2015: A year of literary glory for Nigeria

As 2015 draws to a close, one can almost imagine the literary nostalgia that may later be experienced by Nigerian literature lovers. This year, a lot happened on the ‘Island’ of literature. Some not-so-very known names became popular within the period of nomination for a prize and clinching it. A typical example is Lesley Nneka […]

As 2015 draws to a close, one can almost imagine the literary nostalgia that may later be experienced by Nigerian literature lovers. This year, a lot happened on the ‘Island’ of literature. Some not-so-very known names became popular within the period of nomination for a prize and clinching it. A typical example is Lesley Nneka Arimah, a consistent writer who is yet to author a book.
She was catapulted to limelight when she became the Africa regional winner of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story ‘Light,’ about a father who struggles to bring up a budding daughter and a mother who depends on Skype from a far-away country to groom her.
A story exuding an almost intimidating confidence, Arimah opens with “When Enebeli Okwara sent his girl out in the world, he did not know what the world did to daughters,” takes the story to the future and ends with the past. The narrative brings to mind the insecurity parents may feel when their daughters go out into the world and begin to explore it in ways better not imagined.
One of Arimah’s most recent stories published in The New Yorker, titled ‘Who Will Greet You at Home,’ was about a young woman in Nigeria who, in order to have a child, must first fabricate it from a material of her choice, which will determine its character. When she was asked in an interview on the same platform whether the idea was drawn from a particular folktale or myth, or purely her own, she responded: “It is a myth of my own invention. I am taken with the idea of creating new myths that speak to our current world in the same way that old mythology spoke to the world in its creators’ time.”
When Chigozie Obioma’s debut novel, ‘The Fishermen,’ came out, it received generous reviews and the writer soon became a recipient of the inaugural FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Award, was on the shortlist for the Centre for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Edinburgh Festival First Book Award, and the Man Booker Prize. The list of the book’s exploits on different literary landscapes is almost inexhaustible, from being the New York Times Editors Choice to one of Financial Times’ best books of the year.    
‘The Fishermen’ has proved to be an outstanding debut, with Obioma describing the tale of three brothers as an attempt to tell the universal story of family bonds and what happens when they are severed. 
Pemi Aguda was announced the winner of this year’s Writivism Short Story Prize at a ceremony in Kampala, Uganda, in June for ‘Caterer, Caterer,’ a bold narrative about a caterer who found herself in a quagmire when asked to cook for a local church and discovered they were in the business of using human meat to control their members. In an interview with Brittle Paper, an online literary magazine, Aguda revealed where her inspiration came from: “There was something that happened in Soka of Ibadan (in Ogun State, Nigeria) last year where bodies in varying states of decomposition were found in a forest. They were discussing it on radio when a woman called in. She spoke about how these ritualists weren’t working only for politicians but for churches too. She then told a story of a friend of hers (it’s always a friend) who was a caterer and had been invited to cook human parts for a church ceremony. I found it odd that the church would tell her before she showed up; especially if they were interested in keeping it hush. And so a million ‘what-ifs’ popped up in my head and the story came from there.”
Two Nigerian novelists, Helon Habila, author of ‘Oil on Water,’ ‘Measuring Time’ and Teju Cole, who wrote ‘Open City’ and ‘Every Day is for the Thief,’ were named among the winners of this year’s Windham Campbell Literature Prizes administered by Yale University, an Ivy League institution based in New Haven, Connecticut. A unique feature of the prize, worth $150, 000 per recipient, is that the winners are selected from a pool of writers nominated without their knowledge by other writers and academics around the world and then the panel of judges makes the final decision. The prize is awarded to honour and support writers anywhere in the world writing in English.
Habila’s novels tend to revolve around writers. ‘Oil on Water’ is about two journalists sent to find the wife of a British oil executive who has been kidnapped. ‘Waiting for an Angel’ is also about a journalist who is later jailed, and ‘Measuring Time,’ where the central character, Mamo who suffers from the sickle cell disease, becomes a local historian.  
Cole’s ‘Open City,’ about an American psychiatrist – and is of German and Nigerian extraction – was described in The Guardian UK review as effective at dramatising the relationship between objective and subjective experience. The other, ‘Every Day is for the Thief’ is about a young man living in New York City who goes to Lagos for a short and revealing visit.
Just recently, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, clinched the Best Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel ‘Half of a Yellow Sun,’ a tale of  two sisters, a professor and a journalist during Nigeria’s civil war, also known as the Biafran war. Adichie said about the book: “I grew up in the shadow of Biafra. I grew up hearing ‘before the war’ and ‘after the war’ stories; it was as if the war had somehow divided the memories of my family. I have always wanted to write about Biafra – not only to honour my grandfathers, but also to honour the collective memory of an entire nation.
Adichie is also the author of the novels – ‘Purple Hibiscus,’ and ‘Americanah.’
In their own way, all these writers have succeeded in lending a voice to Nigeria, particularly its history and rich culture.
 that old mythology spoke to the world in its creators’ time.”
When Chigozie Obioma’s debut novel, ‘The Fishermen,’ came out, it received generous reviews and the writer soon became a recipient of the inaugural FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Award, was on the shortlist for the Centre for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Edinburgh Festival First Book Award, and the Man Booker Prize. The list of the book’s exploits on different literary landscapes is almost inexhaustible, from being the New York Times Editors Choice to one of Financial Times’ best books of the year.    
‘The Fishermen’ has proved to be an outstanding debut, with Obioma describing the tale of three brothers as an attempt to tell the universal story of family bonds and what happens when they are severed. 
Pemi Aguda was announced the winner of this year’s Writivism Short Story Prize at a ceremony in Kampala, Uganda, in June for ‘Caterer, Caterer,’ a bold narrative about a caterer who found herself in a quagmire when asked to cook for a local church and discovered they were in the business of using human meat to control their members. In an interview with Brittle Paper, an online literary magazine, Aguda revealed where her inspiration came from: “There was something that happened in Soka of Ibadan (in Ogun State, Nigeria) last year where bodies in varying states of decomposition were found in a forest. They were discussing it on radio when a woman called in. She spoke about how these ritualists weren’t working only for politicians but for churches too. She then told a story of a friend of hers (it’s always a friend) who was a caterer and had been invited to cook human parts for a church ceremony. I found it odd that the church would tell her before she showed up; especially if they were interested in keeping it hush. And so a million ‘what-ifs’ popped up in my head and the story came from there.”
Two Nigerian novelists, Helon Habila, author of ‘Oil on Water,’ ‘Measuring Time’ and Teju Cole, who wrote ‘Open City’ and ‘Every Day is for the Thief,’ were named among the winners of this year’s Windham Campbell Literature Prizes administered by Yale University, an Ivy League institution based in New Haven, Connecticut. A unique feature of the prize, worth $150, 000 per recipient, is that the winners are selected from a pool of writers nominated without their knowledge by other writers and academics around the world and then the panel of judges makes the final decision. The prize is awarded to honour and support writers anywhere in the world writing in English.
Habila’s novels tend to revolve around writers. ‘Oil on Water’ is about two journalists sent to find the wife of a British oil executive who has been kidnapped. ‘Waiting for an Angel’ is also about a journalist who is later jailed, and ‘Measuring Time,’ where the central character, Mamo who suffers from the sickle cell disease, becomes a local historian.  
Cole’s ‘Open City,’ about an American psychiatrist – and is of German and Nigerian extraction – was described in The Guardian UK review as effective at dramatising the relationship between objective and subjective experience. The other, ‘Every Day is for the Thief’ is about a young man living in New York City who goes to Lagos for a short and revealing visit.
Just recently, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, clinched the Best Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel ‘Half of a Yellow Sun,’ a tale of  two sisters, a professor and a journalist during Nigeria’s civil war, also known as the Biafran war. Adichie said about the book: “I grew up in the shadow of Biafra. I grew up hearing ‘before the war’ and ‘after the war’ stories; it was as if the war had somehow divided the memories of my family. I have always wanted to write about Biafra – not only to honour my grandfathers, but also to honour the collective memory of an entire nation.
Adichie is also the author of the novels – ‘Purple Hibiscus,’ and ‘Americanah.’
In their own way, all these writers have succeeded in lending a voice to Nigeria, particularly its history and rich culture.