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Wole Soyinka: A Guide to His Body of Works

(By Ernest Ogunyemi) - 52 Books in 64 Years: Your Guide to Wole Soyinka’s Body of Work 

        

The Nigerian writer and activist Wole Soyinka turned 87 this week. He was born on July 13, 1934, in Aké, Abeokuta, a town in southwestern Nigeria. 

        One of the greatest writers of his generation, Soyinka produced plays, novels, poems, and essays that explore African art and worldviews and serve as witnesses to sociopolitical issues in the world. The multi-talented artist, wrote the poet and academic Tanure Ojaide in Black American Literature Forum, “combines traditional African and Western influences so dexterously that he creates a personal authenticity.” 

        In 1975, Soyinka edited Poems of Black Africa, considered by many scholars to be the first anthology of poems that truly captures the abundant identities and realities of Black Africa. From 1975 to 1979, he was a Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University. He has since taught at Harvard, Oxford, and Yale. 

        In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African and Black writer to be so honoured. In December 2017, he received the Europe Theater Prize’s “Special Prize.” 

        In his introduction to the Africa39 anthology, he wrote: “The primary function of literature is to capture and expand reality. It is futile therefore to attempt to circumscribe African creative territory, least of all by conformism to any literary ideology that then aspires to be the tail that wags the dog. It projects its enhanced vision of Life’s potential, its possibilities, narrates its triumphs and failures. Its offerings include empowerment of the oppressed and the subjugation of power. It will not attempt to do all of this at once—that will only clot up the very passages of its own proceeding.” 

        To celebrate Soyinka’s 87th birthday, here is a guide to his full-length published works, categorized by genre. It comprises 25 plays, 10 essay collections, seven poetry collections, five memoirs, three novels, and two translated works. (Publishers’ synopses appear in quotes.) 

Before Obi Cubana: Performative Elitism, Nightlife, and Popular Culture in Nigeria

(By Saheed Aderinto) – Before Cubana: Performative Elitism, Nightlife, and Popular Culture in Nigeria 

        The incredible display of wealth at the funeral of the mother of Obi Iyiegbu, owner of Cubana Nightclub, is among the most sensational social media developments this week. Obi Cubana, as Obi Iyiegbu is informally called, mobilized insanely rich Nigerians to contribute to the “most expensive” funeral of 21st century Nigeria. The spectacle of honoring the dead began with the donation of 46 cows by another nightclub owner, Cubana Chief Priest. The visuals of the arrival of the animals is a reminder of how non-human creatures have historically been used to frame a unique image of progress and performative elitism. Most of the financiers or “bankrollers” of the funeral were also patrons of Cubana Nightclub. Their list is as diverse as their source of wealth. 

         Many have wondered how a nightclub owner was able to mobilize billions of naira for a private event. History has some answers. In 1996, socialite Ken Olumesi completed his multi-million naira club named Nightshift Coliseum in Ikeja, Lagos. Nicknamed “Mecca of Entertainment,” and voted as Nigeria’s most beautiful nightclub, the clients of Nightshift Coliseum included famous footballers, entertainers, military officers, and clean money businessmen and their 419 counterparts. A symbol of wealth, class, and status, Nightshift Coliseum was a badge of honor for most of the elites of the period. It was a rite of passage for old and young monies. Indeed, the eclipse of stardom for many artists was incomplete without playing at the Nightshift Coliseum. 

Obi Cubana, Entrepreneurial Creativity, and New Model of "Igba Boi"

(By Moses Ochono) - THE CURIOUS AND INSTRUCTIVE CASE OF OBI CUBANA 

        As an economic historian who edited a well-received book on entrepreneurship in Africa, the introduction to which argues for the recognition of distinct African entrepreneurial traditions and innovations, I find the case of Obi Cubana (Chief Obinna Iyiegbu) quite fascinating. 

        Let me first get a few caveats out of the way. I do not endorse his vulgar, exhibitionist, and performative wealth, but I do not judge it either. To each their own. We all operate from different value and ethical scripts, but none is, in the final analysis, inherently superior to the other. 

        Besides, a person has a right to spend their money as they wish, and Cubana's exhibitionism cannot be analyzed or understood outside his business and brand, which are anchored by show business and entertainment, the lifeblood of which is performance, vulgar excess, and razzmatazz. In other words, his antics have instrumental and utilitarian logic in his line of business. 

         What appears to others as his vulgar exhibitionism and excessive self-indulgences are actually part of his business repertoire, part of the script, and aspects of a carefully, strategically organized spectacle to boost his brand. If I'm right then this is a type of genius. 

Obi Cubana and His Economic Importance

(By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo) – The Economic Importance of Obi Cubana, Ike Nnobi et al., 

        Until last week, I have never heard the name Obi Cubana. All that I knew of Cubana was all that lifestyle magazines say about the Cubana nightclub in Lagos. I had no idea who owned it. And then, Obinna Iyiegbu, aka Obi Cubana, held the funeral of his mother in Oba, Idemili North Local government of Anambra State. 

        As pictures and videos from the ceremony saturate social media, I placed a call to an Oba friend of mine in Boston. I asked a simple question. “Who is Obi Cubana?” 

         My friend did not know him. He told me Obi Cubana was a kid when he was at home. He also mentioned that Obi Cubana’s father was the principal of Merchant of Light, Oba, when he was a high school student there. 

         After high school at Dennis Memorial Grammar School Onitsha and obtaining a degree in Political Science from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the kid went out of Anambra state, to Abuja, Owerri, Enugu, Lagos and did well for himself. 

         Every town or village in Eastern Nigeria has one or two Obi Cubanas. They are the often-misunderstood children of our wobbling Nigeria. They are kids who, despite the odds, have plowed through the rivers of injustice, the stench of corruption, and the air of insecurity to set up businesses, build networks, and climb to the top of the social strata of Nigeria. They are kids who, even when they were sitting in the deepest valley of despair, say to themselves that the world is theirs. In some weird ways, packed in them are the metaphors of what could have been in Nigeria. 

A New Generation for Nollywood

(By Azuka Ogujiuba) - A New Generation for Nollywood 

        We are at a time where women are no longer asking for opportunities but calling their shots and claiming their seats on the table of success. And even when society mirrors their achievements or downplays their hard work, they keep evolving and setting new records. 

        Thus, women are more vocal now, than ever, about being who they are with no apologies. They are owning their stories and writing their scripts when it comes to making their marks in the sands of time. It’s again in this light, that we have featured these young amazons who are Nollywood’s New Generation. 

        Sharon Ooja, Lillian Onyinye Afegbai, Nancy Isime, Lisa Omorodion, Erica Nlededim, Maryam Ado Muhammad-Booth, Ini Dima-Okojie, Bimbo Ademoye, Beverly Osu and Linda Osifo grace our pages in this edition as they tell us about their chosen careers, how more women should participate in Politics, their challenges as artistes and of course, their achievements amongst other issues. 

On Biafra and the Plight of the Igbo in Nigeria: Putting the World on Notice

(By Rudolf Okonkwo & Chido Onumah) - To the Most Senior Biafran in Buhari’s Government 

 …We think we should have you and the international community on notice. 

        Dear Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Jideofor Onyeama, We chose to write you instead of President Muhammadu Buhari because it is apparent from the president’s two most recent media outings that his cognitive impairment has greatly deteriorated, even though that is no justification for his murderous and genocidal rhetoric. From his utterances, the gap between things his innermost mind conjures and what his mouth utters has been completely erased. We also chose to write you because you are the most senior Biafran in Buhari’s government. We know that in your world, Biafra is the worst tag that anyone could put on you. Unfortunately, the people you work with, in and around Aso Rock, see you as a Biafran. You can keep running away from it, but in the deepest corners of their eyes, Biafra is like a shell on you. And like a snail, you cannot cast it off. 

        Over the last six years, we are aware of your hard work on the international stage to rescue this government’s reputation. As this government squandered both at home and abroad the enormous goodwill it received in 2015, you have worked hard to reassure the international community that the wheel of the Nigerian vessel had not come off and would not come off. Based on recent events, you do not need a soothsayer or us to tell you that the wheels came off a long time ago. What the international community was telling you in private weeks ago, they have made a tiny bit of it public following the debacle that is Buhari’s reaction to Twitter’s sanction of his genocidal tweet against the people of the South-East. 

Decolonizing the Decolonizer in African Education

(By Saheed Aderinto) - Decolonizing the Decolonizer: Epistemic Liberation in 21st Century Africanist Scholarship 

        I gave the Plenary Lecture of the "Ife-Edinburgh Catalyst Workshop" on June 10 [2021]. The theme of the highly successful workshop was “(Re)imagining ‘Our’ Ways of Knowing: Decolonization and the Human Sciences.” ... Excerpts from [the] lecture titled, “Decolonizing the Decolonizer: Epistemic Liberation in 21st Century Africanist Scholarship.” 

        In September 2019, the social media was ignited when news broke that Musiliu Akinsanya, aka MC Oluomo, the current Chairman of the Lagos State Branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) was invited to give a talk at the University of Lagos. To many, MC Oluomo, a street thug and a political tout did not deserve to be invited to one of the strongholds of “normative” elite power in Nigeria. He doesn’t have a place in the university ecosystem where professors and highly educated people dictate the tempo of “conventional” intellectualism. To many, MC Oluomo’s character epitomizes the common spectacle of “curated chaos” that characterizes everyday life in the inner city of Lagos. The role of the NURTW in election violence and compromise of democratic ideals disqualifies him for talking on campus, where core principles of fairness and justice are installed in the heart of young people. The University community, many believed, must not be turned into the “street” -- the real and imaginative locale that crowned MC Oluomo the King of Violence and an assortment of unregulated indecency. 

        Days after the digital acrimony, the University of Lagos did the rightful by clearing the air on the circumstances under which MC Oluomo was invited to campus. Not only did they establish that the event was a Colloquium titled, “Transport Efficiency: Employing Lagos Terrain Alternatives” organized by the National Association of Geography Students, the university argued that “experts and relevant stakeholders with considerable knowledge and experience on transportation…are carefully selected and invited to come and share their thoughts with our students.”

Nollywood & Constructive Criticism: Whose View?

(By Stella Okemuo) - Is Constructive Criticism A Thing In Nollywood? 

          The Nigerian film industry Nollywood is Africa’s most prevalent film industry. It has survived on quantity rather than quality, and this has affected its global competition. 

          Apart from the infrastructural and financial barriers that hinder the industry from self-improving, there is a worrying habit of a backlash from film producers when criticisms of their films are made. 

          There is also an unhealthy habit of belonging to cliques and therefore, good actors may not be cast in films or nominated for an award if they don’t belong to a particular clique. 

          I have been a loyal fan of Nollywood since the 90s when films were released as video cassettes, to the CD era, and now the Cinema era. I have watched my favourite film veterans improve their craft; seen producers improve in the quality of their films and I’ve even seen Nollywood films screen at theatres abroad yet, something is missing, and that, for me, is the content (storyline) of the films. 

Nation Building through History and Storytelling

(By Chigozie Chikere) - HISTORY AND STORYTELLING FOR NATION BUILDING: Getting the Youth Involved 

        I am a student of history even though the last time I sat in a history class was over three decades ago, when I was in JS3. Simply put, one does not always need the four walls of a classroom to learn about things that happened the previous day in his life, his immediate environment or the global community. Naturally, humans are endowed with the capacity to memorise facts, figures, and to recount past events even in chronology. Aside from the schools where pupils are expected at the end of each academic period to recount what they are taught by way of examination, other institutions like media houses and the courts of law are known to take advantage of this human phenomenon respectively in their interviews as well as their examination and cross-examination of witnesses. Thus, books and all forms of writing were invented primarily to assist mankind’s weak memory. But why do many Nigerians blame the government for what appears to be a poor grasp of history among the youth? 

        On many occasions, we have heard or read that the Federal Government of Nigeria abolished the study of history in schools; and the allegation has always been that the government does not want the upcoming generation to lay its hands on the dark pages of Nigeria’s history. How true is this claim? A brief survey will show that history was not at any point in time abolished from school curriculum in Nigeria. While some are of the view that Government as a subject was introduced to replace History, others say Government was rather introduced as an interventionist approach to provide a tonic for formerly history enthusiasts who before then were losing interest in History, possibly because it was becoming difficult to pass in the WAEC school certificate examinations. So, structurally, Government became History in a functional approach.

Nigeria and the Politics of Hijab

(By Abimbola Adelakun) - Hijab not about ‘religious discrimination’ 

        A bill to end “hijab discrimination” has reportedly passed second reading in the House of Representatives. Sponsored by Rep. Saidu Musa Abdullahi of Niger State, the bill, “Religious Discrimination (Prohibition, Prevention) Bill, 2021,” is supposed to protect hijab wearers from various forms of discrimination. Abdullahi was, of course, reacting to the ongoing hijab war in Kwara State that had degenerated into skirmishes. Just as it happened in Osun, Oyo, and Lagos states too, schools considered “Christian” are putting their feet down against their Muslim female students wearing hijab within their premises. Abdullahi managed to dredge up a few other instances of women who have been refrained from performing certain duties on account of their wearing hijab and added that the issue needs to be addressed once and for all. 

        Truly, Nigeria needs a definitive solution to this recurrent hijab issue but framing what is at stake as religious discrimination is a misdiagnosis. In countries where Muslims are a minority or migrants, religious discrimination might be a thing. In Nigeria, no honest person can allege that with a straight face. 

        In Nigeria, a Muslim can petition a whole Inspector-General of Police and threaten violence if an atheist whose opinions unsettle him is not dealt with, and the letter would be honoured in less than 24 hours. Even more shocking, the target of that attack has been indefinitely incarcerated without trial. In Nigeria, a Muslim would petition the Police IG saying that a woman who posted a photograph of herself on Instagram had blasphemed, and then threatened the issue could degenerate into violence. The woman in question almost went into exile even after she withdrew the photo, donned a hijab, and virtually begged for her life. In another country, those that threatened her would have at least been arrested, but not Nigeria. When a religion that can pull those kinds of stunts alleges discrimination, you want to take a closer look.

Hijab Controversies in Nigeria: Kwara State

 

Fela Kuti, His Genius, and Afrobeat

Adichie on "Chimamanda," Arts, Igbo, Biafra, et al.

Religion and Politics: The Church and Education of Politically-Conscious Citizens