MOLARA OGUNDIPE LESLIE

Come to think of it, Africa has produced many remarkable female literary critics and academics over the decades - like Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana), Assia Djebar (Algeria), Menan Du Plessis, Zoe Wicomb (both South Africans) ... Nigeria's Molara Ogundipe Leslie, like Aidoo, was one of the Black women literary pioneers from west Africa. Leslie contributed a lot to the growth and promotion of African literature, from inception. She appreciated the early established African wordsmiths - males - but was never afraid to criticise them. She had early respect (her writings reveal this) for the greats like Wole Soyinka and Ayi Kwei Armah, but if she felt they should be censored, she did so in her earnest manner. Hence if she found some aspects distasteful in their disparate writings, she would pount this out, be it suggestions of "chauvinism" or "narcissism". In her many critical essays her intellectualism and nous stood out, with the broad canvas and striations all grist to her mill. Omolara Leslie's style of writing/criticism was direct, lucid and passionate. And well researched. Her message and thrust was delivered quite simply and made a lot of sense. She knew what she was all about and essentially basked in the writings of assorted writers and books. Early on, Leslie began to write splendid reviews for journals and magazines, including Okike from the early 70s. It was clear that she could not stand women being undermined. Her books are also a testament to her. She was born in Lagos, and attended Queen's School, Ede, and went on to become the first woman to obtain a first-class BA Honours degree in English at University College, Ibadan, then a college of the University of London. She also studied at Leiden University which has extensive studies/material on African Writing. She became a globally recognised scholar and writer. As a scholar, critic, educator and activist, Ogundipe is of course recognized as one of the most prominent and innovative writers on African women and feminism. Her works creatively capture most the nuances and complexities of African life. She died in 2019. Published works Sew the Old Days and Other Poems, 1985 Re-Creating Ourselves: African Women and Critical Transformations, 1994 (ed.) Women as Oral Artists, 1994 (ed. with Carole Boyce Davies) Moving Beyond Boundaries, April 1995 (two volumes). Gender and subjectivity. Readings of "Song of Lawino". Dissertation Leiden University. Leiden, CNWS, 1999

AFRICA HARVESTS THE NOBEL AWARD FOR LITERATURE

It's  been a long wait. Since Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Award in Literature in 1986, it seemed the prestigious diadem would continue to elude Africa and its Black writers. But now it's back!

Now, Abdulrazak Gurnah of Tanzania has been announced as the winner of the gong for this year. He might not be as well known in his native continent like Achebe, Ngugi, Armah, Adichie etc, but his body of writings stand as a monument...

An academic and (mainly) a novelist who migrated to the UK many decades ago, Gurnah s works are regarded as top notch especially in Eurocentric circles, having published formidable novels like Paradise, and Afterlife

Raphael Mokoena, literary aficionado says: "One is naturally happy with this development - another Black wins the Nobel Award for Literature ... but to be honest, the whole picture and scenario looks pretty grim. Whether based in Africa, Europe or America, only 3 authentic blacks have won the Nobel Award for writing over the decades! Till date, so many wonder why Achebe never won it... and why hasn't Ngugi of Kenya been announced as a much deserved winner? But kudos to Gurnah."

The Nobel Committee in its terse manner lauded Gurnah: "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents''

Major Books by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Memory of Departure (1987)

Pilgrims Way (1988)

Dottie (1990)

Paradise (1994)

Admiring Silence (1996)

By the Sea (2001)

Desertion (2005)

The Last Gift (2011)

Gravel Heart (2017)

Afterlives (2020)

HORROR FOR BELEAGUERED FEMALES

  Surviving John Vorster Square Film

Surviving John Vorster Square Film is a vivid description of how the apartheid security police treated women political detainees. Surviving John Vorster Square is a 120-minute documentary film about the life stories and ordeals of a group of female former political detainees who were held at the notorious John Vorster Square apartheid police office in Johannesburg in the 1970s and 1980s.

It was premiered at the constitutional Hill in Johannesburg this week(Monday). Mmagauta Molefe is a producer of the film which started as self financed and later supported by the National Film and Video Foundation. The narration and testimony account of the participants remains a viewer about an episode when Chekhov was a young aspiring writer. He went to the great Tolstoy for advice. Tolstoy showed him a horse and a cart that passed by his house every morning and asked Chekhov to write about it in such a way that when he read his piece he'd feel he's reading about the cart and horse that he showed him. Chekhov made many attempts which Tolstoy rejected until a final piece which Tolstoy accepted for, he said, it was about the horse and cart that passed by his house every day and no other. 

The eleven cast members in the film; Mmagauta Molefe, Nomakhaya Mafuna Sibongile Mkhabela, Unjinee Poonam, Daphne Koza, Deborah Matshobs, Joyce Dipale Maleshane Mokoena, Pearl Luthuli, Elizabeth Abrahams; are talking about the pain with vividness, specifity and clarity. Molefe broke down in the film as she re-tell her ordeal as how she got miscarriage after a severe torture in the hands of apartheid police.

Dipale shows how she suffered electric shocks on her naked breasts, buttocks and genitals to force information from her about her political activities in the resistance movement. Also, Dipale says she was a target of apartheid death squads in exile. The struggle veterans talk of how the black consciousness philosophy shaped their lifes and their thinking. 

Nakedi Ribane, actress and political activist commented the following after the film: "It is is good that everything thing is coming out raw as it is with apology. A was arrested and tortured at the University of Zululand for my involvement in the politics of black consciousness. The torture chamber and every thing must be depicted in the film." 

Molefe Pheto, veteran black consciousness activist and filmmaker who created the visual storytelling and curated soundtrack of the film hailed the bravery of the women. Pheto said the importance of the film is a black woman and produced it and it is raw, adding that this fact is most welcome.

 

 

BECKONED TO SERVE. By Shehu Shagari

 

"I was determined to carry out that mandate to the best if my ability and strictly in accordance with the spirit of my oath of office without fear or favour. I was fully prepared and equipped for the job since I felt i had developed sufficient  experience in the job and had already learnt my lessons...I felt that...I must put the benefit of my long standing experience in government into practice in order to make the presidential system  of govt that we had chosen for ourselves the success that it deserved to be. I already had behind me some 25 years ( 1958 to 1983) of service as a cabinet member of federal govts, federal state and local govts and now as the first Executive President of Nigeria for four years..."

 

So writes Shehu Shagari in this remarkable world class autobiography - that ideally every Nigerian should read - and learn a lot from. A historical sociological treasure trove.

No doubt the author was much misunderstood during his lifetime especially re his stewardship as Nigeria's first Executive President. He and his party - the NPN were easily re elected but the Nigerian army put the skids in his administration. Thereafter Shagari was incarcerated, put under house arrest for years.

He of course was not happy about this and believes so many people who should have known better trued to run him down, or even betrayed him. As he writes here: "One of the biggest disappointments of my life was the discovery, somewhat belatedly that MOST OF THE PEOPLE I TRUSTED ARE NOT IN FACT WORTHY OF THE TRUST"

It was the Gen Olusegun Obasanjo military regime that handed over power to Shagari and his party. This book shows the author respects Obasanjo a lot but was uneasy about some aspects in regards the ex Head of State.  (Obasanjo himself admitted that he voted for Shagari as President). Here is what Shagari writes in this work:

"Yet for some strange reasons this soldier-statesman (Obasanjo) had developed some kind of deep malevolence for me, despite the very high regard and respect I have always had for him, as was demonstrated by the highest national honour I awarded him and which I still believe he richly deserved..."

Alhaji Shehu Shagari, veritable nationalist and patriot, died in 2018. Great man of Integrity and Peace.

MAJOR C. K. NZEOGWU. By Okeleke Peter Nzeogwu

 

This book focuses on the life and times of C.k Nzeogwu usually stated to be the living spirit behind the first military coup in Nigeria.

Yet looking back on it (as clear from this book written by his own little brother) Nzeogwu was a rather strange, startling personality. For example, he was still very young when the coup took place, he was less than 30 years old!

His focus was such that he even avoided women, abstaining from sex, and marriage. Consider it: a young man, comfortable, with a car, single, yet not getting involved with women! He seemed obsessed only with real change, "revolution" in his society.

His "strangeness" was obvious even as a kid, a young schoolboy. He abhorred injustice, tyranny so much, that he even hit (punched) his own father who was giving his (Nzeogwu’s) sister a good spanking!

Nzeogwu would die very young (before 30) yet he was responsible enough to help his parents, siblings etc and put them on the path to self-subsistence before he died. The testimony of the author here (kid brother of Nzeogwu) shows that despite being an enigma, he loved and took care of his siblings with striking generosity. 

For example, Nzeogwu provided whole full chickens for his younger siblings upon a visit to him at his residence.  He pulled out all the stops to ensure that they would have a good start in life.

In the end Nzeogwu a very controversial figure till date, died again under mysterious circumstances. But the man and his family became revered and respected by many. In this book eg the author pays tribute to Gen Obasanjo, Tai Solarin for their love for the Nzeogwus.

All in all - as is also obvious from this book - C. K Nzeogwu was a selfless, intrepid nationalist and revolutionary. He has rightly gone down in Nigerian, African history.

- Henry Ozogula

Nineteen Eighty Four. By George Orwell

OK let us start with a cliche: this is one of the most celebrated, classic works in ‘eurocentric’ literary history .... so we might infer from this that I am a "proud African" who nevertheless appreciates international literature.

1984 is something of a nightmare, over 70 years after its initial publication; not even in the heart of Africa can one envisage such totalitarianism - actually Africans generally celebrate life, jollity, fecundity et al... people are much too concerned with their own blissful exuberance (especially those at the top) rather than worry about the ordinary man's behaviour, thoughts, and predilections. 'Yes-men' hold sway, but that suits all the parties, quand meme!

But yet one squirms upon re-reading this work, a very grim scenario where everything sad, dismal and restrictive holds sway. As our main protagonist Winston Smith makes clear:

"...Already we know almost literally nothing about the Revolution and the years before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been re-written, every picture has been re-painted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right..."

And what concerns the powers that be with private love interests, affairs, and such manifestations? Yet Big Brother ensures that such a thing (relationships) which even now we take for granted in every society is part of the horror story. No wonder our main female protagonist here too is an embodiment of palpable despair, cynicism and frustration, as we read: "Julia was 26 years old. She lived in a hostel with 30 other girls ('Always in the stink of women! How I hate women!' She said parenthetically). ..

Both Julia and Smith suffer in transcendent fashion (though the focus is on Mr. Smith.). He is tortured, de-humanised and brainwashed to the extent that it has become an egregious ordeal for one to re-read this book. What is the point of it all?

Since we know that no matter what, Winston Smith will lose it all. The inevitable bullet awaits and Smith himself is very much aware of this. Yet when at the end we read, nauseatingly, "... the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother "... we await the goddamn bullet for ourselves- Malome Eric

ISKA. By Cyprian Ekwensi

 

"There is something in your life which moves - like wind.  Blows across everything. Like wind. Shifts, like sand ... You have to be careful ..."

 A Mallam, on the fate of Filia 

 The story of the life of a young woman, Filia, a girl brought up in a convent, with some tragedies in her life. Initially she is in love with a young man, Dan Kaybi. In fact they are very briefly married.

 Filia is meretriciously strict in relationships, it is not easy for her to fall for just any man. As she says:

 "I like men who are modern. I like men who do things. I like men who are elegant and civilised, not just those who think their money can buy me"

 But it is not easy to identify with her ideals, or the men she chooses, or her general mien, especially when she begins to live and blossom in Lagos. Like how she suddenly succumbs to Rayimi, who is quite bluntly a cheap, callow irritating thug. It is a brief improbable affair, but as they are together, we are startled to suddenly read:

 "She slipped on a rubber girdle and sat for a moment smoking. She smoked fifteen cigarettes and drank half a bottle of brandy...". Is this the same convent girl still relatively fresh in Lagos? OK, ex-convent girl then!

 We are startled again when Filia suddenly goes to the much older Gadson’s office to seduce him. There is nothing earlier on to suggest that she even likes him. And yet again she says to him:

 "Gadson, you know I love you. And I know you love me. It is useless fighting your desires". Incredible.

When we are introduced to Dapo Ladele, we come across a shockingly disgusting, twisted character. Dapo first comes across as a somewhat charismatic young journalist - a shameless hack really - but soon we learn fully what he is all about. As he himself admits: "I work for money, Filia.Not for conscience. Why must I be the one to show conscience?"

But the tragedy of Dapo the young man is the tragedy of Nigeria and Africa as a whole. The paucity of young men of integrity and positive values. And yes, hordes of women continue to fall for such worthless ‘gentlemen’.

The finale of the book is sad and haunting as our Filia dies very young; yet it is far from convincing.  Is it necessary that Filia should die do young?  It is almost as if the author wants to force her demise on us to fit in with the "Iska" theme and title of this work.

 On the whole, a very readable book written by one of Africa's outstanding writers.