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By Henry Akubuiro
Recently, Dr. Ikechukwu Asika of Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State, led a delegation of scholars to the palace of prominent Anambra royal father, HRM Eze Iweka III, Eze Obosi, to present him a copy of the new book, Under the Baobab Tree, which the former contributed a short story, “Kindred Beyond“, to the collection.
Edited by Dr. Asika, Stella Okoye-Ugwu and Alex Ugwuja, Under the Baobab Tree is a collection of ghost stories from different writers. Dr. Ikechukwu was accompanied in the visit by Alex Amaechi Ugwuja.
The delegation discussed writing, literature, life and future. “It’s still a puzzle how this great king combines his kingly duties and writing to be churning out sublime creative works in almost all the genres of literature,” said Dr. Ikechukwu.
In return, the Obosi king gifted the delegation a poetry volume of his, Reflection of Hope, which he described as “a fine collection in all senses of the word.”
A few months ago, the extended narrative fiction of the manuscript of Kindred Beyond was longlisted for the 2023 edition of the James Currey Prize for African literature.
“I was truly delighted and thankful to God when I learnt that my latest book, Kindred Beyond,made the 2023 longlist for the James Currey Prize for African Literature,” he told Saturday Sun.
He revealed the book was not quite completed when he learnt about the extension of the international prize. “I
I had to work fast between my tight official schedules to finish up and succeeded in making the submission a couple of hours before the deadline. For this reason of not being adequately prepared, I am grateful to the Almighty Father for the inspiration and zeal to participate and be recognised,” he noted.
Explaining his interest in mystery and ghost stories, the royal father, who is a multi talented artiste, said, while exploring his general interest in producing works of drama, prose, poetry, etc, “I have always been fascinated by the Sci-fi, supernatural and horror genres.
“One of my novels, So Bright a Darkness, has these Sci-fi cum supernatural qualities. In my spare time, I have been penning ideas in that direction, so when I saw the opportunity offered by the James Currey Prize for unpublished manuscripts, I hurriedly fired a wild shot and hit a mark, though not the bull’s eye,” he said.
Comparing the short story version of the novel with the novel manuscript, which made the James Currey Prize for African Literature longlist, Eze Iweka III said, “Actually, the full length novel, Kindred Beyond was not written for the purpose of extracting a short story for Dr. Asika calling for submissions for an anthology of ghost stories that he and his colleagues were compiling.
“I was quite thrilled and surprised since ghost and horror stories are not common in our community of authors. The deadline for submissions gave me ample time to go to work on a ghostly idea I had been toying with for a while.
Does he think writers have done justice to mystery in Nigerian writers?
“I don’t think that our writers have delved enough into mystery and horror. I believe that most novelists work by inspiration from past experiences alloyed with imagination. These inspired outbursts of creativity are spontaneous and, therefore, often unplanned. Ghostly experiences are uncommon generally, so most of the projections are fictional, fused with tradition and strange tales we encounter in our lives.
“Even in Hollywood and Nollywood movies, such productions trail many notches behind the action movies, thrillers, love and super-hero productions. In fact, a lot of movie buffs and ardent readers avoid the ghost and horror genres out of fear or superstition. As a highly prayerful person, I am ever conscious of the spiritual cause it all originates from the spirit realm and transcends to the physical,” he remarked.
The writer has been working on his book on African history with the working title, Oakland…Many Miles. He noted: “For eight years, I have written three books while collecting data and working on the Oakland project. By the infinite grace of the Almighty Father, it will be ready for publishing in 2004.
“Oakland ..Many Miles has metamorphosed from a chronicle of black peoples’ checkered history to a journey conveyed by my partial biography triggered by a racist experience in America long ago.”
Igwe Chidubem Iweka’s books have put up some stellar performances in literary prizes nationally and internationally. Aside bring longlisted for the James Currey Prize for African Literature this year, his novel,
The Ancient Curse made the ANA Saro-Wiwa Prize in Prose shortlist. His play, August Inmates, was longlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature.
His two works, The Ancient Curse and So Bright a Darkness, have been used by nine universities in Nigeria. Also, August Inmates and Reflections of Hope have been adopted by Anambra State Ministry of Education for SS3/JSS students.
