Sunday, 19 May 2013
My Debt To Nigeria’s Two Literary Giants By Okey Ndibe
Columnist:
Okey Ndibe Two years ago, I drove from my home in central Connecticut to the quiescent country precincts of Annandale-on-Hudson to visit author Chinua Achebe, whose novel Things Fall Apart was enjoying a cheery 50th anniversary.
Achebe's self-effacing, soft-spoken personality is in ironic contrast with the exuberant celebration that erupted around his first – and most widely read and translated – novel. I was in Achebe's home to coax him to look back on 50 years of his book's extraordinary journey. Achebe stated that I was one of perhaps more than a hundred interviewers he'd hosted that year. Even so, I dared convince myself that there was something special about my interview with him.
Let me explain. I had interviewed Achebe several times in the past – first in 1983, when I was a rookie correspondent for the now defunct African Concord, the last time in 1987, shortly after the publication of his latest novel, Anthills of the Savannah. That first interview set a mood for my relationship with the author; he saved my career.
I met Achebe by serendipity. It was 1983 and I had just graduated from college. Visiting Ogidi, his hometown, to see my girlfriend at the time, I raved and raved about Achebe and Things Fall Apart. The girl listened for a while, a bemused smile creasing her cheeks. Then she said: "Achebe is my uncle. His house is a short walk away. He happens to be home this weekend.
Do you want to visit him?"
Did I ever!
The Achebe I met in his country home personified grace. I still remember that he served us cookies and chilled Coke. He regarded me with penetrating eyes as I gushed about his novels, his short stories, his essays, even reciting favorite lines. I told him I had just got a job with the Concord and would be honored to interview him. He gave me his telephone number at Nsukka, the university town where he lived and ran the Institute of African Studies.
A week later I flew to Lagos, reported for work, and told the weekly magazine's editor that I had Achebe's telephone number – and a standing commitment that he would give me an interview. Elated, the editor dispatched me on the assignment. It was my first real task as a correspondent.
Achebe and I retreated to his book-lined office at the institute, its air flavored with the scent of books stretching and heaving. Five minutes into the interview I paused and rewound the tape. The recording sounded fine and our interview continued for another two hours. Afterwards Achebe told me it was one of the most exhaustive interviews he'd ever done. I took leave of him and, heady with excitement, took a cab to the local bus stop where I paid the fare for a bus headed for Enugu – the state capital where I had booked a hotel.
That evening several of my friends gathered in my hotel room. They asked questions about Achebe, and then said they wanted to hear his voice. Happy to oblige them, I fetched the tape recorder and pressed its play button. We waited – not a word! I put in two other tapes, the same futile result. How was I going to explain this mishap to my editor who had scheduled the interview as a forthcoming cover?
I phoned Achebe’s home in panic. In a desperate tone I begged that he let me return the next day for a short retake. "Thirty minutes – even twenty – would do," I pleaded. I half-expected him to scold me for lack of professional fastidiousness and hang up, leaving me to stew in my distress. Instead he calmly explained that he had commitments for the next day. If I could return the day after, he'd be delighted to grant me another interview. And he gave me permission to make the next session as elaborate as the first.
Two days later we were back in his office for my second chance. This time I paused every few minutes to check on the equipment. I stretched the interview to an hour-and-a-half before guilt – mixed with gratitude – compelled me to stop. It was not as exhaustive as the first outing, nor did it have the spontaneity of our first interview, but it gave me – and the readers of the magazine – a prized harvest. My friends got a chance to savor Achebe's voice, with its mix of faint lisps and accentuated locutions.
That interview happened more than twenty-five years ago. It’s been followed by several other encounters with Achebe, but it still stands out. I had admired the man from a distance, in awe of his extraordinary powers as a writer. After he saved my career, I was inspired by his uncommon generosity.
Many years later, I came into the debt of another great Nigerian writer, this time Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel laureate for literature. It was October of 1997. Soyinka was in his second tour as a political exile, hounded out of Nigeria by the brutal regime of Sani Abacha, a rustic of a general who favored dark glasses, was reputed to have an insatiable appetite for spirits, young sexual partners and expensive automobiles.
Soyinka had been invited to give a series of talks at five different colleges in what's called the Pioneer Valley area of Massachusetts. I had known Soyinka from afar, even though I had interviewed him the year he won the Nobel. That night he was to speak at Hampshire College in Amherst. I had just finished the first draft of my novel Arrows of Rain, inspired in part by Soyinka's prison memoir, which contains the haunting words: "The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny."
I wanted to persuade him to read my manuscript. Yet, when I got to the venue, my nerve betrayed me. It seemed a bit selfish to burden a man like him, impossibly busy at the best of times and now wrestling with the pain of exile, with any more demands. I stood in the packed auditorium and listened to Soyinka's moving talk about the perennial tussle between power and freedom. As soon as he was done, I hastened to the podium to greet him. His eyes lit up. "Okey, you came," he said as we embraced. Then he added: "One of your professors told me you've written a fascinating manuscript. I'd like to read it."
I was amazed. He asked that I post the manuscript to him. For the next three months, I'd call him intermittently, anxious to hear what he thought. Each time he explained that he hadn't had time to look at it, but then assured me that he intended to.
Fast forward to Christmas 1997. My family and I were invited by an American family to spend the day with them, sharing lunch and dinner. There was a lot to eat and drink, but the meals were a disaster as far as I was concerned. There was no rice, no chicken, no goat – staples of any festivity in Nigeria, but especially at Christmas. As the night wore on, I told my wife that we had to leave. "This is the first Christmas in my life when I've not eaten rice. Or chicken." I knew that chicken would be too complicated to make, but not rice. My plan was to hasten to our home, then boil a few grains in order to spare myself the trauma of a first riceless Christmas.
As we walked into our house, I noticed the blinking light of the phone's voicemail. Among the messages was one from Soyinka. He had just read my novel and found it "highly evocative". That was it: I wasn't going to bother with eating my grains of rice after all. Soyinka had saved this Christmas that was marked, in my view, by culinary disaster. My wife wondered why I had decided not to boil some rice after all. "Soyinka's message is better than rice," I told her.
By Okey Ndibe (okeyndibe@gmail.com)
Comments
28 comment(s)
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How can we recover?
Submitted by Emmanuel Alia (not verified) on November 11, 2010 - 22:08.
after reading this article,my mind was lost in thought of the haunting devastating collapse of our present level of education,will we ever produce great writers like the Woles' and the Achebes'..how can we recover from this decay?God help us.....thanks Mr okey for this wonderful piece
nice piece
Submitted by san (not verified) on November 5, 2010 - 14:01.
the mastery of ur well calculated article and the passion it evokes makes one want to read it over and over. i had to save dis article in my folder for future consumption.keep it up
Okey, thank you!
Submitted by Okwuchukwu Ezeanyika (not verified) on October 30, 2010 - 01:20.
Okey, this is an exhilarating article. I like reading you all the time. Your articles come up with life as one reads them. I hardly read articles that I cannot live the experience. I followed you from the first paragraph, building up the picture, like I were you! This is the kind of articles I enjoy reading. What about the manuscript? Has it been published yet? If you have other books, then post them here. Thank you, once again, and keep it up!
Passionate romance?
Submitted by Coco (not verified) on October 28, 2010 - 10:01.
"A scintillating romance began,anonymous yet passionate.Okey's expressions were intoxicating"
@Emmanuel James, you wrote good English for a local guard. You were probably struggling in those days but the rest is now history.
...but when you used "romance" and "passionate" for an encounter with a fellow man, it was easy for people to get the wrong idea. We do it a lot in Nigeria, don't we?
Thank you for this, Mr Okey!
Submitted by TrueNigerian (not verified) on October 27, 2010 - 23:19.
I had a smile on my face at the end of this piece "Soyinka's message is better than rice" The labours our heros Achebe & Soyinka will never be in vain. For great ones like these, I would proudly call my self a Nigerian
Godbless...
awesome
Submitted by mathew (not verified) on October 27, 2010 - 21:55.
very refreshing, something more intellectuall than all the unending stories of corruption. Its beggining to bore me since there seem not to be any solution in sight.
Thank You
Submitted by Gboluwaga (not verified) on October 27, 2010 - 21:31.
Okey:
I love your essay. I don't know of any words to describe Achebe and Soyinka, other than, "They are the best!" And as for you, you are really good.
May God bless you.
Your brother from Nigeria
Gboluwaga
A GOOD BREATHING SPACE !!!!
Submitted by Drudge (not verified) on October 27, 2010 - 15:54.
This article gives you respite from reading about the decay of our country.
THANKS A BUNCH 'OGA OKEY'
Submitted by Anagor PKC (not verified) on October 27, 2010 - 01:33.
Your article is awesome and very provocative. Am proud to be a Nigerian, any time, anywhere because of excellent entities like you--Achebe--Soyinka and numerious icons in different disciplines. 'Bravo' and know that I would love to read your books.
Great Writers
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 23:18.
I have not met Chinua Achebe or Soyinka. However, I do remember seeing Soyinka once in my secondary school days where he came a give a lecture. I hope I meet them someday!
Ozzie
I owe both of them,and you.
Submitted by Emmanuel James (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 21:51.
A fascinating piece by one of Nigeria's foremost columnists...I've met neither Soyinka nor Achebe,but I still permit myself the foolery of idealistic ambition that I'll meet them someday soon. My debt to both inheres from the magnitude of stolen wisdom I had perpetrated against them by a greedy obsession with their works.
As for Okey Ndibe,I 'discovered' him while working as a guard in the premises of a former MD of the defunct Magnum Trust Bank,Mr Tunde Dabiri.I had stumbled on a compost of old Guardian newspaper editions in Mr Dabiri's house,wherein I unearthed Mr. Ndibe! A scintillating romance began,anonymous yet passionate.Okey's expressions were intoxicating,most of which I would play in my mind while alone,and smile to myself. One of such expressions,in an artcle condemning Obasanjo's holier-than-thou attitud,was 'pious gyration'!
Mssrs Okey,Soyinka and Achebe are the potential authors not only of my thoughts,but of my diction.
Ndeewo deede!
The man dies in all who keep
Submitted by Nky (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 21:45.
The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny! What a provocative thought for all of us. Well done Okey Ndibe. I would love to read that particular book of yours.
@OKEY
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 21:07.
SO WHAT IS THE STATUS OF YOUR MANUSCRIPT? ARE YOU PUBLISHING IT OR NOT?. JUST CURIOUS, SINCE SOYINKA HAS GIVEN HIS SEAL OF APPROVAL.
A literary giant!
Submitted by Ambrose Ehirim (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 20:45.
Excellent essay and I hope to have a brief moment with the literary icon of our time. I did chase him for an interview upon the publication of "The Education of a British Protected Child: Essays." He was on transit and we couldn't put it together.
THIS PIECE MAKES ME FEEL
Submitted by Naijaboy (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 20:30.
THIS PIECE MAKES ME FEEL PROUD AS A NIGERIAN, KEEP IT UP OKEY, GOD BLESS NIGERIA!
@Demi Olosun
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 19:59.
The title of Okey's novel is Arrows of Rain. I've read it. Its captivarting and juicy!
Oga Okey, you mean say, you
Submitted by pere (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 18:33.
Oga Okey, you mean say, you too dey do girls? Hahahahah, I thought I was the only one!Nice article,however!
When the write up is good the pen rejoices
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 14:10.
When the write up is good the pen rejoices... Mr Ndibe thanx ones again
Oga Okey, What happened to
Submitted by Uwen (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 13:22.
Oga Okey, What happened to your former girlfriend...una quarell ?? or u go abroad then fashi the local babe??..Abeg stop writing your essays half half...You dey hang me for air everytime i read your classic piece..
BLESSED NIGERIAN TRINITY!
Submitted by Austyn O Azoganokhai (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 13:16.
Which other country on earth is blessed with literary assets including the Trinity of Achebe,Soyinka and Okey Ndibe as Nigeria? Was at Ishara Remo last Sunday,the home town of Wole Soyinka,it was like a pilgrimage of sort to me.I remembered his Ake novel.
In these legends,I find every reason to be a proud Nigeria. Thanks Okey Ndibe for this piece
Oga Okey, What happened to
Submitted by Uwen (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 13:09.
Oga Okey, What happened to your former girlfriend...una quarell ?? or u go abroad then fashi the local babe??..Abeg stop writing your essays half half...You dey hang me for air everytime i read your classic piece..
Okey, What happened to your
Submitted by Uwen (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 13:09.
Okey, What happened to your former girlfriend...una quarell ?? or u go abroad then fashi the local babe??..Abeg stop writing your essays half half...You dey hang me for air everytime i read your classic piece..
GOOD ONE
Submitted by concerned nigerian (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 12:19.
VERY GOOD WRITE UP. QUITE REFRESHING.
Best of Okey?
Submitted by Demi Olosun (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 10:58.
Oh my God! This is the best article that I have read by the lecturer and writer Okey Ndibe. Lovely... And what is the title of the manuscript or book? I would love to read it.
"My wife wondered why I had decided not to boil some rice after all. "Soyinka's message is better than rice," I told her."
----Okey Ndibe
Who does the cooking around here? Ha ha!
I love rice, I no go lie. I hate roasted turkey with roast potatoes on Xmas day but I eat it at Xmas dinner, at work, which is a few days before Xmas. On Xmas day, I love prawn fried rice, turkey with champagne. For supper, I love pounded yam with egusi soup but for breakfast, it must be yam with corned beef stew.'Ole'?
Great Piece!
Submitted by orisa (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 10:08.
Okey's writing is evocative, and even this short piece--short as it is--does not lack in lyrical beauty. I think you should write more, sir.
...hahahaa...Luv this
Submitted by Walor (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 09:08.
...hahahaa...Luv this piece...but 'Okey' Plz what happened to your (ex)Girlfriend that introduced u to 'Achebe'...Plz complete this story for me..!!
.... "This is the first Christmas in my life when I've not eaten rice. Or chicken." I knew that chicken would be too complicated to make, but not rice. My plan was to hasten to our home, then boil a few grains in order to spare myself the trauma of a first riceless Christmas''....
Hahahhaa....u almost kill me with the above statement....i feel You Riceless Christmas....lol
Though u never mentioned what you owe or you will do for them..!!
@anesevans@yahoo.com...what can i say than u should go back Njikoka and report that to any police station or to Njikoka local government headquaters to seek for help...I really sympathise with you dear...but seek and you shall find..!!
HELP PLEASE
Submitted by anes on October 26, 2010 - 06:24.
Please, kindly link me with my in-laws, BONAVENTURE OKWULIEGO DIKE, (my sister husband) HYACINTH OKWULIEGO DIKE (my sister husband junior brother) SABINA OKWULIEGO DIKE (my sister husband junior sister) and my late sister Margaret children- Rachel and her junior sister, all from Njikoka Local Government, Nimo in Abagabna of Anambra State.
We lost contact immediately after the death of my sister Margaret BONAVENTURE. MARGARET AND BONAVENTURE HAD TWO CHILDREN before her death on the 28th June 1990 and since I haven’t see my sister children and my in-laws, all efforts made in the past by travelling to their hometown in Anambra state five times has not yield any result. Anybody with useful information can email me anesevans@yahoo.com or call me on telephone number 08067165559. Thank you all.
Saturday Evans
All Hail Achebe and Soyinka!
Submitted by Obiajulu (not verified) on October 26, 2010 - 04:56.
Well written,Okey! Soon after you did that famous interview with Chinua Achebe, he left Nsukka for the US and I lost my one and only chance of being taught directly by him. My class, which by then included his daughter, Chinelo, would have been in his African Literature class, a 300 level course that year! We await his birthday with prayerful best wishes.
If Nigeria's politics and governance were as endowed as its literature and arts - with an Achebe and a Soyinka and many others like them - Nigeria would have been a leading world power,with no need for vision 20,2020!
