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In her latest novel, Like Water Like Sea, Nigerian–German writer, Olumide Popoola, wanted to explore bipolar disorder and manic episodes: ‘I felt it was important to write about disruptive and sometimes public manic or psychotic episodes, both to raise awareness and to question why we claim to hold space but are not prepared to accept what falling apart entails.’
A book that I devoured because it spoke to me a lot was Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga.
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About the Author
is a London-based Nigerian-German writer and speaker. Her first full-length novel, When we Speak of Nothing, was published in the UK and Nigeria in 2017 and in 2018 in the US (Cassava Republic Press). Popoola is currently Associate Lecturer on the post-graduate course Writing for Change, at Central Saint Martins (UAL). She holds a PhD in Creative Writing.
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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