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Author of ‘A Common Currency For West Africa’, Abdulrasheed Isah, wishes he had discovered Arundhati Roy much earlier. ‘I am amazed at how she writes fascinating stories with profound rigour and simplicity… and how she uses fiction as a tool to fight social injustice. Few writers combine these qualities.’
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About the Author
is a DAAD Scholar pursuing a doctorate at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at University of Bonn, Germany. As a Commonwealth Scholar, he obtained an MSc Development Economics at SOAS University of London, United Kingdom.
Nigerian novelist, poet and author of Graceland, Chris Abani, does not believe ‘Nigerian literature’ exists as a category: ‘It is a common misconception that there is a fixed category that can be read as essentially “Nigerian literature”. Nigeria has 500 nations, 500 languages and about 2,000 dialects. While culture and language can overlap, the level of diversity is such that Nigerian literature cannot be easily narrowed down.’
For the co-founder and publishing director, of Cassava Republic Press, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, it is telling that African literature is often pronounced dead in recent years, when more women and queer voices are becoming more prominent: ‘The loudest obituary writers about African literature tend to be men. These elegies seem to come from a tacit sense of personal or generational displacement rather than from the actual state of the field.’
Nigerian poet, novelist and author of Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted, Ben Okri, argues that Nigerian literature doesn’t always have to be about Nigeria: ‘Nigerian literature limits itself to Nigeria and then limits even the ways in which the country can be written about. What we want is a vast literature, a great literature…that speaks to all humanity.’
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