Nigerian author and poet Ben Okri. Okri’s recent public address entitled
‘Meditations on Greatness’ at this year’s ‘Africa Writes’ festival in
London, sponsored by the Royal African Society. I say witnessed, but
perhaps I should say endured. PHOTO | FILE
These are exciting times for African
literature. I have said it before and I probably will not get tired of
saying it as long as writers on the continent continue on the trajectory
they are currently on.
Having said
that many times, you can imagine I was back in December when
Booker-winning author Ben Okri stated in an infamous essay in the Guardian,
“…but black and African writers are read for their novels about
slavery, colonialism, poverty, civil wars, imprisonment, female
circumcision — in short, for subjects that reflect the troubles of
Africa and black people as perceived by the rest of the world.” Later on
in the essay he went on to state that it was time that black and
African writers ‘woke up from the mesmerism with subject.”
While
I was aware on reading the essay that Okri was writing to a British
audience that perhaps is more interested in African war stories, I
wondered whether he had bothered to read contemporary African writing
before writing his essay at all.
Aside
from the worrisome and patronising attitude of attempting to tell other
writers what to write, if Okri had been reading contemporary writing,
he would have known that genre fiction does exist be it crime fiction
(and no. I am not talking about Alex McCall-Smith), romance and even
science fiction.
Of
the latter, names like Lauren Beukes (who is African) bagged the
largest world prize in science fiction, the Arthur C. Clarke for her
novel Zoo City in 2011.
Then there
are names like Nnedi Okorafor (who is both black and African), Helen
Oyeyemi (black British of Nigerian origin) both of whom are
world-renowned and have been on the market for years, so what has Okri
been reading?
Fortunately for genre
writers, not everyone is like him and others have been reading and have
noticed the growth of science fiction on the continent.
Among
those who have noted this are people from that organisation that is a
great supporter of African arts — no, not African Union — but the Goethe
Institut.
The Goethe has thus
decided to have the topic of science fiction writing as a major part of
the discussions during its Afrofutures Festival taking place
simultaneously in the three African cities of Accra, Johannesburg and
Nairobi from October 28 to 31 from 10 am until late.
The
term ‘Afrofuturism’ was coined as far back as 1993 by Mark Dery and
explains a literary and cultural movement that combines elements of
science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity and magical
realism to critique not only present day dilemmas of black and African
people but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine historical
events, according to my friend Wiki.
The
topics for the festival will range from Africa’s speculative futures,
whether technology is a means or curse for the future and the future of
knowledge production on the continent in order to create something that
suits us as Africans.
In
Johannesburg, the aforementioned Beukes, Okorafor and an exciting new
voice in science fiction who I was lucky to workshop and who you can
read in the latest Caine anthology, Lusaka Punk and Other Stories,
Ghanaian Jonathan Dotse will form part of the crew.
OPEN TO ALL
Among
those taking part in Nairobi are filmmakers Judy Kibinge, Dr Wandia
Njoya, Nanjira Sabuli and many others. Most of the events here will
take place at the Goethe Institut.
I
am honoured to be moderating the Nairobi panel on literature entitled
Narratives in Science Fiction Literature where I will have as my
panelists Karsten Kruschel from Germany, South Africa’s Nikhil Singh and
Kenyans Tony Mochama, Richard Oduor and Awuor Onyango.
The last two contributed engaging (pun unintentional) short stories in the Jalada Afrofutures
series published online in January and their stories can be read there.
Mochama’s Nairobi 2063 is a work-in-progress and I hope to have access
to both Kruschel and Singh’s works by Sunday.
Of
course, the events are open to the public so we look forward to seeing
many of you there. And my only regret for these events, is that Ben Okri
is not going to be in any of the three cities hosting Afrofutures.
I wonder though, if he were, whether he would have given writers and readers on the continent a Booker-sized ‘mea culpa’ in The Guardian?
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