Celebrating a Living Legend - AllAfrica.com
2014-07-22 06:59
As part of the activities marking the 80th birthday of the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism recently organised its sixth lecture series that reviewed the works of the literary icon and proffered solutions to the declining reading culture in Nigeria. Mary Ekah writes
It is no doubt that Nigeria has an extreme literary output amongst all the countries in Africa. There are scores of notable enthusiastic literary artists at present in the country and the amount of literary books produced each year far exceeds that of any other black African country.
Nigerian literature has undergone a striking growth in the past decades and the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Wole Soyinka, possibly the black Africa's foremost literary artist, in 1986 confirmed the Nigerian literature.
The Nigerian literature portrays the conflicts of a people whose country is undergoing the painful process of transformation from colonial through neo-colonial to wholly self-determining nation.
After a gory war (1967-70), immediately followed by an ill-managed oil boom that, in turn, created social and political dislocations that the nation has yet to overcome, it was inevitable that Nigeria's artists would fulfill the pre-colonial definition of the artist as "town crier". In this regard, they have made Nigerian literature, in many forms, a social act against the decadence of the new society.
Political independence in 1960 brought in its wake a great awareness of the problems of building a nation out of the diverse ethnic entities, which make up the huge conglomerate called Nigeria. This fact has dominated a sizeable portion of the literature especially in the early years of independence.
But then it was astonishing when it was revealed recently during the sixth Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture series held in Lagos, that Nigerians have lost their craze for literature as they now have little or no regards for Literature and this as a result has limited their ability take advantage of the opulent message in the works of great writers like Prof. Wole Soyinka.
Organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism to celebrate the 80th birthday of the Nobel Laureate, Soyinka, the guest speaker, Prof. Abiola Irele, a renowned Professor of French and Nigerian literary and cultural critic, Abiola Irele, who spoke on the topic, "Wole Soyinka and the Moral Burden of Literature", lamented that Nigerians' interest in literature was far unbecoming.
Irele who noted however that reason for the lack of interest in literature may be a result that that most literature works in Nigeria are written in English language, which most likely estranges many Nigerian readers from these works, made a special reference to Soyinka's works
The literature in question is written literature in English in contradistinction to oral literature. This is so because the literature has been written by western educated Nigerian elites like Soyinka who often have greater literary competence in English than in their indigenous languages.
It is believed that Nigerian literature in English has brought up more issues relevant to Nigeria's modern-day state of affairs than the literature in indigenous Nigerian languages. Indigenous literature has largely been anchored to the past, invoking images and symbols of the nation's rich heritage, while literature in English has brought into line more forcefully diverse literature of the world. Surprisingly, Irele said that as rich as they were in the value to enlighten, literary works coming from Nigeria, at the moment, did nothing or less to help in increasing level of communal knowledge of Nigerians due to inability of the common Nigerian to access the English language.
Citing Wole Soyinka's A Dance of the Forest, as a good example of his numerous relevant works, which assumes an important message but the meaning may have been lost on many Nigerians who encountered it because of the complexity of the language deployed. Irele said, "They do not teach literature any more. The fact that you are in pure science does not mean you should not read the likes of Achebe and Soyinka", he noted.
Speaking further he said, "Such education only die in this situation, literature couldn't be said to occupy a central place in the collective awareness and preoccupation of our people."
Leading Scholars, representatives of the civil society, leaders of industries, students and many more graced the event, which was in commemoration of Soyinka's 80th birthday.
The theme of the event, organisers said was chosen in view of current realities in Nigeria and also having in mind the objective of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), is to bring attention to the many ways literature mirrors and impacts on the society while chronicling and drawing lessons from the life and works of Professor Wole Soyinka, the sage who turns 80 on July 13
The Centre Coordinator, Motunrayo Alaka said the Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series, is designed to periodically examine varying topical issues that have a reverberating effect on the perceived performance of the media on the health of our country, Nigeria, and its democracy and has since 2009 held on July 13, Professor Wole Soyinka's Birthday, to honour this illustrious Nigerian while also drawing attention to critical national issues.
Also speaking at the event was the WSCIJ Board Chair and a Professor of English and Mass Communication, Prof. Ropo Sekoni, who noted that the failure of the educational system in the country was responsible for Nigerians finding it difficult to understand literature written by the likes of Soyinka.
He explained that Soyinka's work was not understood because of the falling standard of education in Nigeria. "The failure in our education system makes language of Soyinka inaccessible." He added that certain subjects dealt with by Soyinka in his works are profound, which can only be effectively communicated in profound language.
"If the earlier generation of students could read and understand Soyinka, there is nothing stopping the present generation to comprehend his works. Today's students are not less educable than the students of Soyinka's generation", Sekoni added.
As part of the activities marking the 80th birthday of the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism recently organised its sixth lecture series that reviewed the works of the literary icon and proffered solutions to the declining reading culture in Nigeria. Mary Ekah writes
It is no doubt that Nigeria has an extreme literary output amongst all the countries in Africa. There are scores of notable enthusiastic literary artists at present in the country and the amount of literary books produced each year far exceeds that of any other black African country.
Nigerian literature has undergone a striking growth in the past decades and the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Wole Soyinka, possibly the black Africa's foremost literary artist, in 1986 confirmed the Nigerian literature.
The Nigerian literature portrays the conflicts of a people whose country is undergoing the painful process of transformation from colonial through neo-colonial to wholly self-determining nation.
After a gory war (1967-70), immediately followed by an ill-managed oil boom that, in turn, created social and political dislocations that the nation has yet to overcome, it was inevitable that Nigeria's artists would fulfill the pre-colonial definition of the artist as "town crier". In this regard, they have made Nigerian literature, in many forms, a social act against the decadence of the new society.
Political independence in 1960 brought in its wake a great awareness of the problems of building a nation out of the diverse ethnic entities, which make up the huge conglomerate called Nigeria. This fact has dominated a sizeable portion of the literature especially in the early years of independence.
But then it was astonishing when it was revealed recently during the sixth Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture series held in Lagos, that Nigerians have lost their craze for literature as they now have little or no regards for Literature and this as a result has limited their ability take advantage of the opulent message in the works of great writers like Prof. Wole Soyinka.
Organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism to celebrate the 80th birthday of the Nobel Laureate, Soyinka, the guest speaker, Prof. Abiola Irele, a renowned Professor of French and Nigerian literary and cultural critic, Abiola Irele, who spoke on the topic, "Wole Soyinka and the Moral Burden of Literature", lamented that Nigerians' interest in literature was far unbecoming.
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