Literature
Mr. Godini Gabriel Darah, campaign director of Governor Emmanuel Uduguaghan?s re-election project, represented the governor at the recent colloquium organised by the Association of Nigerian Authors to celebrate the 50 years of JP Clark?s writings, in Lagos. In this interview with SUMAILA UMAISHA, he speaks on the event and the upcoming literary conference in Abraka, Delta State.
NNW: What?s the motivation for the governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduguaghan of Delta?s contribution of N10 million naira towards organising JP Clark?s colloquium?
Godini Gabriel Dara: In the first place, Professor JP Clark is from Delta State, he is one of the most distinguished writers and a man of letters in the whole world. Any state that has the honour of having such citizen ought to honour such citizen. Though JP Clark does not need rebranding, but by marking his 50 years of writing the association is also helping to project Nigeria. The world would know that Nigeria, with all the bad image abroad, still has people of this stature. This conference will bring that out. It was only twenty-four years ago that we won the Nobel Prize through Soyinka?s works. And since that time, every prize in the world in the area of literature, Nigeria has won it. Fifty per cent of the literature in Africa is produced in Nigeria. So Delta State identifies with the intention of ANA to utilise the landmark of 50 years of JP Clark?s writing to also enter into the mood of Nigerian independence celebration which is in October. In other words, JP Clark?s writing career is synonymous with the existence of Nigeria as an independent nation. That is symbolic. And it is of more than literary interest, it is also of political interest. It is also of cultural interest, it is also of global and diplomatic interest. So that is the way our governor assessed it.
Wouldn?t you say it is also a celebration of Delta State in terms of literature, given the number of writers the state has produced so far?
Oh, yes, beyond celebrating JP Clark, we also are celebrating ourselves in Delta State through JP Clark; in the sense that the first African outside of Egypt to have a university degree is from Delta State. He is Dom Domingos; he was an Etsekiri prince, he got his university degree from Portugal in 1610. That is 400 years. So Delta State is very happy and proud that they produced such a person even before Nigeria came into existence. Secondly, we have many other pioneers in education. Bayelsa and Rivers states are just near us. The rivers people produced graduate since 1856. That is Mr. Herbert Jumbo. His brother, Don Jumbo, 1888, is another degree holder. Then the second one is the one that did BA English studies in England. And the conference that the Department of English Literary Studies is going to host in Delta in Abraka in December is framed around that achievement ? one hundred years of English study in Nigeria. The other reason why Delta State and the governor showed interest is that we have a large proportion of the major writers of Nigeria in the state ? JP Clark and a host of others like Zulu Sofola, Buchi Emecheta, Tess Onweme, Tanuire Ojaide, Ben Okri, Kaine Agari, Nduka Otiono etc. So Delta State has such eminent writers that if a writer is being celebrated and he is from Nigeria we will be there. Works by our writers have been studied in universities world-wide. And dissertations in masters and PhD thesis are generated from them. It means the culture and artistic heritage of Nigeria through Delta State are being replicated and circulated world-wide. So we are not just a country of 150 million people, through the arts and the literature and culture, the whole word becomes the country?s constituency. I wrote an article in the Sunday Times when I was in Daily Times fifteen years ago, that oil and solid minerals perish but culture, literature and the arts live for ever. This is the background to the interest of Delta State in sponsoring the conference. ANA wanted twenty-seven million from all the donors and I made a recommendation to the governor that he should take three items, which amounted to ten million. He did not subtract a kobo from it. If it was not postponed, when we were to have it two weeks earlier, he insisted he would be at the opening. This one he called me in the midnight and asked when is the tcolloquium opening and I said today. But he was in Abuja for PDP meeting otherwise he would have come.
What your advice to Nigerian government regarding literary development?
Every state in Nigeria should identify his icons and forget about oil and gas, because those are conflict-inducing investment. If it is just to hold a conference per week around Nigeria at which books will be sold, and writers showcased, we will not exhaust the list. Because, in Delta State alone we have more than fifty-two writers. We have not gone to Edo, Kaduna, Anambra, etc. Can you see the inexhaustible wealth that this country has, which our government belittle. They relegate the arts; they don?t think it is important. If the MD of shell wants to see the president today, he will see him, but if the president of ANA wants to see the president, even though he was a minister, they will say the president is very busy. It is a heretic position. I hold our government responsible for under-developing Nigeria from the cultural angle. It is not so in Ghana, in Senegal, Ethiopia and South Africa. South Africa, coming from the barbarism of apartheid, latched onto the arts; they know there was a large market which should be exploited.
When you make a case to federal government about culture it will say no, we want to have electricity, railways etc. They will not understand that the oxygen that animates all those technology is still culture. If you miss your culture you will not be inventive and if you are not inventive you cannot manufacture, if you are not manufacturing, you cannot dominate the world market. You become a dumping ground that we are now. It is not machines that make development, but culture. Achebe proved it in 1983 when he gave a lecture titled ?What Has Literature Got To Do With It?? He said it has everything to do with it, that when the Japanese came from backwardness, out of the military revolution in the 19th century, the first thing they did was to tape-record all their folklores, folktales and proverbs for ten years. And translated them and circulated them. In the folktale you see a witch flying. That?s what they converted to aeronautic engineering. That is the origin of Japanese technology now. What is Nigeria doing with such stories? The Bagauda epic, the Ozidi epic etc. Anywhere you look you will find these magical powers. If you don?t investigate and interrogate and interpret those folklores and the ancient wisdoms, you cannot go forward. If you go forward for one year, you go backwards for ten years.
Could you elaborate on the education summit coming up in December?
It is a celebration of Nigeria?s fifty years. The Department of English and Literary Studies, Delta State University, Abraka, where I teach, will host a conference from December 1 to December 4. And the slogan for the conference is 100 Years of English Studies in Nigeria from the Niger Delta to Globalisation, with seventeen sub-themes. Though it is part of Nigeria?s fifty years independence celebration, it is twice Nigeria?s age. And we are taking it from the point of view of gaining a degree in English studies in 1909 by an indigene of the state. That is our benchmark. We are marching forward from there. And we have sold the conference to the oil companies in the area. They are very excited because the topics are dealing with environment, human right, eco-literature, film, video, etc. And they know that this thing will appeal to a large segment of the society. So they are coming in. I have got two promises; I have even got a check from one of them ? Total Nigeria Limited. It took just 72 hours for the company to reply. They don?t even operate in Delta, they are in Bayelsa and Rivers, but they know that these boundaries are just geography; they are all the same cultures. And they are very conscious of the cultural dimension in their relation with the host community. The natural gas project in brass is also one of the sponsors. We are also expecting sponsorship from Chevron and Shell. When I have those and I go to my government to solicit for more, they won?t say no. So I?m entering from the deeper side of the ocean before I come to the riverine area. We are expecting about five hundred participants. They will not pay any registration fee. We are trying to mobilise for sponsorship so that they can have free accommodation.
You are the campaign director for Governor Emmanuel Uduguaghan; how are you selling the project?
I?m here (at the JP Clark colloquium) to represent him, so I?m already selling the project. I?m telling the world that Delta State is education responsible, not friendly; friendly is like charity. We have established eight polytechnics in eight years. Even Awolowo did not do that. In the area of education, we are not looking back at all. We have the best University Teaching Hospital in the whole world. In other words, education is the priority. The governor attended the best school in the state ? Federal Government College, Warri, from 1963. He was in Year One when I was in Upper Six. The school was like a university. And he keeps telling himself; why are other schools in the state not like that school? So he has the motivation, the vision. By the time he is stepping down in 2015 he would have done half of the work and the next governor will take it from there. Any state that does not make education number one, that state will not make it, it will continue to starve.
(c) Published in the New nigerian newspaper of September 18th, 2010.
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- Celebrating Jp Clark?s Glowing Achievements
Recently, the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, held a two-day colloquium on the 50 years of JP Clark?s writings in Lagos. In this interview at the event, the President of the association, Dr. Jerry Agada, spoke about the occasion, its shortcomings...
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Literature
Honouring JP Clark is celebrating Delta?s achievements
Mr. Godini Gabriel Darah, campaign director of Governor Emmanuel Uduguaghan?s re-election project, represented the governor at the recent colloquium organised by the Association of Nigerian Authors to celebrate the 50 years of JP Clark?s writings, in Lagos. In this interview with SUMAILA UMAISHA, he speaks on the event and the upcoming literary conference in Abraka, Delta State.
NNW: What?s the motivation for the governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduguaghan of Delta?s contribution of N10 million naira towards organising JP Clark?s colloquium?
Godini Gabriel Dara: In the first place, Professor JP Clark is from Delta State, he is one of the most distinguished writers and a man of letters in the whole world. Any state that has the honour of having such citizen ought to honour such citizen. Though JP Clark does not need rebranding, but by marking his 50 years of writing the association is also helping to project Nigeria. The world would know that Nigeria, with all the bad image abroad, still has people of this stature. This conference will bring that out. It was only twenty-four years ago that we won the Nobel Prize through Soyinka?s works. And since that time, every prize in the world in the area of literature, Nigeria has won it. Fifty per cent of the literature in Africa is produced in Nigeria. So Delta State identifies with the intention of ANA to utilise the landmark of 50 years of JP Clark?s writing to also enter into the mood of Nigerian independence celebration which is in October. In other words, JP Clark?s writing career is synonymous with the existence of Nigeria as an independent nation. That is symbolic. And it is of more than literary interest, it is also of political interest. It is also of cultural interest, it is also of global and diplomatic interest. So that is the way our governor assessed it.
Wouldn?t you say it is also a celebration of Delta State in terms of literature, given the number of writers the state has produced so far?
Oh, yes, beyond celebrating JP Clark, we also are celebrating ourselves in Delta State through JP Clark; in the sense that the first African outside of Egypt to have a university degree is from Delta State. He is Dom Domingos; he was an Etsekiri prince, he got his university degree from Portugal in 1610. That is 400 years. So Delta State is very happy and proud that they produced such a person even before Nigeria came into existence. Secondly, we have many other pioneers in education. Bayelsa and Rivers states are just near us. The rivers people produced graduate since 1856. That is Mr. Herbert Jumbo. His brother, Don Jumbo, 1888, is another degree holder. Then the second one is the one that did BA English studies in England. And the conference that the Department of English Literary Studies is going to host in Delta in Abraka in December is framed around that achievement ? one hundred years of English study in Nigeria. The other reason why Delta State and the governor showed interest is that we have a large proportion of the major writers of Nigeria in the state ? JP Clark and a host of others like Zulu Sofola, Buchi Emecheta, Tess Onweme, Tanuire Ojaide, Ben Okri, Kaine Agari, Nduka Otiono etc. So Delta State has such eminent writers that if a writer is being celebrated and he is from Nigeria we will be there. Works by our writers have been studied in universities world-wide. And dissertations in masters and PhD thesis are generated from them. It means the culture and artistic heritage of Nigeria through Delta State are being replicated and circulated world-wide. So we are not just a country of 150 million people, through the arts and the literature and culture, the whole word becomes the country?s constituency. I wrote an article in the Sunday Times when I was in Daily Times fifteen years ago, that oil and solid minerals perish but culture, literature and the arts live for ever. This is the background to the interest of Delta State in sponsoring the conference. ANA wanted twenty-seven million from all the donors and I made a recommendation to the governor that he should take three items, which amounted to ten million. He did not subtract a kobo from it. If it was not postponed, when we were to have it two weeks earlier, he insisted he would be at the opening. This one he called me in the midnight and asked when is the tcolloquium opening and I said today. But he was in Abuja for PDP meeting otherwise he would have come.
What your advice to Nigerian government regarding literary development?
Every state in Nigeria should identify his icons and forget about oil and gas, because those are conflict-inducing investment. If it is just to hold a conference per week around Nigeria at which books will be sold, and writers showcased, we will not exhaust the list. Because, in Delta State alone we have more than fifty-two writers. We have not gone to Edo, Kaduna, Anambra, etc. Can you see the inexhaustible wealth that this country has, which our government belittle. They relegate the arts; they don?t think it is important. If the MD of shell wants to see the president today, he will see him, but if the president of ANA wants to see the president, even though he was a minister, they will say the president is very busy. It is a heretic position. I hold our government responsible for under-developing Nigeria from the cultural angle. It is not so in Ghana, in Senegal, Ethiopia and South Africa. South Africa, coming from the barbarism of apartheid, latched onto the arts; they know there was a large market which should be exploited.
When you make a case to federal government about culture it will say no, we want to have electricity, railways etc. They will not understand that the oxygen that animates all those technology is still culture. If you miss your culture you will not be inventive and if you are not inventive you cannot manufacture, if you are not manufacturing, you cannot dominate the world market. You become a dumping ground that we are now. It is not machines that make development, but culture. Achebe proved it in 1983 when he gave a lecture titled ?What Has Literature Got To Do With It?? He said it has everything to do with it, that when the Japanese came from backwardness, out of the military revolution in the 19th century, the first thing they did was to tape-record all their folklores, folktales and proverbs for ten years. And translated them and circulated them. In the folktale you see a witch flying. That?s what they converted to aeronautic engineering. That is the origin of Japanese technology now. What is Nigeria doing with such stories? The Bagauda epic, the Ozidi epic etc. Anywhere you look you will find these magical powers. If you don?t investigate and interrogate and interpret those folklores and the ancient wisdoms, you cannot go forward. If you go forward for one year, you go backwards for ten years.
Could you elaborate on the education summit coming up in December?
It is a celebration of Nigeria?s fifty years. The Department of English and Literary Studies, Delta State University, Abraka, where I teach, will host a conference from December 1 to December 4. And the slogan for the conference is 100 Years of English Studies in Nigeria from the Niger Delta to Globalisation, with seventeen sub-themes. Though it is part of Nigeria?s fifty years independence celebration, it is twice Nigeria?s age. And we are taking it from the point of view of gaining a degree in English studies in 1909 by an indigene of the state. That is our benchmark. We are marching forward from there. And we have sold the conference to the oil companies in the area. They are very excited because the topics are dealing with environment, human right, eco-literature, film, video, etc. And they know that this thing will appeal to a large segment of the society. So they are coming in. I have got two promises; I have even got a check from one of them ? Total Nigeria Limited. It took just 72 hours for the company to reply. They don?t even operate in Delta, they are in Bayelsa and Rivers, but they know that these boundaries are just geography; they are all the same cultures. And they are very conscious of the cultural dimension in their relation with the host community. The natural gas project in brass is also one of the sponsors. We are also expecting sponsorship from Chevron and Shell. When I have those and I go to my government to solicit for more, they won?t say no. So I?m entering from the deeper side of the ocean before I come to the riverine area. We are expecting about five hundred participants. They will not pay any registration fee. We are trying to mobilise for sponsorship so that they can have free accommodation.
You are the campaign director for Governor Emmanuel Uduguaghan; how are you selling the project?
I?m here (at the JP Clark colloquium) to represent him, so I?m already selling the project. I?m telling the world that Delta State is education responsible, not friendly; friendly is like charity. We have established eight polytechnics in eight years. Even Awolowo did not do that. In the area of education, we are not looking back at all. We have the best University Teaching Hospital in the whole world. In other words, education is the priority. The governor attended the best school in the state ? Federal Government College, Warri, from 1963. He was in Year One when I was in Upper Six. The school was like a university. And he keeps telling himself; why are other schools in the state not like that school? So he has the motivation, the vision. By the time he is stepping down in 2015 he would have done half of the work and the next governor will take it from there. Any state that does not make education number one, that state will not make it, it will continue to starve.
(c) Published in the New nigerian newspaper of September 18th, 2010.
- Niger State: The Making Of A Literary Capital
Once upon a time the area known today as Niger State was famous mainly for its strategic position as a major railway station that drew together people from diverse ethnic groups. But the literary revolution, which began with Abubakar Imam?s legendary...
- Ana Celebrates One Of Nigeria?s Finest Writers
Late Ken Saro Wiwa, who was an author, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize before his execution by the Abacha regime in November 10, 1995, will be celebrated by the...
- Funfair, As Writers Converge On The Sunshine State
It was funfair, fantasy and myth galore as Association of Nigerian Authors held its 29th International Convention in Akure, Ondo State, last week... SUMAILA UMAISHA reports: HELD under the theme, ?Myth, Fantasy and Indigenous Theatre? the three-day convention...
- Celebrating Jp Clark?s Glowing Achievements
Recently, the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, held a two-day colloquium on the 50 years of JP Clark?s writings in Lagos. In this interview at the event, the President of the association, Dr. Jerry Agada, spoke about the occasion, its shortcomings...
- Osonye Tess Onwueme: Staging Women, Youth, Globalization, And Eco-literature
An international conference tagged "Osonye Tess Onwueme: Staging Women, Youth, Globalization, and Eco-literature" holds at the University of Abuja, Nigeria, from November 11 ? 14, 2009. The conference focuses centrally on Tess Onwueme as a playwright,...