A conversation with Okey Ndibe in BookShy:
More hereFor almost two weeks, Okey Ndibe was in the UK on a tour. In that time he was a featured speaker at the Arrow of God at 50 Conference and visited a number of UK cities and universities including University of Bristol, Blackwells in Newcastle, University of Birmingham, Centre for African Studies at SOAS, and Book and Kitchen in London. His last stop was at the University of Sussex, an event hosted by Africa in Words, Sussex Africa Centre and the School of English. So on Monday November 3rd, I got to meet and interview Okey Ndibe. This was after an insightful panel discussion on travel, politics, literature and Nigerian writing at the University of Sussex.
As part of the panel, Travelling Nigeria: The Circulation of Politics, Art and Literature, Okey Ndibe spoke on literature always being pertinent to the way people's images are formed and how Independence was the opportunity to reshape the narrative of Africans that existed. Ndibe explains that Nigeria was a country conceived in hope, but nurtured into hopelessness by its leaders but also its citizens and how as a columnist he is harsh towards Nigeria, which is currently a portrait of mediocrity and failure. This he says because he is confident that Nigeria can do better. His talk centred on how the image of Nigeria has become an important subject matter for writers and quoting Teju Cole explains that 'the writers obligation isn't to show a good picture. It is to show a real one' (I am paraphrasing here). He explains how Nigerian literature reflects 'this angst, this sense of disillusionment that we aren't where we need to be' and how through writing we are holding a mirror up in the hope that we will do better.
