It's slightly balmier weather today, although it's been drizzling all day, that kind of weak English pitter-pattering that continues throughout the day and which used to make me want to yell at the skies when I first moved here "If you want to rain, make up your mind and rain well- like a proper tropical storm and let us get on with it, and stop this pitter- pattering pissing about!!"........
There was an item on the radio today about what an accomplished performer Tony Blair is on Prime Minister's questions. I must say I was impressed to learn that he often has no idea what the leader of the Opposition is going to ask him - he certainly does manage to hold his own and give better than he's getting....the programme suggested that David Cameron will be no match for Blair when (as is widely expected) he wins the leadership of the Tory party in the next few weeks.......
For some strange reason, at lunch today, as I was grabbing a sandwich in a nearby cafe ......(Oh I must remember to blog about the English penchant for calling sandwiches lunch- I've been at meetings and other conferences with other Africans who certainly agreed that sandwiches do not qualify as lunch :-) .....Anyway, there I was eating my Coronation chicken sandwich and sipping my apple juice and I suddenly remembered TreeTop and Hi-Time fruit squashes. Growing up, they were a staple in every Nigerian middle-class home, and later in every schoolboy or school girl's cupboard at boarding school. They came mainly in orange, pineapple and blackcurrant flavours and were sold in funny-shaped slightly conical (at both ends) bottles, which once the squash was finished became receptacles for storing drinking water in the fridge. Tree top bottles were smooth, while Hi-Time bottles were ridged......For some obscure reason, my mother refused ever to buy Hi-Time- I think there had been some kind of scandal about it containing some unhealthy chemical- and so it naturally became the drink of choice for me and my siblings whenever we went out without our parents......an early lesson in the attraction of the forbidden..........Strange how these flashes of nostalgia come unbidden.....
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Abani's Graceland Longlisted for the Impac Award
Chris Abani's Graceland which was on my contemporary Nigerian literature reading list has been longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary award. The only other African writer on the shortlist of 132 books is Bananuka Jocelyn Ekochu, a Ugandan woman writer who works for Femwrite, the Ugandan women writers' group.
Her book, Shock waves Across the Ocean was nominated by the National Library of Uganda while Graceland was nominated by the Stockholm Public Library............... The list of nominated books is quite eclectic, probably as a result of the nomination process which allows only libraries in major cities of the world to nominate works that they judge to be of high literary value......Nigerian libraries should get into the nomination process- it may be one way of exposing Nigerian authors to a wider audience
http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/2006/longlist.htm#A
Her book, Shock waves Across the Ocean was nominated by the National Library of Uganda while Graceland was nominated by the Stockholm Public Library............... The list of nominated books is quite eclectic, probably as a result of the nomination process which allows only libraries in major cities of the world to nominate works that they judge to be of high literary value......Nigerian libraries should get into the nomination process- it may be one way of exposing Nigerian authors to a wider audience
http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/2006/longlist.htm#A
Richard II, corrupting power and Nigerian self successions
Has been a busy weekend and a busy start to the week. Went to the Old Vic on Saturday night to watch the last night of Richard II. At school in Nigeria, we had studied the play for O level literature and so it is the Shakespeare play with which I am most acquainted, having had to read and reread it several times in order to be able to answer those dreadful context questions which began with a quote and then had several questions underneath it- who said this, to whom and on what occasion? what was the consequence of this speech? We had to answer them in Literature and in Bible Knowledge....I wonder if they are still used now.....
Going back to the play, it was great to see Kevin Spacey (with hardly a trace of an American accent) leading the cast in a glittering performance that had a contemporary ring to it. With Richard and his court all dressed in smart suits, and as you watched the machinations, it sometimes felt as if you were watching Blair and his band of spin doctors..... The ovation at the end was well deserved and there was something poignant about it all- perhaps there is that about all last night productions- that feeling of having worked relentlessly and intensely together as a team and then coming to a successful end.......In taking his bow, Spacey slipped back into his American accent to thank the staff, the cast and the man he called "THE Shakespearian director of our time"- Trevor Nunn.......
The play fascinates me with its theme of the divine right of kings and the question of whether it is right to do wrong in order to correct another (greater?) wrong? In the play, Bolingbroke is justly banished by Richard II into exile for breaching the peace of the kingdom. While in exile, his father, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster dies and Richard greedily seizes his lands and title which are justly Bolingbroke's. To remedy this, Bolingbroke invades England, initially only to reclaim his inheritance but then ends up an usurper, driving Richard from the throne......
There are echoes today in Nigeria where some argue that in order to stop the President's attempt to change the constitution and give himself a third term, we must overlook the transgressions of people like Alamieyeseigha the tummy tucking thieving governor, merely because they are opposed to the self-succession bid........
Just typing those words sent a shiver down my spine- the last time I used that phrase(self succession bid) , it was in relation to Sani Abacha, the despot that held Nigeria hostage in the mid nineties, and in whose widow's name countless soliciting e mails are sent each day- to think that the current president would ever put himself in a position where these words would be used about him is sad......
Going back to the play, it was great to see Kevin Spacey (with hardly a trace of an American accent) leading the cast in a glittering performance that had a contemporary ring to it. With Richard and his court all dressed in smart suits, and as you watched the machinations, it sometimes felt as if you were watching Blair and his band of spin doctors..... The ovation at the end was well deserved and there was something poignant about it all- perhaps there is that about all last night productions- that feeling of having worked relentlessly and intensely together as a team and then coming to a successful end.......In taking his bow, Spacey slipped back into his American accent to thank the staff, the cast and the man he called "THE Shakespearian director of our time"- Trevor Nunn.......
The play fascinates me with its theme of the divine right of kings and the question of whether it is right to do wrong in order to correct another (greater?) wrong? In the play, Bolingbroke is justly banished by Richard II into exile for breaching the peace of the kingdom. While in exile, his father, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster dies and Richard greedily seizes his lands and title which are justly Bolingbroke's. To remedy this, Bolingbroke invades England, initially only to reclaim his inheritance but then ends up an usurper, driving Richard from the throne......
There are echoes today in Nigeria where some argue that in order to stop the President's attempt to change the constitution and give himself a third term, we must overlook the transgressions of people like Alamieyeseigha the tummy tucking thieving governor, merely because they are opposed to the self-succession bid........
Just typing those words sent a shiver down my spine- the last time I used that phrase(self succession bid) , it was in relation to Sani Abacha, the despot that held Nigeria hostage in the mid nineties, and in whose widow's name countless soliciting e mails are sent each day- to think that the current president would ever put himself in a position where these words would be used about him is sad......
Friday, November 25, 2005
Still on Nigerian politics.....
I have up till now resisted posting on the alleged attempt by the Nigerian president to force through a change in the constitution thus guaranteeing himself a third term in office. This has thrown up a loud chorus of opponents- an unwieldy coalition of would-be presidential aspirants, people who have been pissed off by Obasanjo in some way or the other, sheer opportunists and some genuinely concerned Nigerian patriots. Allegations of hefty bribes being sent round to legislators by the president's men are flying around, reinforcing the impression that Obasanjo's famed war on corruption is nothing more than a stage managed spectacle for Western governments and media, and a useful tool for dealing with political enemies who stick their heads above the parapet.......
It is sad that for whatever reason the President is even contemplating this half-assed idea of a third time. I'm sure he's partly driven by the realization that the reforms he has tried to put in place have not bedded down and are at risk of being rubbished by a new president in 2007. This is precisely why many of us saw his waste of his first term as tragic. If the reforms in the financial sector and the economy had started then, by now they would have been well embedded. Nevertheless, there are alternatives to the 3rd term campaign - why not select a trusted pair of hands- and support them to carry forward the reforms?
It is sad that for whatever reason the President is even contemplating this half-assed idea of a third time. I'm sure he's partly driven by the realization that the reforms he has tried to put in place have not bedded down and are at risk of being rubbished by a new president in 2007. This is precisely why many of us saw his waste of his first term as tragic. If the reforms in the financial sector and the economy had started then, by now they would have been well embedded. Nevertheless, there are alternatives to the 3rd term campaign - why not select a trusted pair of hands- and support them to carry forward the reforms?
First snow, the African diaspora and Alamieyeseigha's refilling
This morning, I am looking out on a glistening white garden square and on white roofs and enjoying the sunlight as it is reflected back from the snow and on the bare trees and lamp posts in the square. It's pretty, like something out of a Christmas card, or those Christmas annual books that we were given as children in tropical Nigeria......... Yes, it's the first snow of the year, and it's only November and it appears that the English obsessive desire for a white Christmas may well come to pass this year.......
This morning on the radio, Mary Robinson, the former Irish President was speaking on the potential value of the African diaspora to development efforts citing the example of how useful she had found the Irish diaspora in regenerating the Irish economy in the 1990s. Apparently a group of Africans in the diaspora have put together a shadow Commission for Africa report to rival Tony Blair's commission's report and it is being launched today. Apparently the group felt that the original commission ignored the current and potential contribution of the diaspora and their unique perspective.
I obviously have fairly strong feelings on this, often feeling that I am caught between a rock and a hard place as to my living abroad. I particularly resent often being told by Nigerians at home that I do not understand the situation because I live abroad. Whenever I visit home,(which I do fairly regularly) people marvel at my up to date grasp of Nigerian current affairs and politics, not realizing how much the world has changed since the sixties and seventies when our parents were here, when letters took two weeks to wend their way from the UK back to Nigeria and vice versa and where the only news people abroad got was from the BBC World Service and from yellowed newspaper cuttings, weeks out of date by the time they got to the UK. Now I often read the Nigerian newspapers online before many Nigerians at home have and have access to a wide range of internet sources and commentary on Nigeria, I text and speak to my family and friends nearly every day and can buy the latest Nigerian books, videos, CDs and foodstuff fairly easily. I think there are certainly many ways in which the diaspora can contribute and I don't just mean the ubiquitous Western Union money transfers.......
On , perhaps a lighter note, Alamieyesigha, the tummy-tucking thieving governor of Bayelsa has performed his first official action back in office in the impoverished Bayelsa State of the Niger Delta. Guess what it was? Signing the 2006 appropriations bill into law - with 500 000 pounds bail money and over ten million pounds in his frozen accounts forfeited to the British government as a result of his flight from justice, his personal coffers certainly need quick replenishing.........at the expense of the millions of poor Bayelsans, some of whom trooped out to give him a hero's welcome earlier in the week........ I hope he gets impeached soon
This morning on the radio, Mary Robinson, the former Irish President was speaking on the potential value of the African diaspora to development efforts citing the example of how useful she had found the Irish diaspora in regenerating the Irish economy in the 1990s. Apparently a group of Africans in the diaspora have put together a shadow Commission for Africa report to rival Tony Blair's commission's report and it is being launched today. Apparently the group felt that the original commission ignored the current and potential contribution of the diaspora and their unique perspective.
I obviously have fairly strong feelings on this, often feeling that I am caught between a rock and a hard place as to my living abroad. I particularly resent often being told by Nigerians at home that I do not understand the situation because I live abroad. Whenever I visit home,(which I do fairly regularly) people marvel at my up to date grasp of Nigerian current affairs and politics, not realizing how much the world has changed since the sixties and seventies when our parents were here, when letters took two weeks to wend their way from the UK back to Nigeria and vice versa and where the only news people abroad got was from the BBC World Service and from yellowed newspaper cuttings, weeks out of date by the time they got to the UK. Now I often read the Nigerian newspapers online before many Nigerians at home have and have access to a wide range of internet sources and commentary on Nigeria, I text and speak to my family and friends nearly every day and can buy the latest Nigerian books, videos, CDs and foodstuff fairly easily. I think there are certainly many ways in which the diaspora can contribute and I don't just mean the ubiquitous Western Union money transfers.......
On , perhaps a lighter note, Alamieyesigha, the tummy-tucking thieving governor of Bayelsa has performed his first official action back in office in the impoverished Bayelsa State of the Niger Delta. Guess what it was? Signing the 2006 appropriations bill into law - with 500 000 pounds bail money and over ten million pounds in his frozen accounts forfeited to the British government as a result of his flight from justice, his personal coffers certainly need quick replenishing.........at the expense of the millions of poor Bayelsans, some of whom trooped out to give him a hero's welcome earlier in the week........ I hope he gets impeached soon
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Reading Uganda, reflecting on ghettoes and vengeful justice...
Today, I started reading a new book, set in Uganda and in London. It's by Maggie Gee,one of the original set of Granta's Best of Young British writers and it's called My Cleaner. It's a beautifully written book about a middle class English woman who invites the Ugandan woman who used to clean her London home in the eighties back to England in a bid to heal her chronically depressed son who as a child had formed a strong attachment to the cleaner. It carefully charts the shift in the balance of power between the two women and captures quite realistically, I think, the conceptions and prejudices of both women. Even more remarkably, Gee has managed to capture the essence of Ugandan life, at least as far as I can tell, having only experienced it in Doreen Baingana's excellent Tropical Fish and in Isegawa's Abyssinian Chronicles and Snakepit. Not being a Baganda speaker, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the phrases and interjections with which Gee sprinkles her prose, but she certainly seems to get the atmosphere right. And I again marvel at how similar the experiences and issues Ugandans at home and abroad face are to those faced by Nigerians at home and abroad........ Gee acknowledges support from the Ugandan women writers association Femwrite, to which Monica Arac de Nyeko and Jackee Butesta Batanda both belong.....
Last week in Madrid, the English language version of El Pais, the Spanish national paper carried a lengthy feature on the riots in Paris and worried "Could it happen here?" It also pointed out that Germany, Britain and France had all adopted different approaches to the immigrant "problem" and wondered what the right approach was. Everyone seems to go on about people living in the same neighbourhoods perpetuating their own culture and so on, but I think it's not necessarily the living apart that's the problem. Most Western cities are segregated on the basis of wealth anyway. The problem occurs when an area that is poor and rundown also happens to be largely inhabited by immigrants of another race who perceive that the reason the authorities cannot be bothered to clean up their streets, provide street lighting or other amenities is because of their difference. And inevitably these perceptions are fostered and strengthened by their day to day experiences........
There has been much talk in recent days of victims' rights and justice following the tragic shooting of a policewoman here in the UK, with calls for arming the police and bringing back the death penalty. A similar story has played out following the attempts to provide some sort of amnesty to perpetrators of terrorist acts in Northern Ireland in exchange for securing a peace agreement. It's difficult to put in a word not having been at the receiving end, and I cannot even begin to imagine the pain the victims' families have gone through.....but I can't help but be disturbed at the hectoring calls for vengeance........reminds me of an argument I had with some Naija friends after the 7th of July bombings where they insisted that the most draconian measures be put in place to forestall a repeat. When I insisted that some calm,moderate thinking should supercede emergency rag tag measures, one of them shouted "What if YOU had been on one of those trains? Or your brother or sister?" I replied that I would hope that if that happened, I would have the strength and magnanimity of spirit to respond with humanity.....or perhaps...superhumanity......It IS a lot to ask of victims and their families but there are examples through history that show it can be done....and that forgiveness can be liberating....
Last week in Madrid, the English language version of El Pais, the Spanish national paper carried a lengthy feature on the riots in Paris and worried "Could it happen here?" It also pointed out that Germany, Britain and France had all adopted different approaches to the immigrant "problem" and wondered what the right approach was. Everyone seems to go on about people living in the same neighbourhoods perpetuating their own culture and so on, but I think it's not necessarily the living apart that's the problem. Most Western cities are segregated on the basis of wealth anyway. The problem occurs when an area that is poor and rundown also happens to be largely inhabited by immigrants of another race who perceive that the reason the authorities cannot be bothered to clean up their streets, provide street lighting or other amenities is because of their difference. And inevitably these perceptions are fostered and strengthened by their day to day experiences........
There has been much talk in recent days of victims' rights and justice following the tragic shooting of a policewoman here in the UK, with calls for arming the police and bringing back the death penalty. A similar story has played out following the attempts to provide some sort of amnesty to perpetrators of terrorist acts in Northern Ireland in exchange for securing a peace agreement. It's difficult to put in a word not having been at the receiving end, and I cannot even begin to imagine the pain the victims' families have gone through.....but I can't help but be disturbed at the hectoring calls for vengeance........reminds me of an argument I had with some Naija friends after the 7th of July bombings where they insisted that the most draconian measures be put in place to forestall a repeat. When I insisted that some calm,moderate thinking should supercede emergency rag tag measures, one of them shouted "What if YOU had been on one of those trains? Or your brother or sister?" I replied that I would hope that if that happened, I would have the strength and magnanimity of spirit to respond with humanity.....or perhaps...superhumanity......It IS a lot to ask of victims and their families but there are examples through history that show it can be done....and that forgiveness can be liberating....
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
And a dash of good old Naija machismo!
The legislators in Bayelsa State who are plotting to impeach the money laundering, bail-jumping "Governor" Al;amieyeseigha seem particularly piqued by his cross-dressing disguise that helped him escape the long arm of British law. In their words:
"A governor who disguised himself as a woman to run away from justice in London should not be our governor. It is a slap on our collective dignity as a people and our sensibilities as a people."
On a day that saw Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf formally declared Africa's first female elected head of state, it was "refreshing" to see a dash of good ol' Naija machismo.
I wonder what they would make of my English male colleagues penchant for dressing in fish-net tights and colorful wigs for charity as they did for the Children in Need Appeal last week....
"A governor who disguised himself as a woman to run away from justice in London should not be our governor. It is a slap on our collective dignity as a people and our sensibilities as a people."
On a day that saw Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf formally declared Africa's first female elected head of state, it was "refreshing" to see a dash of good ol' Naija machismo.
I wonder what they would make of my English male colleagues penchant for dressing in fish-net tights and colorful wigs for charity as they did for the Children in Need Appeal last week....
Alamieyeseigha, the complexity of Nigerian politics& UK media disinterest
I am still angered at reports that Alamieyeseigha, the money-laundering, tummy tucking Governor of Nigeria's Bayelsa State skipped bail in the UK over the weekend and has reappeared in pomp in his impoverished state capital of Yenagoa in the oil-rich Niger Delta......In his speeches, he talks about how "God saved him from his predicament" and how he intends to rededicate his life to the service of God and the people of his state....More like dedicating himself to refilling his pockets with ill-gotten loot from his government's coffers, considering that he has just forfeited 500 000 pounds in bail money, in addition to the over 1 million pounds in CASH seized from his posh London flat when it was raided by the Metropolitan Police......
Thankfully, today there are reports that there are moves to impeach him by the state assembly, which ordinarily would be reason for rejoicing......except that there are also reports that the legislators are being blackmailed to do this by the anti-corruption tribunal set up by the President Olusegun Obasanjo, who it is becoming increasingly clear appears to be planning to change the constitution to give himself a third term in office..... Alamieyeseigha has long argued that he is only being picked on because of his resistance to this self perpetuation bid and while that is no excuse, it perhaps explains why the people of Yenagoa are less than enthused by the President's anti-corruption fight which many have long argued is a selective fight, targetting his "enemies"....
Meanwhile there is a deafening silence from the UK media on the Alamieyeseigha escape from London- one would have thought that it had all the elements of an interesting news story- corruption, the oil rich Niger Delta, the UK's porous borders (long trumpeted by the tabloids as a security concern , the cloak-and-dagger Bonnie-Prince-Charlie- like escape across the Channel dressed as a woman, the efforts of the Nigerian government to bring a corrupt official to justice etc Apart from a few cursory brief pieces on the BBC website, and the Times and Telegraph, no one else seems to have picked it up. Which only fuels rumours in Nigeria that the British government may have been covertly complicit in Alams's escape......
Thankfully, today there are reports that there are moves to impeach him by the state assembly, which ordinarily would be reason for rejoicing......except that there are also reports that the legislators are being blackmailed to do this by the anti-corruption tribunal set up by the President Olusegun Obasanjo, who it is becoming increasingly clear appears to be planning to change the constitution to give himself a third term in office..... Alamieyeseigha has long argued that he is only being picked on because of his resistance to this self perpetuation bid and while that is no excuse, it perhaps explains why the people of Yenagoa are less than enthused by the President's anti-corruption fight which many have long argued is a selective fight, targetting his "enemies"....
Meanwhile there is a deafening silence from the UK media on the Alamieyeseigha escape from London- one would have thought that it had all the elements of an interesting news story- corruption, the oil rich Niger Delta, the UK's porous borders (long trumpeted by the tabloids as a security concern , the cloak-and-dagger Bonnie-Prince-Charlie- like escape across the Channel dressed as a woman, the efforts of the Nigerian government to bring a corrupt official to justice etc Apart from a few cursory brief pieces on the BBC website, and the Times and Telegraph, no one else seems to have picked it up. Which only fuels rumours in Nigeria that the British government may have been covertly complicit in Alams's escape......
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Winter blues, walking slow, walking fast, the been-to way
It is freezing again today and there is a thick dense fog clothing everything and you can hardly see beyond your nose. Yesterday, I had to turn on the heating in my flat, another winter chore that I loathe. Each winter I have to work out the settings for the various heaters and then turn them on, all the while trying to strike the right balance between waking up virtually steamed alive and waking up frozen, while at the same time trying not to run up a fortune in electricity bills......On the streets, everyone is bustling wherever they are going and no one is stopping to dawdle....Which brings to my mind the question of walking paces.....
When I first arrived in the UK, English friends would always complain about how slowly I walked. I on the other hand would marvel at the brisk pace they would lollop off on when we were supposed to be having a leisurely walk....I soon became used to their complaints and didn't think much of it until once in conversation with another friend, he pointed out that if we walked at that brisk pace in Nigerian heat, you would probably collapse in a couple of minutes.....and vice versa. In other words, the famed brisk, business-like steps of the been-to (Sixties Nigerian slang for one who has "been to England") immortalized in Chinua Achebe's description of Clara in No Longer at Ease were not the result of any great zeal or efficiency, but actually an attempt to stave off freezing in winter...........Perhaps the great English tea drinking tradition springs from the same roots.......Even I, usually no great tea drinker am beginning to have the odd cup or two in the office to clear the head and bring some warmth back into chilled bones....
When I first arrived in the UK, English friends would always complain about how slowly I walked. I on the other hand would marvel at the brisk pace they would lollop off on when we were supposed to be having a leisurely walk....I soon became used to their complaints and didn't think much of it until once in conversation with another friend, he pointed out that if we walked at that brisk pace in Nigerian heat, you would probably collapse in a couple of minutes.....and vice versa. In other words, the famed brisk, business-like steps of the been-to (Sixties Nigerian slang for one who has "been to England") immortalized in Chinua Achebe's description of Clara in No Longer at Ease were not the result of any great zeal or efficiency, but actually an attempt to stave off freezing in winter...........Perhaps the great English tea drinking tradition springs from the same roots.......Even I, usually no great tea drinker am beginning to have the odd cup or two in the office to clear the head and bring some warmth back into chilled bones....
Monday, November 21, 2005
Shameless!!! Another sad day for Nigeria....
The tummy tucking Nigerian governor of my earlier post who was arrested and detained in London on charges of money-laundering has apparently skipped bail and escaped back to Nigeria- allegedly disguised as a woman, the BBC confirms this evening.....
And as predicted, crowds have lined the streets of the impoverished state capital of Yenagoa in the oil rich Niger Delta to welcome him back. Meanwhile he has allegedly said that "God brought him home" and accused the British authorities of "neo colonialism". The cheek of him, having travelled under false pretences, and running away from justice, he dares to invoke God and neocolonialism........
Sadly because of a weird "immunity from prosecution" clause in the Nigerian constitution, there is little chance that he will be brought to justice. A fellow governor caught in similar circumstances last year fled back to Nigeria, also skipping bail and has continued to govern his state.....
How these men can live with themselves, I honestly do not know!
The Metropolitan Police should never have let him slip through......
And as predicted, crowds have lined the streets of the impoverished state capital of Yenagoa in the oil rich Niger Delta to welcome him back. Meanwhile he has allegedly said that "God brought him home" and accused the British authorities of "neo colonialism". The cheek of him, having travelled under false pretences, and running away from justice, he dares to invoke God and neocolonialism........
Sadly because of a weird "immunity from prosecution" clause in the Nigerian constitution, there is little chance that he will be brought to justice. A fellow governor caught in similar circumstances last year fled back to Nigeria, also skipping bail and has continued to govern his state.....
How these men can live with themselves, I honestly do not know!
The Metropolitan Police should never have let him slip through......
Freezing, The Constant Gardener, Corporate Social Responsibility and Isegawa...
It's freezing today and even though it's clear and crisp and sunny, I fear that the predictions for a very cold winter will come to pass. I have managed so far not to lose any gloves or my hat or any of the other winter paraphernalia, so feel that I'm doing quite well.....but it's early days yet....
Started reading Moses Isegawa's Snakepit today. He's the Ugandan author of The Abyssinian Chronicles which I loved. Snakepit is again set in Idi Amin's Uganda but I don't think (so far) that it is as accomplished as The Abyssinian Chronicles which flowed smoothly. Snakepit seems a lot jerkier, even though there are flashes of brilliance and humour. What does come through in both books is a sense that Isegawa is quite angry at the situation of things in his country and one almost senses that he has turned his back on Uganda.....the bio at the front of Snakepit simply says that he was born in Uganda and now has Dutch citizenship and lives just outside of Amsterdam....
I also went to see The Constant Gardener at the weekend- I went to see it with my cousin who was born and brought up in the UK and has only been back to Nigeria a handful of times. We were both struck by the authenticity of some of the African market and slum scenes - Nairobi could pass for Lagos or Ibadan or Enugu or the slums on the outskirts of Abuja (far away from the glistening pristine highways). I also agreed with Jeremy Weate of naijablog http://naijablog.blogspot.com/ that again the Africans were largely the backdrop for the white actors , and I suppose the film producers retort would be that "audiences will not come to see a film featuring mostly African actors". True? Like the chicken and the egg, we'll never know which comes first.......except of course the Nigerian movie industry starts making coherent, powerful films and find a way of marketing them to the world........Bollywood anyone?
An English friend who had watched the film earlier asked if I felt that Western companies could act as ruthlessly in Africa as they were depicted as doing in The Constant Gardener. I had to admit that while I had no direct experience or proof, speaking to friends who have lived and worked in the Niger Delta, I was horrified at some of the things the oil companies get up to there.......He was convinced that in this era of "corporate social responsibility", things had changed......I was more cynical- the companies are merely better at covering their tracks...... and Africa where neither the governments nor the press nor the activists have the capability to take them on provides a vast playground for these interests......
Started reading Moses Isegawa's Snakepit today. He's the Ugandan author of The Abyssinian Chronicles which I loved. Snakepit is again set in Idi Amin's Uganda but I don't think (so far) that it is as accomplished as The Abyssinian Chronicles which flowed smoothly. Snakepit seems a lot jerkier, even though there are flashes of brilliance and humour. What does come through in both books is a sense that Isegawa is quite angry at the situation of things in his country and one almost senses that he has turned his back on Uganda.....the bio at the front of Snakepit simply says that he was born in Uganda and now has Dutch citizenship and lives just outside of Amsterdam....
I also went to see The Constant Gardener at the weekend- I went to see it with my cousin who was born and brought up in the UK and has only been back to Nigeria a handful of times. We were both struck by the authenticity of some of the African market and slum scenes - Nairobi could pass for Lagos or Ibadan or Enugu or the slums on the outskirts of Abuja (far away from the glistening pristine highways). I also agreed with Jeremy Weate of naijablog http://naijablog.blogspot.com/ that again the Africans were largely the backdrop for the white actors , and I suppose the film producers retort would be that "audiences will not come to see a film featuring mostly African actors". True? Like the chicken and the egg, we'll never know which comes first.......except of course the Nigerian movie industry starts making coherent, powerful films and find a way of marketing them to the world........Bollywood anyone?
An English friend who had watched the film earlier asked if I felt that Western companies could act as ruthlessly in Africa as they were depicted as doing in The Constant Gardener. I had to admit that while I had no direct experience or proof, speaking to friends who have lived and worked in the Niger Delta, I was horrified at some of the things the oil companies get up to there.......He was convinced that in this era of "corporate social responsibility", things had changed......I was more cynical- the companies are merely better at covering their tracks...... and Africa where neither the governments nor the press nor the activists have the capability to take them on provides a vast playground for these interests......
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Nigerian home videos,the erosion of reading and a deep malaise
Reflecting on my earlier post about Pacesetters, the popular African street literature series had me wondering whether home videos have taken the place that novels used to have in Nigerian popular culture.
The very popular Nigerian home video industry is an example of enterprise that has grown from nothing to a huge behemoth now said to be worth millions of dollars with the films watched all over the world. I had thought that it was a purely Nigerian market but now understand that it's a pan-African thing.
I remember reading an article in an international magazine not too long ago describing a journey across Tanzania in a bus where the on board entertainment was a Nigerian home video, and I understand that they sell like hot cakes in Ghana and South Africa and Kenya. I've seen the films on sale on the streets of Washington DC and in Brixton and Peckham in London. For many, the films have become a way of keeping in touch with home.....and for others a way into a world they have never been to....pretty much in the way books have led me into countries and cultures that I have never visited.....
Now there are huge shops selling these films in many Nigerian markets, and people exchange the newest videos with their family and friends, but years ago they would have been exchanging novels and there would have been large bookshops selling these books in the markets. Now all they sell are textbooks, motivational books and religious texts of the "How to Possess your God Destined Wealth" variety.....
I'm not suggesting that all Nigerians read high literary fiction-it varied quite widely. For the women, you had the frothy Barbara Cartland romances, the Bertha M Clay books with improbable titles like Beyond Pardon and for the slightly more highbrow, Denise Robbins whose romances were slightly meatier than Cartland's and unlike Cartland's were not always set in fairy tale castles......Later the Mills and Boon series intruded.
For the men, it was more action stuff- the epitome of which was the novels involving Nick Carter, a sort of implausible James Bond figure who was always armed with "Wilhemina-his trusty Luger" and a stiletto whose name now escapes me
Then there were the James Hadley Chase crime novels which virtually could be found in every home. They tended to have a bad reputation because of the rather racy covers which usually had a combination of a bikini clad blonde and a weapon and the covers often bore no relation to the plot, but obviously must have boosted sales hugely. I remember having to wrap the book covers or even ripping them off so that adults didn't suspect that you were reading a racy James Hadley Chase
The more sophisticated children read books from the Ladybird series- books that I hold responsible for my rather deep knowledge of the largely irrelevant minutiae of the lives of various English monarchs, as well as the Enid Blyton books and then there were a whole series of books by Nigerian authors commissioned by publishers like Heinemann and Macmillan for the Nigerian children's market- including Chinua Achebe's Chike and the River, Cyprian Ekwensi's The Rainmaker and other stories and Anezi Okoro's excellent Tales out of School and More Tales Out of School
And then there were the African Writers Series which published Achebe and Soyinka and Ngugi and a whole host of African writers.
These days, when I go to Nigeria, I visit houses of fairly well-off, well educated professionals in which there is not a single book. Where there are books, they are often motivational or religious. But there are almost invariably rows and rows of home videos. And the story is the same in many Nigerian homes here in the UK.
Which isn't in itself a bad thing, but puts the lie to the story that the withering away of reading is purely economic- perhaps it's something to do with a deeper malaise, probably not divorced from the crass materialism that pervades Nigerian society
The very popular Nigerian home video industry is an example of enterprise that has grown from nothing to a huge behemoth now said to be worth millions of dollars with the films watched all over the world. I had thought that it was a purely Nigerian market but now understand that it's a pan-African thing.
I remember reading an article in an international magazine not too long ago describing a journey across Tanzania in a bus where the on board entertainment was a Nigerian home video, and I understand that they sell like hot cakes in Ghana and South Africa and Kenya. I've seen the films on sale on the streets of Washington DC and in Brixton and Peckham in London. For many, the films have become a way of keeping in touch with home.....and for others a way into a world they have never been to....pretty much in the way books have led me into countries and cultures that I have never visited.....
Now there are huge shops selling these films in many Nigerian markets, and people exchange the newest videos with their family and friends, but years ago they would have been exchanging novels and there would have been large bookshops selling these books in the markets. Now all they sell are textbooks, motivational books and religious texts of the "How to Possess your God Destined Wealth" variety.....
I'm not suggesting that all Nigerians read high literary fiction-it varied quite widely. For the women, you had the frothy Barbara Cartland romances, the Bertha M Clay books with improbable titles like Beyond Pardon and for the slightly more highbrow, Denise Robbins whose romances were slightly meatier than Cartland's and unlike Cartland's were not always set in fairy tale castles......Later the Mills and Boon series intruded.
For the men, it was more action stuff- the epitome of which was the novels involving Nick Carter, a sort of implausible James Bond figure who was always armed with "Wilhemina-his trusty Luger" and a stiletto whose name now escapes me
Then there were the James Hadley Chase crime novels which virtually could be found in every home. They tended to have a bad reputation because of the rather racy covers which usually had a combination of a bikini clad blonde and a weapon and the covers often bore no relation to the plot, but obviously must have boosted sales hugely. I remember having to wrap the book covers or even ripping them off so that adults didn't suspect that you were reading a racy James Hadley Chase
The more sophisticated children read books from the Ladybird series- books that I hold responsible for my rather deep knowledge of the largely irrelevant minutiae of the lives of various English monarchs, as well as the Enid Blyton books and then there were a whole series of books by Nigerian authors commissioned by publishers like Heinemann and Macmillan for the Nigerian children's market- including Chinua Achebe's Chike and the River, Cyprian Ekwensi's The Rainmaker and other stories and Anezi Okoro's excellent Tales out of School and More Tales Out of School
And then there were the African Writers Series which published Achebe and Soyinka and Ngugi and a whole host of African writers.
These days, when I go to Nigeria, I visit houses of fairly well-off, well educated professionals in which there is not a single book. Where there are books, they are often motivational or religious. But there are almost invariably rows and rows of home videos. And the story is the same in many Nigerian homes here in the UK.
Which isn't in itself a bad thing, but puts the lie to the story that the withering away of reading is purely economic- perhaps it's something to do with a deeper malaise, probably not divorced from the crass materialism that pervades Nigerian society
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Adichie makes the John Llewellyn Prize shortlist
Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus has been shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Prize for "fine young writers early in their careers from biographers, novelists and historians to travel writers, dramatists and poets " The other shortlisted books are:
Neil Bennun The Broken String Viking (British) (non-fiction / history)
Anthony Cartwright The Afterglow Tindal Street Press (British) (Novel)
Colin McAdam Some Great Thing Jonathan Cape (Canadian) (Novel)
Rory Stewart The Places In Between Picador (British) (Travel)
Jonathan Trigell Boy A Serpent’s Tail (British) (Novel)
I remember e-mailing to congratulate Hari Kunzru (author of the Impressionist and Transmission) last year when he won the prize but in a stinging rebuff turned it down because the prize was sponsored by the Mail on Sunday, an English tabloid which had in his words " consistently pursued an editorial policy of vilifying and demonising refugees and asylum-seekers, and throughout their political and social coverage there is a pervasive atmosphere of hostility towards black and Asian British people" The full speech is here...
http://www.harikunzru.com/hari/jlr.htm
Thankfully the prize is no longer sponsored by the Mail and so Ms Adichie can hopefully look forward to the award ceremony on the 1st of December in London without worrying that she is selling out......
Neil Bennun The Broken String Viking (British) (non-fiction / history)
Anthony Cartwright The Afterglow Tindal Street Press (British) (Novel)
Colin McAdam Some Great Thing Jonathan Cape (Canadian) (Novel)
Rory Stewart The Places In Between Picador (British) (Travel)
Jonathan Trigell Boy A Serpent’s Tail (British) (Novel)
I remember e-mailing to congratulate Hari Kunzru (author of the Impressionist and Transmission) last year when he won the prize but in a stinging rebuff turned it down because the prize was sponsored by the Mail on Sunday, an English tabloid which had in his words " consistently pursued an editorial policy of vilifying and demonising refugees and asylum-seekers, and throughout their political and social coverage there is a pervasive atmosphere of hostility towards black and Asian British people" The full speech is here...
http://www.harikunzru.com/hari/jlr.htm
Thankfully the prize is no longer sponsored by the Mail and so Ms Adichie can hopefully look forward to the award ceremony on the 1st of December in London without worrying that she is selling out......
Nigerian home videos,the erosion of reading and a deep malaise
Reflecting on my earlier post about Pacesetters, the popular African street literature series had me wondering whether home videos have taken the place that novels used to have in Nigerian popular culture.
The very popular Nigerian home video industry is an example of enterprise that has grown from nothing to a huge behemoth now said to be worth millions of dollars with the films watched all over the world. I had thought that it was a purely Nigerian market but now understand that it's a pan-African thing.
I remember reading an article in an international magazine not too long ago describing a journey across Tanzania in a bus where the on board entertainment was a Nigerian home video, and I understand that they sell like hot cakes in Ghana and South Africa and Kenya. I've seen the films on sale on the streets of Washington DC and in Brixton and Peckham in London. For many, the films have become a way of keeping in touch with home.....and for others a way into a world they have never been to....pretty much in the way books have led me into countries and cultures that I have never visited.....
Now there are huge shops selling these films in many Nigerian markets, and people exchange the newest videos with their family and friends, but years ago they would have been exchanging novels and there would have been large bookshops selling these books in the markets. Now all they sell are textbooks, motivational books and religious texts of the "How to Possess your God Destined Wealth" variety.....
I'm not suggesting that all Nigerians read high literary fiction-it varied quite widely. For the women, you had the frothy Barbara Cartland romances, the Bertha M Clay books with improbable titles like Beyond Pardon and for the slightly more highbrow, Denise Robbins whose romances were slightly meatier than Cartland's and unlike Cartland's were not always set in fairy tale castles......Later the Mills and Boon series intruded.
For the men, it was more action stuff- the epitome of which was the novels involving Nick Carter, a sort of implausible James Bond figure who was always armed with "Wilhemina-his trusty Luger" and a stiletto whose name now escapes me
Then there were the James Hadley Chase crime novels which virtually could be found in every home. They tended to have a bad reputation because of the rather racy covers which usually had a combination of a bikini clad blonde and a weapon and the covers often bore no relation to the plot, but obviously must have boosted sales hugely. I remember having to wrap the book covers or even ripping them off so that adults didn't suspect that you were reading a racy James Hadley Chase
The more sophisticated children read books from the Ladybird series- books that I hold responsible for my rather deep knowledge of the largely irrelevant minutiae of the lives of various English monarchs, as well as the Enid Blyton books and then there were a whole series of books by Nigerian authors commissioned by publishers like Heinemann and Macmillan for the Nigerian children's market- including Chinua Achebe's Chike and the River, Cyprian Ekwensi's The Rainmaker and other stories and Anezi Okoro's excellent Tales out of School and More Tales Out of School
And then there were the African Writers Series which published Achebe and Soyinka and Ngugi and a whole host of African writers.
These days, when I go to Nigeria, I visit houses of fairly well-off, well educated professionals in which there is not a single book. Where there are books, they are often motivational or religious. But there are almost invariably rows and rows of home videos. And the story is the same in many Nigerian homes here in the UK.
Which isn't in itself a bad thing, but puts the lie to the story that the withering away of reading is purely economic- perhaps it's something to do with a deeper malaise, probably not divorced from the crass materialism that pervades Nigerian society today.......
The very popular Nigerian home video industry is an example of enterprise that has grown from nothing to a huge behemoth now said to be worth millions of dollars with the films watched all over the world. I had thought that it was a purely Nigerian market but now understand that it's a pan-African thing.
I remember reading an article in an international magazine not too long ago describing a journey across Tanzania in a bus where the on board entertainment was a Nigerian home video, and I understand that they sell like hot cakes in Ghana and South Africa and Kenya. I've seen the films on sale on the streets of Washington DC and in Brixton and Peckham in London. For many, the films have become a way of keeping in touch with home.....and for others a way into a world they have never been to....pretty much in the way books have led me into countries and cultures that I have never visited.....
Now there are huge shops selling these films in many Nigerian markets, and people exchange the newest videos with their family and friends, but years ago they would have been exchanging novels and there would have been large bookshops selling these books in the markets. Now all they sell are textbooks, motivational books and religious texts of the "How to Possess your God Destined Wealth" variety.....
I'm not suggesting that all Nigerians read high literary fiction-it varied quite widely. For the women, you had the frothy Barbara Cartland romances, the Bertha M Clay books with improbable titles like Beyond Pardon and for the slightly more highbrow, Denise Robbins whose romances were slightly meatier than Cartland's and unlike Cartland's were not always set in fairy tale castles......Later the Mills and Boon series intruded.
For the men, it was more action stuff- the epitome of which was the novels involving Nick Carter, a sort of implausible James Bond figure who was always armed with "Wilhemina-his trusty Luger" and a stiletto whose name now escapes me
Then there were the James Hadley Chase crime novels which virtually could be found in every home. They tended to have a bad reputation because of the rather racy covers which usually had a combination of a bikini clad blonde and a weapon and the covers often bore no relation to the plot, but obviously must have boosted sales hugely. I remember having to wrap the book covers or even ripping them off so that adults didn't suspect that you were reading a racy James Hadley Chase
The more sophisticated children read books from the Ladybird series- books that I hold responsible for my rather deep knowledge of the largely irrelevant minutiae of the lives of various English monarchs, as well as the Enid Blyton books and then there were a whole series of books by Nigerian authors commissioned by publishers like Heinemann and Macmillan for the Nigerian children's market- including Chinua Achebe's Chike and the River, Cyprian Ekwensi's The Rainmaker and other stories and Anezi Okoro's excellent Tales out of School and More Tales Out of School
And then there were the African Writers Series which published Achebe and Soyinka and Ngugi and a whole host of African writers.
These days, when I go to Nigeria, I visit houses of fairly well-off, well educated professionals in which there is not a single book. Where there are books, they are often motivational or religious. But there are almost invariably rows and rows of home videos. And the story is the same in many Nigerian homes here in the UK.
Which isn't in itself a bad thing, but puts the lie to the story that the withering away of reading is purely economic- perhaps it's something to do with a deeper malaise, probably not divorced from the crass materialism that pervades Nigerian society today.......
On loving Spain, Madrid but not Oates
Just got back from a very relaxing four days in Madrid, my first visit there. I love Spain, there's just a certain warmth and openness I find in the people that is unrivalled in other parts of Europe. I suppose it's what the French would call joie de vivre. Plus, I never seem to get the hassles at Spanish immigration that seem de rigueur almost everywhere else. And the food is probably as close to Naija food as it gets- this time I had a lovely callos madrilenos, a stew of tripe and cow foot which with a little bit of red hot pepper, would have rivalled any of the steaming products of the bukaterias in Obalende.....stickiness and all, pity they didn't have the bowls of water with bars of Lux soap floating in them and a ragged towel for cleaning up after washing your hands.....
I was finally able to finish Michela Wrong's I Didn't do it for You which taught me so much about the history of Eritrea and Ethiopia and made me want to visit Asmara, the Italianate capital of Eritrea. The story of the Eritrean people's struggle for independence and their subsequent history is at once both heartwarming and heartbreaking......
I'm also well into Esi Edugyan's The Second Life of Samuel Tyne and find it a remarkable achievement, although the style and theme , almost Gothic is not exactly my favourite style.....she's been compared to Joyce Carol Oates and I have never yet got round to reading a single Oates
I was finally able to finish Michela Wrong's I Didn't do it for You which taught me so much about the history of Eritrea and Ethiopia and made me want to visit Asmara, the Italianate capital of Eritrea. The story of the Eritrean people's struggle for independence and their subsequent history is at once both heartwarming and heartbreaking......
I'm also well into Esi Edugyan's The Second Life of Samuel Tyne and find it a remarkable achievement, although the style and theme , almost Gothic is not exactly my favourite style.....she's been compared to Joyce Carol Oates and I have never yet got round to reading a single Oates
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Exhausted......
I woke up late this morning and had to dash to catch the train to my morning meetings. All day I've felt like I'm wading through really thick liquid and it feels as if I'm hearing through a thick veil as well......
The thick veil didn't stop me noting that Tony Blair was defeated in the Commons last night on his bill to hold terror suspects for 90 days without charge.....what I found most despicable was the insinuation that the July the 7th London bombings would have been prevented if such a law was in place....... I am no security expert but 90 days does seem a long time to hold someone without charge.......especially if you are only too aware that the police sometimes get it wrong....
On the Nigerian front, the wife of the Nigerian governor (see tummy tucking governors and other obscenities in the archives) who is currently charged with money laundering in London was herself arrested by British police yesterday in connection with millions of pounds allegedly found in her account.... I suppose their case is not helped by the fact that photographs of their daughter's graduation party from a Californian university are splashed all over the latest edition of Ovation, the Nigerian version of Hello, complete with Vera Wang ballgown and a poolside party AND ball at the Beverly Hills Hotel..........this from the governor of a state that has no roads, in the grossly deprived oil rich Niger Delta......the gall of some people!!!
I'm off on a weekend break tomorrow, I hope I'll come back rejuvenated...
The thick veil didn't stop me noting that Tony Blair was defeated in the Commons last night on his bill to hold terror suspects for 90 days without charge.....what I found most despicable was the insinuation that the July the 7th London bombings would have been prevented if such a law was in place....... I am no security expert but 90 days does seem a long time to hold someone without charge.......especially if you are only too aware that the police sometimes get it wrong....
On the Nigerian front, the wife of the Nigerian governor (see tummy tucking governors and other obscenities in the archives) who is currently charged with money laundering in London was herself arrested by British police yesterday in connection with millions of pounds allegedly found in her account.... I suppose their case is not helped by the fact that photographs of their daughter's graduation party from a Californian university are splashed all over the latest edition of Ovation, the Nigerian version of Hello, complete with Vera Wang ballgown and a poolside party AND ball at the Beverly Hills Hotel..........this from the governor of a state that has no roads, in the grossly deprived oil rich Niger Delta......the gall of some people!!!
I'm off on a weekend break tomorrow, I hope I'll come back rejuvenated...
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Boris Johnson, Eritrea and a recurring theme of twins
So, back to literature and what I'm reading at the moment. I've actually got three books on the go, which is unlike me, but the past few weeks have been so hectic workwise that I seem to undergo mood swings- just in relation to my leisure reading- I hasten to add!
For light entertainment, I'm reading Boris Johnson, the Tory MP for Henley and editor of the right wing magazine The Spectator(known in these parts as the Sextator for the wide tangle of illicit sexual liaisons involving its members of staff last summer).He's widely beloved in the UK for his bumbling cuddly, oversized teddy bear, shambolic persona. I think it's all an act as he was President of the Oxford Union while at university and so isn't the slightest bit as dim or disorganized as he'd like to make out. Which in my book suggests that he is fierecely ambitious. Anyway I'm reading his Seventy Two Virgins which is supposed to be a comedy set around the visit of the US President to the UK in the aftermath of the onset of war in Iraq. It's not as funny as it could be and you can't help feeling that he probably just dashed it off to earn a few pennies, trading on his celebrity.......
For meatier stuff, I finally got hold of Michela Wrong's I Didn't Do It For You, with the intriguing subtitle of- How the World Used and Abused a Small African Nation- and it's about Eritrea. I've only just started but am enjoying it and learning about Eritrea, just as Ms Wrong's book In th Footsteps of Mr Kurtz was one of a set of books that educated me about the Congo.
The third book, I've also only just literally started and it's by Esi Edugyan, a Canadian author of Ghanaian extraction and it's called The Second Life of Samuel Tyne and is set in Canada. According to the blurb it's about a Ghanaian man who moves to Canada and moves with his wife and their twin daughters to a small town where sinister things happen. The twin and other worldly theme thing intrigues me because Helen Oyeyemi (The Icarus Girl) and Diana Evans (26a) both have twins and fantasy in their work......and all three are second generation immigrant (part or wholly) West African young women writers
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that West Africa has a high rate of twinning.....
For light entertainment, I'm reading Boris Johnson, the Tory MP for Henley and editor of the right wing magazine The Spectator(known in these parts as the Sextator for the wide tangle of illicit sexual liaisons involving its members of staff last summer).He's widely beloved in the UK for his bumbling cuddly, oversized teddy bear, shambolic persona. I think it's all an act as he was President of the Oxford Union while at university and so isn't the slightest bit as dim or disorganized as he'd like to make out. Which in my book suggests that he is fierecely ambitious. Anyway I'm reading his Seventy Two Virgins which is supposed to be a comedy set around the visit of the US President to the UK in the aftermath of the onset of war in Iraq. It's not as funny as it could be and you can't help feeling that he probably just dashed it off to earn a few pennies, trading on his celebrity.......
For meatier stuff, I finally got hold of Michela Wrong's I Didn't Do It For You, with the intriguing subtitle of- How the World Used and Abused a Small African Nation- and it's about Eritrea. I've only just started but am enjoying it and learning about Eritrea, just as Ms Wrong's book In th Footsteps of Mr Kurtz was one of a set of books that educated me about the Congo.
The third book, I've also only just literally started and it's by Esi Edugyan, a Canadian author of Ghanaian extraction and it's called The Second Life of Samuel Tyne and is set in Canada. According to the blurb it's about a Ghanaian man who moves to Canada and moves with his wife and their twin daughters to a small town where sinister things happen. The twin and other worldly theme thing intrigues me because Helen Oyeyemi (The Icarus Girl) and Diana Evans (26a) both have twins and fantasy in their work......and all three are second generation immigrant (part or wholly) West African young women writers
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that West Africa has a high rate of twinning.....
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Pacesetter novels and popular reading culture in Africa
If you lived in Nigeria in the 80s, then you probably remember Pacesetter novels.
These were a series by Macmillan (I think) which featured contemporary writers from across Africa. Unlike the Heinemann African Writers Series, they did not aspire to any great literary pretensions and were unabashedly popular in their slant.
I remember my first was The Undesirable Element in which a young virtuous Hausa woman (Bintu or Binta...can't remember now) went to work in a big city (Kano , perhaps) and fell into the evil clutches of a lascivious Alhaji, which I think she eventually escaped. I also remember The Mark of the Cobra by Valentine Alily which featured a sort of Nigerian James Bond dashing around in submarines and all that kind of stuff and The Smugglers by Kalu Okpi which was a sort of thriller featuring the Nigerian Police. And then you had Helen Ovbiagele's Evbu My Love and You Never Know which I suppose could pass for a sort of Nigerian 80s chick-lit with its young professional working women battling to keep their romances alive.....Anfd there were others from across the continent...Christmas in the City from Ghana, For Mbatha and Rabeka from Eastern Africa and so on.
Even the cover designs were classics in contemporary African pop art, colourful and amateurish, a stone throw away from the barber shop and hairdressing salon boards which I have seen decorating some English homes here in London. (somewhere in Africa, a barber shop is missing it's sign board....)
The good thing about them was that they were churned out on a regular basis (I remember the thrill of walking through the booksellers section in the market and finding a Pacesetter that I hadn't read) and they were cheap...when I went away to boarding school, my grandfather gave me the princely sum of ten naira which bought me the two latest Pacesetters.
And yet looking back now that was the golden age of African publishing and popular reading.......everyone read them- from semi literate traders in the markets to snooty secretaries in posh Lagos offices to spotty secondary school students and semi sophisticated undergraduates- and they constantly introduced new writing from across the continent, exposing us to everyday life in other African countries. Plus for some writers it gave them the first opportunity to thinking seriously about writing......
Sadly, in the 90s as structural adjustment programmes swept across the continent and the value of local currencies crashed, these books disappeared and with them, an entire reading and writing culture.
The attempt to keep a popular culture of reading struggles on though in such areas as the Hausa street literature of Kano in Nigeria, the valiant efforts of Caine Prize winner Binyavanga Wainana's Kwani? in Kenya http://www.kwani.org/ , Farafina Books in Nigeria http://farafina.dbweb.ee and now the New Gong Press publishing from Lagos www.newgong.com
But the good news for the nostalgic is that Pacesetter novels are back. I stumbled across a website with a link to them https://sslrelay.com/www.pacesetternovels.com and you can sneak a peek at the catalogue and relive those feelings of the 80s as you admire the covers which may look slightly garish now.....
It's not clear who's behind them- presumably Macmillan's sold the backlist- but at 5 pounds, and sold over the internet, they probably will not spark off any major African reading renaissance...... but then I suppose the target market is nostalgic old gits like me who now live abroad and have regular access to the internet, and credit cards to boot......
These were a series by Macmillan (I think) which featured contemporary writers from across Africa. Unlike the Heinemann African Writers Series, they did not aspire to any great literary pretensions and were unabashedly popular in their slant.
I remember my first was The Undesirable Element in which a young virtuous Hausa woman (Bintu or Binta...can't remember now) went to work in a big city (Kano , perhaps) and fell into the evil clutches of a lascivious Alhaji, which I think she eventually escaped. I also remember The Mark of the Cobra by Valentine Alily which featured a sort of Nigerian James Bond dashing around in submarines and all that kind of stuff and The Smugglers by Kalu Okpi which was a sort of thriller featuring the Nigerian Police. And then you had Helen Ovbiagele's Evbu My Love and You Never Know which I suppose could pass for a sort of Nigerian 80s chick-lit with its young professional working women battling to keep their romances alive.....Anfd there were others from across the continent...Christmas in the City from Ghana, For Mbatha and Rabeka from Eastern Africa and so on.
Even the cover designs were classics in contemporary African pop art, colourful and amateurish, a stone throw away from the barber shop and hairdressing salon boards which I have seen decorating some English homes here in London. (somewhere in Africa, a barber shop is missing it's sign board....)
The good thing about them was that they were churned out on a regular basis (I remember the thrill of walking through the booksellers section in the market and finding a Pacesetter that I hadn't read) and they were cheap...when I went away to boarding school, my grandfather gave me the princely sum of ten naira which bought me the two latest Pacesetters.
And yet looking back now that was the golden age of African publishing and popular reading.......everyone read them- from semi literate traders in the markets to snooty secretaries in posh Lagos offices to spotty secondary school students and semi sophisticated undergraduates- and they constantly introduced new writing from across the continent, exposing us to everyday life in other African countries. Plus for some writers it gave them the first opportunity to thinking seriously about writing......
Sadly, in the 90s as structural adjustment programmes swept across the continent and the value of local currencies crashed, these books disappeared and with them, an entire reading and writing culture.
The attempt to keep a popular culture of reading struggles on though in such areas as the Hausa street literature of Kano in Nigeria, the valiant efforts of Caine Prize winner Binyavanga Wainana's Kwani? in Kenya http://www.kwani.org/ , Farafina Books in Nigeria http://farafina.dbweb.ee and now the New Gong Press publishing from Lagos www.newgong.com
But the good news for the nostalgic is that Pacesetter novels are back. I stumbled across a website with a link to them https://sslrelay.com/www.pacesetternovels.com and you can sneak a peek at the catalogue and relive those feelings of the 80s as you admire the covers which may look slightly garish now.....
It's not clear who's behind them- presumably Macmillan's sold the backlist- but at 5 pounds, and sold over the internet, they probably will not spark off any major African reading renaissance...... but then I suppose the target market is nostalgic old gits like me who now live abroad and have regular access to the internet, and credit cards to boot......
Monday, November 07, 2005
French riots, the value of human lives and John Donne
I had hoped to refrain- at least for a while- from commenting on the French riots, partly because I am wary of being labelled as someone who's "got a bit of a chip on his shoulder"....Britspeak for someone who keeps raising uncomfortable truths-about race or class or gender. Never mind that attitudes like these lead to people biting their tongues and letting it all simmer inside...........except of course, if like me you have a blog where you can let off steam....so please indulge me........
Last July, in the aftermath of the London bombings, I was incensed to read an article by a French journalist based in London, the gist of which was that she was not surprised that the bombings had happened seeing as the British had got the whole race relations- and- integration caboodle wrong, implying of course that France had got it right. I was incensed because a year before I had visited Paris and was struck with how bleak the lives of its non-white populations seemed.....
From the dreariness of the banlieus, graffiti strewn and soulless, with unemployed youth hanging around listlessly to the virtual absence of ethnic minority people on television, there was something particularly hollow and sad about the people of colour I encountered there.
Chatting to some Nigerian friends later, they told me how lucky I was to be living in London, describing how regularly, black people coming off the trains in Paris would be herded into groups by gendarmes shouting "Les papiers, les papiers" as they checked immigration and identity papers
My feeling of unease was virtually complete when on two separate nights going back to our rather trendy upscale hotel with my English friends, I was stopped at reception by security men asking to see my room key. The second time I just stormed past, refusing to respond to their increasingly agitated "Monsieur, monsieur!" In my three years in the UK, I had never had a similar experience.
Which is why I was annoyed to imagine that someone from France dared to exploit the tragedy of the London bombings to pontificate on what Britain should be doing about race relations...........
On a different but not unrelated issue, I heard "President" General Musharraf of Pakistan (I wonder when the US will turn their democracy-spreading skills in his direction,) lament on radio that he believed the world would have contributed more to the earthquake victims if it had happened in a Western country. On the same day, in a newspaper, I saw a report from Oxfam detailing the various amounts that had been donated per victim for the earthquake victims, the tsunami victims, for Hurricane Katrina and for people suffering from HIV in Africa. No prizes for guessing who topped the list.......or who came bottom
And it's not just a Western affliction, this subtle grading of the value of a human life.....after the recent aircrash in Nigeria, a few people pointed out that far more than 117 people had died in huge road traffic accidents which had not received the kind of attention that the plane crash had in the Nigerian press.Flying in Nigeria is of course the preserve of a small privileged minority..... Other commentators lamented that the death of the First Lady appeared to take up so much more space in the Nigerian media than the death of the 117 victims of the plane crash.....
And even I, I remember, a few days after the London bombings which killed 52 people, reading an article about a bus plunging into a river in Nigeria and killing over sixty people. I quickly flicked on to the next page and put it out of my mind. And then the thought came to me.............only days before, I had been devastated by the shock of the London bombing and the lives lost and greedily devouring article after article on the bombing and yet here could not summon more than a passing thought for these other souls and their families......
We must never forget John Donne's immortal words- "....Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind...." and we must take them to heart more often.....
Last July, in the aftermath of the London bombings, I was incensed to read an article by a French journalist based in London, the gist of which was that she was not surprised that the bombings had happened seeing as the British had got the whole race relations- and- integration caboodle wrong, implying of course that France had got it right. I was incensed because a year before I had visited Paris and was struck with how bleak the lives of its non-white populations seemed.....
From the dreariness of the banlieus, graffiti strewn and soulless, with unemployed youth hanging around listlessly to the virtual absence of ethnic minority people on television, there was something particularly hollow and sad about the people of colour I encountered there.
Chatting to some Nigerian friends later, they told me how lucky I was to be living in London, describing how regularly, black people coming off the trains in Paris would be herded into groups by gendarmes shouting "Les papiers, les papiers" as they checked immigration and identity papers
My feeling of unease was virtually complete when on two separate nights going back to our rather trendy upscale hotel with my English friends, I was stopped at reception by security men asking to see my room key. The second time I just stormed past, refusing to respond to their increasingly agitated "Monsieur, monsieur!" In my three years in the UK, I had never had a similar experience.
Which is why I was annoyed to imagine that someone from France dared to exploit the tragedy of the London bombings to pontificate on what Britain should be doing about race relations...........
On a different but not unrelated issue, I heard "President" General Musharraf of Pakistan (I wonder when the US will turn their democracy-spreading skills in his direction,) lament on radio that he believed the world would have contributed more to the earthquake victims if it had happened in a Western country. On the same day, in a newspaper, I saw a report from Oxfam detailing the various amounts that had been donated per victim for the earthquake victims, the tsunami victims, for Hurricane Katrina and for people suffering from HIV in Africa. No prizes for guessing who topped the list.......or who came bottom
And it's not just a Western affliction, this subtle grading of the value of a human life.....after the recent aircrash in Nigeria, a few people pointed out that far more than 117 people had died in huge road traffic accidents which had not received the kind of attention that the plane crash had in the Nigerian press.Flying in Nigeria is of course the preserve of a small privileged minority..... Other commentators lamented that the death of the First Lady appeared to take up so much more space in the Nigerian media than the death of the 117 victims of the plane crash.....
And even I, I remember, a few days after the London bombings which killed 52 people, reading an article about a bus plunging into a river in Nigeria and killing over sixty people. I quickly flicked on to the next page and put it out of my mind. And then the thought came to me.............only days before, I had been devastated by the shock of the London bombing and the lives lost and greedily devouring article after article on the bombing and yet here could not summon more than a passing thought for these other souls and their families......
We must never forget John Donne's immortal words- "....Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind...." and we must take them to heart more often.....
Friday, November 04, 2005
Another week gone...more African writing
This week's sped past so fast, partly because I've been away on a course which was rather gruelling and didn't offer me much chance to get to a computer, let alone blog....you know them those intensive eat, sleep breathe things with lots of "group work" and "interactivity"....
Quite a bit has happened while I was away...in the UK, the David Blunkett saga came to a rather sorry end with him resigning for the second (and probably final) time . I did try to be sympathetic and charitable about it, but having arrived in the UK when he was hardline Home Secretary and mouthing off toughly about immigrants and asylum seekers and anti-social behaviour, I've never really warmed to him, a position not helped by the apparent hubris that seems to characterize Blair and his New Labour acolytes, in which they fail or refuse to appreciate why certain positions they take are being criticized. I did respect David Blunkett's achievements as someone who grew up blind in a deprived Northern city, his ending up in the Cabinet was a fantastic achievement. But he showed spectacularly poor judgement.......
In Nigeria, the investigation into the plane crash has started with experts from the US flying in to assist the Nigerian authorities. I did get a look at the Nigerian newspapers and magazines for last week and they tried to answer some of the questions raised. Many remain however and there were concerns about the credibility of the panel of enquiry as its membership and terms of reference appeared to be shrouded in secrecy....
I've had lots of feedback on this blog for which I'm very grateful. Chika Unigwe, (the talented Nigerian writer whose De Feniks is published in Dutch and is the first by a first generation immigrant in Belgium) has suggested Ben Okri's In Arcadia and Bernadine Evaristo's Laura as an addition to my contemporary Nigerian fiction list and tells me that she is reading with Brian Chikwava(the 2004 Caine Prize winner) tonight in London at the Institute of Education in Bloomsbury. She's also suggested Jackee Budesta Batanda as another Ugandan writer to look out for.....
Quite a bit has happened while I was away...in the UK, the David Blunkett saga came to a rather sorry end with him resigning for the second (and probably final) time . I did try to be sympathetic and charitable about it, but having arrived in the UK when he was hardline Home Secretary and mouthing off toughly about immigrants and asylum seekers and anti-social behaviour, I've never really warmed to him, a position not helped by the apparent hubris that seems to characterize Blair and his New Labour acolytes, in which they fail or refuse to appreciate why certain positions they take are being criticized. I did respect David Blunkett's achievements as someone who grew up blind in a deprived Northern city, his ending up in the Cabinet was a fantastic achievement. But he showed spectacularly poor judgement.......
In Nigeria, the investigation into the plane crash has started with experts from the US flying in to assist the Nigerian authorities. I did get a look at the Nigerian newspapers and magazines for last week and they tried to answer some of the questions raised. Many remain however and there were concerns about the credibility of the panel of enquiry as its membership and terms of reference appeared to be shrouded in secrecy....
I've had lots of feedback on this blog for which I'm very grateful. Chika Unigwe, (the talented Nigerian writer whose De Feniks is published in Dutch and is the first by a first generation immigrant in Belgium) has suggested Ben Okri's In Arcadia and Bernadine Evaristo's Laura as an addition to my contemporary Nigerian fiction list and tells me that she is reading with Brian Chikwava(the 2004 Caine Prize winner) tonight in London at the Institute of Education in Bloomsbury. She's also suggested Jackee Budesta Batanda as another Ugandan writer to look out for.....
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