THE FUNERAL OF NIGERIAN LITERATURE

In every marriage of sham there is imminent birth of child that would be loved by one of the couple in a guise to have the newcomer spoilt or poisoned against the other; this captures the
Nigerian literature at an eyeful glance. This matrimony is between the actors of the arts and government.

In my schoolboy fantasy of literature I saw a field where proponents of this noble art strangles the spoilers of a land with series of calligraphic missiles designed to filter the toxins of the society in the wrap of entertainment. Nigerian literature as I overcome childish fantasy to see it is choked with wines of those it ought to correct or beam.

One thing that must be known to truly brain the world of artistes is the composition of their mindset. Artistes in the tag of writers and poets aren’t divine beings in any lane. These are folks stung by the transcendental or scholastic rigour of life to touch the traditions, knowledge, beliefs, and thoughts of humankind into a mould that may save or ruin.

Writers and poets are creators of milieu- mostly unrealizable as if to reproach the artistry of the Almighty God- done to let fellow folks into the matrix of a life, another life, or an extraordinary life. These have been indelible in the wave of our being.

While writers strive to mirror and enhance the desired lore in the making of a better world forming myriad philosophical and cerebral corpuses, the poets have powerfully become the ‘Teachers of life’, pouring the pulses of their soul in chants and rants over life. Here are folks who inspite of the language of their expression spew unending words that recreate our life, knowledge, memory, imagination, faith and the pillars of creeds that prod our transition to fraternity, community and nationhood of the modern time.

Literature in a cliché is the spice of life. It’s the gale that rebels and accepts God Almighty Himself into the earth. Literature hoards the holy corpuses and collected writs that oppose them, just to balance the law of existence.The wake of History sparked with words which in theological and imaginative blaze become the guidebook of purposeful living. Textual intercourses gathered the imagination of man into the theses and antitheses of deduction.

Literature in its purest form is borne in imagination, and imagination is the mason of civilization, and civilization is the saviour of modernization, and modernization is the terminator of the ancient worries of mankind.

The weight of imagination purred Albert Einstein, the fellow painted to be the brainiest man of the last century to confess: ‘Imagination is better than knowledge’. Yes, imagination and not either of classroom rattles, scientific wanders and academic theories begot the first instincts and concepts of the inventions and pro-creations of man. Yes, imagination unwraps mysteries thus: the sight of birds aloft inspired the invention of aeroplanes; the sight of millipedes trickle the images of trains; a floating duck reminds one of canoes; the numerous shapes of animals and natural landmarks around us gave a breakthrough to all the inventions of man- from cars to submarines, herbalism to surgery, war tactic to arsenals, huts to castles…ad infinitium! These were led by imagination.

The Nigerian LiteratureArguably, the first writer with Nigerian blood is the freed slave Olaudah Equiano whose writings nay travelogues posed challenges for the abolition of Slave Trade. At the homefront, writers emerged in various colour to respond to the calls of their time; those in colonial era tune their muse to the whacks of racial superiority unleashed by the European lords which continued to the Independence Era to fuse with the muse of the writers and poets that dared the ravages of indigenous leadership plagued by tribal, religious and regional unrest; a trend that runs into the contemporary writings of a nation assumed to be a forced one.

In a candid tone, the literature-government matrimony erupted from the wand of our indigenous struggles to free selves from the dictation of the Whiteman.

This truce against a common foe was the courtship of those who shall become the watchdogs of the country and those that shall turn the leaders of the country. Being the learned folks of the generation, writers and poets wore the robe of government to sail the teething Nigeria. In a blink the wedding of pens and swords held, seeing to the emergence of pro-government writers and poets in the Nnamdi Azikwes, Dennis Osadebays to the Shehu Shagaris and Mamman Vatsas- a sect of writers that embraced the ‘plainclothed’ writers to the Death Party of protest literature. And, from those hours, the government has planted their advocates in the pages of Nigerian Literature.

Nonetheless, a bunch of writers scampered abroad to belch undiluted critiques of the Nigerian systems.The Sin of the FatherThe ongoing generation of Nigerian writings is wracked by portrayal of a system peopled by the actors. The enclave of muse lacks the honourable apparel it ought to adorn. To be philanthropic unto the actors in the scene, the Nigerian Literature got injured by the bootlicking culture that crept into the life of the writers and poets from the genesis of our cursed matrimony, done blindly though, by the pioneer writers.

This can not be heaved on the frontline writers alone; the later generation that ought to treat the sore rather jumped into the ship to the honeymoon of their cursed marriage with just a few of them wise to point out the lapses in government with the ink of honesty. To have a haven that may be the fulcrum of literary activities and activisms in the country a group of writers gathered to form a body brainlessly named ‘Association of Nigerian Authors’ (ANA). Formed to canvass the propagation of the Nigerian writings, this body becomes the worst pseudo-political party ever!

ANA And the Death of Nigerian Literature

No debate, ANA was founded by a team of writers led by the ‘Wise man of the pen’ Professor Chinua Achebe and a few cerebral combatants. Its objectives which read like the Moses of the Nigerian writings were also to promote the crafts of members. The intended mission had excelled until the swift inclusion of government protégés in the nucleus of the association. One, ANA inspite of its supposed wisdom and cerebrum could not christen its colony in the fittest words.

What on earth prompted the use of ‘Authors’ in the lieu of ‘Writers’, sorry, Creative Writers? Wait! Authorship isn’t compilation of what ANA flaunted. Every one is an author much as you are literate enough to construct sentences fetched from an original source. If ‘creative writers’ have been the symbolism of ANA movements the story wouldn’t have been this mass exeunt of ‘authors’. These natal mistakes led to intrusions of all the intellectual gilts and rags to race to the seizure of membership of the party, sorry body.I repeat, the very second that the leadership of ANA becomes the toy of government ‘spies’ owing to the exodus of its chief founders responding to threats of the military government marked the dark cowardice of our literature which has given a few lambs to their predators.

It’s the anniversary of the moment that the Nigerian writings turned scribbles of jest before the targeted audiences. It’s the anniversary of the death of ideal Marxian literature, further silenced by the sponsorships of ANA activities by government- a cyst of monsters that attracted the poison of ink.Ever since seizure of power by the pro-government writers, who washed their espionage by calling themselves pacifists, there has not been audible protests from the arsenal of ANA again. Not with these bullions of Naira splashed on them by their predators. Nay, in Nigeria today governments thinks that it owns the people’s advocates because it has offered appointments to the lions among them.

Today, the key actors in the literary scene are gamboling at the gate of government for an ‘opportunity’ to become the scribe of the government. Today nobody listens to Nigerian literature because they’ve let themselves drunken by hypocrisy. Today, nobody regards the Nigerian literature because its attacks are false and could be tagged an act of ingratitude dare they storm. Today, the only writers and poets in the country wake in the garb of Diaspora from where they throw back undiluted commentaries on the state of our today while the home-based actors tainted them ‘deserters, unpatriotic whitewashed beggars, cowards…..!’.

The Birth of Disgrace

The child of the incest between government and literature is named ‘disgrace’. But it has a number of sobriquets (‘shame, mockery, contempt’ inclusive). The child was born at the lavished idyll of government- venue of the Ocober-10, 2009 Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Literature Prize zoned to ‘Poetry’.

After the theatrics of collection of the application forms, sorry poetry collections of deserved ‘candidates’ by the fringe of government, nine fine poets were announced with special insight into the poetic verve of each of them, a blaze of lust for the $50, 000 tag award was risen in them hence a suspense on who wins the prize.

In tow of this humiliation no invitation was stretched to the writers; a code to reveal they aren’t respected anymore. None to the shortlisted poets, too!This must’ve squeezed out any pint of dignity in the literary system of the Nigerian lore, but that was just the least. In an embarrassingly packaged event meant for the ‘authors’ but populated by the ‘special ones’- the politicians, the winner of the Prize was announced to the cacophonic consternation of the handful of writers that I assumed might’ve begged their way into the hall.

And the winner is: ‘GOVERNMENT’!

It wouldn’t have sparked fierce uproar but for the unholy statement of the judges over the reason behind this pertinent declaration: None of the shortlisted poets MERITED the prize!!In trying to fetch a sense for this insane conclusion of the judges, one begins to wonder and ponder over who must be crucified for this desecration of Home Literature.

This is a list of fine poets who have tasted the tang of standard critiques and induction into the fold of World Literature. None of the poets are fresh beginners in the path of writings let alone be blinded to have extemporized volume of poems printed for the reading masses. Moreso, some of the poetry books shortly have won hotly contested prizes before the NLNG shortlist. There would never ever be an insult as bitter as this!!!

The child of their incest was born sure, leaving the feminine literature sunken in shame, death. Then you come to seek for a whiff on a mental voyage; WHAT IS POETRY? Is it the juxtapositions of words in carelessly measured breaths? Is it the metered texts of known foots reminiscence of the Anglo-Saxon lore? Is it the lyrical outpour of universal experiences felt in threnodies and requiems? Is it the musical chants and incantations of rustic Africa? Or, is it the witty playfulness with words in disregard of the law of grammars? Then, what? The most widely accepted definition of poetry is the most widely rejected one.

The English poet William Wordsworth opined that poetry comes from ‘emotion recollected in tranquility’, to the astonishment of critics who failed to throw back fitter definition. Similarly, if the nine poets aren’t mature what then is the requisite of poetry? History said that it came from Greek word poesis meaning ‘making’ or ‘creating’.

Here, ask yourself, creating or making what? You may not be insane if you answer ‘jargons’. Well, poetry is the making of rhythmic imagery in the course of expression. It dated back to the pre-literate era when it used to be rendered orally to enjoy the string of music that come with the words of wisdoms smudged in folkloric beauty or tragic happenings.

Today, poetry has been beaten to a format that fits the Newest World Order as a result of the degree of influences that clashes of civilizations and thoughts entailed; from the leading samples of musically blessed poetry of ancient West to the contemporary poetry of wholesomely metaphorical witticisms, wordsmithisms, typographical experimentations and lucidly analytical blank verses that licence of the modern muse extolled.

These features are the definers of the poetry of the day, so what is poetry? Again, know that poets and authors aren’t the same. Poets are not necessarily literate, but do not mistake the clichés of wise sayings for poetry. The Nigerian writers were brazenly sold by those they ‘voted’ into power at ANA; folks that can not tell authorship from writership and poetship!

Now that the judges have spat that the nine breed of Nigerian poets merited not the ‘prestigious’ prize, what poetic tool is scanty in their crafts? I know this: the poets refused to sing the praises of Nigeria in the shortlisted volumes. Poetry unlike prose has a very spiritual muse that takes its physical advocates through a voyage of realism hence the birth of purely factual writs that reek of pessimistic swipes.

Yes, the Nine Poets shunned the plaque of Palace Poets by stripping the true Nigeria, and if given the prize, the odour that the jokers of Rebranding Nigerian Project wanted to perfume would be popular across the globe. The realm of imagination isn’t just a place that every one can bestride; the fact that you’ve gathered degrees in English Language or poetry never makes you an automatic poet or creative writer, for poetry is not just an act of scribbling constructive grammars.

And if these academic bugs of judges decided to pick at the language of the poetry, truth must be told that the Nine Poets understand English Language even better than The Queen. When did the western bloc learnt of book printing? Poetry of yore was stored in verbal caches and memory? Again I ask: what are the criteria exuded in ‘selecting’ a winner?

This same quest will drag one to interrogate the poetry of the past prize, jointly won by the late poet Professor Ezenwa-Ohaeto and the River Nun poet Gabriel Okara in 2005. What set apart the poetry of the latter two with those of the ‘Rejected Nine’? Africanism? Far from that. Or Afropianism? No.

The poetic tool displayed by the two winners and the nine losers are of the same intensity and if thematic engagement of contemporary issues is a criterion then the earlier prize ought to be retrieved from the poets. Except we must be pushed to believe that truth is the mantra that sentimental consideration of docile, popular or scholarly poets is a rule of the prize. Aye, something is wrong. Somewhere, indeed.

The government is trying to dress its plucked feathers. This bespoke the corruption that bathes the Nigerian state snaking into the moat of art.

Life After Death

At these hours of condolences from so many quotas I’m most pleased to confess that my joy has no shores now that Nigerian Literature died a death of butterfly. Yes, I’m glad, for how can one’s cry be heard if not to watch own instinctive prophecy milling those that sinned against muse.

But again, I believe in magic. I believe that we can wake the dead, but with promises that the return must be to live a finer life. The curse of the father ought to be cleansed from the emerging writings; this can be done by having the bricks of literary realm demolished and rebuilt in conscience that can never ever be seduced into birthing another disgrace.

Ever since the wake of History, writers have reigned as personages in noble sense though. Now that ours lack the ancestral garb, we must dig a fresh foundation for the betterment of our literature; through establishment of genuine publishing settings driven by professional and gainful promotion of merited books; through cult of writers with finely harnessed missions; through institution of prizes aimed at recognizing the strength of remarkable writers; through erection of domains that could come to the aid of writers in crises; through and only through these can we be shielded from the bullets of another disgrace.

These are cheap wisdoms that the contemporary writers lack; or, were too drunken by the gifted wines of government to summon. All you hear in their tongue are babels of hallelujahs for the sinning governments. Now that they’ve dug the truth, let’s clasp hands to march into a healthier Nigerian literature.

(C) Gimba Kakanda, 2009