The women are here

Not everyone recognises it, but your country (Nigeria) is a literary superpower

Prof Scott Pegg

A LOT has been said and written about the great potential that is locked within the vast land mass called Nigeria. However, the potential has remained untapped because we are governed by ‘men without ears’, apologies to Ifeoma Okoye. There is hardly any edible thing that is cultivated here that does not germinate and give abundant yield, yet we import food. Also, there are no minerals needed to produce anything man requires to make life worth living that is not available here. Yet we are one of the world’s greatest importers! There is hardly any irony greater than this.

We grow cocoa in abundance but import chocolate! The list is endless and we continue to abandon what we have and go in chase of what we ignore at home. Our crude oil is one of the most sought after in the oil market, we export the crude and pay dearly to import the many derivates of the same commodity. Is there anyone much more foolish than we are?

As we throw or disregard our talents at home, other nations snap them up and make them world brands and we turn back and extol them when if they had remained here, we would have turn them into nonentities. The malady has permeated all facets of our lives. Our writers must first win foreign honours before they are reckoned with at home. Any surprise most of our youths today are itching to move abroad, especially to Canada, which seems to be the new Eldorado since we have turned our country into a sinking ship which everyone is desperate to jump off – young and old?

But in the midst of all these despair and frustrations, there are still some ray of hope. If we kill all our sciences and make sure we don’t produce those who can help fashion out how to cure our ailments, how to create local but efficient ways of refining our crude, we can at least produce those who can make us proud in the arts and humanities!

My American Professor friend Scott Pegg, whose quote is above, is a man who has tremendous belief that Nigeria has secured its place in the literary firmament as a ‘super power’. He does not hide it and he uses every opportunity to point it out to me and wonder why we don’t talk much about this. Those of us who realise this have never failed to point this out, it is just that our effort is like the cry of the biblical John in the wilderness. No one is listening, unfortunately.

Last month, three significant things happened on the world literary calendar, but as is usual, they all went almost unnoticed except by those who have abiding interest in books. Why did this go unnoticed by those in the corridors of power?   

Even the fact that it happened to three solid Nigerian women did not even attract the attention of those in charge of the Women Affairs Ministry! Three Nigerian women writers won awards and not a word of acknowledgment came out from anyone. Is this how to encourage talents and use such as your lodestar to encourage others to emulate them? Are these not our biggest intellectual exports and gifts to the world?

Let’s take them one after the other. On November 28, Ayobami Adebayo was announced as the winner of the Prix Les Afriques Prize for her debut novel Stay With Me which was translated into French as Reste Avec Moi.  The prize was founded by a Swiss lawyer Ngoãn Beti to award it “annually to an African or writer of African descent who has written fiction highlighting a human, societal, ideological, political, cultural, economic, or historical issue related to Africa or its diaspora.” It is aimed at giving greater exposure to African authors and authors of African descent. Those who have won it before are: Elnathan John (2019), Kei Miller (2018), Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin (2017), and Hemley Boum (2016).

Adebayo is to go home with 6,000 Swiss Francs, a work of art worth 2,500 euros by the Senegalese painter Momar Seck, and 100 books bought from the publisher as well a re-edition of the award-winning novel.

Next is Jumoke Verissimo, another debut novelist whose book A Small Silence was also in November named as the winner of the Aidoo-Snyder Prize for Best Creative Work 2020. The prize is awarded by the Women’s Caucus of the African Studies Association for an outstanding book that prioritizes African women’s experiences. It is named after Ama Ata Aidoo, the celebrated Ghanaian novelist and short-story writer, and Margaret Snyder, the founding Director of UNIFEM. According to the organisers, the prize, prize seeks to acknowledge the excellence of contemporary scholarship being produced by women about African women. It has been won in the past by Yvonne Vera, Aminatta Forna, Grace Bantebya-Kyomuhendo, Yaa Gyasi among others.

Verissimo is a poet and writer, she has published two collections of poetry; which have won her awards at home in the past. She is currently on a PhD programme in Canada. This is her first novel winning an award is a sign that the world is going to read more from her in the nearest future. 

The icing on the cake is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s win of what the promoters call “Winner of Winners” laurel of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her 2006 novel Half of a Yellow Sun, about the Nigerian civil war had in 2007 won the Orange Prize for Fiction as it was then called. The prize was awarded to mark its 25^th anniversary and readers were asked to make their choice among all the books that have won the prize in those years. Adichie won over such past winners as Zadie Smith, the late Andrea Levy, Lionel Shriver, Rose Tremain and Maggie O’Farrell, amongst others. According to the publisher, over 8,500 people joined in the public vote which Adichie won.

Is this not something to crow about? But our people missed this because they are only focused on oil! The literary firmament is dominated by women and it shows that we need to pay more attention to their contribution and honour them as our new toast.