Something seems to be brewing here. I don't know whether this website is official or not. But well, since it is now on the public domain, I think I can share it with you.
Here is the gist: Together with two other authors, Chris Abani, the famous Nigerian-American novelist put together a book documentation of his impression of Nollywood, the Nigerian film (sorry) video industry. The overall impression is that Nollywood art production is crude, and, indeed, it feeds on the macabre, the exotic and Gothic.
Some Nigerians don't seem to have taken this so well. They are fuming that Chris Abani has misrepresented Nigeria. I'm yet to grasp the extent of anger here. Well, I'm still gathering info on this.
If you have time, please read this polemic. I will come back to the issue of Nollywood and the Nigerian, indeed, African psyche sometime.
Enjoy if you can.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Notes from an opening: The Garden City Literary Festival
It is good to know that literary festivals, fests, meetings and what have you, are burgeoning in different corners in Africa or in the Diaspora by Africans. Zimbabweans in the Diaspora appear to make the most noise - weighty noise that is. Their blogs are everywhere - of course I have to mention Emmanuel Sigauke, Ivor Hartmann, Petina Gappah. Then you have this beautiful online journal, Sea Breeze, organized by Liberian writers and lovers of literature. Of course Kenyans are there, too. Talk of Kwani and its beautiful activities.
Molara Wood reports from Port Harcourt, one of the literary capitals in Nigeria. Good things are happening there, friends. And in Nigeria, my dear country. I smile for my beloved country. You get?
One character in J.M Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello suggested to Africans that if they want the world to take their literature seriously, they themselves should take it seriously, read, read and read their works. Some might see this as somehow too biting an observation, but I think it is true. This is exactly what these literary fests, blogs, facebooks, conferences will achieve. Literature is coming back to Africa - after several years of hiatus due to misrule and other things beyond the writers' control.
Literature is coming back home! Are you ready to welcome her!
By the way (before I'm carried away by the joy of the coming of the bride), here is Molara Wood's report. ENJOY!
Molara Wood reports from Port Harcourt, one of the literary capitals in Nigeria. Good things are happening there, friends. And in Nigeria, my dear country. I smile for my beloved country. You get?
One character in J.M Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello suggested to Africans that if they want the world to take their literature seriously, they themselves should take it seriously, read, read and read their works. Some might see this as somehow too biting an observation, but I think it is true. This is exactly what these literary fests, blogs, facebooks, conferences will achieve. Literature is coming back to Africa - after several years of hiatus due to misrule and other things beyond the writers' control.
Literature is coming back home! Are you ready to welcome her!
By the way (before I'm carried away by the joy of the coming of the bride), here is Molara Wood's report. ENJOY!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Guinea Seethes as a Captain Rules at Gunpoint
I truly hate to interrupt my dear lovers of literature with this mundane, all too mundane report: the Guinean soldiers shooting spree, the recklessness with which the new leader handles the fate of ten million Guineans, the utter disregard for the basic humanity of our fellow Africans, the, … I truly can’t add anything to this. Please read the article yourself and judge. Nevertheless, I ask myself as an intellectual, as an African humanist, what all this has to say about me. Where is my heart in all of this? Where is my mind? What have I done to bring people (Africans) to respect people (Africans).
By the way here is the Article.
By the way here is the Article.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
