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Author of ‘The Resilience of Nigerian Writing’, Kéchi Nne Nomu, has been reading science writings and creative nonfiction lately: ‘I think the world of science and the literary world need to meet more often. I like books or texts where that interaction is happening.
Books were very present in our house and my mother taught literature for years. My mother was also a Pa Amata theatre troupe girl. My childhood entailed listening in on conversations about Wole Soyinka, Okot p’Bitek, Ama Ata Aidoo…
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About the Author
is a Nigerian writer who has recently taught at the University of Virginia. Nomu’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Narrative Magazine, Boston Review, The Yale Review, The Sun Magazine, Poetry Northwest, Passenger Magazine, Rest of World and elsewhere.
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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