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The fifth edition
of BookJam @ Silverbird held Saturday, June 26, at the Silverbird
Lifestyle Store, Silverbird Galleria, Victoria Island. The BookJam,
which takes place on the last Saturday of every month, is sponsored by
Coca Cola, Farafina and Feed Mill.

Anchored by Anwuli
Ojogwu, the event had as special guest Alain Mabanckou, a writer from
Congo Brazzaville. Nigerian writers, Toni Onwordi, Kunle Ajibade and
Abraham Oshoko were guest writers; reading from their books. Also
present at the event were actress Joke Silva; and Theatre @Terra
producer, Wole Oguntokun.

Jailed for life

Among the
highlights of the event was the reading by Kunle Ajibade, also author
of ‘Nigeria, What A Country!’ He read an excerpt of his
autobiographical book, ‘Jailed For Life’. He narrated for the benefit
of the audience, the details of his ordeal and his ruminations while
incarcerated by General Sani Abacha’s administration. “We suppose to
open you when you wan chop and lock you when you finish… We suppose to
chain you to this bed when you wan sleep,” he read – words, which he
attributed to his jail keepers, and which depicted the inhumanity of
incarceration.

June 12

Perhaps the most
interesting reading of the evening was that of Abraham Oshoko from his
graphic novel, ‘June 12’, which is produced in the style of a comic
book. According to the cartoonist, his motivation for the book was the
need to let people know the story of June 12.

“Nigeria and Africa
as a whole do not keep records; we are a people who sweep issues and
problems under the carpet. And now the carpet has a hunch back,” he
said. Reading an excerpt about a politician trying to convince an
activist to mobilise his ‘people’ to vote for him, Oshoko illustrated
how in the matter of politics, “money is the only ideology.”

Oshoko also read a
collection of quotes from past political office holders. These
included: “We have not chosen who will succeed us, we have only decided
who will not” – Ibrahim Babangida (1988). “Everyone has a gift from
God. The Northerners are endowed by God with leadership qualities, the
Yoruba man knows how to earn a living and has diplomatic qualities, the
Igbo man is gifted in trade, commerce, and technological innovation;
God so created us equally, with purpose and different gifts” – Yusuf
Maitama Sule, supposedly supporting an opinion that the North should
maintain leadership of Nigeria.

Pilgrimages

Alain Mabanckou,
international writer and author of such works as ‘African Psycho’,
’Broken Glass’ and ‘Blue, White, Red’ declined to read as according to
him he wasn’t satisfied with his English language reading abilities.
His excerpt from ‘African Psycho’ was read by a member of the audience.
Mabanckou, is in Nigeria for a two-week period as part of Pilgrimages,
a Pan African literary project organized by the Chinua Achebe Centre,
Bard College in the US. The project has sent 13 African writers to 13
cities on the continent, after which each would produce a travel
writing work about the experience. Mabanckou is therefore on a
‘pilgrimage’ to Lagos. He is writing about his impressions of the
sprawling metropolis and the phenomena associated with the city, such
as traffic and youth culture.

Sand in the mouth

In the question and
answer session following the readings, author of ‘Under the Brown
Rusted Roofs’ and arts journalist Abimbola Adelakun, asked Ajibade if,
with the benefit of hindsight, he would have gone ahead with his
activities under Abacha’s dictatorship had he known they would land him
in jail. The question seemed a difficult one for Ajibade; despite
explanations and a reiteration of the question by another member of the
audience, the most substantial answer he gave was that “I was writing
for pleasure, not with the intention of going to jail.” He remarked,
however, that “I sometimes regret that we did all those things we did,
only to have the aftermath of it tasting like sand in our mouths.”

The readings were
interspersed with poetry by Abidemi, who read a poem titled ‘Black’,
and a musical performance, ‘Times Are Good’, by Khafayat Quadri. Like
the readings earlier, the musical interlude suffered from unpleasant
feedback from the sound equipment. The evening ended with a raffle draw
for attendees who had purchased books from the lifestyle store, while
refreshment was served courtesy of Coca-cola and Feed Mill.

BookJam @ Silverbird is a monthly initiative, which is intended to
promote the appreciation of literature and the arts in Nigeria.