Ikhide,
You are entitled to your literary vituperation on Pa Awololowo but it is a demonstration of your hatred and disrespect for the Sage. I think you should find something more reasonable to write on.
Achebe was a great storyteller. He should be accorded a huge respect for his contributions to African literature. Be that as it may, I think it is not true that he was the father of African literature.
We need not look for anyone to be deified as the father of African literature because it (African literature) has no parents-father and mother.
Segun Ogungbemi.
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
--Please read today's Kabir Alabi Garba's interview of Professor Niyi Osundare in the Guardian, (Who Begat Literature, August 9, 2013). Ugh! Just when you think that certain issues have been laid to rest, someone comes along and asks the same questions over and over again. So, Garba asks Osundare about the dust-up regarding Achebe as the Founder of African literature, Achebe's legacy, and of course, Achebe's controversial best-seller, There Was A Country, the last book he wrote before he passed away ( Read my thoughts on the book here).I respect and admire Professor Osundare immensely but the interview does him a great injustice. Our newspapers have invested in mediocrity. There is a reason why the reading culture is dying in Nigeria, these newspapers are not much better than akara wrappers. This interview should have been heavily edited, grammatical challenges make this long rambling interview remarkable in its shoddiness. The responses could have used a weed whacker. I always thought Professor Osundare's strength was in the simplicity and grace of his prose. For a while there I was sure that it was Patrick Obahiagbon venting. Let's examine his response on the Father of Literature nonsense:"The so-called 'debate' rankles in its utter banality and jejuneness. It's nothing short of an exercise in false – but mischievous – genealogy, a nauseatingly egregious time-waster. As a writer, thinker, and humanist democrat, I'm averse to all kinds of assigned, imposed hierarchies and orchestrated myths of origin… 'Who Is the Father of African literature'? Let us go ridiculously biblical and reframe the question: Who Begat African Literature? Yes, it's that ludicrous… Well if we designate somebody — whether it's Achebe or Soyinka — as the father of African literature, who then would be the 'Mother of African literature'? Where, then, are the children of African literature? I think this Father designation is a manifestation of the Nigerian habit of overpraising public figures and privileging them into autocratic arrogance. This patriarchalisation is just one step short of utter deification, one of the notorious practices of Nigeria's public life. I don't think any author worth his/her salt would be eager to don this mantle. African literature could do without this primogenitorial distraction."Why are Nigerians being berated for what they did not do? We do not stay up at night worrying about who birthed African literature. Osundare is dead wrong when he says "we have to trace the origin of this Father - designation to critics, theorists, camp followers and praise singers." Soyinka and Osundare should take their gripe to the Nobel laureate, Professor Nadine Gordimer of South Africa, yes, South Africa, NOT Nigeria. She it was in 2007 who called Achebe the "father of modern African literature" as one of the judges to award him the Man Booker prize. Google it.Read the rest of my thoughts here...http://xokigbo.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/faux-storms-niyi-osundare-on-achebe-soyinka-biafra-and-fathers/- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
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