Veteran African Writers and the Burden of Memory

Veteran African Writers and the Burden of Memory

At the first of the series titled ‘Conversation with Veteran Writers Series’ hosted by the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), Dr Wiebe Boer probed into the world of the first generation of African writers during an interview session with the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka. Yinka Olatunbosun reports.

The fake news on social media may not be the only thing that irks Prof. Wole Soyinka; a person may pose as a scholar to make a baseless claim that could question his integrity as well as those of other writers of his generation. That was the conflict in the plot of this conversation with Dr. Wiebe Boer, a former Associate Director at the Rockefeller Foundation. Born and raised in Jos, Boer reminisced on some moments of mundane activities before the session took on a more critical dimension. Soyinka brought to the fore a matter that many in the literary circles had been silently curious about.

“It is a racist attack for someone to sit down some whether and write that African writers are CIA protégées. I find it obnoxiously racist,’’ Soyinka remarked. He further recounted how some elements had dug into his personal life to recount of the days he made regular visits to the United States of America, asserting that he has some affiliations with the CIA. That was the history behind one of his Intervention Book series titled “Trumpism in Academe: The Example of Caroline Davis and Spahring Partners.” It was a rejoinder to the claim that Soyinka had some connections with the CIA. When asked how he felt about this claim by the writers, he had two words: ‘anger’ and ‘rage.’ He had to jettison the thought of staging a drama production to write this book. Soyinka always expresses his regrets for the errors in the first edition of the book which he explained to Boer as being hurried done.

Another scholar claimed in an online publication that the CIA was the most active and influential patron of African Anglophone Literature during the 1960s. In addition, he wrote that CIA funded many first generation African writers through its European affiliate, the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Reportedly, the CIA monies reached nearly all Anglophone African intellectuals but the real source of the funding was hidden from the recipients.

Soyinka had to set the record straight not only for himself but for the sake of other first generation writers many of whom are not alive to read or defend themselves against the claim by the writers. With the burden of memory of this past on his mind, Soyinka explained that many leading scholars today are organized in elite clubs which receive funds as grants from donor organizations, many of which may not be known to them. Still, he argued that he had no dealing of any sort with CIA to incur such scrutiny and attack from the writers of such distorted historical accounts. For him, there is no question on his morality as regards his merit as a writer of conscience.

Boer was curious as to how he has remained humble despite being one of the most sought-after scholars in the world.

“Maybe I was just lucky to have been brought up the way I was. A child or every individual grows up with examples of life choices and will eventually make a choice. Why is it that someone makes a choice and others make another? That is a question for psychologists and religious people. It could be because I witnessed political agitations as child and I formed humanists’ lessons from those agitations. I asked questions. I was very inquisitive as a child and somehow along the line, I was able to create a moral pin for myself. There are certain principles I live by that made it difficult for me to be affected by the notoriety and fame. Fortunately, I was never raped as a child. I was not corrupted by wealth. That’s a fact of life. When I am broke, I do things that I love and I feel like I am living a very rich life, even when such things are risks-laden. There is a satisfaction when I come through. And if I don’t come through the way I want to, there are lessons to be learnt,’’ he said.

While reflecting on his latest prose titled “Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth,’’ Soyinka described the process of writing and completing the book as “hard labour.’’
“We are entitled to the truth about ourselves. We spent all of our lives protecting our freedom of expression,’’ he remarked. Part of the truths he told in the book is on the theme of corruption using real life stereotypes in government and religion. As a restless humanist, he raised the question of what really should define an individual as a human, citing an example of a father who defiles his daughter for years and was later joined in the dastardly act by his son.

“We need to re-examine the use of the word and its definitions. Is that act human? Does the perpetrator of the act deserve the honour or categorization of being considered as human? Certain forms of conduct for me place such people as below the expression of human; not entitled to protocols of the community. It is a very delicate issue, a very complex one but anyone who has been in this society, this struggle called Nigeria today in the past 10 or 15 years must surely from time to time be addressing that question internally even if not expressed externally,’’ he said.
Soyinka also blamed corruption on Nigeria’s colonial roots and how the colonial public servants were indoctrinated into the act.

“The colonial mentality still plagues many of our people- the distortion of values. And in addition, the British contributed to the mess that we are today. In some of their writings, the British civil servants forged the census figures and rigged the elections. One civil servant named Smith wrote in his book that ‘Nigerians didn’t invent rigging, we taught them.’ I couldn’t physically strangle them but as a writer, I took my revenge doing what I do best,’’ he said, smiling.

The first of its kind, the series had as moderator, PAWA President, Dr. Wale Okediran.

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