A response to Kehinde Ayoola's challenges for Nigerian writers

Challenges to a New Generation of Nigerian Writers in English (by KEHINDE A. AYOOLA)

Through this paper, I will present my personal response to Ayoola's article, 'Challenges to a new generation of Nigerian writers in English', which was first printed in Cambridge University Press's English Today, 85th Edition, Vol. 22, Issue 1, dated January, 2006.

The article's author narrates the challenges new Nigerian writers encounter in an atmosphere that treats rising authors in an unfriendly way. The experiences that are portrayed and analyzed in the article typify the experiences as well as predicament of these new creative writers. Language choice issues -- native tongue or English -- are reviewed, in addition to the many justifications, whether noble or not, presented for aspects like genre choice, audience recognition issues, the writer's reactions to the phenomena of globalization and democracy, and ineffective do-it-yourself (DIY) marketing/promotion and publishing (Kehinde Ayoola, 2006). Through this response paper, I will articulate my standpoint, in writing, with regard to the abovementioned article, and the values and concepts expressed in it by the writer. My aim is connecting personal experiences with the topic of the essay. It is my sincere hope that this reaction paper will offer readers a meaningful and transformative reading experience, arising from the interaction between the meanings I construed from the article and my readers' meanings (WHAT A RESPONSE PAPER IS AND IS NOT, 2016). This paper won't forthrightly refute Kehinde's views; rather, it will look into the factors contributing to Nigerian literature's current state.

The Journey So Far

English literature by Nigerian writers has seen extraordinary headway over the last fifteen years, expressing the struggles faced by a nation that is transitioning from colonialism to independence to democracy. Following a long-drawn-out 1967-70 fratricidal internal conflict and the oil-boom-turned-oil-doom that led to political and social upsets, the country has still not recovered from, Nigerian writers would inevitably accept a challenge, in my opinion. They have developed the different forms of Nigerian literature into a societal act against new Nigerian society's 'wantonness' (Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, 2014).

The Northern Nigerian literary conference saw the country's writers brainstorming on how they could establish institutions aimed at promoting Hausa literature. These entities, especially those geared at supporting publishers, translators, scholars and reviewers ready to teach, are vital to making Nigerian readers as well as readers across the globe aware of the thriving Hausa literature. People should be given no reason to believe the north remains quiet (Carmen Mccain, 2012), and such negativity may be redirected by good literature, projecting a positive image of the nation's people. Within the country, literature addressing the most effective means to place Nigeria on proper footing would serve to be a motivating catalyst to propel everyone in the nation towards sound nation-building. Lastly, I can see Nigeria's literature improving beyond inadequate sponsorship, absence of publishing houses and publishers, poor reading culture and other challenges. Adding to this is the need for new literature and authors, especially in the children- and gender- focused genres, for enabling the nation to achieve an enviable global techno-literary position (Taye Awoyemi-Arayela, 2013).

Though publishing is considered rather unimportant from an economic standpoint, it is highly vital to a nation's academic, cultural, and intellectual life. Further, knowledge products' creation and distribution is crucial to all civilizations. I believe it forms a central component of the emerging knowledge sector network as well, which proves highly valuable to postindustrial nations. It is, therefore, unsurprising that the WHO's (World Trade Organization's) latest trade negotiations debated and focused on the knowledge sector's regulation on an international level. Knowledge product conception and ownership are becoming increasingly important, owing to the significance of knowledge and information to postindustrial nations. Books continue to be a pivotal aspect of knowledge conception and ownership. Despite all this, the publishing sector is marked by major inequities, with most parts of Africa and the rest of the globe being sidelined by leading North American and European publishing centers (K.O. Darko-Ampem, 2000).

A Typical Nigerian Writer

Nigerian authors, being products of a blend of cultures, firstly belong to a society wherein oral traditions form their routine lifestyle. But, in my view, such integration of conventional spoken sources relies on their closeness to the source, the setting, their writings' ideological patterns, and their stylistic engagement. Moreover, as they form part of Nigeria's society, I feel their material will be sourced from Nigerian culture and, hence, their literary works will be guided by their social life. As suggested previously, Nigerians (in fact, all Africans in general), are the product of two different universes: the dual instruments of formal education and colonialism have trained them in European economic and social class systems. Such contact, owing to a historical accident, exposed foreign cultural values, beliefs, taste and philosophy to them. The outcome of such exposure was: absorption of many Western concepts by colonialized Nigerian people. Undoubtedly, the learned Africans of the colonial era considered the Whites as examples of civilization, as well as contemporary existence's leaders. To the colonized mind of Nigerians, English literature would then denote the standard, which would accord 'eternal value' to all kinds of literary works. At this juncture in the paper, one should bear in mind the fact that English literary works were a weapon employed to colonize and apparently "civilize" the illiterate people of Africa. The Europeans believed the "Dark Continent's" inhabitants were dark on a cultural, mental, and spiritual level as well, and required European "finesse" for becoming humans from the "beasts" that they originally were! Hence, imperialists relied heavily on colonial literature as an instrument for accelerating their self-assumed responsibility of 'taming' and refining Africa's people. Taking the above fact into account, I think one may be able to envisage the conditions, which created the Nigerian country as well as its literature (Taye Awoyemi-Arayela, 2013).

Publishers of English Writing

The origins of Nigerian reading culture's downturn and, as a result, the closure of its publishing centers may be traced back to somewhere around the mid-1980s to early-1990s. However, surprisingly, this was just preceded by remarkable novels like Bloodbath at Lobster Close, Mark of the Cobra, The Worshippers, The Black Temple, Stop Press: Murder, Angel of Death, State Secret and other notable Macmillan titles, from the Pacesetters African Series, which was on par with Western stories. These African novelists wrote tales of adventure, excitement, and intrigue that could definitely compete with their Western counterparts, including James Hardly Chase, Robin Cook and Nick Carter. I have personally read a few Nigerian manuscripts that broached more captivating subjects than Harry Potter, which was actually dismissed by the nation's publishers. However, in the absence of grants for self-publishing and promotion of their books, or of publishers not keen on fleecing them dry while essentially giving them nothing much in return, these talented African writers just faded into obscurity (Dennis Abrams, 2015).

However, the Nigerian literary domain is now evolving. The discourse on Nigerian and, on a broader level, African writing is gaining prominence in Africa, without the Western world's affirmation. The last few months have seen the Nigerian nation hosting a number of literary fests, book readings, and book launches that have produced considerable excitement and debate. Publishers are becoming increasingly confident as well. Instead of feeling compelled to mediate or explain their written works to the Western world, publishers from Africa are looking to reflect a genuine African voice: Fine Boys by Eghosa Imasuen is filled with little bits of pidgin, while Season of Crimson Blossoms, the debut novel of Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, is infused with Hausa. I believe that for African writers, having their work published via a native publisher facilitates better cultural understanding, which is typically not easy to achieve if they approach a foreign publisher with their work (Emma Shercliff, 2015).

Need for Nativity

I feel that we can easily compare English's position in Nigeria to that of the language in the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, and other nations where English forms the native tongue. Whereas for these nations, English is the primary language, it is a foreign or second language to nations like Nigeria. Hence, English language coaching in Nigeria must traverse a highly formal path in order to attain communicative competence (Dr. Yemi Ogunsiji, 2012). Eghosa Imasuen, a writer and publisher based in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, opposes how Nigerian English is represented in print up till now. As explained by him in a documentary, in Nigerian English, word italicization may be rather political: for instance, while 'escargot' -- a French word -- isn't italicized, 'egusi' is. Further, Imasuen protests against the way things are needlessly explained for foreign audiences. For instance, any author who has a sentence along the lines of, say, "she dipped her hand in the eba," will follow with an explanation of the word 'eba'. His frustration appears to be clear when he states that readers can simply look up the word on Google, and authors need not explain every such term (Emma Shercliff, 2015).

Children were earlier taught folk stories, native proverbs, and native riddles which centered on ethical and moral conduct and what punishments would be experienced if one misbehaved. Their education attached considerable value to cultural transmission. Kids learn through observation, imitation, and engaging in actions and activities performed by their elders. To sum up, the traditional educational system encouraged living by moral and spiritual ideals, social responsibility, political participation, and job orientation. I believe it is imperative to say that this was all possible due to the fact that the instructional medium within community settings and at home was native languages (Ofodu Graceful Onovughe, 2014).

Local culture, dialects, customs, and beliefs have shaped the English used by Soyinka and other creative writers and general English-language speakers and writers in Nigeria. This influence is sufficiently strong to accord their works a Distinctly-Nigerian quality and flavor. Clearly, the above facts reveal to me that, in the event of interaction between two languages, mutual influences will necessarily arise. Much work done up until now with regard to these influences in Africa are based on English. This paper of mine will contribute to the discussion from a native-language standpoint, as English has impacted other languages it has interacted with across the globe, whilst itself being impacted by foreign languages. This influence may be considered a factor in the growth of novel forms of the English language across the world. This has a major implication for contact linguistics and the English as a Foreign Language learning-teaching process (Timothy T. Ajani, 2007).

Conclusion

Empowerment and ensuring the three key languages (together with the local dialect) are implemented is one potential solution. I would suggest the following to promote Nigerian native language revitalization (Ofodu Graceful Onovughe, 2014):

1. The nation's federal government must revise its language policy and incorporate native languages as compulsory subjects to be taken by all Nigerian children right up to university. It must, in fact, be made a criterion for admission into Nigerian higher education institutions, besides other requirements.

1. The federal, state and local governments must make credit-passing in the native language compulsory for all levels of employees.

1. The federal, state and local governments must provide students studying native languages with scholarships for studying within the nation as well as outside.

1. Native language graduates must be commended at the national and local level, and given employment automatically.