KALU UKA (Nigeria)

Over the decades, hundreds of thousands of students grew up relishing the poetry of Kalu Uka, a renowned academic, dramatist and literary critic. Apart from his own individual books, samples of his poetry have appeared in many illustrious "Selections of poetry "

Indeed, the slim work of poetry, Earth to earth published by Uka many decades ago, is one of the most accomplished in polished African verses. The title poem is haunting, evocative, sombre and melancholic. The poetic devices on the whole are stunning, eclectic and unforgettable.

Uka was born in Akanu-Ohafia and attended Akanu Ohafia Presbyterian School, Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar and earned his degrees from the University of Ibadan and the University of Toronto (Canada). Among many other innovations in the histrionic circuit, he also co-founded Oak Theatre.

He is a Member of the Smithsonian Institute and has published various titles and plays including 'Colonel Ben Brim', an examination of the devastation wrought by invidious war, 'A Consummation of Fire', and 'A Harvest for Arts' which was a dramatic adaptation of Chinua Achebe's riveting novel,  Arrow of God. 

Kalu Uka studied and taught Shakespeare for many years at the highest levels, including being a teacher and scholar in England at the University of Leeds as an assistant lecturer in literature and serving as a Fulbright Scholar of African Drama.
 

He also served in various capacities as Coordinator, Head of Department, Dean and University Orator at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, University of Calabar and the University of Uyo.  

Dr Inyang has written inter alia about the peerless Uka: "A believer in good arts and a writer of the obscurantist school, a non-surprising exertion of the Soyinkean mode that he supports and promotes not because himself and Wole Soyinka were classmates at Ibadan, but for the purity and sustenance of the arts and culture as institutions of existence. Kalu Uka’s literary oeuvre is a big bag of treasures. In poetry, prose, drama and essays, his extraordinary cultivation of the English language and literature and the successful accentuation of indigenous stylistics and phonology in works such as Ikamma sets him apart as one with the unique skills of a master of both worlds...

"While appropriating the story for A Harvest of Ants from Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God, he retains the classical determinism of the Elizabethan poesy by sculpting lines that reads better as poems but matures and swells in drama in A Hunt for Sugar Baby. Words take on very elevated state and exude a rare exuberance expected of kings but this yet again confirms that in the hands of Kalu Uka, words are kings and are treated as such..."

What a world-class wordsmith!


Select Bibliography

Earth to earth : poems by Kalu Uka

Colonel Ben Brim : a novel by Kalu Uka

A consummation of fire : a novel by Kalu Uka

Ikhamma : a one-act ritual re-enactment by Kalu Uka

The fugitives : a collaboration by Kalu Uka

Themes and characterisation in some plays of Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams by Kalu Uka

Drama and conscientization by Kalu Uka

Prescriptive anomalies in African aesthetics : the case for a language
of poetry & drama ; presented at the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the
African Studies Association, October 29 - November 1, 1975 by Kalu
Uka

J .P. Clark's Ozidi : a suggested teaching approach by Kalu Uka

Ohafia in time perspective: retrospects & prospects by Kalu Uka

AHMADOU KOUROUMA (IVORY COAST)

Blunt truth is - when we think about best-selling writers, African writers rarely ever come to mind, especially those writing about Africa, its pet themes, problems, convolutions and the like. Yet the late Ivorian writer, Ahmadou Kourouma during his heyday had his works gobbled up in large amounts, in metropolitan France so to speak.

Kourouma of course wrote and published his major works in French, though over the years translations of the same have appeared in English and other languages. He was very much an African writing in a "foreign" language, and some pundits were uneasy about his famed neologisms and grassroots allusions which seemed to bemuse them. But Kourouma was such a fine, talented and committed writer.

 

He was the son of a distinguished Malinké family, who went on to study in Bamako, Mali. Evidently a strong imposing man, he participated in French military campaigns in Indochina, after which he journeyed to France to further his
studies in Lyon.

Kourouma returned to his native Côte d'Ivoire after it won its independence in 1960, but antagonised the powers that be, including President  Félix Houphouët-Boigny. This led to incarceration, and afterwards a life in  exile, first in Algeria (1964–69), then in Cameroon (1974–84) and Togo (1984–94), before finally returning to live in Côte d'Ivoire.

His fiction would reflect his disillusionment and somewhat disgust: "His first novel, Les soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence, 1970) contains a critical treatment of post-colonial governments in Africa. Twenty years later, his second book Monnè, outrages et défis, a history of a century of colonialism, was published. In 1998, he published En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages (translated as Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote), a satire of postcolonial Africa in the style of Voltaire in which a griot recounts the story of a tribal hunter's transformation into a dictator, inspired by president Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo. In 2000, he published Allah n'est pas obligé (translated as Allah is Not Obliged), a tale of an orphan who becomes a child soldier when traveling to visit his aunt in Liberia."

In France, each of Ahmadou Kourouma's novels was celebrated, sold exceptionally well, and was showered with prizes including the Prix Renaudot,  and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens for Allah n'est pas obligé.

Kourouma not only wrote novels, he was also a playwright and general essayist. He was worldly enough to have also pursued an insurance and banking career in France and Cameroon. Perhaps his most famous play was Tougnantigui; ou, le diseur de vérité (“Tougnantigui; or, The Truth Teller”)

 

"He (Kourouma) was probably the best-known Francophone African writer in France and was sometimes referred to as the 'African Voltaire' " pundits have avowed.

Bibliography

Les Soleils des indépendances
ie The Suns of Independence, Translator Adrian Adams

Le diseur de vérité — drama, 1972

Monnew: a novel, Translator Nidra Poller, Mercury House, 1999

En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages, Éditions du Seuil, 1998.

ie Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals.

Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote. Translator Frank Wynne.Yacouba, chasseur africain. 1998.

Allah n'est pas obligé, Seuil, 2000

ie  Allah is Not Obliged. Translator Frank Wynne.

Quand on refuse on dit non, Editor Gilles Carpentier

ZAYNAB ALKALI (Nigeria)

Zaynab Alkali is a pioneer in her own way, in her own right - like a handful of other extraordinary African female writers.  Her compatriots, Zulu Sofola - the first Nigerian woman to publish quality plays; and Flora Nwapa (the first Nigerian woman to publish novels) made history.... just like in South Africa, Miriam Tlali was the first black woman to write and publish a novel. 

On her own part, Zaynab Alkali is acknowledged as the first woman novelist from Northern Nigeria, and a literary academic to boot. Over the years, she has made a name for herself as novelist, poet, short story writer, and editor.

Alkali was born in Tura-Wazila in Borno State in 1950. She graduated from Bayero University Kano with a BA in 1973. She obtained a doctorate in African Studies in the same university and became the principal of a girls' school - Sakera Girls' Boarding School.

She went on to become a polished academic, a lecturer and writer of note. Markedly, she rose to become a dean in the Faculty of arts at Nasarawa State University in Keffi where she taught creative writing. And she began publishing her work since over 30 years ago.

Over the years, readers and pundits have been pleasantly surprised by the freshness and variety of her writings. Those who expected docile female protagonists are confronted with the literary vibrancy and competence of the author. 

Indeed, Alkali's characters can be feisty (eg Li, in The Stillborn), well rounded, ambitious, probing - no wonder "feminists" are very much interested in  the disparate strands of Zaynab Alkali's writings.

Selected Works

The Stillborn

The Virtuous Woman

Cobwebs & Other Stories

The Descendants

The Initiates

Zaynab Alkali, Al Imfeld (eds), Vultures in the Air: Voices from
Northern Nigeria

NAIWU OSAHON

To many readers, Naiwu Osahon, the long standing Nigerian writer, is synonymous with his early work, Sex is a Nigger. The latter novel during its heyday attained transcendental fame and notoriety - and even now, many decades after its initial publication, new generations of readers are enamoured with the work.

Yet Osahon is a proficient, versatile writer who has produced many other works over the years; even other novels like Climate of Darkness , which arguably was even more successful than Sex is a Nigger. In his works of fiction for adults, one deduces a vivacious streak, and a zany type of humour.

Actually, Naiwu Osahon might well be the most prolific writer in (black) African history.  He himself has stated that he has published at least 100 books (!), most of them for children. Now, over the age of 80, the great man still writes regularly.

Osahon is well known for his polemical writings and views, not only in his journalistic forays, but also in substantial published books of his; which include The Cradle: The ultimate Cosmology, and God is Black. the works might be somewhat controversial, but they also showcase his intellectual striations.

Osahon has of course garnered some flak for writing a work like Sex is a Nigger. As 

South African literary commentator, Raphael Mokoena notes:

‘In literary circles, some observers rather liked this work, whilst others panned it. The formidable Femi Osofisan, for example opined that this work is "cheaply melodramatic" and also "hysterically vulgar". He added that he saw this work as "arising from the low slums of artifice out of which no genuine perception can be reaped". I might as well state that I for one do not think the author had "high art" in mind when he wrote this book, anyway…’

Again, we must note the large corpus of Osahon's writings, which also includes the publication of plays, and poetry. His extraordinary work for children (copious books) have been translated into other languages, including German.

It is thus clear that Pa Osahon is not just a "pornographer" et al as some often claim, in ignorance. World literary history teems with great writers who were somewhat undermined by pundits intermittently - like DH Lawrence, RL Stevenson, Herman Melville  - but are now generally accepted as world class wordsmiths. I have no doubt in my mind that Naiwu Osahon has over the decades been a very important African writer.

 - O Bolaji       

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Climate of Darkness

Sex is a Nigger

A Nation in Custody

Black Power: The African Predicament

The Colour of Anger

No Answer from the Oracle: Two plays Fires of Africa (poems etc)

Africa know Thyself

Ada and Hunchback Child

God is Black

Bulubulu and Bamboko

Our Widow's Mite

The Cradle: The Ultimate Cosmology

Giant Alakuku

Poems for Young Lovers