Aniebo: 'My quarrel with Nigerian critics'

[Okwy Okeke]

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/arts/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=040409&ptitle=Aniebo:%20'My%20quarrel%20with%20Nigerian%20critics'   Aniebo: 'My quarrel with Nigerian critics' Ifeanyichukwu Ndubuisi Chikezie Aniebo's 70th birthday, last weekend, provided him with the opportunity to bare his mind on sundry issues, especially his relationship with critics, particularly Nigerian critics, whom he accused of not doing enough to help Nigerian writers, but who are merely self-serving in their critiques. He explains the role of critics as guides who provide compasses with which writers consummate their craft. Aniebo takes a critical look at Nigeria's inconsistent education system as one that produces youths who do not like to read. He blames the dearth of serious publishing in the country as dealing a blow to the growth of literary activities; and also speaks about his works and their preoccupation with issues of power and the creative writing course, which he has taught at the University of Port-Harcourt for about 30 years and his plan to write his best novel yet as he goes into retirement. ANOTE AJELUOROU was at the birthday bash last week Friday. You stated earlier that you hated critics. What is your grouse with critics? I have a quarrel with Nigerian critics, not foreign critics. I found out that Nigerian critics are mostly based in Nigerian institutions of higher learning or if they were trying to break into the newspaper mould, they were people who could not normally write an article but could say one or two things about books. So the editor has a box full of books and says to him go and review them. In that case, you're not writing criticism out of love for what you're doing but as a way of getting into something else. That's what I refer to as institutional critics. They write things to be promoted. They are not writing to help the writers or readers. They write to shore up their own value. Criticism of the arts is to direct the artist, to open up new vistas for the artist, to show him where he thinks the writer is going wrong so he can see example and question his work -am I wrong here or not? But the institutional critics are not just trying to get themselves promoted but they are also trying to get the artist destroyed. They will not even touch your book until somebody from abroad begins to make noise about your work. If Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun) had been writing in Nigeria, who would have heard about her? But because she is writing from America and the Americans are giving her awards, now every lecturer in Nigeria wants to write about her, whether they are saying something revealing or not. Is that helping Chimamanda? No! Professor Wole Soyinka was in Port-Harcourt for a literary event some time back. Could you imagine that a whole professor was there presenting 'Notes on Chimamanda'? That was what he read to us, with Wole Soyinka, Koffi Awonor from Ghana and I.N.C. Aniebo all there, and he was talking about somebody who was not there; and he knew that we were all going to be there. So, what was he writing about Chimamanda for? For whom? Was it so that the poor girl would hear about it later? And it was a critical session. I found that laughable; I would rather not present anything than force myself read that type of trash. There are a lot of your colleagues here at the University of Port-Harcourt who are literary critics. Are you saying they are guilty of this offence as well? Yes, yes; they are! Amazingly, they are. I accused one directly recently. I said, show me one Nigerian writer you have made popular - you know, critics make writers popular - and there was none he could show me. I have written a paper published in a magazine, where I said it totally that I hate critics. There are good critics, no doubt. Professor Isidore Okpewo, for instance, is a fantastic critic. If he writes anything about my book, I'll take it and study it and make sure to correct it in my next work, whatever wrong thing he has pointed out because he's trying to show me the way. You have written a lot of works but it appears you're not as popular as you should be. Why is this the case? Aniebo: It's hard to say why your work is popular or is not popular. Sometimes, popularity is a surprise to me. When my students sometimes hail me, I just look at them in a funny way. As a human being I can't arrogate to myself that what I've done is fantastic. Is it good? Yes! So, I don't know why my works are not that popular. Have you read new writings by Nigerians in recent years? What is your view about them?I have not because I don't know where to get them. This says terrible things about the state of publishing in the country right now. If you're in Lagos I guess, you'll be able to see the books to buy. But in Port-Harcourt, where will you see the books? Where? We don't have bookshops. This university does not have a bookshop; all you see there are books by lecturers from the university. You rarely find Koffi Awonor, for instance, how much more books by young writers. Where would you find them? Show me the bookshop. I used to go to Rainbow bookshop and I bought Ngugi wa Thiong'o's new book, Wizard of the Crow. Then I went back again. Trust Nigerians; the same book covered an entire shelf. In any case, I don't just buy a book; I have to see the sentence construction before I buy it. Sir, are you saying that you're not conversant with new writers like Sefi Atta, Niyi Bandele, Helon Habila as a teacher of creative writing? Are you only fixated in writers of the 60s, 70s and 80s? I wouldn't say fixated. That language is taking on some strong implication that I have to immediately counter. The problem is actually that the type of publishing here in Nigeria is so bad that you rarely get the opportunity to see new works being written. The publishers will not send you copies to buy. The lecturer is so poorly paid that by the time he finishes taking care of his family needs and others, he find it difficult to find enough money to go in search of new works. I'm still driving a 1984 car; it's always at the mechanic's workshop. Any book you lay your hands on is N1000, N800, N900 or more. And if after you've bought it and you find you are very unhappy with the content. So, why buy it? The young ones don't seem to know about these books either. If they did, they will suggest it to you. I read the other day that a Nigerian, Uwem Akpan, won the Commonwealth prize. Where do I find that book to buy? Where? What do you see as the problem confronting literature today in Nigeria? The problem lies with the educational system as a result of past activities by Nigerians who continually changed our educational system. As a result, we keep creating people who cannot and do not want to read. I have a Boys Quarter in my house. The way I know that electricity has arrived is when I hear their radio or music blaring. And I say to myself, these are undergraduates, when will they read? We're creating students who don't like to read. Within our own university system, if you recommend a book, students don't buy it. It's such that students brag that they went through university without buying a book; they brag about it. For them to buy a book, you have to set examination on it. Then there's the usual complaint that students are forced to buy hand out. Of course, it's because they will not buy the books you recommend for them. They would rather have the hand out than to buy a book. Why don't I make some money out of the hand out, which students prefer for me to survive? So if we can steady our educational system, the better for us. If we're going to have 6-3-3-4 system, let's stay that way; not that tomorrow we now want to try 4-3-3-4 or 4-4-4-4. Who do they think they are? Is it because they are the powers-that-be and that's why they can arrogate all the powers to themselves? It's our children that are being thrown up and down, you know. This also affects literary output as much as it affects other areas of our life. What has been your experience teaching creative writing? It's been a joyful experience. I discovered that out every sixteen that came to the class, at least two came because they love it. The rest stayed because they felt it was easier than other courses. So, they were just trying to pass the course; that was their sole worry. But the two that you'll find were okay for me anyway. Is it possible to teach how to write? Yes; it is. Wouldn't it rather sound like being prescriptive? And, is writing not a gift? I agree that writing is a gift but you have to unearth that gift. Because of the type of society that we are, we don't have the opportunity for the students to do it themselves. It need not be prescriptive either because when eventually the independence starts off, he'll throw away whatever he was thought and create his own style. You need to have somebody directing you for a while. What is the best way to teach creative writing? The best way is to get the students to write for you as soon as you see them on whatever they like. Don't give them topics to write on. Let them express their emotions in it. Read them line by line. I don't believe in making rules on how to write. Show them with practical examples. Are a fulfilled teacher and writer? I'm fulfilled as a scholar but not yet as a writer because I haven't done my major work yet even at 70. My life has been divided in phases. I'm not like everybody else; some people are luckier than me in that respect. At first I was enamoured by the army, so I went to the army. I dropped out of high school to join the army; not because my father couldn't afford school fees or that I couldn't pass. I voluntarily left school. Then the civil war said my friend, where are you going? That was the end my career in the army. I said how would I keep body and soul together? I went to the university and that enabled me to teach. But I found that somehow there was a kind of incompatibility between teaching and writing. Writing demands that you go into a different world, where you'll not be disturbed; teaching demands that you stay in the here and now, where you'll be disturbed. And to marry the two is a difficult task. So, I slowed down in my writing. I'm now going to start my writing again. Now, in some of your works, there's the element of illusion of power, especially in the relationships between superiors and subordinates in Anonymity of Sacrifice. How true is this? Definitely the illusion of power. When people become powerful, they tend to forget that their power depends on the people around them, that any day the people decide - not necessarily the general populace - but people close to those in power, any day they decide to puncture that balloon, that is it. They cannot do anything about it because they have closed their eyes to the possibility of a thing like happening. Look at the way powerful people die, starting from Julius Caesar. He died when Brutus stabbed him. With the others, he was still defending himself because he knew he could overpower them but when Brutus, his closest friend stabbed him, he knew the end had come. Yes, I'm trying to give a message to everyone, not just the power elite. I want to tell the downtrodden, look, that person you're looking up to as the most powerful person on earth, he's just as weak as you. You can knock him down any day you decide. You're the one keeping him there. That's the message I'm trying to give Are you advocating a revolution? No; not really. The disgraceful thing in Nigeria is that when you see something wrong, you say let the authority do it. Who is the authority? We used to talk about everyone being everyone's brother's keeper. These days we just cut ourselves away, which is why evil continues to multiply. This view is made more manifest by my own experience. It looks like I have an instinctual understanding of the illusion of power as I was growing up because I didn't have to learn it. It didn't only confirm but also made my whole relationship with evil and those in power go in a particular direction. The day I hear you're a head of state, I'll stop knowing that you exist. I'll not expect anything from you because I know that you're now invested with power and you're no longer human.   © 2003 - 2007 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved).