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The Association of
Nigerian Authors (ANA) appears to have reinforced the notion that
writers are bad managers with its poor handling of the colloquium held
to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the writings of poet and
dramatist, John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo on August 13. Not only did the
opening at Afe Babalola Hall, University of Lagos, start behind
schedule, it was also poorly publicised such that less than 100 people
attended. Not a few people were surprised by the development, none more
so than Clark and his wife, Ebun, who taught English and Drama at the
university before they retired. Students could have been mobilised to
attend, observers noted.

However, the shoddy
organisation took nothing away from the stature of the eminent writer,
though almost every speaker referred to it.

Writing without bias

Chair of the
ceremony, Elechi Amadi, expressed his regret at the event’s
organisational failings, before recalling his and Clark’s undergraduate
days at the University College, Ibadan. Amadi disclosed that he was
first published in ‘The Horn’, a campus paper edited by Clark. He said
he has a soft spot for Clark’s poetry “probably because he writes about
the kind of environment I grew up in. Like him, I lived with my mother
in a thatched mud hut and when it rained at night we had to shift our
mats and belongings to avoid the leakages. Not surprisingly, I have
much empathy for his ‘Night Rain’”

The author of ‘The
Concubine’ also noted that Clark was fortunate to have started writing
when there were few literary prizes available to Nigerians because it
allowed him to write without undue influence. “It is my view that
foreign prizes come with a price. They can, and do influence our
writing in a subtle way. The donor of a prize cannot appreciate you
fully unless you wholly or in part share his mindset, worldview,
sensibilities and worse, his prejudices about Africa and Africans,” he
said.

He also made a case
for the protection of indigenous writing and local prizes. “Writing is
our intellectual menu and very much a part of our culture. We should
protect it from foreign interference no matter how subtle and well
meaning. Local prizes are better because we are the best judges of our
own culture.” The retired Army captain, however, explained that he is
not advocating the rejection of foreign prizes, but “In accepting the
dollars, we should be fully aware of the securely veiled intentions of
the donors. The donors are not necessarily evil but like everyone else
they have their interests to maintain and protect.” Amadi also paid
tribute to Clark with a parody of William Blake’s ‘The Tiger’.

Icon of the pen trade

ANA president,
Jerry Agada, apologised for the organisation’s lapses and described
Clark “as a great icon of our pen trade… His contributions to the
development of African oral literature through his dramatic and poetic
writing, nay the literature of the world, speaks for itself. He has put
in many years of also growing people who today represent a very
luminous expression of his genius and outstanding intellection. His
critical writings have shaped and also broadened the scope of global
understanding of Africa and her rich cultural heritage.”

In a goodwill
message he delivered on behalf of Emmanuel Uduaghan, Governor of Delta
State and the major financier of the conference with a N10 million
funding, academic, G. G Darah, said Delta is happy “to be part of the
heritage of JP who’s one of the world’s greatest writers.”

Vice Chancellor of
the University of Lagos, Adetokunbo Shofoluwe, who was represented by
Duro Oni, dean, Faculty of Arts, said it was a pleasure for the
institution to be hosting the event.

The Anti-palanquinist

Poet and Secretary
General, Pan-African Writers’ Association (PAWA), Atukwei Okai, in a
keynote address titled ‘Historical Chameleonisation and
Anti-palanquinity: Human Beings as Casualties of the Womb and Writers
as Murderers of the Gods – the Creational Marathon of J.P.
Clark-Bekederemo’ – dwelt on the non-conformist traits of Clark. He
explained that a palanquin is a covered litter carried by four people
but that Clark exhibited traits of an anti-palanquinist early in his
writing career when as an undergraduate, he challenged the colonial
establishment with his poem, ‘Ivbie: A Song of Wrong’. “From his very
first works, we see that Clark set out to distil into the psyche of his
people the spirit of anti-palanquinity. Witnesss ‘Ivbie: A Song of
Wrong’, ‘America Their America’ and ‘Casualties’,” the keynote speaker
said.

Continuing, he said
the anti-palanquinity generation which Clark belongs to “are of a
mindset that would question the status quo and subvert any order that,
by its precepts and preaching, would seek to continue to deceive and
manipulate, exploit and enslave the people, the citizenry or, in other
words, the masses. The anti-palanquinity generation, as a rule, start
from the viewpoint that whatever is subsumed as a country belongs, by
right, to the people of that country, that land.” He mentioned Festus
Iyayi and Femi Osofisan as examples of writers who have imbibed Clark’s
anti-palanquinity with the way they probe beyond the surface in works
like ‘Heroes’ and ‘Morountodun’.

Get organised

Clark, renowned
for his sarcasm, narrated the story of PEC Repertory Theatre he ran
with his wife years ago and the fluctuating attendance at its shows to
stress that he didn’t find the poor attendance strange. “We are used to
this, but what my wife and I particularly miss are our students.
Students of English and Drama are not here because they were not told.”
He disclosed that he and Amadi, his “comrade and friend at Tedder Hall”
had a great time at the University College. Amadi’s reminiscences, he
stated, “reminded me of incidents that I had consigned to a long, long
past.”

Switching back to
the poor organisation, the author of ‘Ozidi’, ‘The Raft’ and ‘The Boat’
amongst other plays, explained that it is not only in Nigeria that
writers organise events like ANA did. The same thing, he said, happened
to Okai when he organised a conference in Ghana.

Referring to his
biography on the programme, Clark told the organisers that he was not
born on April 6, 1935 as they wrote but on December 6, 1933 “which my
friend Wole Soyinka will not accept because it makes me older than him
by a year.” He also disclosed that he became a professor in 1972 and
not 1977. Clark added that though ANA has tried to “kill me off” by
saying that he last wrote in 1988, “I’ve been writing from 1988 to the
moment. I’ve written quite a few things since then.” Indeed, Clark
launched a collection of poems, ‘Of Sleep and Old Age’, as recently as
2004.

“Mr President, past
president, please get organised. Writers also can be good managers. I
appreciate this very much. My wife and I are very touched. Left to me,
I was going to call it off but I was reminded that people came from
Kano, Calabar and as far as from Accra,” Clark reiterated while
thanking the University of Lagos and Delta State government for
supporting the conference.

Poet and
polemicist, Odia Ofeimun who presented three copies of his ‘Lagos of
the Poets’, Femi Osofisan, Sam Ukala and Wale Okediran were among
guests at the conference.

Two papers, ‘Managing Linguistic Taboos in Clark-Bekederemo’s Songs
of a Goat’ and ‘Rethinking JP Clark’s Ozidi in the Light of
Contemporary Nigerian Experience’ by Joe Ushie and Sunny Awhefeada were
taken at the first plenary session after the opening. Writers Musa
Idris Okpanachi and Maria Ajima were among those who delivered papers
on the second day, before the conference ended with a dinner.