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Editor, Ẹ́lọ́hór Ẹ́gbọ́rdí, believes the biggest misconception about African storytelling is that it is inferior to non-African storytelling: ‘No one can tell our stories better than us and on a world stage, we can go toe to toe with the best of them and even surpass them.’
As a child, I read everything I could lay my hands on. I read old literature texts owned my aunts and uncles. I also read encyclopaedias, receipts and shopping lists, newspapers, and then I read children’s story books and novels.
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About the Author
is a bibliophile whose passion for literature and reading has morphed into a career away from her core science background. She is an experienced editor and writer who loves all forms of art.
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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