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Books by Charles E. Nnolim
Melville's "Benito Cereno": A study in meaning of name
symbolism.
New Voices Pub. Co., 1974.
Approaches to the African novel: Essays in analysis.
Saros International Publishers, 1992.
Role of Education in Contemporary Africa: Proceedings.
Pwpa Books, April 1988
Critical Essays on Ken Saro-Wiwa's Sozaboy. Saros
International Publishers, April 1992
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Association of
Nigerian Authors Targets Young Minds
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
Penultimate Saturday (February
10, 2007), I was at the maiden “Secondary School Reading
Outreach” organized by the Association of Nigerian
Authors (ANA), Imo State Chapter, which held at the
Logos International Secondary School (LOGISS), Kilometer
24, Owerri-Onitsha Highway, Awo Omamma, Imo State.
LOGISS, a high-flying mission school, which has as its
motto: “Academic Excellence And Godliness Of The
Youth” aims at combining sound academic knowledge
with a strong moral foundation to turn out exceptional
youths with sufficient intellectual and moral properties
to face the challenges of industry and leadership in
this our increasingly difficult and perilous world.
Located on a very large expanse of land, its very serene
and clean environment, solid, exquisite structures, and
very aesthetically rich, well-kept, natural
surroundings, provide generous incentive for beneficial
teaching and learning.
Mannu Enyiegbulem, an
accomplished poet and Professor of Polymer Engineering,
Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri, who
chaired the occasion, (and who, like several others, was
visiting the school for the first time), could not help
expressing the pleasant feelings the school had provoked
in him. He told the gathering that because of the
special interest he had suddenly developed in LOGISS, he
would endeavour to maintain a very good relationship
with the school and would be most glad to make any
contributions he could to ensure the school continued to
soar.
Prof Enyiegbulem’s speech that
day centred on the importance of avid, wide reading as a
prerequisite for success in writing and scholarship. The
students, he advised, must cultivate the habit of
writing always, stressing that they can write on any
topic, even on animals or insects. “Go on writing. Don’t
be afraid of making mistakes. When you do, your teachers
are there to correct you,” he counseled with his
benevolent fatherly mien and voice.
I was told that Prof
Enyiegbulem (probably in his sixties) had
single-handedly set up the Department of Polymer
Technology at FUTO, in fact, the first of its kind in
the country. Although a scientist, his interest in
literary explorations is most challenging, and even at
his age, he has remained very active in ANA activities.
He has written several poems, and published three books
of poetry, but I am ashamed to say that I am yet to
encounter any of his works. He read three of his poems
at the event to the delight of the audience, and
volunteered informed comments as the others read their
own works.
The Chairman of ANA, Imo State
Chapter, Mr. Camillus Ukah, said that the “Reading
Outreach” taking place in LOGISS that Saturday afternoon
was the first the association was organizing in the
state, and in fact, in the whole country. He said that
since 2005, ANA, Imo State, had been organizing several
programmes and LOGISS had been participating actively.
Because the LOGISS students who had taken part in those
programmes had performed excellently, ANA had come to
the school for the “Reading Outreach” so that more
talents could be discovered. Mr. Ukah revealed that what
they had begun to do in secondary schools (starting with
LOGISS) had not been done by any other chapter of ANA,
except, perhaps, the Niger State Chapter, which was
doing something somehow similar, but not as profound and
far-reaching as what they were doing in Imo State.
It is difficult not to be
highly impressed by what ANA, Imo State, is doing in
secondary schools, and I wish other state chapters can
emulate them. I have been greatly pained by the
diminishing reading culture and lack of enthusiasm
towards writing in our youths. It needs no stressing
that this is what accounts for the poor scripts many of
them turn out today any time they are required to write
anything. I am sure you must have been part of a job
interview panel before now, and would recall how
demoralized you were by the horrible application letters
many of the University “graduates” had submitted. Many
years ago, I had gone to an “International School” in
Maiduguri to teach English Language and Literature in
English and was shocked that only about five students
were offering Literature in the SS3 Class. The other
“more serious” students who offered more “serious
subjects” made mockery of the others who did
literature. It was simply unbelievable.
What ANA in Imo State is doing
today represents a very effective way of recovering what
we have lost, by awakening the interest of the young
people in reading and writing literary works.
Earlier in the programme, the
Director of Logos International Schools, Mr. Bede Oguh,
in his welcome address, had described the event as an
“enriching academic programme”, a day for “talent
hunt” and an event that would further galvanize the
interest of the students in literary studies. He hoped
that after the programme, “many of the students would be
drawn into literary writing.” Certainly, that
expectation would not take long to materialize. The
immense excitement the programme excited in the pupils,
and the enthusiasm with which they read their works or
responded to the ones read by others, speak volumes
about the degree of impact already being achieved in
their young minds.
The event was, however, not
all about reading and writing. The JSS1 students
thrilled everyone with a very enchanting song presented
in several languages. As they sang, the audience came
alive with cheers and loud clapping, and very soon,
moderated their clapping to constitute matching
melodious back-up sound for the song.
More readings were to come
after this song. The students presented more poems than
stories, an indication that Nigerian literature may be
carrying in its womb more poets than novelists. A poem
on “Nigeria” read by Miss Akam Toochukwu (SS2) attracted
acclaim because of its careful choice of words, social
consciousness and political statement. Indeed, the young
pupils were also informed about the state of the
nation’s politics and its social conditions, and are
beginning to demonstrate through their literary output
that they have a viewpoint, and may not be wanting in
the will and capacity to express it without
equivocation.
A one-character playlet
written by Chidozie Chubuike, and performed by Emeka
Njoku, an ANA member, was so moving, and its message so
pointed, poignant and penetrating, that the audience
became really sobered. The character, in tattered
clothes, tells the pathetic story of his misspent youth,
how he joined bad gangs, did drugs, got rusticated from
the university, caused the death of his parents who had
died in a motor accident on their way to secure his
release from a police cell, and how he had ended up a
mental wreck. The play was accompanied by an
intermittent rendition of soft choral songs, reminiscent
of the Chorus of Theban Elders made prominent by
Sophocles, which passed incisive moral comments, that
helped to drive home the message. It was also a sobering
reminder of the piercing dirge rendered by Ekwefi (late
Nelly Uchendu), one of Okonkwo’s wives, after the
killing of Ikemefuna, in one of the earliest productions
of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. In fact,
the song helped to set the right mood for the play to
flow.
I was so impressed with the
young man’s performance that I had to immediately call
him when he was through to take his particulars, with
the hope of doing something on him to spotlight him. I
plan to interview him, and put him on these pages.
Talents like that need all the exposure they can get, to
go places!
There were also lectures for
the students, and one was on the use of the library, and
the other on reading. Prizes were awarded to students
who were the first to answer correctly the questions
thrown after each of the lectures.
Another high point of
excitement for the students was the debate between a
group of boys and girls, captioned: “Television Has Done
More Harm Than Good”, with three girls opposing, while
three boys supported the motion. At the end of day, the
girls won convincingly.
Complete honesty demands that
I confess that for a long time now, I have been nursing
serious worries about the quality of (and the motive
behind) many of the programmes beamed into our living
rooms by the various TV stations. There appears to be a
sickening obsession with immorality and nudity. In fact,
almost every advert now, including even those of
vehicles, beverages and tooth-pastes, would either
extravagantly flaunt nudity or reek an immoral emission.
As the girls hammered home their message during the
debate, my worry about the pernicious influence of what
they referred to as “the devil’s box” continued to grow.
Although the boys put up a gallant fight, the girls
easily carried the day. Take heart, young brothers.
As the evening wore on, and
the ANA members wanted to terminate the programme, it
was clear from their reaction that the students would
rather the event continued interminably. I won’t blame
them. It was a most interesting moment, and I must thank
ANA Imo State, for such a great initiative. They must
not relent. I can imagine what the opportunity to read
their works before such an audience would do in the
literary development of those pupils. Yes, I can imagine
the incentive programmes of this nature, can constitute
to their young minds.
We need more of these
programmes, targeted at Nigerian youths, because the
future really looks bleak if the Book is allowed to die
in Nigeria, and if our youths inherit the fatal apathy
towards reading and writing. In 1962, Professor
Chinua Achebe
(incidentally, the founding father of ANA), worried by
the declining reading culture in Nigeria published an
essay in Times Literary Supplement (London)
entitled: “What Do African Intellectuals Read”,
and almost answered his own question with just one word:
“Nothing!” I am pretty sure that the situation that gave
rise to that essay, rather than go away, may have even
grown worse. That is why what ANA, Imo State, is doing
deserves the commendation and support of all that
cherish reading and writing.
In his closing remarks, Mr.
Ukah, said LOGISS has remained a wonderful partner in
their crusade to revive reading and writing culture
among young people. He said that based on what they had
come to know about the school since 2005 when its
students began to participate in their programmes, ANA
Imo State, was most glad to declare Logos International
Secondary School, a “Centre For Excellence”. He
proceeded to present, on behalf of ANA, Imo State
Chapter, a certificate for the award. He also presented
a beautiful plaque to the Director of Logos
International Schools, Mr. Bede Oguh, “for his support
for the development of young creative minds”.
As the programme came to a
close, I shook hands Austine Amanze-Akpuda, a lecturer
in the Department of English, Abia State University,
Uturu, who had walked up to me to know who I was, and
whose book, Reconstructing The Canon: Festschrift In
Honour Of Professor Charles Nnolim, I had once
encountered in Lagos. We were meeting for the first,
although he told me he was an ardent reader of my
newspaper column. After we had discussed for sometime,
he changed his programme and decided to spend the night
with me at the place I was staying.
We spent the whole evening,
and most of the night discussing literature, literary
personalities, old and new controversies in the literary
world, and the state of criticism in out literature - a
matter I had lamented when I addressed the gathering
earlier in the day. We slept late and woke up again to
resume our discussion, so much so, that I was almost
late for my return trip to Lagos that morning. I am sure
it is easy to agree that literature is a most
inexhaustible subject. It is even more interesting when
you meet someone who not only knows it well, but
cherishes it with equal fervour. Austine gave me
another of his books Celebrating God’s Own
Robot: Nigerian Poets And The Gani Fawehinmi Phenomenon.
When I finish reading it, I will bare my mind in a
review.
Director of
Logos International Secondary Schools, Mr. Bede Oguh (left),
Professor Mannu Enyiegbulem (standing) and other ANA, Imo State,
Executives
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*
Ugochukwu
Ejinkeonye writes a weekly column in the
Independent
(www.independentngonline.com
)
Email:
scruples2006@yahoo.com
BLOG:
www.ugochukwu.blog.com
posted 23 February 2007 |
