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Daughters of Eve and Other New Short Stories from Nigeria is an
anthology of Nigerian short stories edited by Dr. Emma Dawson and published by
Critical, Cultural and Communications Press (CCCP), Nottingham, UK. It features
the writers Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Ikeogu Oke, Peter Ike Amadi, Jumoke
Verissimo, Ifeanyi Ogboh, Rotimi (Timi) Ogunjobi, Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike,
Tolu Ogunlesi, Soji Cole, Alpha Emeka, and Emmanuel Iduma.

This is an anthology so bad, I almost resolved to give in to
the fervent wishes of friends and foes – to give up reading and reviewing
books. It is becoming an unbearable ordeal. Why did I read this book? Well, the
editor’s preface starts out with an ambitious proclamation: “This series
focuses on the production of new writing in English, specifically new World
Englishes fiction… writing which is newly sourced, edited and presented with a
critical introduction.” This is the second in a planned series of anthologies
of short stories from certain sections of the world, where English is arguably
a second language.

It is disappointing that there is only one female writer
showcased in this volume. This is hardly representative of the muscular
performances of Nigeria’s female writers. Several of these alleged writers do
not belong in any anthology that seeks relevance. This is not an important work
but it does raise certain questions about how Nigerian, perhaps African
literature is viewed and categorised in traditional academia. It is time to
rethink the paradigm that drives the current worldview. Students of literature
are still being taught from the same tired pedagogy, reducing our stories to
the pre and post-colonial.

Globalisation as in the coming of the Internet and smartphones
has already dwarfed the linearism of colonialism in terms of its impact on the
way of life of Africans. To reduce today’s literature to something as remote
and amorphous as the post-colonial is to literally miss the boat of what is
going on in Africa today. Life is more complicated than that. Boundaries now
bleed gleefully into each other and dissolve into that gaseous entity called
the Internet. We must not be bound by the strictures of what was taught us in
the classrooms.

What I read in hard print lately seems to be relentlessly about
documenting the lives of the other, Africans being the other. Case in point:
Nigerian terms that are deemed alien to Western eyes are painstakingly
italicized to separate them from “normal” English. Why should we be italicising
egusi in the year 2010? Do we do the same to a Reuben sandwich? Why must our
otherness be branded with a big red sign – toxic waste? Stop italicising our
way of life.

The editor makes an eloquent case – that this is not the best
of Nigerian writing. Not once is there mention of the works of Nigerians
writers on the Internet. You will not find innovation here. The flagship short
story Daughters of Eve by Peter Ike Amadi is a heartbreak of a story only in
the sense that after reading this too-long tale that goes nowhere, the reader
is filled with compassion for the unnecessary effort that must have gone into
creating this distraction, There are some other comforting names in the book:
Tolu Ogunlesi, Ikeogu Oke, Jumoke Verissimo, and Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike.

There is a reason why they shine; they know their craft because
they practise it everyday everywhere. I enjoyed Jumoke Verissimo’s Lightless
Room. It was a reader’s delight. It did not belong in this collection of mostly
tired tales. Emmanuel Iduma does show a lot of promise in his story Guitar Boy.
However, even the best are plagued by editorial issues and poor research. Also,
the claim that this is fresh writing is easily debunked by searching the titles
of the stories on the Internet. I found quite a number of them on the Internet
and even in other “anthologies.”

Dawson may have consulted some experts on the subject of
Nigerian literature; however, it clearly does not show in the output. Several
influential names come to mind: Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Ike Anya, Muhtar Bakare,
Sola Osofisan, Chuma Nwokolo, Nnorom Azuonye, Afam Akeh, Obiwu, Lola Shoneyin,
Molara Wood, Jeremy Weate, Chika Unigwe, Victor Ehikhamenor, Ivor Hartmann,
etc. Some of them are not even Nigerians; rather they are digital natives
toiling on the Internet daily to push the envelope in terms of how our stories
should be told.

New Nigerian anthologies are born literally every day on the
Internet featuring truly fresh and emerging voices. Fresh, frothing,
scintillating prose struts out of those web pages and social networking media like
great palmwine. You couldn’t tell from this collection but Nigerian literature
is alive and rocking although the reader can be forgiven for thinking it is on
life support judging from the mostly wretched offerings in this anthology of
mediocrity. If it is any consolation, the editor’s three sentence narrative on
her Okada motorcycle experience in Nigeria provided one of the few nuggets of
hilarity and brilliance in an otherwise forgettable anthology.