How I won the heart
of a teenager with my novel – Professor Chukwuemeka
Ike
By SEGUN AJAYI
Tuesday,
September 18, 2007
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•Pro
Ike
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Like a chronicler of history, renowned novelist, Professor
Chukwuemeka Ike’s works are reflections of different
stages of Nigeria’s socio-political development. A staunch
believer in the enduring quality of creative works, the literary
scholar has been an consistent advocate of the need for a
Lifetime Achievement Awards for Nigerian writers.
Although, the Anambra State born writer does not condemn awards
based on one book, he believes that being a flash-in-the-pan
is not enough.
Ike, who said that he was inspired by Chinua Achebe’s
classic, Things Fall Apart, says that he has not relented
in his role as watchdog of the society, a culture promoter
and a student of History.
His latest novel, The Search availed the readers some moments
of retrospection on the issue of power rotation in the polity.
In this interview, Professor Ike speaks on his writing career,
the problems confronting Nigerian writers, politics and how
his muse forced him to employ a driver.
Inspiration/Works
At the time I was coming to Government College Umuahia, there
was hardly any novel, I didn’t read. Infact, we thought
that writers were dead people. We never met the likes of Shakespeare,
Charles Dickens and other great writers of their era. Initially,
I wrote short stories because I felt that it was a way of
sharing what I had. Again, I attended a good school which
encouraged that we had a college magazine. Writing in that
magazine was a way of sharing your experience with your colleagues.
After that, I gained admission into the University College
Ibadan. Again, there, we had a magazine club to encourage
creative writing. Essentially, it was also an avenue to share
your stories and experiences with others within the university
community.
But in 1958, Chinua Achebe came out with Things Fall Apart.
Moreover, Achebe and I went through the same cultural background
and he was two years ahead of me at Government College, Umuahia.
We were also members of the Magazine Club at the University
College, Ibadan. We both wrote for the University Herald.
The fact that a close friend like Chinua Achebe came out with
a fantastic novel was quite inspiring. I told myself at that
instance, why not try the same thing. Like I told you initially,
our teachers told us that we were gifted in expressing ourselves
in English Language. But more significantly, when a friend
of mine (Achebe) came out with a novel, I was encouraged to
do likewise.
Other inspirations
Actually, when I started writing, we were confronted with
the problem of culture-conflict. For example, you came out
of the village and found yourself in a university environment.
Basically, the culture of the village is different from that
of the university which was wester. So, this was the first
thing that would strike you as a young writer.
I explored this issue in my first novel Toads for Supper.
Even culture-conflict between people from different ethnic
backgrounds. For example, I had not met a Yoruba person until
I got to the university. But over the years, as I grew older
in writing, I saw literature as a means of doing other things
like criticising your society. Initially, it was the approach
to independence and its attendant British domination that
challenged us.
At some stage, Americans came into the scene to compete with
the British. My novel, The Naked gods addressed that issue.
At that time, the interest of our country, Nigeria, was relegated
to the background. At that time American and British education
came to the fore. Issues began to arise and culture conflict
faded to the background.
For me, it has been one issue or the other and there has been
so much to write about. The problem confronting the youths
have been of interest and I’ve handled them at different
stages. At the primary school level, as explored in the Potters’
Wheel; it addresses the Igbo concept of child upbringing.
When I moved up to the secondary level, the issue of relevance
of education was treated in The Bottled Leopard. Issues that
are relevant to your life as a Nigeian boy was pushed to the
background. At the undergraduate level, I addressed the battle
between the adult society and the youths are featured in Our
children are coming.
There are many things that had actually spurred me on to write.
The novel entitled The Search is about my attempt to look
at military coups, and political developments in the country
when Nigeria was 20 years old. The ship of state was launched
in 1960, how far has it gone? I took a look at that.
Literature and politics
Well, I wrote The Search which was published in 1991, I wrote
the novel so that we could re-examine ourselves. Over the
years, one of te contemporary issues raised in the book has
to do with rotation of power. The issue is crucial because
one of the problems that is facing us as a nation is that
some people have arrogated to themselves the divine right
to rule for ever. The development has led to so many other
things.
The system of change of power has not been well organised.
When I gave the distingusihed alumni lecture of the university
of Ibadan, I mentioned the fact that, if I have my way, there’ll
be no political parties in this country between 20-30 years.
What we have now really means nothing to me. They are just
aggregations of people with common interests on how to loot
the country. There are no ideological differences among them.
That is why, somebody can wake up one day and cross to another
party.
When I write
Usually, it is in the early hours of the morning. By 5am,
I am already in my study. When I was at the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, I would rise up by 4am so that I could have
two hours of writing before I got ready to go to work. Unfortunately,
PHCN has not helped matters. I bought rechargeable lamps.
Worst still, some of the lamps are not of good quality. As
a result, I lose so much productive hours to blackout. But
I’ve devised a system wherby I put on my generator at
5 am, I’ll be in my study at these times. I believe
that if I can sustain that, I can achieve a lot more. But
when there are power interruptions, you have to bring yourself
back to where you stopped.
Writer’s block
Oh yes! There are times I can’t make any move. There
is a novel I call Conspiracy of Silence, I had the opportunity
of writing the novel with a fellowship from Rockefeller Foundation.
I wrote it in a conference centre in Italy which can be compared
to a Paradise on Earth. They gave me everything I needed to
work and there were no distractions in terms of phone calls.
But there was a time I was stucked for about three days.
With my character in the mortuary, when I was writing The
Naked Gods. One day, while travelling from Nsukka to my village,
the idea came. I just pulled off the road and I scribbled
something on paper. I did that so that it didn’t disappear.
Where I write
Oh yes! I write everywhere. Although my wife is not happy
that I write everywhere, so she advised that I should get
a driver because all the time, your mind is working. Someone
once said that you are at your best when you’re in the
toilet. At that instance, you’ll be very close to nature.
Your mind roams as the ideas come. Sometimes when I sleep,
the ideas come to me.
Between old and young writers
That is a rather difficult question to answer because one
cannot just start comparing what one has done with the works
of others. For example, Chimamanda Adichie wrote Half of a
Yellow Sun; the story of Nigerian civil war. I wrote Sunset
at Dawn, and I wrote much of it when I was in Biafra. This
is a difficult thing because the tendency is that you were
part of the experience. On the contrary, there are times,
I would write a story which I was part of the experience,
yet I would be detached. So, there is the tendency for one
to draw comparisms but I don’t want to get into that.
What one writes absolutely is for all times.
Literary prizes
These days, I think less about prizes. There was a time I
almost won a prize with Our Children are coming. But the literary
scholars, felt so reluctant to give the prize. So, they said
that it was an annual prize they were going to give. My publisher
accepted the cash prize of a cheque.
I wrote Sunset at Dawn while I was in Biafra experiencing
the Nigerian civil war. It was a difficult thing because the
tendency is that because you were part of it, can you detach
yourself? I tried to write a novel which I would be part of,
yet detached. So, there may this tendency to compare my works
with others based on this factor. I don’t want to get
myself involved in that. A writer’s work is for all
times.
There is a time for society itself to appraise these various
works. Right now, I don’t think about prizes any longer.
At the time I wrote Our Children are coming, the book almost
won a prize. But there was so much reluctance on the part
of the literary scholars to award the prize. So they said
that they were going to give a honourary award instead. My
publisher accepted the cash prize of a cheque, but I returned
the cheque to him. I reasoned that if the donors had doubts
in their minds, let them not give the prize. The idea is that
I was not a frontline member of the scholars’ guild
of that generation, but they forgot that I was not writing
for them at that time. I knew the kind of feedback I receive
on my works.
Lifetime award in Nigeria
I want to do more of that advocacy. There ought to be a major
prize for Literature in Nigeria; a kind of Lifetime’s
Achievement Award. The prize should not be based on one novel
or play because there could be a flash-in-the-pan work. But
we all know the problem of a Nigerian writer, based in Nigeria
and writing in Nigeria and having the mind of winning a Nobel
prize. There are other prizes in other parts of the world
that are based on Lifetime achievements. I want to see a prize
like that in Nigeria. Since the NLNG is giving a prize based
on one book and published within the current year, they can
go ahead but I am interested in Lifetime Achievement Award.
Audience Feedback
A young girl of 17 once wrote me from Paris, France, commending
me on my novel. She sent me card and asked me to sign my name
on it and return it to her. At that time, I had just returned
from Spain and foreign publishers were requesting to publish
the work. But back home, the responses of people no longer
matter to me. The truth is that, one-on-one, people appreciate
my works.
Target Audience
My major audience are Nigerians and Africans, primarily, people
of the younger generation. But I still write for everybody.
However, I am not eyeing the global market. A good novel,
if objectively assessed, will be accepted everywhere. For
example, there is an official of the Swiss embassy who met
me some years ago and told me that she sent copies of The
Bottled Leopard to his children back home to read. According
to him, he was able to know more about Nigeria in the book.
Piracy
My books have been pirated. Sometime I saw a pirated copy
of one of my books being sold at Ekwulobia, Anambra State.
In the case of that work, it was because my publisher failed
to make the book available in the market. It’s a very
terrible phenomenon which, ought to be fought ruthlessly.
But it should not stop you from writing.
Nigerian Book Foundation
The foundation is there, it’s only that we’re
having some problems. My problem now is how to get someone
to run it for me. I don’t even earn honorarium running
the place, but I can’t engage a young man to come and
run the place without being paid. We have a building; thanks
to the Education Tax Fund (ETF), but it’s the problem
getting a competent hand to manage it.
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