Benjamin Njoku
28 June 2008
Annie Gagiano is a Professor of English at Stellen bosch University, South Africa. She obtained her B .A(Honours), M.A as well a D. Lit from the same university, where she has been teaching in the Department of English for over three decades now (1967). As one of the earliest scholars of African prose fiction, and the twentieth-century English poetry, Gagiano's foray into African writing has become a subject of discourse amongst scholars as her scholarly contributions have equally lent credence to her agitation for a black renaissance.
In her book, Achebe, Head, Marechera: On Power and Change in Africa, she gives a very thorough and profound analyses of the works of these three authors. To her credit, she has published numerous essays, book reviews and commentaries in these genres of literature in very influential journals.
Last week, this international scholar was at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where she delivered a keynote address at the International symposium organized by the English Department of the institution as part of the on-going activities that marked the golden jubilee of Chinua Acbebe's classic, Things Fall Apart.
In this interview, Gagiano evaluates the state of writing during, and after the apartheid era in South Africa, lamenting however, the inability of the Nobel Committee to consider Professor Chinua Achebe a worthy recipient of the Nobel prize.
State of literature in South Africa
Literature in South Africa is flourishing in the sense that more and more novels are being published every year. And at the same time, it might be said that the right of literacy in South Africa is still pretty low. It is under 50 percent. And of course, there are economic factors that are responsible for this development. The price of books are posing detrimental influence on the establishment and on the growth of a literary culture in South Africa. But in terms of the spread of writing, it is flourishing over there. Many young writers are coming out now than ever before.
Writing during the era of apartheid in South Africa
Writing during apartheid was a dangerous undertaking. And apartheid writers then were victimized by the state. Apartheid posed a serious problem to writing in South Africa then. But now, the story is completely different from the experience of the past .But today , younger writers are begining to emerge in South Africa. Many of the writers now come out from their creative writing programmes: And again, because of economic factor, these writers hardly get published.
Growth of literary culture in South Africa
Indeed, apartheid affected every facets of life in South Africa. Of course, certain rights were denied the citizens. Things were suppressed; it was not even legal to be referred to as a member of to the ANC. You could be arrested for talking about the ANC or referring to its activities in a novel. And so, all these things put together distorted the growth and emergence of a flourishing South Africa writing.
My area of specialization
I specialize in Shakespeare studies, African prose fiction in English, and twentieth century English poetry. I only get to know about African writing in English at the later stage of my teaching career. When I started out, no African literature was being taught in my department. The curriculum was basically drawn to reflect studies in the British writings of Shakespeare and Chaucer.
And when I discovered the excellence of African writing; I decided to compel my colleagues to begin to introduce and teach African writing in our department. It was initially a battle against resistance from conservatives and old fashioned colleagues, who refused to accord recognition to this obvious writings of the black race.
The place of African writing in the world literary Cannon
Well, of all my publications, except for one single article, I only published on African literature. To me, African literature is of tremendous importance to the world. But at the same time, I recognize that African writing has gotten insufficient recognition from scholars around the world.
In a recent American compiled list by Academics of the 100 best books in the world, only Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' featured in that list, and which of course, is a tribute to the excellence of African writing.
But at the same time, there are many other brilliant works by African writers, which deserved to be given greater space in the world literary cannon. I advocate the need for more attention to be paid for the greater spread of African writing throughout the continent.
My journey in the teaching African literature
I started teaching very early in my life, because I got appointment immediately after the completion of my first year as an English language undergraduate. So, at the end of that year, I got an appointment as a lecturer in the same school.
I was about 22 years old when I picked up the job as a lecturer. I remained a lecturer for many years, before I could get promotion.
Two factors were responsible for the delay; one was the fact that I was busy raising my four children, and secondly, in my department, there were initially no cultural research.
For me then, there were no encouragements to write articles, and get published or attend conferences. As far as African writing goes, I could have written more about writers certain African Countries particularly from Zimbabwe, Botswana and may not have restricted myself a South African specialist.
Telling the African stories
I think, we must particularly recognize that African stories are no longer primarily rural. And, by now, we should include what one would call African modernity. Now, many contemporary African novels are set in the major cities of the continent, rather than in the rural areas. And the characters, that feature are cast as living in a world that contend along with its predominant African elements; elements of worldwide and globalized culture in which professional people all over the continent explore nowadays.
So, it is a sophistication of African writing. It is not to pretend that the African world, which is written about is quite unlike the rest of the world. No, it is African world that is open to the rest of the world.
Chinua Achebe and Nobel Prize for Literature
I could not disagree any more. I think superbly that Achebe is fit to be a recipient of the Nobel prize for literature. But whether it will actually happen in his lifetime, one does not know. But, I have, as a matter of concern, particularly myself started complying signatures from scholars in South Africa to plead with the Nobel committee to award the next prize to Chinua Achebe. I cannot think of any other worthy winner from the continent than Chinua Achebe. Apart from the previous four winners of the Nobel prize from Africa; Chinua Achebe is a shameful omission from the list.
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