The event was part of 3-day literary conference to mark 10th anniversary of passing away of African iconic writer Chinua Achebe
From Africa Correspondent
Abuja
Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Abuja Literary Society (ALS), 2 Masks & a Griot (2MG) in collaboration several international agencies and institutes, marked the tenth anniversary of the passing of the internationally acclaimed author, Chinua Achebe.
The groups marked the event with an international hybrid roundtable discussion themed: Revisiting Chinua Achebe’s Position on Colonial Language and Creative Writing in Africa, held on May 20, at the Mamman Jiya Vatsa (ANA) Writers Village in Mpape, Abuja. Literature enthusiasts’ home and abroad were encouraged to join the event physically at the writers’ village or virtually on zoom.
The roundtable featured the panelists Terri Ochiagha of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK; Manfred Metzner of Vetlag Das Winderhorn Publishing House; Kenyan writer, Barack Wanderah Oduor, Egyptian writer and Poet, Ashraf Aboul-Yazid and Nigerian author, Romeo Oriogun based in the UK.
Razinat Mohammed (Moderator) is a professor of African Literary Criticism, Gender Studies and Creative Writing at University of Abuja, where she is Head of the Department of English Studies. She holds a PhD in Feminist Literary Criticism and is also an award winning author of A Love like a Woman’s and other Stories (2005). She is the author of two novels, Habiba (2013), a finalist at the 2014 Association of Nigerian Authors’ prize for prose and The Travails of a First Wife (2015). Her articles and book chapters have been published in foremost international Journals on African Literature, the African Literature Today series in Suffolk, UK and other highly esteemed publishing houses like Routledge, UK. Her creative works have appeared in Camouflage: The Best of Contemporary Writings from Nigeria, The Gong Books, Fireflies: An Anthology of New Nigerian Poetry, Pyramids: An Anthology of Poems from Northern Nigeria, For Women Collective: A Tribute to Nina Simone (USA). She is the author of Intra-gender Relations between Women: A Study of Nawal El-Saadawi and Buchi Emecheta’s Novels, published by Lambert Academic Publication, Germany. She is the author of Female Representation in Nigerian Literature www.africanwriter.com among others. She co-edited The Markas: An Anthology of the Feelings on the Boko Haram (2019). She is a two- time Judge for the prestigious ($100,000) Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Prize for literature (2015 and 2017). She was a Resident Writer in El-Gouna, Egypt May /July, 2011. Since 2013, she has been the Chief Adjudicator for the annual Senior Secondary Schools National Essay Competition tagged, Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange (WSICE) in honour of Prof. Wole Soyinka.
The second moderator was Sule Emmanuel Egya who is a professor of African literature and cultural studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria. His research interests include the intersection of literature and politics in Africa, feminism, cultural studies, and ecocriticism. Fellowships and awards he has previously benefited from include PER SESH Writing Fellowship; the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship; the African Humanities Fellowship; and the Humboldt Talent Travel Award. He has written over one hundred scholarly articles and literary essays. He is the author of The Writings of Zaynab Alkali (2005); In Their Voices and Visions: Conversations with New Nigerian Writers (2007); Poetics of Rage: A Reading of Remi Raji’s Poetry (2011); Nation, Power, and Dissidence in Third Generation Nigerian Poetry (2014); and Niyi Osundare: a Literary Biography (2017). He is also a creative writer. His first novel Sterile Sky (2012) won the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize for the Africa Region. Makwala (2018) is his second novel. His poetry volumes include What the Sea Told Me (2009, winner of ANA Gabriel Okara Prize), Naked Sun (2006), and Knifing Tongues (2005).
Panelist Asraf Aboul-Yazid is novelist, poet, translator and journalist from Egypt. Author of more than 40 books of poetry, novels, biographies, criticism, children’s literature and translations. His travels to 33 countries have been published in books and dozens of literary periodicals. He works as the editor-in-chief of the Silk Road Literature Series in Egypt and as the editor-in-chief of the Korean Arabic-language portal the AsiaN. He is the winner of Manhae Grand Prize in Literature, The Republic of Korea, 2014, Arab Journalism Award in Culture, UAE, 2015, The Gold Medal in LIFFT Eurasian Literary Festival, Istanbul, 2021 and Sawiris Cultural Award. Children Literature, 2023.
Panelist Dike Chukwumerije is a Nigerian spoken word and performance poetry artist and author. He has eight published books including the novel Urichindere, which won the 2013 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Prose Fiction. Chukwumerije was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2016. An international speaker, he is Nigeria’s most prolific performance poet with successful performance poetry videos, a live poetry show (NSW – Night of the Spoken Word) and theatre productions well received all over Nigeria.
Panelist Manfred Metzner, grew up in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance 1967 – 1973 Studied law at the University of Heidelberg 1973 Acting studies at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Bridgeport/ USA 1974 Assistant at the law faculty of the University of Montpellier/ France. Engaged in the Occitan independence movement (Larzac, Lutte occitane, winegrowers, etc.). 1977 Admitted to the bar 1978 Co-founder of the publishing house Das Wunderhorn, since then publisher and managing partner 1984 -1986 Weekly newspaper “Communale” –editor 1984 -1994 City councilor/ Beziksbeirat; member of the supervisory board of HVV and HSB in Heidelberg. Since 1989 publisher of the photographic work of the Bauhaus artist Ré Soupault and curator of numerous photo exhibitions on this subject. Editor of the literary work of the French surrealist Philippe Soupault Initiator of the Heidelberg Literature Days in 1993 and festival director until 2016. Since 1995 Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Karlstorbahnhof Cultural Center (Heidelberg). 2000 Co-founder of the Kurt Wolff Foundation for the promotion of a diverse publishing and literary scene (Leipzig) and its first chairman until 2010. 2008 Appointed Officier dans l’orde national du mérite by the President of France. 2007 – 2015 Lecturer for cultural mediation and publishing at the Universities of Mannheim and Heidelberg. 2009 Founded the literary deer AfrikAWunderhorn. In his series AfrkiAWunderhorn more than 40 authors from Africa have been published in first German translation so far, including Chinelo Okparanta, Helon Habila, Elnathan John, Ben Okri and E.C. Osondu from Nigeria” 2010 – 2017 Spokesperson of the cultural region/metropolitan region. Rhine-Neckar 2012 – 2014 member of the application committee of the city of Heidelberg to become UNESCO City of Literature 2015 – 2021 Member of the jury “German Bookstore Prize 2020 -2023 Member of the “Bavarian Publishing Prize” jury Numerous literary publications and publications on the situation of independent publishers, changes in publishing and book trade structures, Franco-German cultural exchange and cultural policy issues.
Panelist Romeo Oriogun is the author of Sacrament of Bodies, Nomad, and The Gathering of Bastards. He is the winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literature, the Poertry Society of America’s Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award, and the Brunel International African Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in The Nation, Poetry Review, Poetry London, Harvard Review, American Poetry Review, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. An Alumni of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he currently lives in Iowa City where he works at the International Writers Program as the Youth Programs Coordinator.
Panelist Dr. Terri Ochiagha is a literary critic and cultural historian, and a world-leading expert on the work of the ‘father of modern African Literature’, Chinua Achebe. She holds a B.A., M.A., and PhD in English from Complutense University, Madrid. She is currently a Lecturer in Global Anglophone Literatures at the University of Edinburgh, where she teaches Literary Theory, English Literature across the 16th-21st centuries, and her own specialist course, ‘Education and Empire’. Her first book, Achebe and Friends at Umuahia: The Making of a Literary Elite (2015) won the African Studies Association of the UK’s inaugural Fage&Oliver Prize for the most outstanding book on Africa published in 2014-2015. She is also the author of A Short History of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (2018). Affective States and Archival Excess: Nigeria Magazine and the Politics of Self-Monumentality is her third book, and Chinua Achebe: A Life at the Crossroads will be her fourth book.
Panelist Barack Wandera Oduor is a Kenyan Writer of fiction and Educational materials. Additionally, Wandera is involved in the editorial process of a poetry project done jointly between Kakamega Book Club and Daystar University. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Maseno University and is a Masters of Arts in Literature student at Maseno University. He is a teacher of English at St. Andrews Matulo Secondary School in Webuye, Kenya as well as the Managing Director of InterCEN Publishers based in Kakamega, Kenya. He is the Acting Secretary- General of Creative Writers association of Kenya. Among the works he has published include the following creative works and Educational Materials.
Other participants have Denja Abdullahi who is an award winning poet, literary essayist and culture technocrat. He was the National General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian authors from 2005-2009. Denja currently serves in the National Council for Arts and Culture, Abuja Nigeria, as a Deputy Director of Performing Arts. His poems and other literary pieces have appeared in anthologies such as A Volcano of Voices (1999), Uncle Bola’s Promise (2003), Confluence Blues (2004) Abuja Acolytes (2000) Five Hundred Nigerian Poets (2005) Camouflage (2006)Crossroads(2008) Pyramids 2008),Fireflies(2009), Agogo 2009) and in several other newspapers, reviews, journals and magazines. His first published poetic volume Mairogo: a Buffoon’s Poetic Journey around Northern Nigeria (2001) received honourable mention for the prestigious ANA/CADBURY 2001 Poetry Prize. Denja Abdullahi published two poetry volumes in 2008, The Talking Drum (February, 2008) and Abuja Nunyi (This is Abuja) (May,2008).His other published works are A Thousand Years of Thirst( 2011), Hajj Poems(2014) and Death and the King’s Grey Hairand other Plays(2014).He also co-edited the book Themes Fall Apart But The Centre Holds, published in 2009 in commemoration of the 50 years Anniversary of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, which was celebrated worldwide in 2008.
Participant Jahman Anikulapo wears many relevant hats in the Nigerian arts and culture sector, among them, festival director, cultural archivist, literary critic and curator. He is currently the program chairman at the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), where he has co-directed the annual Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) since 1999. Jahman is also Executive Program Director, Culture Advocates Caucus, CAC. He has served as Art and Culture journalist since 1987; reporting events and managing cultural programs around the world. A former stage actor, manager and director on national and international productions, he has helped to shape national and international policies on culture. In addition, he has served on several committees including the Commonwealth Foundation, and Tony Blair Commission for Africa’s sub-committee for Culture, among others. He also serves as the executive director, iREP Film Festival, and sits on the board of Arts and Business Foundation (ABF). He consults on publications (magazines and books) regularly and notably, was Editor of The Guardian on Sunday for a decade from 2003.
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