What Nigeria can learn from Korean litfest – Denja Abdulahi

How will you describe the 2014 Seoul International Writers’ Festival in view of organisation and content value?The festival was well planned with a lot of pre-festival activities involving communication between the invitees and the organisers on a whole range of issues spanning about six months to the event itself. The Festival itself was picture perfect […]

How will you describe the 2014 Seoul International Writers’ Festival in view of organisation and content value?
The festival was well planned with a lot of pre-festival activities involving communication between the invitees and the organisers on a whole range of issues spanning about six months to the event itself. The Festival itself was picture perfect in terms of organisation and the contents. There were 14 invited writers from across the world paired with 14 Korean writers and each pair provided with an interpreter to ease their interactions. There were free talks by each pair of writers in the daytime on the theme of the festival which was “Eros and Dream” and reading and performances in the evenings. The venues for the free talks and performances were well suited and well appointed to where the writers were accommodated to avoid logistical problems. The events were all on schedule including the historical tours and social activities. The pre-festival visit to Jeju Island was amazing and the performances that were generated from the writers’ works be it prose and poetry were equally intriguing. For example, my poem “Hanging out in an Abuja Garden” was dramatised in Korean language by Korean actors and was well received by the audience. My readings too of my four poems, which was translated into Korean language as I read with all the dramatics I put into them won the hearts of the audience. The festival showed practically that literature can overcome any barrier and can cross any bridge.

What is your total experience like?
My total experience at the Festival was very salubrious. I was amazed at the hospitality, friendliness, dedication to duty of the Korean people. I was impressed by the advancement of the Korean society and the quality of their lives. The fact that the Festival organisers could whip up any form of art demanded in the performances of the writers’ pieces intrigued me. At the Festival, I encountered several art forms, be it music and dance which are foreign to Korean, but which were performed by Korean artistes with all dexterity.

Did the Conference provide you with an opportunity to have a general overview of Korean and Asian Literature?
Yes, indeed, I got a glimpse of contemporary Korean and Asian literature from my participation at the Festival. Before the Festival itself, I received at my address in Nigeria, the published Festival Anthology containing the works of all the writers invited to the Festival. So I read up before the Festival before I encountered the writers in real life. From the talks, the readings and the performances, I deduced that there is a tendency towards abstraction, private philosophizing, fantasy and the like in Korean and Asian literature. I could attribute this to the seeming social and economic advancement of their societies where at least they no longer worry about the basics of life. I said this much at the free talks where I said such abstraction and such literature devoid of obvious social or political commitment is not tenable in the part of the world I come from. That assertion shook them a bit but was familiar to other writers who came from our kind of world like the man from Brazil, Tarso De Malo, who spoke in similar vein too. In a later discussion, a moderator of one of the talks, made reference to the shift in consciousness of Korean writers towards social commitment in the aftermath of the terrible Sewol Ferry tragedy earlier in the year in which over 300 young souls perished in the sea.

Prior to your attendance at the Festival, which Korean literature or author will you consider your favourite and why?
Prior to the Festival, I must confess I was not too familiar with Korean writers or literature beyond what I encounter  in my attendance of events at the Korean Cultural Centre in Abuja , my involvement in the annual Nigerian-Korean Poetry Festival organised by Arojah Concepts and my reading of magazines on Korean literature, procured from the Centre. I like the older Korean poets as they reflect on the turbulent worlds in which they lived. It may interest people in Nigeria to know that the Korean success of today has been achieved in a phenomenal period of about 4 decades. They have experienced grim poverty, brutal colonisation, dictatorship, fought wars, are still divided but have risen above all these to be tagged a first world country. I found Korean writers who have documented these turbulent histories interesting and I find their contemporary writers very talented in their range of abstraction, playfulness and fantasy. I do also love Korean folktales and the valorisation of people who laid the foundation of their present greatness such as their famous King Sejong, who single handedly invented the language they speak today and Admiral Yi Sin, who fought many naval battles against imperial Japan and never lost any.

From your visit to Korea and your interactions with their writers and others, what do you think we can learn from them?
We have a lot to learn. We need to know that we can rise above any situation to achieve a highly advanced and satisfied society. Hardwork, sincerity, sacrifices, quality education and the reality that we all must all be ready to lay the foundation for future greatness are all we need. The culture of service in Korea is great, everything is done with a smile and words of welcome and thanks. Technology has been used to advance and embellish arts in Korea. Old things, monuments and places of historical essence exist in their grandeur alongside sky scraping ultra modern constructs. In my country, old things are left to rot or are demolished to accommodate later to be abandoned mediocre modern constructions. In Korea, even in Seoul alone, the spaces for a poet, a novelist, a dramatist and an artist(e) of any hue to ply his or her trade are infinite, available in innumerable theaters, galleries and street corners. Where are those spaces in Abuja, Lagos or Kaduna? We are at the beginning of our learning from Korea and other such places where things that are enduring are never taken for granted like we do in Nigeria.