Category: Nigeria

Things Fall apart by Chinua Achebe

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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Nigerian fiction

Source – Personal copy

I don’t know about you, but sometimes as a reader, you see a post on Instagram, it makes you change the reading plans you had for the coming month. That happened when I saw there was an African reading challenge this month. I do hate that sometimes African literature is lumped together. We don’t say, ” let’s have a European lit month or an asian month we tend to break it down to a single country. But that aside, it gave me a nudge to read a couple more books than I have been. I used to read a lot more literature from around Africa when the blog started, and i just think the last few years I haven’t read as much as I used to. In fact, talking about this month reminds me of Kinna and her wonderful blog and her love of the Ghanaian literature scene and the wider African lit scene, a much-missed corner of the blogging world. Anyway, my first book this month is a reread, and I picked it because I have the other books in Chinua Achebe’s African trilogy, but it seemed silly reading book two, which I hadn’t yet read, so I reread Things Fall Apart, one of the cornerstones of the first wave of African novels in post-colonial times.

Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn from his father. There was no barn to inherit. The story was told in Umuofia of how his father, Unoka, had gone to consult the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves to find out why he always had a miserable harvest.

The Oracle was called Agbala, and people came from far and near to consult it. They came when misfortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with their neighbors. They came to discover what the future held for them or to consult the spirits of their departed fathers.

A world of Oracles and mystic views of the future a tradtional IGBO way of life

In fact, if any book captures the post-colonial struggles, it is this book it is from the tales Achebe was told as a child by his parents as part of the Igbo oral tradition of storytelling that led to the seed of this book, a story of one man and the struggle of the traditional Igbo world and the coming of Christianity in the country.  Okonkow is the leader of his clan a man that is a larger than life figure a champion wrestler a sort of African Muhamded ali I had in y my mind both times I read the book. But he becomes a man haunted by events that happened in his life around a child he treated like a son, and then his gun blows up, and they are exiled.  This then leads him to a clash with the church, as the time he has spent in exile after his gun blew up and killed the son of a rival leader, leading to the exile.  This has seen the village change as the missionaries have started to make inroads, leading to more conflict as his world is changing and falling apart.

Ogbuefi Ezeudu, who was the oldest man in the village, was telling two other men who came to visit him that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani had become very mild in their clan.

‘It has not always been so,’ he said. ‘My father told me that he had been told that in the past a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through the village until he died. But after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve.’

‘Somebody told me yesterday,’ said one of the younger men, ‘that in some clans it is an abomination for a man to die during the Week of Peace.’ It is indeed true,

, said Ogbuefi Ezeudu. “They have that custom in Obodoani. If a man dies at this time he is not buried but cast into the Evil Forest. It is a bad custom which these people observe because they lack understanding. They throw away large numbers of men and women without burial. And what is the result? Their clan is full of the evil spirits of these unburied dead, hungry to do harm to the living.’

Before the church  crept in to his world the way of life was different

I loved this book when I read it. It captures the IGBO tribe as it was when he grew up, a tribe that, like many, saw changes with the white man’s arrival. It also had for me a great character in Okokow a man that is larger than life a figure that jumps of the pages of this book. You sense he is part of a lot of the stories the young Achebe heard from his parents, but then fleshed out to make him not just a strong leader but also a flawed man with his own demons and ghosts, as you read how his world is changed as he is there, but after he comes back from exile. I said this is one of the cornerstones of early post-colonial Nigerian fiction. Achebe was a champion and editor of the African Writer Series, as well. For me, it is books like this, the African Writer Series, that did so well, bringing to a wider world voices like Achebe. I wish I had read more of his books over the years, but I will now read the other books in this trilogy and the couple of other books I have by him. Have you read this book? How did it affect you?

 

 

The Palm wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

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The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

Nigerian fiction

Source – Library book

I have been on the lookout for a second-hand version of this book on one of those lists that readers of many books keep, noting and thinking critically acclaimed or essential in a canon when they were written, and still do today. This is one such book, the debut novel by Amos Tutuola, which was considered one of the first modern African novels in English when it was published in the 1950s. Tutola was born to his father’s third wife and was from the Egba people, which is why he knows the traditional ways. AS THEY follow the Yoruba religion, and also he will have grown up with the Yoruba folktales, which this book is a retelling of. The book was described by T.S. Eliot as a creepy, crawly imagination. Another early champion of the book was Dylan Thomas (I can see this in the palm wine drinking, and also the sense of community and place was strong in Thomas’ work, like it is in Tutuola’s)

I was a palm-wine drinkard since I was a boy of ten years of age. I had no other work more than to drink palm-wine in my life. In those days we did not know other money, except COWRIES, so that everything was very cheap, and my father was the richest man in our town.

My father got eight children and I was the eldest among them, all of the rest were hard workers, but I myself was an expert palm-wine drinkard. I was drinking palm-wine from morning till night and from night

till morning. By that time I could not drink ordinary water at all except palm-wine.

But when my father noticed that I could not do any work more than to drink, he engaged an expert palm-wine tapster for me; he had no other work more than to tap palm-wine every day.

the opening and shows how much he drinks !!

The book is told by the narrator a son of a wealthy man, who said Palm wine drtnkard of the title of the book, as his wealth means he has the money to be able to afford a Palm wine tapist who are those that can tap the Palm tree and make the Palm wine for him to drink. But when this tapist falls to his death, he loses his supply of Palm wine, and the book becomes a sort of Quest novel as he hunts for a new tapist. Along the way, he meets an old man, a kind of sage, in a way that tells him things. But as the quest heads in, he faces obstacles and changes as he fights beasts and saves people, and the narrator changes. This is a richly told book that is steeped in the local folklore of his people. In a way, you feel that the places and world Tutola has described of wealthy tribal sons and their servants are long gone.

THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CURIOUS CREATURE:-

He was a beautiful “complete” gentleman, he dressed with the finest and most costly clothes, all the parts of his body were completed, he was a tall man but stout.

As this gentleman came to the market on that day, if he had been an article or animal for sale, he would be sold at least for £2000 (two thousand pounds). As this complete gentleman came to the market on that day, and at the same time that this lady saw him in the mar-ket, she did nothing more than to ask him where he was living, but this fine gentleman did not answer her or approach her at all. But when she noticed that the fine or complete gentleman did not listen to her, she left her articles and began to watch the movements of the complete gentleman about in the market and left her articles unsold.

the adventure along the way have chapter heading like this

Over the years, I have run this blog, I have tried to cover a lot of fiction from all the different countries in Africa, thus making the fiction not just African, but this is a book from the Egba people of Nigeria and uses the Yoruba folktales,, just as in the last pos,t Laxness has used Icelandic sgas. To talk about his world, well, this was written just after World War II, and he saw Tutola, who had been in the RAF. But he had struggled when he was demobbed to find work, as everyone else had, and he ended up writing this book from his folklore past. It is considered a classic of the first Books from Nigeria to come out in English and lead the way for many of the great writers from his country that followed him. The book was also the first on the Jubilee list to come from books published in the Commonwealth during the Queen’s reign. I hope to read his second novel sometime. Have you read any other books by him?

 

 

Burning grass by Cyprian Ekwensi

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Burning Grass by Cyprian Ekwensi

Nigerian fiction

Source – Personal copy

One of the things I want to try and do this year is clear my own pile of books and also read more from places I have covered less the last few years and one of these is my small collection of African writer series books I have brought a few as I have seen them so I decide it was time to work down them and I chose this which happened to be the second book on the writer list. Cyprian Ekwensi had a number of books on the African writer series list. He was born in Northern Nigeria where this book was set( the book came out of a journey where he spent times with the Fulani cattlemen. He worked for the Nigerian broadcast company and then became the director of Information for the department of Information he did this before the civil war in Nigeria. He wrote a number of novels and  short stories and he passed away in 2007. This is the first title I have read by him. He is well regarded as one of the first voice of post colonial African Literature he also

When the girl came running toward them they saw the terror in her eyes. close on her heels came a dark-visaged man , frowning and cursing, brandishing a koboko. He stopped when he was the girl throw herself against the old man’s feet and cry out to be saved.

“She is my slave!!”  he roared. “I want her back!she’s running away!”he raised the whip.

“Your slave?” said the old man, leaping to his feet. His son’s glance met the girl’s , caught the mute appeal

I love this as which son was it maybe both !!

The book follows a family from the Fulani tribe a group of wandering cattlemen . The book opens with a runaway slave girl that comes across the family and the head Mai Sunday. He knows the girls master he is a cruel master and he arranges to rescue the girl from her situation but this then cause a knock on effect as his sons all connect with this woman Fatimeh his youngest falls for her. but she and his other son then run away this leaves the youngest Rikku heartbroken the book follows Mai as he tries to help his son get over this loss but also as they live there wandering life as the move with the way they need to feed the cattle and also add to this a dove appears and there is a large number of people falling ill to sleeping sickness. we see a family drift apart but as the book draws to the end the start to draw back together.

Mai Sunday’s first sight of the village on the great river did not excite him.He had been travelling through bush which thickened day after day, sleeping in trees, eating forest fruit, preaching at little villages on the way, and now the thought of seeing Jalla doubled his pleasure.

He followed the earth motor road. At intervals along the road he noticed little clearings lined with stones. Here a traveller might stop and wash his hands and feet in the water provided and say his prayers. When he arrived at the next one he washed his face, hands and feet in the water and said a short prayer before continuing his journey. The road wound ion for another half a mile, and turning beyond a mahogany tree he saw the grass huts. There were about one hundred of the,, all huddled together, and he thought: “if ever a fire should break out here, only Allah from above can save anyone”

Mai as he head to the river and also the fact the tribe is Muslim as the enter the motor road the mix of the future and past.

Now this is one of the earliest in the African writer series and maybe is a world that isn’t there now the tribe is still there infect the Fulani is widespread tribe over north Nigeria and the surround countries. they still like in the book have a very traditional world customs and costume so in fact it is similar to the book what he does so well is capture the coming and goings of the family as they wander the bush feeding the cattle as there family had done for generations with Mai we have a classical Patrica figure  the head of a family but as we see in the opening when he rescues Fatimeh  the slave girl also how he tries to help his youngest son. this was read in a lot of schools when it came out it was aimed by Heinmann the publisher as the cut the length of the book in half from the original manuscript it works as it isn’t a flabby work it is very direct and so well paced as we follow the life of this family as they head from place to place. Have you read any of his book or any others from the African writer series ( which I believe is due to be revived soon which is a great Idea as for me it introduce me over the years to so many great voices and also brought books from countries under represented in English )

Winstons score – B a solid tale of a family wandering North Nigeria as we see the family dynamics and the world they live in.

Home and Exile by Chinua Achebe

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Home and Exile by Chinua Achebe

Nigerian Non-Fiction

Source – personal copy

I said I want to try and focus a bit more this year on African and Arabic literature over the next year. I did use cover a lot more when I first started the blog I have always been a fan of the African writer series. Chinua Achebe was the editor of that series in the early days with the first wave of post-colonial African fiction.I had thought I had covered him before on the blog but I haven’t so when I found this the over week. I choose this as my first read as it dealt with African fiction as it was a collection of three essays that he gave as speeches lat on in his life.

My problem with Joyce Cary’s book was not simply his infuriating principal character, Johnson. More importantly, there is a certain undertow of uncharitableness just below the surface on which his narrative moves and from where, at the slightest chance, a contagion of dostaste, hatred and mockery breaks through to poison his tale. Here is a short expcerpt from his description of a fairly innocent party given by Johnson to his friends,”the demonic appearance of the naked dancers, grinning, shrieking, scowling, or with faces whioch seemed entirely dislocated, senseless and unhuman, like twisted bags if lardm or burst bladders” Haven’t I encountered this crowd before? Perhaps, in Heart of Darkness, in the Congo. But Cary is writing about my home Nigeria, isn’t he ?

HIs problems with Cary’s book Mister Johnson.From the first essay My home under Imperial fire

The three essays are interlocking the first deals with his childhood the nation he grew up in the Igbo people and the fact they are distinctive in themselves. Then the fact that when he first went to school and then university. The books he was given to read were all European in nature and there wasn’t many African books and then the one book that deals with his own country by the Anglo-Irish writer Joyce Cary. He said it didn’t cover the country in a real way Cary had served in Nigeria but didn’t portray the country and this is what drove Achebe to write his first novel to give a truer picture. The second essay deals with those early years that he was an editor of the African writer series. When Dylan Thomas put his weight behind one of the early success Palm wine Drunkard. elsewhere he mentions Camara Laye, Mongo Beti and Cheikh Hamidou Kane as among those that first made inroads with eh post-colonial voices of African literature I choose those three as they are covered here. The last essay deals with the modern African literature and post-colonial scene and literature about Africa. He talks about a change in language from Conrad times to modern-day.

The Launching of Heinemann’s African Writer Series was like the umpire’s signal for which African writers had been waiting on the starting line. In one short genration an immense library of new writing had sprung into being from all over the continent and , for the first time in history, Africa’s future genration of readers and writers – youngsters in schools and colleges – begn to read not only David copperfield and other engliush classics That I and my genration had read but also works by their own writers about their own people

The series which he edited for many years in the second essay The Empire fights back !

It was an inspiring collection of essays from a writer who was always passionate about his work and the influence of African fiction. Here he shows how the African continent was misportrayed in English literature here he starts to mention Conrad a subject he often wrote about. The terms he used in the heart of darkness, but as he pointed out it still has changed but not much he mentions V S Naipaul use of Bush in his novel Bend in the river as a small change from Conrad’s day. A slim collection but worth looking out if you are a fan of African literature as it has some interesting points about fiction about Africa and post-colonial African fiction. Have you read this collection?

This house is not for sale by E C Osondu

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this house is not for sale

 

This house is not for sale by E C Osondu

Nigerian fiction

Source – review copy

Tell ’em that the house is not for sale
We’re still livin’ here, how come nobody can tell
They’re takin’ all the furniture, movin’ our things
Come on little honey, put your head on my knee
Tell ’em that the house is not for sale
And calm down, calm down, calm down
Calm down, calm down, calm down

Do you remember when we even bought this thing?
I danced you across the wooden floor and you signed the lease
What happened in the car that night?
What happened in the car that night?
Tell ’em that the house is not for sale
And calm down, calm down, calm down
Calm down, calm down, calm down
Calm down

I couldn’t miss the chance that one of my favourite singers had written a song with the same title as this book so This house is not for sale by Ryan Adams

So another trip to africa and this time a rising star of Nigerian fiction E C Osondu , has already won the Caine prize for african writing in 2009  for his story waiting here it is online .He has an MFA from Syracuse university , he currently teaches in Rhode Island in the US .This is his second book following Voice of America that came out in 2011 .That was a short story collection so this is his debut novel .

When we asked Grandpa how the house we called the family house came into existence , this is the story he told us .

A long , long time ago , before anybody alive today was born , a brave ancestor of ours who was a respected and feared Juju man woke up one day and told his family , friend and neighbours that he had a dream ,In the dream he saw a crown being placed on his head .He interpreted this dream as signifying that he was going to be crowned a king soon .

I loved the story of how the house became the house so to speak .

This house is not for sale is a story of a house and the man who managed to get the house many years before and has been the driving force of the house .The house in Lagos is seen through the eyes of those who have lived in the house over the years .Grandpa life and those living there is recounted through the eyes of his grandson .From Grandpa story of how he got the house of the King .Through thieves entering the house .A cousin Ibe that makes money in many ways not all that honest that bring life to the house  .Then there is husbands playing away , murder and many other things going on inside the walls of “The Family house “.What we see is a vibrant house through our young narrator eyes .

The british love tea and will drink tea when they are happy and drink tea when they are sad .They’ll drink tea when they are hungry and when they are full .They love their cats and their dogs and all their pets ,They have a society for the protection of animals and none for the protection of their fellow humans .

I highlighted this as it made me laugh ,well just to note this Brit hates tea but does love his dogs .

I said E C Osondu first book was a collection of short stories , I feel he loves this form as the second book is a novel but one of those loose novels that seem very much the fashion these days (I say this knowing that the great american novel  winesburg Ohio is a cycle of stories ) .This is also the fourth book I can remember that has used a house as a framing device for the book .The nearest to this of the ones I have read is The yacobian building .But this book also has a great child narrator as the darkness of some of the events in the house are told in that childlike way of ttwelling things straight but not tainted by expereince or judgement .What comes accross is a vibrant house run by a sly old man who has managed to keep this huge house despite the city around it changing but has also provide a roof over the head of a number of people that have washed up at the door of  Grandpa’s house over the years .

Lemona’s Tale by Ken Saro-Wiwa

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image

Lemona’s tale by Ken Saro-Wiwa

Nigerian literature

Source – personnel copy

We begin our day by the way of the gun,
Rocket propelled grenades blow you away if you front,
We got no police ambulance or fire fighters,
We start riots by burning car tires,
They looting, and everybody start shooting,
Bullshit politicians talking bout solutions, but it’s all talk,
You can’t go half a block with a road block,
You don’t pay at the road block you get your throat shot,
And each road block is set up by these gangsters,
And different gangsters go by different standards,
For example, the evening is a no go,
Unless you wanna wear a bullet like a logo,
In the day you should never take the alleyway,
The only thing that validates you is the AK,
They chew on Jad it’s sorta like coco leafs,
And there ain’t no police…

I choose one my favourite songs of recent times K’naan what is hardcore maybe captures life under a regime of terror in His home land Somali .

I should put this up yesterday sorry Lisa (Anzlitlovers ) but as I came to write last night I was just to tired to write much so here is my Indigenous week book Choice . Ken Saro-Wiwa a Nigerian writer , was a member of the Ogoni people a small indigenous population from South east Nigeria , Ken Saro-Wiwa held various government post in his country during the early eighties ,.But a regime change and his own worries about what was happening to his people and their land lead him to lead the party that represent them . He fell foul of the military government in the early nineties arrest on a number of occasions , in the end he was sentenced to death and died in 1995 . A fact that chilling makes this book so much more powerful  to the reader .

“Lemona .Lemona . Beautiful woman .Exquisite .She’ll be hanged tomorrow .You know that , don’t you ?  And you insist on seeing her ? Well , I have no objection personally .But I don’t know if she’ll agree to see you .That’s the problem .That’s woman is an enigma .

The opening lines of this book on her last day .

Lemona’s tale is a tale of a woman who had spent 25 years of her life in Jail .She like Ken is a member of the Ogoni .This day we see is the last day of her life she is about to be executed .What we see is the day slowly drawing out , whilst at the same time she recounts her life story and how she end up in jail and how various males she met lead to this .She started of in a Village but has been one of those woman who seems to end up at the wrong side of life and is used by those around her  .This leads to the event that saw her get jailed , but carries on even after she gets to jail as she is abused by those in the jail .

He always refrained from speaking about his family , particularly his wife , to me . I respected that , because I was likely to get jealous if he spoke about her .Indeed I remember that once when he dared to mention Aduke (his wife ) , I threw a tantrum , most uncharacteristically . I don’t believe he thought me capable of anger . I displayed on that occasion .After that , “The family ” became the code for his wife .

She was a mistress , but is this a glimpse of something that happens later ?

This book is a powerful slice of recent history in Nigeria .What makes it so haunting is that my  book was first published her the year after Ken Saro-Wiwa himself had been executed in his homeland for Murder like Lemona , a charge he denied ,unlike the heroine (not sure that is the right word , but she lived through her trouble life ) he said he hadn’t done the murder he was accused off .Lemona’s tale is not just the story of the Ogoni people but a hundred small tribes and people who fell foul of regimes and dictators then and still now in some places in Africa .I find it scary that we in the uk tend to hear less news from Africa and what is happening in places than we did twenty years ago when there would often be stories about Nigeria and numerous other former british colonies .I feel if we still reported the news her we would maybe understand the current Refugee crisis in more depth !!This is first of a few african books in the next few weeks ?

 

Burma boy by Biyi Bandele

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Biyi Bandele is a Nigerian born writer who currently lives in London a playwriter as well he adapted things fall apart for the stage and is considered one of the leading voices of post colonial writing ,he has written a number of novels since the early nineties including the street ,this was his latest published in 2007 by Jonathan Cape .

The book revolves around the story of  farabiti a young thirteen year old lad that joins the army during the second world war and ends up in the jungles of Burma .Where he is involved with the adventurous army commander Wingate a maverick who lead a almost guerlia like war in Burma ,Wingate also appears at the start of the book in a prologue set in Cairo .

This strange man ,dressed in a british army uniform that hung loosely on his shrunken frame ,and wearing a major’s rank was in the grips of a fierce and crippling fever .He shivered under the blistering heat ,his teeth clattering as if he were in the deep chill of an english winter ‘s day .

an introduction to Wingate .

The story reaches a huge battle in a large fortified place called the white city . Against the hard fighting unforgiving Japanese forces .

What Biyi has done is wonderfully brought to life part of his own family history as his father also fought in the second world war in the Burma campaign ,the book brings many different voices from Nigeria as we meet other characters in the unit .The story is reasonably well paced and maybe drags in a couple of places ,but the true beauty is a heartfelt tale of the African experiences in the second world war ,which to a large degree have been overlooked in the past .

This was meant to be part of Amy reads Nigerian challenge last month but I ran out of time to review it in June ,The book’s title in the US is” the Kings rifles” .

Winston’s score –

lion cub fierce and independent like farbiti in the jungles of Burma .

A way of being free by Ben okri

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Ben okri

Notes –  

Ben Okri is one of the greatest living writer born in Nigeria and educate their and in england ,he won the booker for the first of the famished road trilogy ,he is vice president of the english centre for international PEN ,he has published a number of novels ,poetry and this non fiction collection his last book tales of freedom which i heard him reading from is a collection of very short almost haiku like stories . 

The book – 

The book contains 12 essays from Ben that were written over a ten-year period for a number of different publications and events .the ones that stood out for me firstly a pair of essays about the art of storytelling ,where the role and power of a writer are questioned and how writers have to try to tell the truth ,how it originate in africa . these essays remind me so much of his talk the passion he invokes for the reader and how he said it is for the reader to interpret the writers words not for the writer to tell the reader .Another essay dealt with Othello and why he is still played from time to time by white actors ,when the role is a moor ,ben asks do people still have a fear of a single black man on the stage in a lead role .elsewhere poets ,a painting featuring a minotaur are discussed . 

51 

It is in the creation of story , the lifting of story into the realm of art , it is in this that the higher realms of creativity reside. 

52 

A   good story keeps growing .A good story never dies . 

53 

stories are the wisest surving parts of a peoples stupidities or failings . 

some of the short phrases in the joy of storytelling part 2 

My view – 

I am a huge fan of Ben Okri and really enjoyed these essays ,they reminded me of his talk you can sense the passion floating of the page and surrounding you like a blanket ,you want to grab the next book on your T.B.R pile after this and read it cover to cover ,a bit like Manugel Okri has a passion for the written word and portraying this to the reader . 

the score – 

owl

owl – the owl is always portrayed with books and being wise this suits this book and the beauty with in it