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Nigerian writer, Chukwuebuka Ibeh, says the reception in Nigeria for his debut novel, Blessings, has been delightfully surprising: ‘I was prepared for much more vitriol, but that hasn’t been the case.
My father sold books, and through him, I discovered the African Writers Series, where I came to find and love literary African fiction, the likes of Chinua Achebe and Buchi Emecheta and Cyprian Ekwensi.
I was prepared for much more vitriol, but that hasn’t been the case. I’ve also been amused by the split responses to events in the book...
You are always working on the book in some way—even after it’s published. Some might say that is where the real work begins, particularly for a debut author.
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About the Author
is a Nigerian writer. His debut novel, Blessings, was sold in nine territories and was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.
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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