Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series -

Ken,

A clarification is in order here.  That "facebook cite" is not a facebook cite. It was a message posted by Chris Abani on the literary yahoo listserv krazitivity in 2003 in response to the outcry from his fellow writers at the time. I cut and pasted it onto my Facebook account in order to make it publicly available once I cited it. For some reason, the furor died down on krazitivity; for whatever reason, his colleagues decided not to out him publicly and that unfortunately emboldened him to expand on his tales. By the way, if you were nominated for such an award with those fantasies in the award blurb, I would hope you would decline the award or at least correct the blurb. The blurb is still standing uncorrected.

I am more disgusted by the tales he has told since his non-defense in 2003 (more obfuscation than clarification). Share the TED speech with your friends in Amnesty, ask about the penis nailing of a 14-year old, the death sentence on Abani, the stay in Kirikiri, etc, etc, etc. And more importantly show them the tales in his professional website, apparently the morbid basis for the lies he tells to American children everyday about the Africa of his nightmares. He also peddles his tales to school children for monstrous amounts of money, for example, here. This man's actions are even more reprehensible than the stories fed to Nigerian children daily about Conrad's heart of darkness and the discoveries of savage parts of Africa (the River Niger, etc) by dead white men...

The distortion of our own history by our very own is beyond reprehensible, it is criminal and I intend to stop only when Abani stops. Many of us on this list are privy to private testimonials of Abani's malfeasance, how it is near-impossible for honest hard working African authors to even tell their story without some concerned Westerner in the audience asking about Abani's ordeal and the penis nailing to death.  To give you a short answer, no Abani has not responded to these allegations anywhere that I know of.

Don't worry, I am not just sitting around complaining, I am quietly doing more than that. In the meantime, I am waiting for Abani to prove his accusations against our country, Nigeria.

- Ikhide

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From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 3, 2011 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series -

dear ikhide
i went to the facebook cite you provided in your initial "rant" blog on abani. he describes his imprisonments using the following words:

"I didn¹t apply for the Hellmann/Hammett award, but was apparently nominated by someone. I have never tried to use my imprisonment as an attempt to gain

cheap popularity and do not seek to be a source of encouragement for anyone or a poster child for my generation. My first arrest was a mistake. I was

thought to be guilty of something I wasn¹t. My second and third arrests werea result of my direct activism via literature, not in a famous way, but by

direct action in my own way in my own neighborhood. Some of the postings onthe list acknowledge that I was indeed an activist at the said time."

it is not totally clear why he was imprisoned from this; the first he describes as a mistake, whatever that means; and the others a result of "direct activism" via literature--somewhat obscure.

he is clearly backing off from the more direct claims made on the blurbs, which are more shamelessly promoting him as victim.
he concludes with the following: "

"A lot can be said for either side of the situation. The worst part of prison

in Nigeria as an activist is the way that you become erased and it is sad to

see so many reproducing that very erasure. And for what purpose? The fact

remains, I was imprisoned from December 1985 to May 1986, and again from

April 1987 until December 1987 and from January 1990 until August 1990, and

finally from March 1991 to July 1991. Anyone who wishes to check the records

is welcome as they might turn up material to finally put these allegations

to rest."

there should be ways to verify this. i can ask amnesty people if they know anything about his
ken

On 12/2/11 2:14 PM, Ikhide wrote:

Ken,

The below blurb is taken directly from Professor Chris Abani's official website at the University of California, Riverside. Compare this with his "personal" website and come to your own conclusions.

- Ikhide

As a teenager in Nigeria, Chris Abani earned a little too much attention for the publication Masters of the Board, a thriller whose plotline about a military coup triggered paranoia in his country's political dictatorship. Abani's creativity combined with his college activism resulted in prison sentences from his government, sometimes in solitary confinement.

A collection of poems that grew out of that experience, Kalakuta Republic (2000), was described as "the most naked, harrowing expression of prison life and political torture imaginable," by playwright Harold Pinter. "Reading them is like being singed with a red hot iron."

Now a professor at UC Riverside, Abani writes about the people of his home country, and those of his adopted country, winning literary awards like the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for his debut American novel, GraceLand (2005). He is also the author of The Virgin of Flames (2007), Masters of the Board (1985) and Becoming Abigail (2006) and five collections of poetry. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the PEN Beyond Margins Award, the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.

In a book-length sequence of linked poems, Sanctificum (2010), Abani creates a post-racial, liturgical love song that covers the globe from Abuja to Los Angeles. Utilizing religious ritual, the Nigerian Igbo language and reggae rhythms, this is one of his most personal and ambitious books.

His award-winning novella, Song for Night (2007) is the story of a West African boy soldier whose vocal chords have been cut and his search for his lost platoon. "Even though it is a difficult book about a boy soldier in a West African war, it is really a book about hope, about love and the possibility for true transformation. I hope readers see that. That happiness is learning to live with difficulty and grace."

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--  kenneth w. harrow  distinguished professor of english michigan state university department of english east lansing, mi 48824-1036 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu

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