Revisiting the Soyinka-Bọ́lẹ̀kájà Debate

In 2023, the Nigerian literary scene witnessed a fervent debate among poets and critics that brought to the forefront long-simmering tensions between tradition and innovation, identity and influence, and the very definition of what constituted Nigerian literature. That year, in December, Afrocritik published a collection of essays that reflected 2023’s remarkable output in essay writing and criticism. Among the 18 shortlisted essays, some focused on contemporary Nigerian poetry, questioning its authenticity and validity as Nigerian, while a few defended it. At the centre of this maelstrom was Ernest Ògúnyemí’s provocative essay, ‘Is Contemporary “Nigerian Poetry” Nigerian?’ which argued that the current crop of Nigerian poets had been overly seduced by the influences of American poetry, resulting in a homogenous and unoriginal ‘poetry-scape’. Ògúnyemí claimed that Nigerian poetry does not yet exist because today’s Nigerian poets are not working within a poetic tradition that can be characterized as Nigerian but one that is mainly American. This, among other criticisms, sparked a fiery response from Kanyinsola Olorunnisola whose responsive essay, ‘Our Literature Has Died Again: Nigerian Literature in the Era of Nomadists’, offered a piercing rebuttal, challenging Ògúnyemí’s essentialist view and arguing that the concept of ‘Nigerianness’ is rooted in colonialist fantasy and therefore cannot be used to define authenticity.