Nigeria Content Online

A seminar in
celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) was held at the
University of Lagos on March 9. Jointly organised by PEN Nigeria and
the university’s Department of English, the seminar featured paper
presentations by Eno Ikpe, Mojisola Shodipe, Anthonia Yakubu, and Ofure
Aito.

Among those in
attendance were: Duro Oni, dean of the Faculty of Arts; Eruvbetine A.E,
head of the English department; as well as Folu Agoi and Ropo Ewenla,
vice president and secretary of PEN Nigeria respectively. The theme of
this year’s celebration, ‘Equal access to education, training and
science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women’ was of
particular focus during the seminar.

According to Akachi
Adimora-Ezeigbo, coordinator of the event and chair, PEN Nigeria’s
Women Writers Committee, the celebration was a platform “to demand that
women have an equal right in the society.” She acknowledged that some
changes have been made; issues related to women including human
trafficking, girl child education, female genital mutilation and rape
have been looked into over the years. “Change may be slow but it is
happening and I thank all those who are trying to make this change,”
she said.

Women in National Development

Eno Ikpe’s paper,
‘Women in National Development’, kicked off the presentations, setting
out the role of women to National development and the impact of
globalisation on their lives. “Globalisation, which has both positive
and negative sides, has provided a lot of opportunities for women,”
Ikpe said. The associate professor of History and Strategic Studies,
University of Lagos, spoke about how she had benefited from a
scholarship during the oil boom. She urged women to seize opportunities
to develop themselves, especially through information technology.
However, she noted that, despite these opportunities, much still needs
to be done. “Nigerian women are very versatile and the government
should give them more educational opportunities. The situation where 70
per cent of women earn close to nothing isn’t acceptable and women
should learn to equip themselves,” she declared. She maintained that a
woman is essential to national development, whether as a housewife,
market woman, or labourer.

Women, Language and Politics in Nigeria

Mojisola Shodipe,
in ‘Women, Language and Politics in Nigeria’, gave insight into the
importance of mother tongue in political participation. In a
presentation of extracts from ongoing research on gender issues, she
gave examples of women who have occupied positions in the political
terrain, whether directly or indirectly. The famous Iyalode
title-holder of Yorubaland was also cited as an example of women in
cabinets. “Much has been done to ensure the emancipation of women.
Women are giving men a run for their money,” Shodipe said.

But she pointed out
that this is no longer the case, as a majority of people, especially
women, are excluded from political participation because of the
language barrier. According to her, the dominant use of English
Language in politics, mass media, and even Nollywood is a major
barrier. Slogans on political posters are written in English, ‘Eko o ni
baje!’ seeming to be the only indigenous language on posters in Lagos.

“English continues
to occupy the position of dominance. Most of the women who take
political positions are from the elite groups; they speak good English
and have gone abroad,” Shodipe said.

She suggested the
use of indigenous languages as a solution. “Mother tongue gives insight
into the culture of the people. Women who don’t understand English are
disempowered,” she said, adding that “women are reduced to the role of
dancing and Aso ebi wearing at political rallies.”

However, such women
are not given opportunities to participate in decision making, Shodipe
noted. She proffered solutions, including the following: political
parties should be in compliance with the constitution and should
finance political adult education and workshops; non-governmental
organisations for women should channel their support to women; and
political campaigns should embrace the use of indigenous languages.
“Language should not be a barrier for women to take part in politics or
emancipation of women to take up political space,” she concluded.

Subliminal Texts: Women, Proverbs and Power

Anthonia Yakubu
presented a paper on ‘Subliminal Texts: Women, Proverbs and Power.’ She
argued that proverbs have a great influence on society; they constitute
a major part of culture and are used to remind and warn people about
important issues. “Folklore occupies a central place in our lives,”
Yakubu asserted, further revealing that people are conditioned by what
they hear; and much of what they do results from this conditioning.
“The Yoruba use proverbs to drive home a point and show credibility,”
she said. The adage, “Owe l’esin oro”, was cited as an example of the
importance of proverbs in Yoruba culture.

Using the Yoruba
and Igbo cultures as examples, Yakubu showed that many proverbs portray
women in a negative light and feed the patriarchal system. She gave
examples of proverbs that paint women as being naturally inquisitive
for ill, and portrayals of women as having little control over their
sexual desires. Women are also portrayed as talkatives, gossips, and as
poor keepers of secrets. “Against their will, women act out these
negative thoughts,” Yakubu observed.

Igbo proverbs are
not much different. Many of them are biased and encourage a man’s
egocentric nature. There are also Igbo proverbs that suggest that a
woman has no say in choosing a mate and should always be satisfied with
her lot. This is suggested by the proverb “If a maiden is too
particular in choosing a man, she will marry the spirit python.”

Yakubu concluded
that, “These Igbo proverbs portray women as calculative, greedy and
pretentious.” She reiterated that women are important to the society
and are now becoming bread winners, contrary to the negative attributes
ascribed to them.

Women in Literature

The paper titled
‘Women in Literature: Representations of the Dynamics of Nigerian
Women’s Identity’ was presented by Ofure Aito. She explained that
“Women have been vulnerable to various representations in different
periods,” but with the inception of female writers in the country,
women are finally being given a true representation. “Female writers
represent women in oppression and celebrate women in achievement,” Aito
stated. “Nigerian female writers are not in contest with men; rather,
they are more interested in showing how they are as women and as
writers. They set out to acknowledge and to challenge misconceptions
about their identity.”

Acknowledging the
role of literature in women’s lives, she said, “Literature has created
platforms for discussions, dialogues, representations and many more.”
To buttress the point, she gave examples of various female writers
including Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta, and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo who
have represented women positively in Nigerian literature.

Comments, Questions and Discussions

Questions and
comments from the audience were entertained after the presentations.
Yakubu maintained that gender is generalised, saying, “Until we change
our mindsets and conditioning, we can’t break down the patriarchal
system.” Aito also reiterated that women need to support one another.
“It’s like speaking from both sides of our mouths when women see an
opportunity and fail to use it,” she said. She cited the case of Sarah
Jubril, a presidential aspirant who had only one vote cast for her, by
herself.

Asked why there were only female speakers at the seminar,
Adimora-Ezeigbo said the decision was based on “the nature of the theme
and the fact that we needed experts in the field.” She also noted that
most of the issues raised during the seminar were political. “Issues
related to women tend to be political. That’s why I’m not surprised at
the comments. But there is still the basic fact that women need to be
promoted and encouraged,” she said.

In line with this
year’s theme of the International Women’s Day, ‘Equal access to
education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work
for women’, we emphasise some core words: equal access, decent work,
and education.

We posit that in
relation to men, women are still way off the mark. There are many
reasons for this, but the ones we shall be looking at are patriarchy
and folklore.

Patriarchy is a
social system that has been in existence over the centuries. Through
the deliberate implementation of some factors, it ensures that members
of the opposite sex maintain conditioned behaviours toward one another.
While acknowledging that patriarchal expectations on men have, in some
cases, been harsh and unrealistic, studies have shown that this social
system has been harsher on women.

One of the major
tools used in conditioning men and women is folklore, especially
folktales, myths, and proverbs. Folklore is an integral part of
people’s consciousness and often assumes the appearance of a natural,
God-designed element of existence. This is why many women do not see
their position and status, in relation to men, as disempowering.

Though many people
tend to think that folklore is a literary form of the past, it is still
an integral part of daily living. Gendered proverbs, for example,
unconsciously influence the way we relate to the opposite sex, and to
members of the same sex. There are hardly any more “tales by
moonlight”, and cases of grandparents regaling children with folktales
are becoming extinct; but there are new ways of expressing proverbs:
through the print and electronic media especially.

Apart from giving
one an insight into human behaviour and psychology, proverbs also serve
as mirrors of the cultural values of communities. They are employed not
only to entertain, but most often to buttress a point, and to give an
argument the cloak of general acceptability.

The supposed,
albeit, fabricated truthfulness of proverbs, especially those about
gender relations, has gone a long way in further cementing the inferior
status linked with the female sex.

Many proverbs,
cutting across cultures, ridicule women, be they young or old. Apart
from folktales, proverbs have contributed immensely to the negative
traits attributed to women: envy, gossip, fickle-mindedness,
wickedness, greediness, and materialism. They also depict women as
sexually insatiable, selfish, and evil. Proverbs are thus used to
belittle and degrade women, especially those who are unwilling to
conform to the status quo.

In these
contemporary times, proverbs abound on the pages of novels, newspapers,
magazines; folktales are even rendered as songs, and proverbs punctuate
what we hear and read every day. Therefore, folklore occupies a central
place in our lives, and in the beliefs we enact unconsciously in our
relationships with others.

‘Owe l’esin oro’

The Yoruba, like
several other African peoples, use proverbs to drive home a point, to
show the credibility or the foolishness of a person or a situation, and
to issue warnings, among others. For the Yoruba who place much emphasis
on age and hierarchy, an old person is the symbol of wisdom, and is
expected to be a repository of proverbs which s/he should draw upon in
giving his/her speech a “sting” or some sharpness. A Yoruba proverb
captures it all:

Owe lesin oro

(Proverbs facilitate the understanding of one’s speech).

Yoruba women are
confronted with proverbs that cast them in ridiculous, foolish, and
negative lights. The Yoruba divination system, known as Ifa, has
contributed in a very major way to the “validation” of women’s negative
image and portrayal.

Even though it has
been observed, for example, that some verses of Ifa sometimes
contradict one another in terms of assertions made, the overall picture
one gets is the dismal image of women. From the Ifa divination system
is the proverb that says:

-Obinrin L’eke, obinrin l’odale (The woman is a gossip; the woman is a traitor).

Other Yoruba proverbs give a clearer picture: -E ma finu han f’obinrin

(Never confide in a woman)

-A benu mimu bi obe

(Her lips are as sharp as the knives)

-Eniyan ti ko gbon ni i bobiriin mule

Ijo obinrin bo mawo lo baje.

(Only a stupid man takes an oath with a woman; the day a woman knows the secrets of a cult, that cult is destroyed).

An Ijala poem usually chanted by hunters in honour of Ogun the god of iron, puts it this way:

-E ma je ka finu han f’obinrin; ibi ti oju re o to, enu re debe.

(We should desist from revealing our secrets to a woman; her mouth will speak more than her eyes can see).

The picture painted
above is that women are naturally inquisitive, not for the well-being
of all, but in order to destroy. So, men are warned to be on their
guard. Men should be conscious of what they tell women, as this could
lead to their downfall.

The curiosity of a
woman will make her employ all means to get a particular piece of
information from a man; once she possesses it, she uses it to effect a
negative act.

-B’obinrin ba gbon lagbon ju, penpe laso oko re mo.

(A husband’s undersized clothes indicate his wife’s excessive cunning).

One cannot talk
about proverbs, poems or folktales that portray women in a negative
light without mentioning the theme of the supposed sexual laxity and
immorality of married women.

Perhaps, because of
the predominantly polygamous nature of traditional and modern Yoruba
society, and because of the high rate of divorce, men spin many
proverbs portraying women as having little control over their sexual
desires.

These proverbs show
men’s inherent fears about women and their sexuality. They also show
men’s fears about the possibility of their wives divorcing them, and of
their wives seducing or being seduced by other men.

Several verses from
the Ifa divination corpus attest to this. Proverbs about women’s sexual
immorality are brandished at women in a bid to control or curtail
imagined or real immoral tendencies. A wife in a polygamous setting who
is not sexually satisfied is thus reminded that:

-Oju kan ladaa ni

(A cutlass has only one sharp edge).

In other words, the
woman should be contented with only one husband/lover. This proverb is
not only issued to comfort the woman; it is also subtly used as a
warning to check whatever temptations she might have been nursing in
her mind.

The Yoruba also say:

-Gbogbo obinrin lo ngbese; eyi to ba se tire lase ju laraye n pe lasewo.

(All women are sexually voracious; but it is the one that does hers in excess is that is called a prostitute).

Yoruba folklore is
rich in its portrayal of its women as sexually insatiable. The picture
is essentially biased. The contrast is that the man is often painted as
blameless and innocent, someone who falls to the calculating ways of
the woman. This, of course, is contrary to the reality; Yoruba men
practice polygamy and keep a string of concubines outside the
matrimonial harem.

Therefore, these
proverbs are used as weapons to force women to accept particular
practices that are not of benefit to them, but to men. They are also
used to remind and warn men to be highly conscious of their “territory”
and authority whenever they are involved with women. The proverbs, no
doubt, constitute a major basis and cover for men’s own excesses and
infidelity in terms of sexual relations.

Yoruba women are
also portrayed as wicked, hard-hearted, insensitive and murderous.
Among men, the following proverbs are spun in an atmosphere of
camaraderie and scornful laughter:

-Obinrin bimo fun ni ko pe koma pa ni

(That a woman bears a man a child doesn’t stop her from killing him)

-Obinrin ko bimo fun ni, ko pe ko ma pa ni

(That a woman is yet to a man bear a child doesn’t stop her from killing him)

-Obinrin abi ale mefa won ko mo ara won

(A woman will have six lovers, yet they wouldn’t know one another)

-Okunrin ti ko ku, obinrin re ni ko ti i paa.

(If a man is not yet dead, it is because his woman is yet to kill him).

-Ito pe lenu o di warapa, egbo pe lese o di jakute; bi obinrin ba pe nile oko aje nii da

(When saliva stays
long in the mouth, it becomes epilepsy; when a sore stays long on the
leg, it becomes putrid. If a woman stays long in her husband’s house,
she becomes a witch).

Proverbs and sayings which ridicule the inquisitive nature of women make the following assumptions:

– women are naturally evil doers

– only women are inquisitive

– women are talkatives, and so, they talk more than men

– only women are gossips

– all women (excluding our mothers) cannot keep secrets.

But men gossip,
and some actually gossip more than women! Men are also inquisitive in
nature, and many of them, like some women, cannot keep secrets. The
absolute categorisation of women only is thus misleading as one finds
different characters amongst men and women.

These proverbs are
spiteful, a kind of personal vendetta against women’s power tussle with
men, and the freedom of choice they enjoy when it comes to outsmarting
their husbands whenever they wish to in terms of sexual relations, or
to divorce their husbands for other men.

Through these
proverbs, therefore, women’s image is badly dented, and the society
does not give them any space to express their reasons openly and
freely. The hypocritical stance of patriarchal society encourages men
to explore their sexual desires with the opposite sex. Men who keep
many girls/women are generally adjudged by society to be manly, randy,
and mature, but women who do same are seen to be committing a grievous
sin against God and nature.

However, for some
women, several negative assertions have been debunked over time as a
result of the attainment of some education, which sharpens their
critical spirits.

Yet, sometimes,
against their will, they have to act out some of these negative beliefs
about themselves in order to be accepted, and to be seen to be doing
the “right” thing.

Being part of a
paper, ‘Subliminal Texts: Women, Proverbs and Power’ delivered by
Anthonia Yakubu during an International Women’s Day seminar at the
University of Lagos on March 9.

Miracles do happen,
and extracting Jude Dibia from his busy schedule for an interview
turned out to be such a miracle, only possible after several attempts.
The author of ‘Walking With Shadows’ (2005), he followed that debut, a
novel about homosexual love, with a second book, ‘Unbridled’, which won
the 2007 NDDC/ANA Ken Saro-Wiwa Prize for Prose . ‘Unbridled’ also made
him a finalist in the 2008 NLNG Prize for Literature, which that year
went to Kaine Agary’s ‘Yellow-Yellow’. As he prepares for the
publication of his third novel, ‘Blackbird’, Dibia took time out to
talk about his writing career, a path he has carved while working
full-time in the aviation industry.

Becoming a writer

Writing just
creeps on you. I read a lot as a kid because I was surrounded by books,
but it never occurred to me that one day I was going to take writing
seriously. After I graduated from the University of Ibadan, I got a job
at Lufthansa German Airlines. But I got bored, so I quit, because I
felt the need to write; that was when I started writing ‘Walking With
Shadows’. I had just read a book titled ‘If This World Were Mine’ by a
black gay writer, E. Lynn Harris, and I was fascinated. I was inspired,
so I went to his website and sent him an e-mail, but I never thought
about him responding. When he replied my mail, he told me to keep
writing. He sent me autographed copies of his other novels and that’s
where I got the idea for ‘Walking With Shadows’ It was the first major
lengthy book I wrote; I had written a novella for ‘Hints’ (Magazine).
They took part of my huge manuscript and told me to develop it. When I
wrote ‘Walking With shadows’, it made me think: what’s the worst thing
that can happen? An editor who read the script said that people might
think that I am a gay man. I just wanted to tell a story and live with
the consequences. Even when ‘Unbridled’ came out, a lot of curious
journalists asked me if I had written another book on homosexuality. I
hate being put in a box; I am versatile a writer.

Blackbird on the wall

It has taken four
years for ‘Blackbird’ to come out. What I noticed about writing the
novel was the way I got into the characters heads to bring out the
emotions in a raw state to [readers]. I try not to pretend, so I tell
it as it is. I was pondering on Maroko, how we place emphasis on people
leaving the country when there are people being displaced in their own
society. There were all these housing schemes while we were growing up
and as governments came and left, the schemes got scrapped and all the
money put into scheme went with it. And like these schemes, ‘Blackbird’
is about an evolving society, it is about the changes that occur. The
novel deals with the differences in society, which comes to play in the
characters. I hope people enjoy it because it’s totally different from
those I have written in the past.

One of my
influences is Toni Morrison; she creates her own society in an already
existing society, it gives her creative licence, in ‘Blackbird’ I have
done that and created a society within Lagos. The novel starts at the
beginning of the new millennium, there were so many changes taking
place then, it’s a 320-page book that covers the last ten years. There
are a lot of high points in this one; it follows how tradition
challenges change. There are points that will make you stop and ponder.
I think it is important that people stop and think. There are people
always asking me questions about ‘Walking With Shadows’. I want people
to be able to think and ask questions – that is the fun part of writing
for me. In ‘Blackbird’, you don’t encounter issues on sexuality… It
deals with the role of men and women in society and a shift in these
roles.

Influences

My readings having
been eclectic, as a child I read unabridged versions of Charles
Dickens’ books and other Western literature . I am not much of a
sociable person, so I enjoy my quiet (time). I find my life in books,
books shape the way I think. I was into African writers much later. A
lot of my thinking has been shaped mainly by Western society. My
literal influences include Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Charles Dickens,
Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and a
handful of African writers like Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta and
Cyprian Ekwensi.

Career highs and lows

My first career
high point was my novella ‘Full Cycle’ that was published in Hints.
Seeing your name and words in print does something to you. I still get
that rush like the first. After Hints published the novella, I was
receiving calls from friends in places like Jos and Kaduna, I even saw
someone reading [‘Full Cycle’ that time on a bus and I felt so excited.
The second will be the emails I got after ‘Walking With Shadows’ came
out – from gays, straights, women and men. There was not one nasty
email. People were able to share their thoughts, it was liberating. The
Commonwealth Short Story win (Highly Commended Award, 2010) was another
highlight; I did not believe I could be popular with my short stories.
My short stories are touchy. If it matters to me, I will write it. If I
can’t make it into a novel then I write a short story. It feels good
knowing that what I write is helping someone one way or the other.

One of the obvious
lows for me as a writer is the obvious lack of adequate time and space
to write as much as I want to. Though I want to be a good writer, I
also want to be a good employee. If you love doing something so much,
you will find the time, but I do not allow people to put me under
pressure to write. I write mostly when am out of the country; apart
from that, I don’t know when I find the time to write. I write when I
can. I am my own critic, I’m always bothered about doing a good job for
my readers. Other lows for me are the lack of interest in books and the
way some people tend to misinterpret me.

Nigerian literature

When Nu-Metro
bookstore had their bestsellers list, my books were always amongst the
Top Three. And with three reprints made of ‘Walking With Shadows’,
because it was almost always sold out, I could say my books are doing
well. It is taking a long time for the industry to develop. A lot of
Nigerian writers want to be known abroad first before being known in
Nigeria, but it is not like that in India. The writers there do not
need to go abroad. When you meet some publishers in Nigeria they turn
you down because they don’t know how to sell you. Some are limited by
what they do; the publishers will prefer to stick to writers that are
already providing them with a market, making it difficult for new
writers. Collectives give the writer more access; to other writers,
editing and publishing, having collectives should help. It is a shame
we do not have big organisations backing writers. Take musicians for
example, they have more access to funds to make their music better.
Books take you everywhere without leaving your house; books entertain
and educate your mind. People do not know that they need to sponsor
writers, how many Nigerians read? We need more programs that will
involve writers and their books.

Sacrifices for writing

It is hard for me
to tell you the hardest decision I have made as a writer. One thing
that I can think of right now is how I relate to my family. Sometimes I
am selfish with my writing, when I write I don’t allow anyone near me.
I cannot completely focus on my writing, I don’t have those perks. If I
had a choice I would stick to writing, but realistically it is not
possible. Hopefully when I retire, I want to do a lot of writing.

Some say age is of the mind while others say it is a dictation of the body. Edith Grossman’s translation of Garcia Garcia Marquez’s ‘Memories of My Melancholy Whores’ is a revelation of the roles played by both the mind and the body in the definition of age. The author plays on a lot of themes: time and seasons; love and sex; and the power of choice and chance.

The story centers on a bachelor who wants to mark his ninetieth birthday in a sexually remarkable manner-sex with a young virgin. On the eve of his birthday, he contacts Rosa Cabarcas who had earlier helped to ‘purchase’ hundreds of women. Cabarcas gets him a fourteen-year-old girl who enchants him. Narrated in the first person narrative style, the novel almost seems biographical; the narrator’s name is never mentioned as he is only identified with the pronoun “I”.

Commodification and muteness are features that are affixed to womanhood; the general outlook is that females do not deserve a voice. Cabarcas, the only woman who has a voice, has a questionable reputation as she ‘sells’ and ‘rents out’ women to marauding men. Delgadina, the innocent virgin that falls prey to the ‘cunny claws’ of a nonagenarian, has no control over the situation. This is an indication that the rights of women get dashed, mostly with the aiding and abetting of other women. The general portrayal of womanhood is further worsened because the only place where Delgadina is really active is in the hallucinating mind of the narrator. One is then bound to wonder how love can flourish in this one-sidedness.

It may not be a crime to be a bachelor at ninety but it certainly is a crime to diminish the ‘sanctity’ of womanhood. The narrator, in his escapades, takes track of the number of women he has gone to bed with. He says, “By the time I was fifty, there were 514 women with whom I had been at least once.” He reels them off, one after the other, like items off a shopping list. His tone is condescending. Of course, some of these women are prostitutes. The fact that the economy does not treat men and women equally is one of the reasons. This explains the fate that befalls Delgadina as a result of the heap of responsibility that life burdens her with.

It is of the essence to know the genesis of the narrator’s obsession. It began at the tender age of twelve when he first caught the sight of nude women. This should send quivers down the spine of parents and guardians. They should properly control what their children and wards are exposed to their most impressionable ages.

The narration has a handful of vulgar terms and lewd expressions that may render the book like the DH Lawrence’s unedited ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ Had ‘Memories of My Melancholy Whores’ been published in the medieval age, both the book and its author would have come under serious sanction. A Persian edition of the book was banned in Iran. However, the translation deserves commendation because it does not glorify obscurantism.

There is the need for everyone to know that the world of today has largely broken away from the norm that accords only men significance. Today, the society, by and large, equates men and women. Therefore, literature should strive to always depict a world where beside (not behind) every successful man, there is the woman.

The Women in Film and Television, Nigeria (WIFTIN), a member-based non-profit organisation recently held its official launch at the GET Arena in Lekki, Lagos. According to its President, Muna Iyanam, the organisation which is the Nigerian chapter of the Women in Film and Television International (WIFTI), is dedicated to capacity building for the female youth and recognising and supporting women in screen-based and other media in Nigeria.

“We were officially incorporated in Nigeria in 2006 but waited this long to launch because we wanted to work on our organisational structure. We wanted to get the right hands, those with strong commitment to our course. “After making sure we had this, we decided to formally introduce ourselves to the general public this year,” Mrs. Iyanam explained in her opening speech.

“Still,” she continued, “we have been involved in some projects over the years, like helping with scholarships for film students,”.

Brave Heart

Apart from its official launch, the organisation was also celebrating the 2011 International Women’s Day by premiering a docu-drama titled ‘Brave Heart.’ The fifteen-minute film which was written, directed and produced by independent producer, Khadijah Kuranga, was one of seven shorts selected by a panel at the WIFTI headquarters in Los Angeles to be premiered at all their chapters on International Women’s Day.

The filmmaker was on hand to talk about the inspiration behind the documentary. She said that the documentary was part of a project she was working on, aimed at depicting the lives of people who have managed to survive within this economy and in spite of their desperate situation.

‘Brave Heart’ is based on the true life story of a certain ‘Mama Emma’, a widow who lost all the monies and properties she inherited from her husband to fraudsters shortly after his death. In order to to make ends meet, Mama Emma whose husband who previously lead a comfortable life, was reduced to selling pure water. She also had to withdraw her kids from the private school they had been attending and enrolled them in public school. Mrs. Iyanam pointed out that such inspiring stories were what WIFTIN was looking out for, in order to draw more attention to the plight of women in the society.

“WIFTIN is also interested in getting scholarship for and sponsoring young women interested in the film industry to schools where they can perfet their art; whether as directors, actresses, make-up or any other profession in film,” she said.

Following your dreams

Also at the launch was novelist, Ebi Akpeti who gave a brief talk on ‘Following your Dreams’. She talked about the importance of finding out “what your hands do naturally” and pursuing that, no matter what.

The event was emceed by the BEAT 99.9 on-air personality, Gbemi Olateru-Olagbegi who is also WIFTIN’s Director of Events and Sponsorship.

Other directors include: photographer Aisha Augie-Kuta, Vice President; publisher Amara Agbim, Director of Communications; banker and socialite Efeturi Doghudje, Publicity Director; and Khadija Kuranga whose docu-drama was shown at the event, Programmes Director.

According to Iyanam, the WIFTIN board also includes ace broadcaster Bimbo Oloyede as a member of the board of trustees and former Director General of National Television Authority (NTA) on the board of Trustees. Neither of them were at the event.

WIFTIN membership is open to female students of film and theatre, women interested in the film industry and professionals within the industry.

“Inquiries can be made to info@wiftin.org or on our website, wiftin.org,” said the director of communications, Amara Agbim. “We are also on Facebook.” The official launch of WIFTIN ended with the cutting of a ceremonial cake and light refreshments.

I am a guitar freak. More correctly, I have grown much older to become an unrepentant guitar buff. Both acoustic and electric guitar! I remember the bruised near-bleeding fingertips of my left hand after self-imposed agonising hours of trying to master complex acoustic guitar chords. My friend, the late Peter Thomas, first African/Black boy to be Head Boy of a British Public School, and I, had this notion in the sixties that the hard way (without a capo) and lots of practice could make us good amateur guitar players in the mould of the country blues guitar masters we admired so much. Why not? After all, the star guitarists of the world- famous white pop groups of the sixties – the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Who, Cream (Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton et al) had literarily copied the inspirational country blues roots of the modern electric Chicago Blues music on which their repertoire and fame were anchored!

Musical instrument history reveals that the modern acoustic guitar came out of the African lute. It’s no surprise that the Spanish, across the Mediterranean from Africa, eventually became masters of the flamenco classical-guitar genre. It is however, the then Negro in the Mississippi Delta of America, who completely revolutionised the sound of the guitar; stretching the sound texture of the instrument, both six-string and twelve-string, beyond conventional imagination. It was out of this Negro/African-American musical inventiveness on the guitar; created within the ‘new’ musical genre of Country/Delta Blues as from the twenties that the now popular genres of music – Electric (Chicago) Blues, Rock n’ Roll and ‘Soul’ Jazz (all guitar-driven) – emerged.

Country Blues

The pivotal all-time classical example of acoustic Country blues at its creative best remains the 17-track CD ‘Robert Johnson-King of the Delta Blues’ recorded in the late thirties on location in the Mississippi Delta. Johnson, the iconic master of the slide- guitar style, achieves haunting yet rich harmonic sounds of strummed chords which evoke sounds of human moaning, mechanical and natural sounds of rumbling trains and eerie sounds of the wind. It is an example of the tradition of making the guitar sing and talk; much like what other African-American musicians did in jazz with instruments like the saxophone and trumpet. It was this tradition of communicative expressiveness that spawned the deliberate and dedicated approach to electric guitar-playing in the birth of Electric Chicago Blues.

There are two distinct though interrelated schools of electric guitar-playing pioneered and sustained by African-Americans from the forties. The jazz-blues school style pioneered by T-Bone Walker and taken to its ultimate perfection by B.B.King. Parallel to this style within the genre of hardcore jazz has emerged master guitarists like Kenny Burrell and the revolutionary Wes Montgomery. The cutting edge of electric blues guitar remains the Chicago Blues; well recorded and exploited by Chess Records. A version of the development of this style of electric guitar playing and the genre of Chicago Blues is portrayed (however flawed) in the film, ‘Cadillac Records’.

Chicago Blues

The trademark of electric guitar playing in Chicago Blues is continuous multiple ultra-fast licks of wailing high-octave sounds. A most memorable music holiday I gave myself as a treat was a two-month trip to Chicago in the late sixties hanging out in the dangerous dives of the South Side and the more sedate and interracial clubs of the North side listening to the masters of this truly electrifying style of spontaneous creativity. Buddy Guy the enfant terrible, Otis Rush, Earl Hooker, Howling Wolf, Elmore James, Magic Sam, Mighty Joe Young and rhythm guitarists like Jimmy Madison were the instrumentalists that laid the foundation for singers like Muddy Waters who initially defined and shaped the direction of Chicago Blues.

There is no dissent as to the huge influence of the Chicago Blues movement on the world pop and blues movement as later defined by the white megastars of the sixties both from Europe and America itself. They had the benefit of better management, media coverage and truth be told, racial hype; to wrongly give the impression that they were the true innovative creators of the pop/blues revolution of the sixties and seventies. They had either meticulously studied and copied from records made by African-Americans (as had Elvis Presley before them) or had gone directly to study at the feet of the Chicago Blues guitar masters like Buddy Guy.

Electric Blues

But then, the electric blues revolution, just like the country blues phenomenon, was not a regional phenomenon geographically. Just like other country blues musicians like Lightning Hopkins had instigated the transition from country blues to electric blues in Texas, the end result was the emergence of one of the most important exponents of electric guitar blues in Albert Iceman Collins. This West Coast movement has also spawned contemporary master electric blues guitarists like Robert Cray. But the bottom line is the ultimate genius who has emerged from this long tradition in the person of Jimmy Hendrix.

Jimmy Hendrix, undoubtedly, has been the defining voice of electric guitar playing in popular music and, not surprisingly, his roots and influences are deep in the Blues. It might not be common knowledge, but Hendrix from his teenage years went through an apprenticeship tenure of going on the road with the best of the African-American blues and pop icons including Little Richard. It is instructive to note that music equipment manufacturers have been business-like in responding to the perceived sound-needs of the innovative African-American electric guitarists. The Kalamazoo-based Gibson-guitar-manufacturing company came up with its Stratocaster version to meet the ultra-creative needs of guitarists like Hendrix. As an extension of business savvy, it came as no further surprise that Jimmy Hendrix was chosen to test run the wah-wah pedal which has given a definite sound-echo dimension to the electric guitar! Palm-wine guitar By now, it should also be no surprise to the reader that I am an unapologetic home-boy fan of guitar playing worldwide; more so as I have a historic and personal perspective of guitar playing. Much as I appreciate and admire the contributions of great guitar players like Segovia, Williams, Django, Clapton, and others, I am more fascinated by the unusual and innovatively authentic contributions of Afro-Americans in establishing the guitar as a lead instrument and voice in world popular music! Now where does Africa stand in this scheme of guitar music?

In West Africa, palm-wine guitar music is recognised as the creative precursor of Highlife the indigenous popular music of West Africa. Ghanaian palm-wine guitarists were recorded as early as the thirties when they visited Britain on a performance tour. The Congolese employed as many as five guitarists in the early fifties in their musical efforts to establish their brand of Congolese popular music, now world-famous.

In Nigeria, the guitar has also helped shape popular music. It is worth putting on record, that as Victor Uwaifo celebrates his seventieth birthday; he is an inventor (much like Bo Diddley’s efforts in building innovative guitars) and has also added value to contemporary guitar playing with his outstanding world-class guitar solos on his megahits hits ‘Joromi’ and ‘Guitar Boy’. Uwaifo and Oliver de Coque have put Nigeria on the world map of excellent guitar playing!

A drama presentation of ‘Things Fall Apart’

Students of White Sands College, Ajah, Lagos, thrilled their audience to twice daily performances of a play adapted from Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ at the Pan African University, Ajah on the weekend of February 25 and 26.

According to Seyi Ogungbesan, the director of the play, it was staged to promote the cultural heritage of the students. “It’s in line with White Sand’s school of thought that the students learn the cultural heritage of where they come from,” he said. He added that the staged play was adapted from Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ because of its portrayal of the Igbo culture. “The students have acted both Yoruba and Hausa plays, so we decided to choose an Igbo text this time.” Although the play was basically performed by the Drama Club of the school, all the students were given the opportunity to participate. “It was an equal audition and everyone was given an equal opportunity,” Ogungbesan assured.

Okonkwo’s Achilles heel

The play ultimately portrays Okonkwo, a wrestling champion in Umuofia and the influences of British colonialism on him and his people. It is easy to blame the British invasion for all the problems faced in Umuofia. However, the central character, Okonkwo, is a hot tempered fellow whose hard-heartedness has been a cause of major concern, even from the very beginning. The first scene introduces the audience to this central character. Okonkwo’s role as a traditional Igbo man with a quick temper is well depicted. The actor is huge and tall, the tallest of all the actors on stage. His steps are almost menacing and his voice is authoritative and beckons all to listen to him. His friend, Obierika is similar, save for the fact that he is much calmer and not as rash. He is the voice of reason where Okonkwo isn’t.

Okonkwo’s rash behaviour results in three murders although they are not all deliberate. He gives an excuse for his killing Ikemefuna. “A child cannot be hurt by the hot yam given to him by his mother,” Okonkwo says. He is of the belief that he only ran an errand the gods sent him and he couldn’t disobey them. The importance of a male child to the clan is also well depicted in the play. “If only Ezimma was a boy, I’ll be much happier,” Okonkwo complains to his friend in one scenes. There are moments of merry making that brighten the otherwise serious mood of the play. The festival where there is much dancing, singing and drumming is an example, except that it ends in a death. This shortens the merry mood of the scene.

Another merry moment that easily comes to mind is the scene of the white missionary preaching with his Igbo translator. Everything, from the white man’s wig to the exaggerated protruding belly of his translator, seems funny and sends the audience reeling with laughter. However, the scene seems to go on endlessly and leaves the non-speaking Igbo members of the audience wondering what he is saying. The translator doesn’t seem to translate accurately. But his wild gesticulations, weird outfit and deep Igbo accent create a mood of humour.

Each scene is introduced by soft music accompanied by drumming and flute playing where necessary. The music rises to a crescendo and then falls until it completely fades before the curtain rises.

An assessment

It is safe to say that the acting was excellent for secondary school boys who are not professionals. The professionalism in the directing and choreography was apparent in the performance. There was an effective collaboration among the members of the crew. The students displayed a number of talents in addition to their acting skills; they danced well and a few of them even displayed their acrobatic skills.

The stage was designed to fit a typical village setting with the bamboo benches and fence, the plantain tree and the mud hut. All these were properly depicted on stage. The makeup was also on point. The young actors looked convincing in their roles as old men. Their moustaches and beards were believable. The boys who acted as white men also looked convincing in their character make-up.

The actors could be seen dressed up in the traditional Igbo attire, which spoke volumes. For instance, chiefs could be differentiated from those who weren’t by their attires. They all wore red caps but those of the titled chiefs were different. The characteristics of the Igbo attire which consist of red beads, wrappers and so on, were prominent on the stage. The holy priest was convincing in his red and black outfit and the white marks round his eyes. Sound effects were also well deployed in the play. Rather than holding microphones that would create awkwardness in their acting, the actors wore wireless microphones. They could be clearly heard. A powerful spotlight was focused on the stage; save for this, there wasn’t any other light in the room. The light introduced the beginning of a scene and signalled its end.

There were however a few shortcomings. The lightning sometimes didn’t come on as fast as expected. An actor forgot his lines at some point, but considering these are few shortcomings, they could be overlooked. The fact that the dead child was carried entirely back stage was quite impressive until one of the dead men had to walk back stage himself.

The use of the Igbo language during the course of the play was most impressive. The students spoke the Igbo language flawlessly. This is in accordance with the essence of the play. Tunde Olaifa, the co- ordinator of the school’s drama group said; “The essence of the play is to keep the boys abreast of our culture. It’s part of formation for them and if they can take part in these activities, they are on the way to being formed.” All in all, the play was a good adaptation of Achebe’s novel.

The late great
Christopher Okigbo once said of his poems’ similarities to other
people’s works, “It is surprising how many lines of my limits, I am not
sure are mine and yet do not know whose lines they were originally. But
does it matter?” I think it matters. A while back on NEXT, the poet
Chimalum Nwankwo offered evidence that Okigbo had plagiarised some of
his poems. He quoted Carl Sandberg’s poem, ‘For You’, “The peace of
great doors be for you./Wait at the knobs, at the panel oblongs./Wait
for the great hinges./The peace of great churches be for you./Where the
players of loft pipe organs/Practise old lovely fragments, alone/The
peace of great books be for you,/Stains of pressed clover leaves on
pages,/Bleach of the light of years held in leather./The peace of great
prairies be for you./Listen among windplayers in cornfields./The wind
learning over its oldest music.”

He contrasted it
with Okigbo’s ‘The Passage’: “O Anna at the knobs of the panel
oblong,/Hear us at the crossroads at the great hinges/Where the players
of loft pipe organs/Rehearse old lovely fragments, alone-/Strains of
pressed orange leaves on pages/Bleach of the light of years held in
leather:/For we are listening in cornfields/Among the
windplayers,/Listening to the wind leaning over/Its loveliest
fragment….” Nwankwo has been harshly criticised for his views, but he
has a point.

Many Nigerian
thinkers that I greatly respect and admire point out Okigbo’s youth and
observe that “derivation” of others’ works was common practice at the
time. But then if someone had shown me Sandburg’s lines without
attribution, I would have sworn that it was Okigbo’s voice. Which begs
the question: How much of Okigbo’s voice is borrowed or “derived”?
Derivation is nothing new. The late Ola Rotimi made it very clear that
his play ‘The Gods Are Not To Blame’ was an adaptation of the Greek
tragedy, ‘Oedipus Rex’. Wole Soyinka has been careful to make the
connections between his plays and external influences. So is Okigbo
guilty of plagiarism? Yes, I agree with Nwankwo. There is no
attribution as far as I can tell; if there had been notes explaining
this, it would be reasonable to see this as an experiment.

A poem is a
spiritual journey undertaken by the poet-priest, a deeply personal
journey that finds voice in poetry. If I was to take a renowned
writer’s work and incorporate it into mine, I would be required by
traditional conventions to cite the source. If I was to come up with a
copy of it, using most of the language, without attribution, it is
possible that it would speak to a reader as the original spoke to me.
If the reader was to find out that indeed, this new story used language
and themes virtually lifted (in Okigbo’s case, about 80 percent) from
the original, the reader would feel a certain sense of disappointment.
There would also be questions as to whether indeed the writer undertook
that journey personally. There is a software out there that determines
how much of a student’s work is similar to work out there. Okigbo’s
piece would have been unacceptable today were it to have been submitted
as original work, no ifs, no buts about it. More importantly, it raises
reasonable questions in my mind about how much of the spiritual
journeys in his works were his journeys. I think that is an important
question.

Donatus Nwoga
wrote an excellent paper on the subject, titled ‘Plagiarism and
Authentic Creativity in West Africa’. The paper showcases several other
instances of plagiarism by Okigbo. Take this piece by Miguel Hernandez,
the Spanish author of ‘El amor ascendia entre nosotros’: “Love ascended
between us like the/moon between two palms/that have never
embraced;/Love passed like a moon between/us and ate our solitary
bodies/ And we are two ghosts who seek one another/And meet afar off.”
Here is Okigbo’s “Lament of the Lavender Mist”: “The moon has ascended
between us—/Between two pines/That bow to each other;/Love with the
moon has ascended,/Has fed on our solitary stem;/And we are now
shadows/That cling to each other/But kiss the air only.

Here are lines
from Alberto Quintero Alvarez: “What departs leaves on the shore/Gazing
seawards at the star foreseen;/What arrives announces its
farewell/Before a coming-and going that goes on for ever.” Here is
Okigbo: “An old star departs, leaves us here on the shore/Gazing
heavenward for a new star approaching;/The new star appears,
foreshadows its going/Before a going and coming that goes on forever…”
These pieces and several other instances in Nwoga’s excellent paper
offer evidence of plagiarism; if it is “derivation”, it is actually
poorly done, with little attempt at creativity.

I believe my friends who assert that these forms of imitation were
common practice at the time but it would be impossible to defend this
conduct today. I am in awe of Okigbo and I doubt that the day will come
when someone would convince me that he was anything less than a genius.
But let’s call what he did by the real name: Plagiarism. And it
matters, because it was wrong.

Lions are no ordinary animals, but what do you do when faced
with a pride, stay put and enjoy the show, or flee for safety?

The former was the option on this visit to the Kwandwe Private
Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, 160 kilometres from
Port Elizabeth, 175 kilometres from East London, and 40 kilometres outside the
university town of Grahamstown. Save for the misguided fellow, who in 1991
jumped into the lion cage at the University of Ibadan Zoo, it never crossed my
mind that a sane person could be involved in an adrenaline-spiking encounter
with the king of the jungle. But when you have trusted guides like Ryan and
Endi like we did on this tour, you will have enough fun with excitement and
danger in equal measure.

Kwandwe, derived from Kwa-Indwe, which is IsiXhosa for ‘Place of
the Blue Crane’ and also the national bird of South Africa, sits like a pearl
in a shell surrounded by a valley with the Great Fish River Valley running and
twisting through it. The journey from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth was smooth
and as the South Africa Express plane landed, nothing prepared our group for
the thrilling journey ahead to Kwandwe. Having navigated and explored Jozi, as
Johannesburg folks call their city, one could be forgiven for thinking that
nothing more will shock and surprise on the trip.

Exhilarating ride

However, the bus ride demolished such thoughts. Seeing the Port
Elizabeth stadium from the road did little to assuage for missing the World Cup
but the architectural beauty still held some surprise for a first time visitor.
Naturally too, the right hand steering and left driving could leave a Nigerian
disoriented initially, but the expansive road network soon put one at ease. The
ride through the time-worn hills and rugged plains of Kwandwe’s southern
section might not be a good one for anybody with vertigo, but those who are
brave enough will find it exhilarating. Perhaps the closest to it back home is
the Akure-Idanre road with its twists and turns.

A team of excited tour guides and staff of the reserve laid out
the welcome mats with wet towels, iced tea, lemonade, and enough hugs. The
enormous landscape will delight a guest just as sitting on a hilltop to watch
the sun set in the west will also re-awaken the soul. The reserve has an
airstrip for easy access and so anybody who cannot withstand the heart-searing
road journey is saved the blushes from such experience. The land was one of the
most hotly contested frontiers during the Settler-Xhosa wars of the 19th
century. It eventually became prime land for ostrich and goat farming, but
Ryan, our guide, added that it was also home to large numbers of animals. “The
Eastern Cape had the greatest animal population in all of South Africa,” added
Ryan. Settler activity nearly obliterated wildlife when hunters and farmers
killed large quantity of animals and nearly 200 years later, wildlife is
flourishing again.

The dominant vegetation in Kwandwe is sub-tropical thicket, a
highly nutritious tangle of bush-clump that maintains high-carrying capacities
of elephant, kudu and black rhino. Its central basin is made up of karroid
shrubland and grassland where oryx, springbuck, zebra, black wildebeest and
white rhino are often seen. The peaceful acacia-thorn glades along the river
banks sustain the giraffe and bushbuck, while the hippopotamus laze in the
deep, slow-moving pools of the Greta Fish River.

On safari

And so after the effusive welcome, we set out on safari proper.
One way, Kwandwe is integrating the local population is by employing some of
them as guides, with Endi being one of such people. He pointed to the mountains
afar saying, “That’s where I was born, I grew up there as a baby,” as the
journey commenced. “Please stay in the vehicle, don’t stand up or attempt to
get out as this disturbs the animals a lot,” Ryan said as he mounted the wheels
of the rugged Land Rover complete with all communication gadgets to facilitate
contact with other vehicles. He added that this could also invite needless
attacks.

Shortly after we (a team of five tourists and two guides) set
out, Ryan got word that we should make a detour so that we could see a cheetah
in the vicinity. The two guides disembarked at a point to observe the animals’
footprints which they actually confirmed were those of a cheetah.
Unfortunately, we did not see the big cat, making do with zebras, ostrich,
rhinos and springboks. After meandering round the reserve with lessons in
wildlife ecology and conservation methods, Ryan suddenly spotted a pride of
lions through his binoculars.

And shortly, we were face to face with the jungle kings. A male
and two cubs, they seemed so harmless that one could be forgiven for thinking
they are household pets but with the guides warnings ringing loudly in our
minds, nobody was foolish enough to try any mischievous thing. The three lions
sat down peacefully, not moving an inch for the nearly 10 minutes we spent
viewing them. After an initial shock, cameras started clicking furiously,
recording the moment for posterity. We headed back to the lodge for an open air
dinner with the animals as uninvited guests too.

Kwandwe lodges are breathtaking. The Ecca Lodge’s funky
farmhouse feel makes it a thoroughly modern retreat. The six private suites
recline on a rolling slope that overlooks a valley lush with dense vegetation.
The spacious rooms feature wood-paneling, mesh-covered stone gabion walls, and
traditional farm-style corrugated iron roofs.

The next day, however, the guides’ warning prevented some in our group from
coming out early for another trip so as not to fall prey to lions.

Wednesday, March 9:

PEN Nigeria and the
Department of English, University of Lagos present seminar in
commemoration of IWD 2011. ‘Equal Opportunity for Women in Education,
Culture, Politics and the Economic’ is the theme.

Featuring: Speakers
including Eno Ekpe, Moji Shodipe and Ofire Aito. NEXT’s Tonia Yakubu
will speak on ‘Subliminal Texts: Women, Proverbs and Power’.

Venue: Faculty of Arts Board Room, University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos.

Time: 9am.

Saturday, March 12:

Women Rule: Readings and discussions celebrating women in Nigerian Literature.

Featuring: poet and
author, Toni Kan; Molara Wood, writer and Arts & Culture editor of
NEXT; Simi Dosekun, COO of Farafina Books and Bibi Bakare-Yusuf,
publisher of Cassava Republic Press.

Venue: The Life House, 33 Sinari Daranijo street, Off Younis Bashorun Street, Off Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Time: 6pm.