By HENRY AKUBUIRO
Abeokuta spoke in many tongues for a reason: the world had come another romance with the city. From the West, Africa and far-flung places, enthusiasts converged on the Ogun State capital for a combo of arts and literature pizza. It was the fourth the Ake Arts & Book Festival.
The organisers had no easy time putting up the festival. Nigeria was in economic recession, and many partners weren’t keen on releasing much-needed funds. But, Lola Shoneyin, the Festival Director, wasn’t dispirited. Against the odds, she pulled off a stunning show. The visitors were happy.
Unusually, it was a hectic time getting into Abeokuta from the Lagos axis through which majority of the international guests and many visitors passed through: the federal highway was in repairs. Hence, a journey of 78 kilometres took a half day to complete, leaving many faces raddled on getting to town eventually. But the mirthless faces shone brightly hours later when the opening ceremony got underway on Thursday November 16, 2016, at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta.
It was a festival headlined by Africa’s most celebrated living novelist, Ngugi wa Thiong’o. The Kenyan wasn’t an isolated super star, though. From the younger generation came the Nigerians –Okey Ndibe, Helon Habila, Teju Cole, Chinelo Okparanta and Toni Kan – The Zimbabweans, Noviolent Bulawayo and Sarah Mayinka; the Congolese, Alain Mabanckou; the South Africans, Zukiswer Waner and Lebo Mashile; Ghanaian, Nana Darko, to mention a few.
The menu of Ake Arts & Book Festival echoed interesting events, ranging from writing workshops, book chats, panel discussions, film and conversation, stage plays and art exhibitions. It also featured a concert, interview session, poetry night and a city tour.
Opening ceremony
Guests for this year’s festival came from fifteen African countries, and, in addition to the teeming crowd of Nigerians, there was no single seat left as the official opening ceremony kicked off at the Cinema Hall on Thursday November 17. Let we forget, events at the festival got underway two days earlier.
Goodwill messages came from His Royal Highness Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebu, the Alake of Egbaland; Michael Kell of Windell Campbell Poetry Prize; Mathilda Edwards, Secretary, Miller Morland Foundation; Geoff Ryman and Chinelo Onwuala of Nomma Award in Africa; Ehis Ogiemwanye, Eric Maydieu, MD, Peugeot Nigeria; Michael Arrion, EU Ambassador to Nigeria and Ecowas; Diran Olope, Vice President, FCMB
Ify Mbanugwo, Admin Manager, Ake Arts & Book Festival, presented the latest edition of Ake Review, the official Ake Arts and Book Festival journal, with Ngugi wa Thiong’o on the cover; just as Lola Shoneyin, the Festival Director, welcomed participants to the festival, emphasising on the triumph of the willpower which made it possible to organize this year’s festival amid economic recession being experienced by Nigerians.
The longlist for the 2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature in Africa was announced by the Chief Judge, Helon Habila. The following authors made the list: Julie Iromuanya (Nigerian) — Mr. and Mrs. Doctor (Coffee House Press, USA); Mohale Mashigo (South Africa) — The Yearning (PanMacmillan, South Africa); Nakhane Toure (South Africa) — Piggy Boy’s Blues (Blackbird Books imprint of Jacana Media, SA); Jen Thorpe (South Africa) — The Peculiars (Penguin Random House, USA); Elnathan John (Nigeria) — Born on a Tuesday (Cassava Republic, Nigeria); Jowhor Ile (Nigeria) — And After Many Days (Farafina an imprint of Kachifo Limited, Nigeria); Andrew Miller (South Africa)— Dub Steps (Jacana Media, South Africa); Jacqui L’Ange (South Africa) — The Seed Thief (Umuzi Publishers, South Africa); and Unathi Magubeni (South Africa) — Nwezelenga: The Star Child (Black Bird Books Imprint of Jacana Media, South Africa).
Sessions that held manyspellbound
The festival’s book chat was kick-started by two Nigerian novelists, Jowhor Ile, the author of After Many Days, and Odafe Atogun, the author of Taduno’s Song, moderated by Dami Ajayi. Jowor admitted that he deployed real-life characters depicting “the life we have already lived”. For Atogun, the narrative technique he deployed was informed by the voice that “will work for the story”.
The award winning Nigerian author, Chinelo Okparanta, was involved in more than one session at the festival, but her first was with Panashe Chigumadzi –a session moderated by Ayodele Morocco Clarke.
Okparanta, who has received knocks from some Nigerians for being sympathetic to lesbians and gays in her writings, said she was never influenced by anybody on the subject she wrote on: “I don’t write because people tell me what to write but I have a need to express myself. The responses from the western world and Africa were different. In Africa, the response I got was like ‘Don’t bring that western disease to us; don’t be brainwashed by the west.”
The Zimbabwean writer, Chijumandzi, likened coming to Nigeria to going to America, for it provided an opportunity to confirm stereotypes, or, as he put it, “to confirm what is being read or seen on TV. Nigeria looms larger. There is this huge cultural imperialism of Nigeria through home videos and music.
One of the most electrifying sessions involved two of Nigeria’s most famous writers at the moment –Teju Cole and Helon Habila –authors of Known and Strange Things and The Chibok Girls. Moderated by Kadaria Ahmed, the book chat interrogated the two writers on their works which centre on the kidnapped Chibok girls by Boko Haram insurgents.
Cole said he stepped out to write on the subject after seeing some misinformed Americans becoming experts on Nigeria following the abduction of Chibok girls; therefore, choosing to write an anti-essay. “I wanted to say that, of all the activities going on, the one place we could go into was these girls’ experience, but we can’t be there,” he said.
Habila’s The Chibok Girls was the first non-fiction written by him. Convinced that fiction wouldn’t do justice to the story, he decided to write a non-fiction. While in Germany in 2013-14 on a fellowship to write a work of fiction, he was paralysed by the news coming of Nigeria, and couldn’t write the fiction again.
Cole would like religion to stop “engaging with us”. Majority of the mass murders of religion, he said, had to do with politics. Likewise, Habila said, before the advent of Boko Haram, Nigeria was not just to suicide bombers: “Nigeria before and after Boko Haram are different.”
Cole, who admitted that the abundance of stupid elements in the world, said effort should be placed on stopping them from having a multiple effect. Habila, in addition, said America got it wrong by exporting democracy wholesale to Africa without considering the peculiarities of each people.
Alain Mabanckou, the author of Lights of Point-Noire and Okey Ndibe, the author of the new non-fiction, Never Look an American in the Eyes, thrilled the audience in a book chat moderated by Kola Tobosun. Ndibe, who said it took him eleven months to write the book, noted that it was a personal story that wasn’t as bleak as his previous works of fiction.
For Mabanckou: “Each time I try to write, I will like to see my neighbourhood and my country talk. I need to find my own voice. My voice comes from the people, the street and the bar. I listen to the novel first before writing it. I write on paper, and not the computer.”
Ndibe admitted that late Chinua Achebe was his first major influence as a writer. He commended Achebe for being profound in his use of language such that he never used any word out of context, and his laconic style was treasured.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Kunle Ajibade got the audience shell-shocked by the horrors of prison life as both writers tripped memory lane in a session moderated by Molara Wood to recount their ordeals after being imprisoned for their writings. While Ngugi was arrested in 1977 for the play he wrote working with ordinary people in Gikuyu –“I woke up in a prison without a name or number on me” –Ajibade, the author of Jailed for Life, was imprisoned by late Nigerian maximum ruler, General Sani Abachi, for his biting sarcasm of his leadership.
The poets, Dike Chukwumerije, Titilope Sonuga, Ogaga Ifowodo, Lebo Mashile, among others, brought down the house on Saturday evening with poetic renditions as the audience sipped palm wine. Professor Femi Osofisan added icing to the cake with a short story that made everybody sing along to intermittent refrains. The Festival Director, Shoneyin, gave an impassioned speech to close the festival, leaving participants to dance into the night and wrapping a memorable festival.