Literary news from Nigeria: two links.
In the first, Anote Ajeluorou notes that a significant number of Nigerian writers have debuted, and excelled, in the short story genre, but asks whether it has liberated or limited them:
Over the years Nigerian writers have latched on the short story format as a significant medium to express their creative ingenuity, however, no other year has this genre occupied a central place than in 2009.
Of course, the short story format has been exploited by Nigerian writers over the years with amazing results.
One of its forerunners is the iconic Chinua Achebe with his Girls at War that came out in the 1970s shortly after the Nigerian Civil war. It is about incidences during the war and the roles girls played in it.
In the second, Tony Okuyeme reports on the “Macmillan Literary Night”, an annual affair that takes place in Lagos and is apparently a highlight on Nigeria’s literary calendar:
In his opening remark, Bode Emmanuel while noting the significance of the theme of the event, recalled that African literature in general and Nigeria in particular, over the last two decades of its growth, have been dominated by one major theme, an assessment of Africa’s contact with the Western world. The spiritual and social implication of this contact, he said, have been of most writers worldwide.
“Characteristically, the meeting of African and Europe has been presented as a conflict. The lesser writers have been content with a general presentation of typical incompatibilities, but the more perceptive writers have dug deeper and attempted to determine the specific implications of this conflict for a particular African community like Nigeria,” he stated.
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