writing? you can be true to yourself, even your self as a thief, and as such be
a great writer. most people would find that to be the case for genet, or de
sade, etc. i think the ordinary understanding of truth overly limits us in our
ability to respond to a text, be it a poem or anything. or maybe i should say we
can respond to a text on many levels, one of which, under some circumstances,
entails the immediate political instance, like obote in uganda.
i have heard many african filmmakers take this position, that they are not
mouthpieces for "africa," that their sense of themselves need not be given in
terms of whatever "africa" means to others. you know we are discussing the same
issue as negritude and race, and how many black writers who wanted to be read
not as testifying to the black condition just because they happened to have dark
skin! start with richard wright or ralph ellison on that one."
- Ken Harrow
Hi Ken,
Fair enough, there is not much to quibble about in what you have written.
Missing in our discussion however is the critical role of the audience, the
reader. I think we must not underestimate what the reader literally brings to
the table, in terms of expectations, background, biases, etc, etc. Is it fair
for a consumer to expect certain things out of a product? Yes. For example, I
personally expect that a book from a reputable publisher should be grounded in
verifiable historical facts and should be free of editing issues (grammatical
errors, typos, etc). That is what editors are for. More importantly, a book
should provoke thought in the reader and promote good questions. Unfortunately,
many times expressing those thoughts has earned many a reader accusations of
trying to censor or determine thought and ideas.
There is such an animal called an African writer and there is such an
animal called a writer who happens to be of African descent and the sets are not
necessarily mutually exclusive. The former is born from Africa's historical
legacy and troubled present. Some writers can afford to look out the window
of suburbia and write pretty poems about daffodils and deer and get them
published in the New Yorker. Baingana makes the eloquent case that if you are a
thinking African, no matter where you are, be it in Babylon or Entebbe, Africa
is not too far away from the consciousness. We can do both - write about
deer gambolling on our lawns and of our thieving colleagues making away with
money for building maternity wards. We can also write about hope rising steamy,
from Africa. My opinion of course.
Ken, I must applaud you for the profound point you have made thusly: "on a
slightly different tack, obote, like amin, had his followers as well as enemies.
we have seen already on this list various ways of reading the biafran conflict
and its aftermath; no surprise in that.
maybe we can say there is no such thing as one truth, since when you stand on
one leg.... you know the rest." Brilliant. I would only add this: You are right,
it is of course tempting to romanticize the writer as a dreamy eyed idealist
resting only on truth-benches. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our
writers have written for dictators, continue to share wine and break bread with
them. And of course when it suits their purposes, they ignore, with powerful
words, the atrocities committed by their friends and relatives. It is an abuse
of power. The power of empty words.
Ken, have you thought of introducing the new literature in your classes? Have
you been on Facebook yet? Have you been on the websites and blogs that celebrate
our literature daily? Do not knock it until you have tried it! You would be
pleasantly surprised by the quality of writing that comes from writers who are
not too enamored of themselves, not overly conscious that they must carry a
certain burden. They express themselves truly as the sum of their lived
experience. And it shows in their works. They just don't know (or care) that
they are writers ;-) These days I do more web-surfing and blackberry reading
than I do of books. And some day, perhaps, I will be sharing my views of the new
content, instead of having a debate about the ideas in a book that were already
dead before the book landed in my mailbox. If you want to know for examply how
Facebook has forcefully redefined the notion of exile, log on to one of your
immigrant friends' facebook and see the new world. All 500 million of us. A new
continent is born everyday on Facebook. Screw boundaries, Arizona, welcome to
our world ;-)
I salute you. McDonalds' calls. Time to flip those burgers!
- Ikhide
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