DISPATCH FROM NIGERIA

I say it each month, but it's always sincere: thank you for joining this roving literary voyage! Nigeria was our first African destination and the first month where no one attending had a direct connection to the country (either travel or personal). And yet ... look at all of the books our intrepid little group read and discussed:

Africa is Not a Country by Dipo Faloyin
Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
Longthroat Memoirs by Yemisi Aribisala
Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Rosewater by Tade Thompson
Ghostroots by 'Pemi Aguda

Our discussion ranged from the midcentury classics to the contemporary genre explosion (Afrofuturism! Sympathetic serial killers!). A lot of us had some high school exposure to Chinua Achebe's foundational Things Fall Apart, which led to a conversation about how world literature is introduced to young US readers. When a book is so rooted in proverb and tradition (and in Achebe's case, part of an active effort to construct a historical lineage for a new nation), can it ever just be taught as English lit? And from the early post-colonial texts up to more recent novels, we noticed a lot of what we'd typically mark as "magic realism." But how does this label limit our understanding of different cultural traditions and belief systems around the world? Many places around the world take it as a given that ancestors, spirits, and unexplained phenomena would coexist with the mundane. 

If we've sparked your interest in Nigerian writing, there is plenty of territory to explore. Take a look online at our current selection or come in for a recommendation. And below, I've shared a few links to articles and essays that caught my attention and connected to my recent readings.

The four generations: Nigerian literature, the Booker Prize, and beyond
Gazelle Mba on The Booker Prizes

In many ways, the predominance of Nigerian writing in the cultural discourse around African literature can be partially attributed to the Heinemann African Writers Series, which had its heyday in the 1960s and Seventies. That vanguard series enabled the distribution of many African novelists, allowing them to reach larger audiences, crucially within the continent. [...] Achebe viewed the African Writers Series as ‘the umpire’s signal for which African writers had been waiting on the starting line.’ It permitted future generations of African readers to find more than dusty covers of Charles Dickens and William Wordsworth arranged on their parents’ bookshelves and to encounter ‘works by their own writers about their own people.’ 

African book publishing must reclaim the word 'local'
Bibi Bakare-Yusuf in Semafor

For African publishers, “connecting local writers to global audiences” shouldn’t mean reinforcing a one-way flow of value, where legitimacy is bestowed elsewhere. That is not equity, but soft coloniality. Amplifying voices across geographies must preserve context, nuance, and political complexity. We are all rooted in a place before our ideas travel. The global is not neutral; it is the accumulation of many locals.

'We have a lot of stories to tell:' inside Nigeria's thriving literary scene 
Sally Hayden in The Irish Times

There were also discussions about whether Nigerian writers should prioritise writing in Pidgin – which is spoken by roughly 50 million people in Nigeria, with versions in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone – rather than English, condemned by some as the language of the coloniser. "We have to find language that will pull the crowd more than English. English is a bastard language," exclaimed writer Femi Morgan ...

The danger of a single story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, TEDglobal 2009

Two takes on the relationship between diaspora writers and authors who remain in their home country:

What Writers in the Diaspora Miss About the Plurality of African Literature
Itoro Bassey on Literary Hub

But as a writer who often draws from Nigerian influences, I began to realize how important it is to acknowledge that when I write about Africa, I’m really writing about a tiny sliver of it. In fact, I may not even be writing about Africa at all; I’m writing about what my mother told me about her days picking mangoes in her grandma’s garden in a village in Akwa Ibom State, and I am writing about, perhaps, the spiritual fissure I feel being pulled from a country I never knew, and living in a country where every day I’m told, in no uncertain terms, that I’m a stranger.

How Does African Literature Interact With the Diaspora? (And Vice Versa)
Emannuel Somnofu on okayafrica

As [book critic Ikhide Ikheloa] infers, it is the magnet of globalization that pulls writers away from the continent, with struggling economies and impending poverty underlining how hard it is to make a literary career. From publishing houses to agents, book readings, equipped libraries and prizes, the literary ecosystem is overwhelmingly tilted toward the West. In the face of these, it’s inevitable that most writers would keep an eye (or two) on the West to access better opportunities.

And how do you talk Nigeria without hearing at least a little music? So let's close it out with two different generations of music:

Some contemporary indie that draws on classic zamrock guitar licks ...

And the complicated titan that was Fela Kuti, with his defiant protest jam, Zombie. Take this spirit with you into the new year, speaking truth to power.

Looking for more reading inspiration? Now is a great time to pick up something for our next book club destination: Iran.