A very interesting op-ed by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, an editor of the Nigerian newspaper NEXT and a novelist, appears in the New York Times:
The Nobel Prize in Literature was presented to Mario Vargas Llosa at an awards ceremony on Friday in Oslo. This reawakened the disappointment felt by many fans of African literature, who had hoped that this would be the year for the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o. But there’s actually reason to celebrate Mr. Ngugi’s loss. African literature is better off without another Nobel ... at least for now.
A Nigerian publisher once told me that of the manuscripts she reads from aspiring writers, half echo Chinua Achebe and half try to adopt Wole Soyinka’s style. Mr. Achebe and Mr. Soyinka, who won the continent’s first Nobel in literature in 1986, are arguably the most celebrated black African writers, especially in terms of Western accolades. But their dominance causes problems in a region where the common attitude is, “If it already works, why bother to improve on it?”
Here, each successful seller of plantain chips spawns a thousand imitators selling identical chips; conformity is esteemed while individuality raises eyebrows; success is measured by how similar you are to those who have gone before you. These are probably not uniquely African flaws, but their effects are magnified on a continent whose floundering publishing industry has little money for experimentation and whose writers still have to move abroad to gain international recognition.
An Ngugi Nobel would have resulted in the new generation of aspiring writers dreaming of nothing higher than being hailed as “the next Ngugi.”
This would be a shame. Of course, it would be a relief to know that there’s at least one more option for young writers besides becoming the “next Achebe” or the “next Soyinka.” But what African writing needs now is real variety and adventurousness — evolution, not emulation. Messrs. Ngugi, Achebe and Soyinka are certainly masters, but of an earnest and sober style. What about other styles?
As someone who was similarly championing a "Ngũgĩ Nobel" this year, I'll pocket this idea in my own thinking as interesting, if immeasurable, counterpoint. But I'd still like to see Ngũgĩ win next year, while other strategies are taken to catalyze readers and writers in literary Africa. Like, say, more of the great youth-centered work of Kwani? in Kenya ...
In fact, Ngũgĩ is about to headline the Kwani? Litfest, which is opening today in Nairobi (see the promotional flier above). Now, Kwani? is one of the kickass places I'll be working with while I'm in Kenya and I cringe, I gnash my teeth, at the fact that I'm arriving too late to participate in this literary festival. Besides Ngũgĩ, Ama Ata Aidoo will be there from Ghana, as well as Kenyans Yvonne Owour and Binyavanga Wainana, and, from the United States, Cornelius Eady. There will be writing workshops, literary lectures, performances, parties for new books, and ... shucks, I'm just making myself envious here.
Tom Odhimabo takes the opportunity to reflect on the need for a "changeover" in Kenyan literature in the Daily Nation in a piece that is an interesting companion to the Times op-ed:
For a long time, there has been a debate in this country about the stagnation of Kenyan literature.
Critics have argued ad infinitum that the immediate post-independence writers — Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Grace Ogot, David Maillu, Mwangi Gicheru, Mwangi Ruheni, Marjorie Oludhe MacGoye, among many others — are yet to be replaced by new voices.
Such commentators are wont to compare Kenya with Nigeria, where Achebe, Soyinka, Okigbo, Nwapa, Emecheta etc are being ably succeeded by Chimamanda, Abani and Unigwe, among others.
I have argued that Kenyan writers have been writing all along, even in those bad old days when walls had ears and eyes, and any kind of text was thoroughly examined (although not critically) for anything that might anger government ...
... A sober analysis of this transition would provide answers to whether there is any need to debate intergenerational transitions. The urgent need for this debate is what makes the Kwani Literary Festival with the theme ‘Tell us what happened’ this year apt.
Considering that a major topic for debate in this year’s agenda is the ‘telling of experiences’ by the older writers — how they began to write; what and who motivated them and promoted their works; the lessons they’ve learned over the years and how those lessons have affected their writing and what advice do they offer the younger generation — it seems possible that Kenyan writers may begin the conversation that they and critics should have had all along: the value of literature to society.
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