Dear Okechukwu,
By taking the reader into the author's confidence, some autobiographies provide such intimate detail, and those first six sample pages of yours does that. Those first pages are so dramatic and arresting that the very first thing that I did was to forward the link to a fellow sympathizer & empathizer with the Biafra cause, hailing what promises to be some really telling first person witness testimony about that tragic Biafra War, going in where Ben Okri glides away in passing as it were in his Laughter Beneath The Bridge
Holocaust survivors in particular have been at the forefront, exhorting other fellow suffers, victims and survivors to tell their own personal stories, histories. This witness Literature cannot be underestimated as a rich and important source for human rights activists, and of course historians and writers who write the history of the Nigerian Civil War which I assume is being taught in Nigerian schools as a part of recent Nigerian history , aiming at a " Never Again!"
S,o by all means, more stories, please. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has already alerted the world about "The danger of the single story !"
I once asked Professor Harrow what's the advisability of encouraging someone who is not a significant person such as e.g. Lewis Hamilton to embark on something as vainglorious as presuming to write an autobiography and his answer was that " it's the writing that counts, not the "significance" of the one speaking." Seems to me that's a point to be taken seriously as it precludes anyone else writing my autobiography for me or on my behalf .
However, even within that genre I suppose there are man levels and divisions – for example from my point of view, Toyin Falola's "A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt" could also be classified under "Wisdom Literature", whereas the very last autobiography that I read, "The Fry Chronicles" is a best seller in the wider realm of entertainment.
BTW, I wonder what holy genre of world literature an autobiography penned by e.g. Moses, Elijah, Jesus, Muhammad Ibn Abdullah , would be belong….
Strange isn't it, that in this day and age, ( Modern Nigeria's digital age) the Gambians went to the polls to cast their marbles, in that their presidential election in which the winner takes all, even if he wins only by the whiskers, he takes ALL. All the loser has to do is to lose too many marbles, for some wise Alec in the British press to report that the poor fellow had lost his marbles.
Dear Cornelius,Thank you for the following kind remarks:"Have also zapped through the first six pages of the more down to earth It Is Well: The Autobiography of Dr. Okechukwu M. Ukaga – the sort of beginning that promises a more " happy ending", indeed the sort of beginning that inspires one to tell one's own psychological tale, ..."Like Ken, myself and others have felt and expressed before, you really need to write and share your story....and I can tell what a wonderful and illuminating story it will be, based on the mini titbits you have shared here....Regards,OUOn Sun, Dec 5, 2021, 2:12 AM Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:I'm smiling. I wasn't disappointed. Like death, disappointment as dead line and as end station can only come as a surprise as a result of raising your expectations far too high down here on earth.
Then, it could be like the end of that short Edith Södergran poem : You are disappointed.
Down here on earth when those expectations are not fulfilled, it's always a disappointment. The suicide-bomber blows himself up believing that once blasted up to any of the seven heavens he will be greeted by the lovely seventy two virgins.
What happens if they are not there?
Nothing.
Nothing happens.
Not even a leaf trembles.
"The peace of the brave
Not the peace of the grave"
said Chairman Arafat...
Fact is, that when you quench and the next minute you're in heaven you can't say that you are "disappointed" can you ? Of course not. But should you immediately find yourself in the other place, the other place beyond the grave ("a churning urn of burning funk") needless to say, you will be sorry - very sorry that you did not repent when you had time enough to do so. Therefore the saying, "Better safe than sorry" and therefore my dearest Samuel ( Samuel Oloruntoba) adumbrating in my ear the message of repentance
I tell Baba Kadiri that I'm fasting, and he tells me that I should stop punishing myself unnecessarily that I should be generous, that I should eat and get fat. Why should I do that ? He says , so that I will feed the worms ( well well )
"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
This quote popped out of Fry's mouth in the conversation with Dawkins. In that conversation the show-off Fry ( showing off his erudition) reminded me of Anthony Burgess showing off in e.g. his " Earthly Powers "
Smile & please:
In fulfilment of good intentions I have have just zapped through the first 28 pages of Kperogi's Nigeria Digitalia ( Freudian slip , I almost wrote genitalia) – I zapped through those 28 pages and , and ( gasp - like Gasper Ruiz) and survived , giving thanks and praises to the editorial folks and proof readers for down-sizing / pruning what I intuit must have been stacked as the characteristic overflow. I now understand that the Nigerian Tribune and Gazette do not offer the same kind of editorial facilities that would be a restraining influence on the otherwise unnecessary word extravaganza which can always be so vexing, so very off-putting. Imagine if James Baldwin, the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, El Hajj Malik el Shabazz, Muhammad Ali, Cornel West or Barack Hussein Obama talked like that to you and me !
Have also zapped through the first six pages of the more down to earth It Is Well: The Autobiography of Dr. Okechukwu M. Ukaga – the sort of beginning that promises a more " happy ending", indeed the sort of beginning that inspires one to tell one's own psychological tale, four continents, heavily fictionalised of course since salacious details could entail legal proceedings for the variables known as sexual slander, rock and roll defamations of characters encountered on life's pilgrimage , so far - if you're aiming at a best seller not " academia" ( pretentious monkeys)…
It's early Sunday morning and still Kperogi's Saturday column has still not appeared in the is forum although from his point of view a very large crowd ( some thirteen ( 13) people ( including yours truly) have done their duty, the polite & correct right thing to do, the ritual genuflection to congratulate him
--
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