"i found ikhide's review of Tropical Fish, as presented in the paragraph below, baffling. it castigates the book for navel-gazing and leads one to surmise the book is a failure in solving africa's
problems."
"i am writing only to debate one issue, however. the measure of
success for an african novel. do we really expect the novelist to be
the journalist, to be measured by his or her accuracy in reportage?
to be an historian, to be measured by the accuracy of his or her
accounting for the past? what does a writer do? what should a writer
do? is it the fact of being african that places african creativity
second to accuracy or mimeticism or fidelity to reality or political
astuteness??"
And my response:
I sincerely appreciate your feedback. You have asked great questions, questions that have also been nagging at me for a very long time. In my book reviews and pieces on literature I have sought unsuccessfully to engage folks in dealing with these questions. I am hoping you are more successful than my humble self in prompting a productive conversation around those questions. They are essential questions and from my viewpoint, it is even more critical that African writers confront them courageously.
If you recall Doreen Baingana had a preface to her short stories. The preface tried to set the historical context for the short stories. She spoke to Idi Amin's monstrosity and the expulsion of the Indians from Uganda. I sought to engage Baingana in her recollection of history in that preface. I wondered aloud why she would address Idi Amin's evil and ignore Obote's evil of the same time period and the same level if not more of genocide. If she had not provided that preface, I would definitely not have gone there. She has every right to write whatever fiction she desires. I will say that Baingana struggles mightily to ground her short stories in the history; indeed at times it was not clear to me if I was reading a short story or an non-fiction essay
But then what is fiction? I do have strong opinions about the issue. It is simple: Fiction is a vehicle for bearing the truth of our lived experience. That is why writers have been imprisoned, exiled or murdered for writing fiction. The same writers who have been hounded out of dicators' lairs seem uncomfortable with the notion that fiction should reflect the reality and truth of our lives.
There are also identity issues and many of our African writers are struggling with the animal called the "African writer." The latest example is Olufemi Terry, the 2010 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. In accepting the prize he expressed reservations about the title "African writer" because it is so "limiting." This is the same chap that applied to a prize for African writing. No one held a gun to his head. I call that grandstanding all the way to the bank and fame. Our writers have to come to the table with an open and honest mind. I think they will.
But I thank you for your comments and for giving me the opportunity and inspiration for my next column. I might even name it after you, lower case and all, shooting (down) harrow's arrows ;-)
- Ikhide
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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