Odoh Diego Okenyodo
5 September 2008
Odoh Diego Okenyodo Since Helon Habila opened the floodgates for international attention on Nigerian fiction at the turn of the millennium by lifting the Caine Prize for African Writing, many more international awards have come the way of young Nigerian authors like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Segun Afolabi, Chris Abani and others.
In the same vein as they won the awards the writers got fellowships that required them to teach their crafts, while publishers have also used the fame to revive a sleeping market in the near-extinct book industry in the country. Notable among the publishers have been Farafina and Cassava Republic.
Over the years, the writers that have come on reading tours and creative writing workshops have included Diana Evans, Chimamanda Adichie, Helon Habila, Teju Cole (author of Everyday's For the Thief), Unoma Azuah, and Chika Unigwe. Some of the names obviously are better known than others but they all share certain attributes of having good books in the market, plying their trades outside the shores of Nigeria and trying to respond to concerns that "African literature is abroad". The latter is the valid criticism that what is referred to as African literature increasingly loses a lot of the Africanness, since its producers, readers and critics are outside the continent.
In response, publishers like Farafina and Cassava Republic have chosen to make the books and their authors available for Nigerian audiences. Farafina, which started first, was criticised nevertheless for republishing wholesale Nigerian editions of the foreign-based Nigerian authors like Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus and Sefi Attah's Everything Good Will Come. Cassava Republic's founder, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, read these criticisms and decided that when her publishing outfit began, she would discover one Nigerian author, for every foreign author Cassava publish. So far, they have brought Teju Cole as their own discovered author as counterpoint for Abidemi Sanusi (Kemi's Diary and Zack's Story), the latter being first published outside of Nigeria.
Of course, reading tours are not Tuface Idibia or D'Banj concerts so crowds shouldn't be expected. In fact, for some reading tours, crowds can become a nuisance since such gatherings will often be shorn of Big Brother Africa-like lewdness, save for reading of some pages in Half of A Yellow Sun. But they have great impact. In addition, considering the kind of big-audience activities often supported by 'Corporate Nigeria', it is also expected that support for reading tours will be limited. Muhtar Bakare of Farafina has often talked about this business as one in which immediate returns cannot be anticipated, but that is what the crop of corporate citizens in the country seem to desire.
However, as the literary scene yearns for more and diverse activity, the question remains that of who is coming to Nigeria next for a reading tour. Last year was Gombe-born Helon Habila; Chika Unigwe's was an opportunity during a visit home. Which of the banks is going to take the bull by any part? It's sleeping.
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