By Anote Ajeluorou
A winner has emerged for the
grassroots short story contest Literary Star Search competition. The prize is worth N1 million. The
winner is Bonaventure O. Chukwu. He won with his short story ‘Mother’. The
prize-winner was announced last Saturday, January 19, at Nustreams Conference
and Culture Centre, Kilometre 110, Ibadan at the first edition of Ibadan
foremost literary and art event, Artmosphere, which had ‘Timeline’ as theme.
Chukwu’s ‘Mother’ beat two other writers - 'Chasing Lizards' by M.S.C. Okolo and 'The Woman without
a Name' by Bode Asiyanbi – to win the maiden edition of the prize.
While addressing a gathering of writers
and artistes at the event, spokesperson for the prize Seun Jegede commended
Chukwu for his winning story and urged other writers to emulate him and
participate in the next edition of the contest to be announced soon. He said
although writers were in a minority, but a vocal minority and urged them to
bind together so as to be heard loud and clear.
Earlier, three writers and a songster
had treated the audience to poetry, spoken words and music. This was spiced up
with the interrogation of the difference between spoken word performance and
traditional poetry and their relevance in addressing social issues.
Author of Antonyms of Mirrage, Atilola Moronfolu, who does not
subscribe to being called a poet, was the first to perform. With the fluidity
of an eel, Morunfolu spoke her words to her audience. First she did ‘The
Wrestler’, which narrates her unwilling contest with life and its many
uninvited struggles that confront a man or woman even he or she is not ready to
face up to it. But having been knocked down several times by life’s many
struggles, the persona is compelled to square up to the challenges life throws
up. With the supernatural power of the most high God, the persona is finally
able to overcome life’s challenges.
Her second performance was ‘Akani
Street and the Atheist’ in which the persona takes a swipe at modern-day
Pentecostal churches that make many a neighbourhoods living hell on account of
the cacophonous noises that emanates from their ‘spirit-filled’ activities. She
wonders whether such negative activities do not negate the spirit of the love
of neighbour, which is the foundation of Christian doctrine preached by Jesus
the Christ!
Ironically, for raising her voice
against the noise pollution being generated by these churches in Nigeria’s
neighbourhoods, Moronfolu is often seen as an atheist. In response, she
performs another one titled ‘The Atheist’ in which she lampoons the dominant
hypocrisy being peddled by many a Christian in their daily negation of the
confused doctrines they affirm.
On her part, founder of Pathway
Initiative and womanist poet, Funmi Aluko rendered ‘The Hood’ in which she
confronts issues of womanhood, her place in a patriarchal society and how she
could break free of inhibiting barriers erected against her. And in ‘Seasons’,
Aluko went down memory lane to the days of social upheavals in Nigeria, with
dictators swashbuckling and squelching many a dream in their deranged
mentality. A folklorist to the core, Aluko did not perform without first
engaging her audience with folk songs in the song and response format.
In between the two female performers, a
student of English Department, University of Ibadan, Rasaq Malik also performed
his dark poem, ‘Song of a dying nation’. Michael Obot performed songs to thrill
the audience while Nwachukwu Egbunike read hilarious, satirical pieces from his
collection of essays Dyed Thoughts.
While Moronfolu argued that she was
comfortable with her spoken word genre that is fast gaining ascendancy because
of its accessibility, noting that traditional poetry was too difficult to
understand even though she liked the folk songs Aluko sang before her performances.
Aluko, on the other hand, said poetry needed not be seen in that light. She
also noted that poetry without its baggage of the tradition and culture of the
people that it embodies would be meaningless poetry if it merely dredges up
current issues.
A respondent in the audience stated
that there something wrong with the way Nigeria’s education was structured with
students no longer interested in deepening their knowledge on things around. He
added that whether spoken word or so-called traditional poetry, people needed
to immense themselves in learning else society becomes shallow. He also said
even with the hiphop culture from America, Americans still read the traditional
poets and other deep philosophic materials that at the core of their
development.
He charged Nigerians to take education
seriously ands stop the dichotomy between science and arts in secondary
schools. This way, he noted, the perennial complaint that Wole Soyinka is a
difficult writer would be overcome! He noted that Nigeria’s educational system
has retrogressed so much in recent years with mass failures in national
examinations as evidence that something drastic has to be done to save the
country’s continuing slide in fortunes. The fellow also informed that between
Moronfolu’s spoken word performance and Aluko’s rendering of ‘traditional’
poetry, which is seen as difficult, there were underlying messages about
society and the need to save humanity from anti-social elements bent on making
life difficult for everyone else.
In other words, both forms of poetic
performances spoke to the human condition using the primary mode of
communication, words as vehicle. While spoken word relies on a fast-flowing,
rap style of evoking scenic situations, the other is more deliberate and
invokes deep images that conjure emotions. Both Aluko and Moronfolu showed the
seeming polarity between two sides of poetic performances, with the spoken word
appealing to the hiphop, younger people and the other reserved for older,
mature people. Yet the two forms can also have fans in both generations, so
long they speak to the human condition, as the two performers did last
Saturday!
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