Why Nigerians are miles ahead of Kenyan writers

Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie.

The past weekend saw the London Premiere

of Adichie’s Half Of A Yellow Sun at the

BFI London Film Festival.

Friday, October 25, 2013, By KINGWA KAMENCU

In Summary

• Since its inception in 2000, Nigeria has monopolised the Caine Prize award, the continent’s most prestigious, winning it five out of 13 times.
• Kenyan authors should do research and avoid plagiarism if they want to be taken seriously.

Kenyan writers are trailing their West African counterparts in presence, recognition and output.

The past weekend saw the London Premiere of Chimamanda Adichie’s Half Of A Yellow Sun at the BFI London Film Festival.

Originally published as a book, the movie features renowned British-Zambian actress Thandie Newton and was directed by Adichie’s fellow Nigerian writer Biyi Bandele.

The 46-year-old Bandele, who has more than 10 published works under his belt, is also a playwright.

This is his first attempt at directing and producing a film.

Prior to this, The Caine Prize for African Writing was also awarded to a Nigerian writer Tope Folarin in July.

That Folarin was awarded was not news; what was unique, was the fact that three other Nigerians appeared on the shortlist of five.

MONOPOLY OF AWARDS

This large presence of young West African writers in all writing is not an isolated thing. Since its inception in 2000, Nigeria has monopolised the Caine Prize award, the continent’s most prestigious, winning it five out of 13 times.

Indeed, skimming through a list of prize-winners in African writing prizes, browsing through an Africana section in international bookstores, and discussing the big names in contemporary African writing, the preponderance of West African writing is just as loud as the glaring absence of East Africa’s.

That a large community of young writers exists in our region is undoubted. Critical names of the generation under and in their early 40s include Tony Mochama, Yvonne Owuor, Ng’ang’a Mbugua, Stanley Gazemba, Parsalelo Kantai, and Binyavanga Wainaina, to mention but a few from Kenya.

Ugandan writers of renown repute include Moses Isegawa, Jackee Batanda, Beverly Nambozo, Monica Arac de Nyeko and Doreen Baingana — mostly women writers that have emerged from the publishing and writing organisation Femrite.

So, why aren’t East African writers hitting the jackpot of fame, analysis, money and acclaim like their West-African contemporaries?

NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT

Dr Edgar Nabutanyi, a Literature don at Makerere, whose PhD thesis was based on Adichie’s works, suggests that Nigeria’s dominance could be attributed to unresolved issues of the post-colonial state, which gives its writers something to write about.

“The idea of The Trouble With Nigeria is one which even Chinua Achebe wrote about and is still to be solved.

Adichie and the younger generation of writers are thus still contesting, examining and rewriting it.

In Half Of A Yellow Sun, Adichie writes on the Biafran war. In Purple Hibiscus, she examines political instability. By virtue of its history, there is always something to write about Nigeria.”

Dr Nabutanyi says the other possible reason could be the earlier education opportunities Nigeria had as well as the country’s big population which would see a large group of people delve into every field.

However, the argument of the existence of the university of Ibadan from the 1940s may not hold as Makerere University in Uganda was also set up before independence, yet Ugandan writers are not substantially more prolific than their Kenyan counterparts.

In addition, Kenya has had its share of political upheavals, going back before independence, which would make the idea of writers having fewer themes to explore contestable.

LACKING DEPTH

Is the problem, therefore, that publishers are not doing enough to promote Kenyan writing?

David Muchungu, a fiction editor with a multinational publishing house disagrees. He places the problem at the feet of writers.

“There is a lack of depth in Kenyan writing,” Muchungu says. “As a publisher, you are looking for something that will stand the test of time.

If you are going to compare books and stories that win the Booker, Caine and Nobel Prizes, those are serious works.

What we see from the submissions we receive is lack of originality and manuscripts, where the writer is trying to copy others.”

Two-time Caine Prize nominee Parsalelo Kantai suggests that the long tradition of Literature in Nigeria going back to the 1950s and 1960s with Onitsha Market Literature has contributed to Nigeria’s radiant literary scene.

In addition, he says, the manner in which Nigerian writers have been celebrated over time has had a pay-off for writers there, unlike in Kenya.

“Bildad Kaggia was belittled for not owning land, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and others were jailed. Where was the incentive for a future generation of Kenyan writers when it looked like writing caused one’s family to get scattered and left them poor?”

FEW MENTORS

This is a view Tony Mochama agrees with. Prolific in his output of novels, novellas and anthologies, Mochama is the recipient of the 2013 Burt Award for a young adult’s novel.

“Nigerians have godfathers such as Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Booker Prize winner Ben Okri and Chinua Achebe, giving them something to look up to,” he says.

Mochama also believes the reading culture is more widespread in Nigeria, meaning writers have a local market.

“Kenyans still think reading books is an elevated pastime. They also have a mercantile thinking. Here, we are still functional; reading mostly to pass exams,” he says.

Another writer, Gloria Mwaniga, attributes the success of Nigerian writers to marketing.

“Chimamanda is successful in her writing because of good marketing and PR. She is presented as successful, intelligent and beautiful and people resonate with that,” she says.

With this in mind, therefore, is all lost for Kenyan writers or, as Vladimir Lenin would have asked — what is to be done?

Muchungu has some pieces of advice for writers from the publisher’s side.

“Young writers need to be more serious and do lots of research. They need to have good plots, interesting stories, strong characterisation and other elements,” he says.

Kantai says even if progress is slow, something is happening.

“I don’t think we’ll go for the next five years without seeing a few substantive new works. I know writers that are busy on writing projects.”
He also believes that despite the lack of literary output, the endeavours being made to strengthen the literary scene may eventually see East Africa surge ahead.
“The East African project is in a way more interesting than the Nigerian one. There’s been an attempt to develop the literary infrastructure with organisations like Kwani and the various literary festivals.

In Nigeria, publishers do not act like launch-pads but conduits from outside, to introduce diasporic writers to local readership.”

Even with the understated war for supremacy between Nigeria and Kenya seen on internet spats, Nigeria is in truth not the only country our writers need to fight.

SEARCH FOR INSPIRATION

South Africa also flexes large literary muscles, having produced two Nobel laureates; Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee. It also has a vibrant publishing scene and having scooped the majority of Commonwealth book prizes in the continent over the years.

Mochama suggests looking further afield for challenge and inspiration.

“We could look to the US where they have set the bar because of their dominance. They have an exciting tradition of literary magazines - The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Dog And Pound and others. As a third world country, India would be an example of how to write in an international language but still break away from the West,” he says.

Indeed, Western countries such as the US, France, Germany and the UK possess lurid literary communities, secrets from which Kenyan writers could steal.

These four countries have been in the lead in garnering Nobel Prizes in Literature, the top commendation in writing, having won nine, thirteen, nine, and ten prizes respectively.

Even as the refrain of what the government can do to promote Literature in Kenya lies quiet in the background, the onus is on writers to take steps to expand their opportunities to make literary glory closer to their reach.