Nigeria is big. The population is huge. This country bounces from despair to hope, and hope to despair at intermittent intervals all through its history. This country is also big in terms of high caliber names in the literary world. Wole Soyinka, the first black African to become Nobel laureate is a Nigerian. Chinua Achebe, the most widely known African writer of “Things Fall Apart” fame is a Nigerian. Flora Nwapa, Zaynab Alkali, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Helon Habila and Teju Cole are all Nigerians. Most of their works centre around Nigeria or issues related to the ‘giant of Africa.’ The more the country comes into spotlight, the more it rises out of it books of both facts and fiction. This country is so dynamic that at all times there is no shortage of themes for both factual and fictional writing on its rise from a colony of Britain to a nation perpetually in transition.
Chinua Achebe based most of his works on Igbo society before and after colonial conquest. But his works like “No Longer at Ease” and “A Man of the People” were about modern Nigeria. Particularly, “Anthills of the Savannah” was about life under a ‘dictator’ with the climate of fear fuelled by sycophancy and greed. But Achebe also took up Nigeria beyond fictional clime with “The Trouble with Nigeria” – a book on how failure of leadership was, according to him, at the centre of Nigeria’s inability to release its potentials. His last book “There was a Country” was ‘a personal history of the Nigerian civil war.’
Wole Soyinka is a man of verses. He thrived in the world of poetry and play. But he was also not left out of the realm of prose with many books especially the ones about his personal experiences of Nigeria, like in “Ibadan” and “You Must Set Forth at Dawn.” His early work “The Man Died” falls in this category of writing. While weaving Nigeria through imaginative work, he also found his way his way through Nigeria in factual work.
Other writers still rising to prominence devoted a lot of their work on Nigeria. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is largely known for her work “Half of Yellow Sun” which fictionalized the Biafran way. Teju Cole rose to prominence beyond his novel “Open City” with “Every Day is for the Thief” – a personal take on life in Nigeria’s Lagos.
More books are being written by Nigerians about Nigeria. And more books are also being written by foreigners about Nigeria.
This brings us to the complicated relationship between a writer and his country. In fact many great writers had bitter relationship with their own country up to the end. On one hand a writer will feel obliged to be patriotic and reflect that in his writing. While others may decide, things have to be reflected as they are and that loyal can only be to the truth, justice, fairness and freedom.
In the Soviet era many writers had to flee into exile. Communism could not contain their other views. Some writers got their citizenship questioned. Aravind Adiga won the 2008 Booker Prize for his work “White Tiger” which shows the side of India that many Indians are uncomfortable to talk about. His vivid work shows that dark side of India that nationalists will want to remain hidden from the rest of the world or even from Indians themselves. Orhan Pamuk based all of his works on Istanbul and Turkey – and its turbulent history.
A writer can decide which of the divide in his country he can stay, but many writers always find it difficult to distance themselves from the realities of their own societies.
Nigerian writers always found themselves between their art and their country. The things in between them are always reflected in their works. Ghanaian writer Ayi Kwei Armah still stands tall in the relationship between a writer and his country. His “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born” clinically portrays how corruption wrecked modern Ghana.
While some writers dismiss their own country others cannot. Nigerian writers can’t.
