‘The Human Spirit Naturally Resists Oppression’

Editor of Who Gave The Order: The History of a People’s Movement, Chibueze Darlington Anuonye, believes that 20 October 2020 stands as an indictment of the Nigerian conscience and urges Nigerians to remember that day: ‘What happened at the Lekki Toll Gate could be described as a country waging war against its citizens.’

First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.

Our questions are italicized.

What kinds of books did you read growing up?

I was eight when I found my mother’s copy of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Weep Not, Child on a shelf in our store and read it. I didn’t fully understand what was happening in the novel, yet I continued reading it till the end. I returned to the book when I was 15. In that second reading I saw the resilient image of Kenyans entangled in foreign and local wars they didn’t ask for. The characters’ sadness, their occasional joy, their strife, their courage and their hope illuminate the travails of African societies under colonial attack. But I was especially moved by Njoroge’s relationship with his mother, this mother and son resembled my mother and me. Maybe this maternal affection explains why I connected with Buchi Emechata’s The Joys of Motherhood at ten. Nnuego’s condition was dreadfully tragic, but her life was meaningful. She said ‘yes’, and said it loudly, when her chi said ‘no’. That’s courage. That’s joy. O, as a child I was nicknamed ‘Eze and the river’, after Michael Crowder and Onuora Nzekwu’s novel, because my name is Chibueze.