By Anote Ajeluorou
A literary shortlist always
creates excitement, shock, surprise and even hisses. The US$100,000 worth The Nigerian
Prize for Literature just released elicits no less emotions, at least for those
familiar with some or all of the works.
On the shortlist are Ngozi Achebe Onaedo with The
Blacksmith’s Daughter, Ifeanyi
Ajaegbo with Sarah House, Jude
Dibia with Blackbird, Vincent
Egbuson with Zhero, Adaobi Tricia
Nwaubani with I Do Not Come to You by Chance. Others are Onuorah Nzekwu with Troubled Dust, Olusola Olugbesan with Only Canvass, Lola Shoneyin with The Secret Lives of Baba
Segi’s Wives, E.E. Sule with Sterile
Sky and Chika Unigwe with On Black
Sister’s Street.
Some of the works that elicits excitement include Adaobi
Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You by Chance, an extremely hilarious novel about the 419 scam of the late 1990 and
early 2000. Nwaubani’s wit and ability to thresh up the minds of these scammers
stand her work out. Not least darkly hilarious is Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret
Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives that
explores a festering harem racked by the inability of the husband to father a
child because of infertility.
On the other hand, Onuorah Nzekwu’s Troubled Dust and Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sister’s Street are works that stand out in their own terms. Nzekwu’s
Troubled Dust was published some
42 odd years after it was written; it stirs up raw emotions about the Nigerian
Civil War fought in the late 60s and serves as a reminder that the warpath
should never be an option because of the dire consequences. The co-author of Eze
Goes to School has a work that can
strongly contend for the prize just like any other.
Unigwe’s On Black Sister’s Street opens the raw wound of female trafficking for
prostitution purposes still rampant in some part of the country as a means of
escaping the economic hardship in Nigeria. The Belgium-based writer’s work
explores the dark world of the criminal ring that profits from this obnoxious
trade in feminine flesh and the lives of the victims.
Apart from Dibia’s Blackbird, which deals with two families and the intertwining
relationships, the other works also present their own peculiar surprises and
expectations. As they say, the die is cast, and let the judging begin!
Members of the panel of judges for this year’s prize include
Prof. J.O.J. Agbaja, Prof. Angela Miri, prof. Sophia Ogwude, and Dr. Oyeniyi
Okunoye, with Prof. Francis Abiola Irele, Provost of the Colleges of Humanities
at Kwara State University and Fellow of the Dubois Institute, Harvard
University, jury panel chairman. He said it took hours of intensive scrutiny by
the panel to produce the shortlist. A closer scrutiny will produce the
shortlist of three before the final award in October.
TOMORROW also, the Wole
Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa will announce its winner in a grand
ceremony at The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. Former President if
Ghana, Mr. John Kuffour will deliver a keynote address while Governors
Babatunde Fashola and Ibikunle Amosun of Lagos and Ogun States respectively
will be in attendance.
The Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa is worth
US$20,000, making it the second biggest literary prize on the continent to
reward writer’s creativity and diligence in projecting Africa’s culture and
humanity.
These two prizes are a boost for the continent’s writers
who, otherwise, profit very little from their writings in an environment with
little or no infrastructure for effective book distribution or royalties from
publishers. Indeed, since the two prizes are domiciled in Nigeria, the
country’s writers now have an honourable expectation from their works and can
go on crafting stories that can truly stir the human heart.
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