By Henry Akubuiro
American based Nigerian public intellectual, literary activist and book critic, Ikhide Roland Ikheloa, popularly called Pa Ikhide, has called on African writers to embrace digital publishing, as the publishing landscape is changing globally and online publishing offers more opportunities for writers to reach wider audiences.
Presenting a keynote speech entitled “For Onyeka Nwelue: The Times They Are A-Changing,” at the just ended James Currey Literary Festival held at the University of Oxford, who placed African literature on the world map through the African Writers Series, Pa Ikhide noted: “On balance, the West has been supportive of African literature, but the Internet and social media house authentic African narrative, unlike the sanitised gruel from many traditional Western publishing houses. We must revive the African narrative organically.”
Debunking the notion that Africans don’t read, he said, though the culture of reading books had dropped, Africans were still reading but on the internet: “On Twitter, we read the equivalent of several book chapters daily. The question should therefore be: What are you reading? NOT, what book are you reading?”
He, therefore, encouraged African writers to explore, among others, Tweets, stressing: “There will never be another Things Fall Apart, that’s not a bad thing. The future of reading is digital. There is an opportunity here to address the equity gap. In Africa, many people are reading bad content because they can’t afford good content housed in books. We need good books, and we need affordable good reading online.”
Pa Ikhide cautioned against judging the worth of African writers in the 21st century by their books alone. That appraisal, he said, must be holistic: “My honest view is that in the 21st century, one must not judge the worth of African writers by their books alone. You must look at their other works —their experiments on social media, online magazines, oral engagements, etc. The book remains an important part of literary media, but it is waning in influence largely due to social media and other avenues of expression.
“I’m fascinated and engaged by online media and innovation in presenting narrative. There are exciting opportunities to bridge the narrative equity gap in creative ways by going online where most young Africans in the continent are.”
Explaining more on the importance of social media to young African writers, he said: “For most young African writers, especially those living in Africa, social media is the publisher of choice for practical reasons. Publishing in much of Black Africa is mostly a loose term, a euphemism used to describe enthusiastic stapling guns.
“The best publishing is in the West, however hoping to make it into one of those publishing houses is a bit more realistic than hoping to win the Nobel prize. The few writers who do are understandably lauded and treated as the voices of an entire continent. They are important voices but are not the only voices of a vibrant continent.”
Pa Ikhide was full of accolades for Prof. Onyeka Nwelue, the young Nigerian scholar, who midwived the conference: “He is quite the enigma, but we thank our ancestors for the gift that he is. I am quite literally a student of his, following not only his writing but his documentaries, and his posts on social media that we all – lovers and haters die for every day.
“You must watch his documentary on Flora Nwapa, you must follow his work and loving relationship with the great Professor Wole Soyinka, and you must applaud his ongoing work rescuing young creatives in Africa and helping to resettle them in the West. He would probably be the first to tell you that it is good to take them away from Africa; one day, they will go back stronger and continue the good fight for the heart and soul of our continent.”
Acknowledging the contributions of Professor James Currey, Pa Ikhide said his generation of Africans was indebted to him for providing them with literature written by African writers: “My generation owes you a huge debt of gratitude for giving us all those beautiful writers who wrote for us because we needed books written for us. Books were our social media space, and I honestly do not know where I would be today, if the books of the African Writers Series had not taken me off the streets.”
Pa Ikhide, who is disenchanted with the indifferent stance of African writers to oppression going on on the continent, said they should do more: “As thinkers we are flung all over the West creating self-serving communities of intellectuals and writers enabled by lush funding from Western liberals. From there we pontificate and fight over literary grants and prizes. I know many writers who say they are apolitical, will not say boo about a massacre anywhere inside Africa, but their books are not wholesome bedtime stories, instead they are about the massacres that they would not comment on six years ago. They do find time to rail loudly against Donald Trump. The brand must be maintained: Be fire-breathing political dragons in the West but stay silent on Africa’s issues. There are many reasons for that. It is about fame and fortune.
“I am tempted to argue that in our current dispensation art is not only irrelevant but is in the way. We keep telling the same stories of despair and dislocation over and over and over again. Nothing changes; indeed, it is the case that many of the storytellers are in bed with our oppressors and/or traducers. What is the point of these stories? What is art to many of us is becoming bullshit to the poor and dispossessed. This is a crisis of narrative.”
He lamented further: “As we speak, in a democracy, hundreds have been slaughtered and writers and journalists routinely disappear, with not a word from our woke voices of conscience. These things keep me up at night. Why are we like this? Why are things the way they are?”
He, however, saluted the courage of the young Nigerians of Twitter, whose loud voices were making a difference, hoping “one day, they will rise like those young Americans and chant, ‘We are not our ancestors, we will fuck your up! We are not our writers, we will fuck you up! We are not our intellectuals, we will fuck you up!'”
The James Currey Literary Festival was organised by the James Currey Literary Society, founded by Prof Onyeka Nwelue, an Academic Visitor at Oxford University, in collaboration with the British Council. Alexandra Pringle, Executive Publisher of Bloomsbury: Legendary Nigerian writer, Prof. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo; the Secretary-General, Pan-African Writers Association, Dr. Wale Okediran, among other African writers on the continent and in the diaspora, attended the epoch-making event.