Uwem Akpan: The village priest who held the world spellbound with fiction

On the afternoon of May 19, 1971 a boy was born under a palm wine tree in Nigeria’s South South state of Akwa Ibom in a little village called Ikot Akpan Eda. That boy, who eventually grew up under the palm trees and interacted with men and women who shared folktales under the dangling palm […]

On the afternoon of May 19, 1971 a boy was born under a palm wine tree in Nigeria’s South South state of Akwa Ibom in a little village called Ikot Akpan Eda. That boy, who eventually grew up under the palm trees and interacted with men and women who shared folktales under the dangling palm fronds with kegs of palm wine passing between them, would grow up to be a Jesuit priest. He now happens to be an award winning writer also.

Uwem Akpan came to limelight with his debut novel Say You‘re One of Them, a collection of short stories that focuses on children in extreme situations in various countries. It was unique in the sense that the stories were told from the perspective of children living in different African countries under very different conditions. The book won Fr. Akpan the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book in 2009 as well as the PEN/Beyond Margin Prize (both in 2009). One of his short stories has also been nominated for the Caine Prize. It has been a phenomenal success and has had the Jesuit Priest, born under a palm wine tree, featured on Oprah’s Book Club, hosted by American talk show icon, Oprah Winfrey.

The writer, whose success has been achieved and celebrated abroad, has decided to bring his book back home to share with his Nigerian admirers. It has now been published by Book Kraft and the author is in Nigeria for a reading tour.

After studying philosophy and English at Creighton and Gonzaga universities, Uwem Akpan studied theology for three years at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 2003 and received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan in 2006.

In a chat with Sunday Trust, Uwem Akpan still cannot find the words to describe his elation over the astronomical success of the book. 

“I am very happy. I am very grateful to god. It has been a long process. It took me eight years to write the book. I don’t even know what to say,” he said. The joy and pride was evident on his face.

It was a long process indeed. Akpan had started writing late, when he was 28. He said failure led him to discover his other calling after he made up his mind to be a priest aged 11. He had been teaching in college in one of Lagos’ numerous slums when he thought of writing articles for The Guardian. After about two months, he realised they were not publishing them. He got angry and stopped reading the paper but eventually resumed after a while. This time, he noticed that they serialized short stories on weekends and decided to try his hand on one. That was how it started. The paper published his story within days!

Bidding his time

He took his time writing the stories that would eventually form the bedrock of his now famous first book. Eight years, he said.

“Some people are fast writers. Others like me are slow writers. You know I was doing it along with my training for the priesthood. And for me, writing is a lot of work. I write, I rewrite, and before I knew it, it was eight years,” he said laughing.

In those eight years, he wrote mostly at nights after he had attended his training. He used public computers and lost most of his work to virus – until a friend gave him a laptop. That was an encouragement that spurred him to greater heights.

Inspiration

There was also another inspiration – and this one too is not far removed from his village. He wanted to document “the endurance and resilience of the poor, the people of my village, the desire to say something about the situation, the conflicts that buck me in Africa. I wanted to talk about the difficult subject,” he said. He has indeed made a powerful statement that will endure for ages.

Home bound

Uwem Akpan, who now leaves in the United States, has not forgotten his roots. He remembers those story-filled days under the palm trees of his village, where stories were shared with palm wine after Sunday Mass. He has said severally that he intends to take his success back to that distant village where it all started.

He is a Jesuit Priest and has enjoyed celebrating the sacrament with his fellow villagers. Now he wants to share something else – the joy of the fictions they have inspired in him “with lots of tall tales, spontaneous prayers and palm wine!”

Months after he featured on the Oprah Book Club, the author is still overwhelmed by the experience. When asked about it, his face glowed. “It’s a great thing. It’s overwhelming. I am thankful to God. It’s a great favour given to me. I still don’t know how to capture it in words but I am thankful to God, to friends, to teachers, to all the people who have helped me,” he said.

Foot off the pedal

For now, the multiple award winning author is taking a break from the craft that has brought him fame and fortune. When asked if he was writing anything, he said, “No, nothing really, but I will soon get back to writing.”

For someone who took 28 years to discover the writer in him and eight years to put down his first book, one only hopes it doesn’t take that long for him to produce another masterpiece.