A Nation Without Roads

 By Sunny Awhefeada

The road constitutes a met­aphor of life’s journey for Africans. It is central to the configuration and under­standing of the metaphysical nexus between the abode of the dead and that of the living that we call life. The metaphoric and metaphysical essence of the road also mediates life’s journey and its uncertain twists and turns.

The road is benign as it connects people and places. The road is also a cruel phenomenon as it has thrown people and places into mourning. The road consumes hu­manity. It engenders loss. African literature in its depiction of the African predicament whether it is physical or existential has remained the most fertile site for the plural manifestations of the essence of the road.

Global Conquest Of Nigerian Literature

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu 

I can never get tired of celebrating Nigerian literature, arguably Nigeria’s greatest gift to the world. The politics of Nigeria is a disaster that makes the whole wide world laugh at the so-called “Giant of Africa”.

Ever since the inspiring emergence of Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writers have continued to astound the world with their seminal works.

Chinua Achebe: The Eagle On Iroko At 91

 By DAN AMOR   

Prof. Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, easily one of the world's most popular and celebrated novelists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries would have turned 91 years today having been born on November 16, 1930. Yet, amidst the torrent of tributes and acclamations that heralded the transition of Professor Achebe to higher glory on March 21, 2013 (more than 8 years ago), at Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, some hacks or literary kill-joys still found space to circulate that Achebe’s style of writing and literary philosophy were not original or sophisticated enough to attract the sympathy of the Nobel Committee.  

Achebe 

That is to say that the whole gamut of Achebe’s literary corpus was not deserving of the Nobel Prize for literature. Whereas the import of this anniversary piece is not about the politics of Achebe’s world view as a global citizen, no amount of false-hood and propaganda can diminish the fact that he was one of the most cited twentieth-century thinkers and quintessential intellectuals. While this may not be surprising for a man who had authored one of the most influential novels in world literature – and had changed the way the world at large appreciates the African cosmology and ontology – Chinua Achebe remains a conundrum to most people.  

Nigeria On The Famished Road

By Paul Odili

Apologies to Dr. Ben Okri for stealing the title of his 1991 explosive book, The Famished Road, his Booker prize winning literary work. Dr. Okri’s lush style and distinctive narration of spirit world and realism is imitable. A major sub-theme of The Famished Road is the struggle in politics between the “party of the rich and the party of the poor” in post-colonial Nigeria with its corruption, poverty and squalor.

 In mirroring Nigeria’s reality, the part(ies) of the rich prospers at the expense of the party of the poor. This article is not about expounding on The Famished Road. Rather this article is derived from a one page excerpt; sadly, of what must have been a much longer article written by Dr. Chinweizu. Which I think has a curious connection to Okri’s sub-theme of elitism, corruption and poverty. I stumbled upon Dr. Chinweizu’s article purely by chance. I regret I am unable to find the full copy of the work and having no contact with Dr. Chinweizu, I just could not wave it aside, finding the thoughts he has penned down here so engaging I felt compelled to reproduce his points copiously.

Chinweizu author and public intellectual was theorising on Nigeria elite in a deep and insightful way, and because of its aptness deserves a generous treatment (incomplete as it is). He says: “Development and prosperity are by-products of the project to build national power prestige, either out of fear of bigger powers or out of competition with rival powers. The quest for national power and prestige is the ultimate source of political will to do whatever economic development call for. It is the project of national power, not abstract moral precepts, not consumerist appetite, that best imposes on a people the discipline, accountability, probity, and appropriate systems of sanctions and rewards that form the core values of a viable society.”

Dr. Chinweizu further states, “ If Nigeria were frightened or humiliated, or otherwise stimulated, into a quest for national power and prestige, then Nigeria would find the political will to implement those excellent policies which the experts have devised, not only for health, but also for education, economic development, etc. If you doubt this statement, just reflect on what has happened to Nigerian football since we began to consciously seek prestige on the football field.”

Changing Dialogue With Dialogue: Confronting The Language Of Ebola

 

 

US President Barack Obama meets with ebola 

survivor,  Dr. Kent Brantly at the oval office on 

September 16, 2014 (pix Pete Souza/White House)

By Emma Fox

The African continent – which is so often unjustifiably spoken of collectively and dismissively throughout the globe as a one entity – can truly claim a unity through its diverse and eye-opening library of great literature and language.

Whether it is in the dreamlike magical realism of Ben Okri, the underlying critiques so carefully yet organically articulated by Nadine Gordimer, or the poignant and profound work of Assia Djebar, Africa’s many shapes and sounds have been delivered in a perpetual life poem which has courageously addressed various social challenges and defined the continent as a rich and creative Diaspora of contemporary literature. 

 

While these works detail issues and triumphs which are focused on a particular region, they also encompass the bigger picture – just take Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, for example – which has accumulated some truly remarkable responses to the heavy footprint of colonialism and the rest of the world’s inability to look at Africa and African countries separately through an unclouded lens. It is through language and literature where reclamation, liberation and life transform, a vital tool through which lies the potential for change, and is especially crucial in combating the recent challenges which certain parts of western Africa are facing.