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This year’s Garden
City Literary Festival will witness a historic meeting of two Nobel
Laureates, Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka and the Frenchman, J.M.G Le Clezio,
when the two hold a highly anticipated public conversation in Port
Harcourt, later this week. Soyinka and Le Clezio are Special Guest
Writers at the third annual festival, holding in the Rivers State
capital from December 8 to 11.

Le Clezio will be
making a welcome return to Nigeria, the country to which he travelled
by ship circa 1947; his novel, ‘Onitsha’ is based on his childhood
experiences in Ogoja.

“Nigeria holds a
special place in his heart. So, we can claim him in a way,” said
Rainbow Book Club founder and festival organiser, Koko Kalango.

Getting Le Clezio

She first reached
out to Le Clezio soon after his win two years ago, after getting his
postal address in a roundabout fashion via the Nobel Foundation and his
publishers.

“I wrote a letter
and mailed it and just thought it would be one of those things that
would get lost,” she recalled. Then one day, “a most gracious” letter
arrived by snail-mail from Le Clezio, accepting Kalango’s invitation to
the Garden City Literary Festival (GCLF). He was scheduled to come in
2009, and had wanted to visit the place of his childhood, Ogoja, where
he was expected to help launch a library campaign. In preparation,
Former Rivers State military governor, Anthony Ukpo, funded the
renovation of a library in the oldest primary school in Ogoja, but Le
Clezio’s travel plans fell through.

This year, however,
he is definitely expected to headline the third annual festival
alongside Soyinka, in an interactive session which will hold at the
University of Port Harcourt. The French laureate will also meet with
French scholars, students, and readers during another session at the
Alliance Francaise in Port Harcourt; and he might get to make his
return to Ogoja, after all.

Soyinka returns

It is also a return
of sorts for Soyinka, who will be making his second appearance at the
festival, after gracing the first edition two years ago. The two
arrowheads of the festival, Kalango and Rivers State governor, Chibuike
Amaechi, still talk about the impact of the Nigerian laureate’s 2008
visit to the University of Port Harcourt.

“I saw the crowd
Wole Soyinka pulled to the hall in the University of Port Harcourt –
people were happy to see him,” said the governor, who hopes young local
writers are inspired by the calibre of authors attending the festival.

“Soyinka’s
appearance at UNIPORT 2 years ago just caused such a stir,” recalled
Kalango. According to her, Soyinka’s commitment went beyond the
duration of the festival, going on to mentor a young participant from
his GCLF masterclass, even nominating him for an international
Commonwealth development programme. When the young man could not raise
the money for his travel to Canada for the programme, Soyinka sent him
to his son in Abuja to get the required funds. The beneficiary later
told Kalango of the Nobel laureate’s largesse.

Also on the programme

Such successes, she
insists, underscore the importance of the festival. Among the other
writers participating this year are Caine Prize winner, Helon Habila
(author of ‘Oil on Water’); Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (‘I Do Not Come To
You By Chance’); Zainabu Jallo (‘Onions Make Us Cry’); and Myne Whitman
(‘A Heart To Mend). Newspaper columnist, Reuben Abati, will facilitate
a workshop on Non-Fiction Writing.

Other features of
the festival, will include a book fair, a photo exhibition, a
literature conference, to be convened in collaboration with the
Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), art and writing workshops,
masterclasses, seminars, role models reading to children, and organised
visits by schools to the book fair. 50 writers will also be honoured
for their contribution to the growth of literature in Nigeria.

There is a special
focus on children, tying in with longstanding work by Kalango and the
Rainbow Book Club (RBC) in the ‘Get Nigeria Reading Again’ campaign.
She once took Governor Amaechi to read to pupils in her old primary
school, an event where books were also presented to the children. One
of the recipients, a young boy, later contacted the book’s author to
inform that his life had been impacted by the work.

“I can imagine what
effect that sort of encounter would have had on me when I was growing
up, so that’s the kind of sort of thing I’m hoping to pass on to these
children,” Kalango reflected. “Children are a very important part of
the festival and that’s important to me as a mother,” she added.

On the festival

Explaining the
thinking behind the festival, Governor Amaechi said, “It was to create
an environment for [debate], for more creativity, and to see where it
will take us.”

He is concerned
that books like Achebe’s ‘A Man of the People’, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s
‘Petals of Blood’, and Ousmane Sembene’s ‘God’s Bits of Wood’ are no
longer being written, while also lamenting the waning influence of
critics in Nigeria’s cultural space.

Waxing nostalgic
about the intellectual exploits of the likes of Yemi Ogunbiyi, Molara
Ogundipe, and Chidi Amuta, the governor noted that, “We used to
celebrate critics at literature conferences. We’re not seeing that now,
we’re not seeing that quality. I’ve gone to several literature
conferences; I don’t see critics being celebrated anymore.”

He hopes the GCLF
will serve as a forum for young writers to find expression and gain
notice. Asked what he thought the legacy of the festival will be,
Amaechi replied that, “The greatest achievement will be a move from the
culture of certificate – just reading because you want to pass exam –
to the culture of absorption of ideas, because you’re seeking
knowledge. That will be the greatest achievement.”

Revival

To the governor’s
original festival idea, Koko Kalango has added a few of her own,
notably the children focus and the drive for mass appeal. One of the
non-literary writers at last year’s edition was the motivational
speaker, Fela Durotoye. There are plans to institute a prize under the
auspices of the festival.

Drama is also
becoming a significant feature of the GCLF, especially after the
successful staging of J.P Clark’s play, ‘The Wives’ Revolt’ last year.
Kalango is in discussion with sponsors, with a view to spearheading a
stage revival in Port Harcourt, which once had a vibrant theatre-going
culture.

“When I was growing
up in Port Harcourt, there was a theatre in an area we call Town; and
my father used to take me there to watch… Ken Saro-Wiwa perform.
There’s a lot of people who grew up in that culture like I did here,
and we’re crying for that. So, we’re hoping that, at the festival, we
can bring that back,” Kalango said.

Femi Osofisan’s
adaptation of a Shakespeare play, ‘Love’s Unlike Lading’ will be staged
by UNIPORT theatre students at this year’s festival; Odia Ofeimun’s
dance-drama, ‘A Feast of Return’ is also on the programme.

“People are
writing and they just want to be guided, they want to be helped. There
is a hunger for creativity, so we’re hoping that this sort of platform
can help encourage that creativity,” Kalango said of the festival.

The Garden City Literary Festival holds at the Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt, from December 8 to 11.