Book review: Beyond
the screen
By HENRY AKUBUIRO(akuhen@sunnewsonline.com)
Sunday, February 17, 2008
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Photo:
Sun News Publishing
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Spectrum Books, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2007, pp. 337
Eugenia Abu has won national renown as a broadcaster. Her
regular appearance on NTA (Nigerian Television Authority)
network news and other programmes has made her a viewer’s
favourite on screen.
But her twenty-five years in the media is not just inhabiting
the world of the tube: she has a predilection for journalistic
writing, which she, in her book, In the Blink of an Eye, manifests
profoundly.
Abu’s effort is an amalgam of commentaries on celebrities,
topical issues, women affairs, literary reviews, spectacular
encounters with political personalities and intellectual icons,
tributes to the dead and personal meditations. Besides, it
reads like a testament on modern Nigeria because of her reflections
on the state that span over many years and different political
era.
In the Blink of an Eye consists of mainly the articles she
wrote as a columnist and contributor to The Guardian newspaper
and other publications like Crown Prince, ThisDay, New African,
TimesWeek, Vonscope, as well as some unpublished pieces.
They highlight the verve of a woman who is conscious of her
immediate and outside environments, offering her perspectives
on sundry issues that change the complexity of these environments.
It equally testifies to the extent of her transcultural associations
with the globe.
The eight parts the book is subdivided recapture different
vistas of life. These include “The Readers Collective”,
“The Early Years”, “London Glimpses”,
“The Beijing”, “Crown Prince”, “One-on-One”,
“The Ink Never Dies”, and “The Ones Who
Went Away”.
In the Blink of an Eye begins on humorous note – a style
that recurs in this book – with the article “I
am Completely Baffled by …”, which appeared in
The Guardian of Friday February 24, 2006. According to her:
“Since the new GSM revolution caught up with Nigeria,
I don’t know whether it is really me, consciously; but
I suffer anxiety attacks when I am in crawling traffic or
a traffic light point…” she is talking about the
GSM madness that has taken over the country.
Her review of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s first novel,
Purple Hibiscus, goes with the title, “The Purple in
Purple Hibiscus”. Abu sees the offering as an incredible
read. Other aspects of the book she finds compelling are “the
content of the book, the storyline, the craftsmanship of the
writer and the elegance of the language” (p. 10).
The trials of Winnie Mandela, the estranged wife of former
South African president, Nelson Mandela, comes under focus
in the article, “Was Winnie a Sacrificial Lamb?”,
where she offers that despite her tribulations: “ …
we have not heard the last of Winnie. She would be on the
South African political landscape for a long time to come.
She has said herself that she would continue to be a member
of the ANC for as long as she lives. Meanwhile all attempts
are being made to destroy her politically, but is it possible
to wipe Winnie from the face of history?” (p. 17).
“Pychoanalysing Michael Jackson”, an article she
wrote in The Guardian of September 27, 1992, is another interesting
read in the collection. She chronicles the evolution of Michael
Jackson from “a confident African-looking eleven-year-old”,
to a “legend by all definitions”, and finally
a weird transformation to “a talented black artiste
[lost] to vanity and the vagaries of stardom” (p. 33).
The article, “Jerricans Vs Motor Car” reminds
of the sorry days in the country when petroleum supply at
filling stations were so scarce that motorists had to queue
up and sleep over with their jerricans for fuel supply in
their motors. “I could not believe it. I moved closer
to the fuel pumps and discovered the genre of the jerrican.
Everyone struggled to buy fuel in the jerrican while those
in cars queued up endlessly…” she narrates her
personal experience (p. 53).
Of course, Abu is concerned about fashion and its designers.
In her article, “Of Fashion and Nigerian Designers”,
she discusses the fashion revolution going on in the country.
She posited that “we are slowly reaching the pinnacle
of fashion designing in Nigeria and with more hard work and
creativity, we shall soon be heard of internationally”
(p. 61). More than twenty years have past since she wrote
that article (it was published in The Guardian of December
20, 1987), it has become prophetic, because the Nigerian fashion
industry has since started exporting its products abroad because
the quality of the designs produced here is quite alluring.
Family issues, such as health, are among her preoccupations.
So are education and the press. Universal issues, such as
the North-South dichotomy, also reverberate in her journalistic
engagement. The article she wrote, “Between North and
South”, which was published in TimesWeek, is an eye-opener.
The Euro Question is reechoed in her article on the issue
in which she addresses the phlegmaticism of Britain in embracing
the European Union’s monetary and political contraption
then.
For us in Africa, it fashionable to look down on what we have,
especially when it comes to fashion; foreign fads are often
preferred; but it was during her sojourn to London that the
broadcaster discovered that, all over Europe, there was a
craze for African fashion, popularly dubbed “the ethnic
look”.
Her article on “Ethnicism as a Fad” is centred
on this. She, going by the crave for the African look, votes
that: “As for the ethnic look, all that remains to be
done is for businessmen and governments in Africa to take
advantage of this craze by the West, capitalize on it, promote
it, co-ordinate it and turn it from just being a symbol to
fluid cash. With copyright becoming a hot word issue, you
never know, we can in fact claim copyright for some of these”
(p. 97).
The sixth part of the book is based on her television interviews
as well as encounters with political and other intellectual
celebrities. Some of these include President Obasanjo of Nigeria,
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Professor Wangari
Maathai, the endearing environmental activist and campaigner
from Kenya; Professor Wole Soyinka, Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o,
Eddie Iroh, former NTA DG, among others.
At 337 pages, In the Blink of an Eye cannot be read in a blink
of an eye. It a must-read that treats multiple concerns. To
echo the comment of the ANA president, Hon. Wale Okediran,
on the blurb, “[it] is a worthy tribute to literary
passion, perseverance and pluck … a collector’s
item.”
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