book signings.

Jude Dibia's Unbridled

Who was this man? My mind screamed. This was certainly not the sweet man who loved black people and who wanted to have an African queen to be his bride. This could certainly not be the man who courted me all these months.
He walked to the dresser and gave it a big kick. I jumped slightly in fright and stared at his back. I could hear his deep breathing from where I sat.
“You women are all the same,” he said, turning round to look at me. “You always want to change things that need no changing.”

The above is an extract from Jude Dibia's second book, Unbridled. The author of Walking With Shadows describes the new novel as "a psychological look at the power relationship between men and women, fathers and daugthers, strangers and lovers told from a woman's point of view."

Unbridled is out next month.

New Reads

may the fire seeds you sow in Darfur
consume you and your damned bands.

Poems are not usually included in the 'New Reads', but when it's Tanure Ojaide's To The Janjaweed, exceptions can be made. Click on the above excerpt to read Ojaide's divine curses heaped in poetry upon the Janjaweed - in the current issue of Per Contra.

In Jude Dibia 's Among Strangers, a young man goes to the funeral of the father from whom he has been long enstranged. He has to confront his stepmother, his past and his own sense of isolation. The story is published in the 2nd issue of Black Biro Online.

Excerpt
Mother had confronted them, but I knew nothing of what they said. Grandma spoke rapidly in Igbo, and so did father. And mother, in tears, responded in Igbo – even though she was not one of their own. Many times they all pointed at me and I just sat still, listening to all the strange words being hurled about and feeling so out of place and helpless. I didn’t share their language with them. It was the language that bound them together; the same language that severed me from them. Even at that age, I worried that there was no place for me in their world or this world.
Read on...