AFRICAN LITERARY PROFILES
Monday 4 April 2022
SINDIWE MAGONA
Wednesday 2 February 2022
AMOS TUTUOLA (1920 - 1997)
Saturday 4 December 2021
MOLARA OGUNDIPE (1940 - 2019)
Wednesday 13 October 2021
ABDULRAZAK GURNAH (Tanzania)
By I. M Soqaga
Every time when the Nobel Prize winner in
literature would be announced the news will invariably arouse great interest to
literary pundits and literary aficionados. Consequentially, in Africa
news of the Nobel Prize winner in literature is welcome with an ambivalent
feeling. For the fact that this year 2021 Nobel Prize in literature has
been awarded to an African writer from Tanzania, Abdulrazak Gurnah, certainly Africa is very ecstatic about the
news.
Abdulrazak Gurnah whose indigenous language is
Swahili evaded the soil of Africa when he was a teen and opted to live in
England. He essentially writes in English and his proverbial writings are
generally popular abroad where he lives. Although he had been writing for
many years now and his first novel, Memory of Departure (1987), would give a
conspicuously picturesque that Professor Gurnah is indeed a well-established
writer.
Nevertheless, he is a known Zanzibar refugee
whose current home is England, after receiving the prestigious Nobel Prize in
literature he described the winning of the award as ‘truly remarkable’, and
said that it was a great honour for him to be given an award that had been
given to so many talented writers worldwide.
The Nobel Committee 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''
Fundamentally to the surprise of African critics and literary pundits, the Nobel Prize Committee in literature remains in essence a Western Political committee whose discretion on selections for the ultimate winner remains questionable. Over the years and even this year 2021 outstanding African wordsmiths like Kenyan Ngugi waThiong’o and Somalia’s Nuruddin Farah were shrugged off when there was an explicit prospect that surely, they should be the recipients of the prestigious Nobel Prize. Moreover, Wole Soyinka himself emphasised on receiving the Nobel Prize in 1986 that “he would not to accept the prize on a personal level... but as a tribute to the heritage of African literature, which is very little known in the West.'
Indeed, a robust Nigerian critic, Chinweizu has already ridiculed
the Nobel Prize when he strongly expounded that “the conceit that a gaggle of
Swedes, all by themselves, should pronounce on intellectual excellence for the
whole wide world. The Nobel Prize, is neither a world prize rather it is
a Western European reward for those rendering a specific kind of service to
Western power and Western global hegemony… A Nobel award to any African,
therefore, is not a matter for rejoicing.’
Nevertheless Gurnah is a top notch writer whose
works over the years include:
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)
Yet one must point out that Africa has many
great veritable writers who even write in indigenous languages. It is a
fact that Africans whose literary lives are basically in Europe and America
will to some certain be recognized and adored by the Western Institutions like
the Swedes famous Western Europe control Nobel Prize. But let us still
congratulate the polished man of Letters, Gurnah!!
Monday 23 August 2021
CAMAGU SOMANA (South Africa)
Many readers - Africa in mind here -
find short stories in particular tantalising and gripping. Such creative
works are much easier to read and follow compared to novels. And some writers are specialists in
this genre. A world class example that easily comes to mind is Katherine
Mansfield.
Many, if not most of Africa's best writers, including novelists over the decades, published a lot of short stories too. Like Achebe, Mphahlele, Ekwensi, Marechera, Ngugi, Mabel Segun etc. Among the younger generation many literary pundits associate short stories with the polished Lesotho writer, Leseli Mokhele. He began to write short fiction from a young age.
So did CAMAGU SOMANA, whom those in the know would dub a born writer. He was barely 20 when he was publishing fiction of the shorter variety in South Africa. The flow was remarkable to the extent that very early in Ntate Somana's career, the late critic Peter Moroe wrote and published a fine critique of his work.
Literary critic Pule Lechesa, who has published many books on Literature, authors, and literary appreciation, says: "I read many of the early fiction of Camagu Somana. It was glittering talent from a very young age. It seemed to fizzle out... ? At the moment, one can describe him as a marmoreal wordsmith but brimming with promise. Will he fulfil his literary potential?"
And Camagu writes a lot of poetry too, quite polished poetry, an astonishing amount of it accessible on the internet. A cerebral, sensitive, vivid character, his works cover a large canvas.
A selection of stories published by
Camagu Somana
Thursday 8 July 2021
FESTUS IYAYI (Nigeria)
FESTUS IYAYI
By the mid 80s - decades
ago Festus Iyayi was already ensconced as a major imaginative writer thanks to
3 superb novels published within a short time: Violence, The Contract, and
Heroes.
The writer was famed for his treatment and denunciation of immorality and corruption in his native country. It was mind boggling, even more disturbing as the situation has if anything got even worse over the decades!!
Why was it that the country was enmeshed in endemic horrifying shameless corruption? Why were women ruthlessly exploited in the process? Could any "decent" person go against the system? The author was occupied with these posers amidst a welter of others.
In his books, we can see the whole nauseating picture against the background of convincing characters and plots. Obviously the author flinched at the unedifying situation too, as we see from his works.
Here is an extract from one of Iyayi's major novels, Violence, which touches on the situation;
"Not far off were the houses where which sweat and labour had already erected... labour had left its positive mark, the labour of hundreds and thousands of workers, working either in the intense sunlight or in the biting cold or in the blinding rain, piling the blocks higher and highet and wiping the salt and sweat from their eyes and their forehead s with the backs of their hands, and all underpaid, underfed and treated no better than slaves - the highest form of violence maintained and jealously guarded by a greedy, unfeeling class of exploiters, greedy moneymakers, conservative and reactionary public officers took all the credit for the achievements of (cheap) labour..."
To his credit also, Iyayi in his books also often infuses some women with special characteristics, noble, heroic even if they be poor. Women are living enviable beings in his work
Books by Festus Iyayi
Violence
Heroes
The Contract
Awaiting Court Martial
Wednesday 19 May 2021
DORA OKEYO (Kenya)
By
I. Mzwandile Soqaga (South Africa)
When we think of Kenyan Literature our minds often
automatically go to outstanding writers like Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Meja Mwangi,
David Maillu.
All men? Yes. But then again there are revered
female literary voices from the country, like Grace Ogot. And in recent times
we have new female voices from Kenya like the outstanding DORA OKEYO.
Dora is a quintessential bibliophile, a prolific
reader, writer, review et al. Some have dubbed her as a one-woman literary
industry. And it is not even an exaggeration.
She had published many books herself- see a
selection of her works at the end. She writes on many genres. She might remind
you of Walter Scott because of her penchant for historical writings.
She also writes a lot for children. In South Africa the likes of Gcina Mhlophe
are revered for this; just like Mabel Segun in west Africa. So Dora is in good
company!
Dora’s sheer enthusiasm and passion for the world of
writing is extraordinary (to put it mildly). She regularly performs endearing
services to Literature (including African Writing) by presenting and reviewing
sundry books for the literary world.
What a lady!
A Selection of Dora Okeyo's Books
Water
I love you This Much
Fire
Choose Me
Say You Love Me
Memories
Roses and Lies
Sifuna
Earth
The Crown of the Sea
You and I