(Pius Adesanmi)--Thank You, Millennials!
Despite sorrow, despite anguish, despite depression
over Kogi state, Nigeria, today, I somehow had to find the strength to go and
teach that introduction to African literature second-year class.
Discussions came to the cultural and contextual bases
of similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech. I take an example from
Things Fall Apart:
"During this time Okonkwo’s fame had grown like a
bush-fire in the harmattan"
There is no way a Canadian writer would write:
"grow like a bush-fire in the harmattan", I tell the class. You have
to come from the world of cultural significations encoded by harmattan, etc etc
I went on. Now, what would a Canadian novelist write to express exactly the
same idea as Achebe?
Put differently, how would you say this?
Her instinctive answer came from the back of the
class:
"During this time, Okonkwo's fame had grown
viral"
Profs Adeleke Adeeko,
Ato Quayson,
Kenneth Harrow, Rem Raj, Obiwu Iwuanyanwu, this was pure ecstasy
for me! So beautiful. Okonkwo instantly became beautifully [recognizable] as a
netizen! My depression vanished and class came alive. Only a millennial would
come up with this beauty.
My spirit tells me that
Ezeulu will send his first tweet before these millennials are done with me this
semester.
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