In my mind's eye, I can see the typical Nigerian writer cowering in the dark, at home squinting askance at Soyinka's thunderous admonition: The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny. Today's writer would not have come up with that. Life has become more complicated than that - or simpler. There is this thing called life and one must survive it one day at a time.
The Nigerian writer has become adept at speaking from both sides of a quivering mouth - or maintaining a stony silence in the face of rank injustice. A troubling trend is the brazen romance with Nigeria's traducers - perhaps for pay, you know, mini Goebbels sprouting everywhere and hailing thieves, murderers and other assorted criminals as statesmen on the same level with real human beings elsewhere in the world.
It is maddening but in my lucid moments I completely understand. I am not there. I don't have to navigate the nonsense that the writer scales every goddamn day. People have to eat and it would be irresponsible to ask them to do what one is unable to do from under the comforting duvet of distance and Babylon. It doesn't make it less maddening though.
Democracy is the new dictatorship in Africa, it has allowed evil people to trade uniforms for civilian clothes and continue the rape and pillage unabated. If this was happening in a dictatorship we would be carrying placards all over the world. What has been happening in Nigeria since 1999, is more farcical and brutal than George Orwell's Animal Farm.
The question remains: What is, what should be the role of the writer in this dispensation? I don't know. I hate to prescribe what I am unable to participate in. I imagine the poor harried writer in the dark furiously scribbling away on a used smartphone, writing that next work of fiction based on all of this. Books have always played a role in change. Eons ago, in the absence of the Internet and TV and radio, it was the call to arms.
Today, as the book dies, it merely entertains, mildly, and pays the lucky writer. Dear Nigerian writer, I look forward to your book. I will buy it. You need the pay. Nigeria is a horrible place for a writer, for anybody even. Stay safe. Nigeria is not worth dying for. Ask Kenule Saro-Wiwa. Ask Chris Okigbo. Ask Wole Soyinka. *cycles away slowly*
Today, as the book dies, it merely entertains, mildly, and pays the lucky writer. Dear Nigerian writer, I look forward to your book. I will buy it. You need the pay. Nigeria is a horrible place for a writer, for anybody even. Stay safe. Nigeria is not worth dying for. Ask Kenule Saro-Wiwa. Ask Chris Okigbo. Ask Wole Soyinka. *cycles away slowly*
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
No comments:
Post a Comment