Keeping hope alive for younger Nigerian writers

CHUKS OLUIGBO

The road to the top of the writing career in Nigeria is fraught with a lot of challenges. Sometimes it is a mix of high and low moments, sadness and joy, disappointments and successes; and at other times it is just one straight sad story. But with hard work, diligence, patience, perseverance, perspicacity, and sometimes an element of luck, one can still make a success of it.

The problem is that many younger Nigerian writers, those who are based in Nigeria, seem too impatient. They are often in a haste to publish and in the process make a lot of regrettable mistakes. The other problem is that once they fail in that first attempt, they begin to think the door is permanently shut; that there is absolutely no hope for them to even raise their heads above the level where they are. They blame the harsh Nigerian environment; and they conclude that they won’t succeed unless they travel overseas. Then they justify their stance with ready names of writers who, according to them, wouldn’t have succeeded if they hadn’t travelled to Oyibo man’s country.

Well, there may be some merit in the argument about one environment being more conducive than the other. However, it doesn’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t tell us, for instance, that while for a number of Nigerian writers we only heard about them when they found themselves outside the country, the general rule is that many others started here, made a success of their writing career here, and won international laurels while still here. Thereafter, some relocated overseas while others stayed back, keeping the fire alive. It doesn’t also tell us that Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, which has today been translated into over 50 world languages, was written right here in Nigeria; nor does it say that that masterpiece was actually rejected a number of times before Heinemann eventually reluctantly accepted to publish it. And it doesn’t tell us that Helon Habila, author of the award-winning Waiting for an Angel (Commonwealth Writers Prize for New Writing) and Measuring Time (the Caine Prize), began his writing career here.

A little about Helon Habila. Born in Kaltungo, present-day Gombe State, Helon first worked as a teacher in Bauchi before moving over to Lagos, where he first wrote for Hints Magazine, and then Vanguard. Interestingly, Helon wrote Waiting for an Angel while in Nigeria and won the Commonwealth Prize from here, before proceeding to the UK for a fellowship, then a PhD, and then to the United States as the first Chinua Achebe Fellow at Bard College.

In a brief chat with him in Abuja during the 2010 Fidelity Creative Writing Workshop which he facilitated, and in which I happened to be one of the about 20 participants, Helon told me that, in his reckoning, up-and-coming Nigerian writers have better chances of making it today than he had when he was an aspiring writer.

“We have a democracy now, even though it is not where we want it to be. But basically, things are freer now. There are actually indigenous publishing companies that publish, places like Cassava Republic and Farafina. There weren’t any when I was trying to get published in 1999/2000. So, it was bleaker. Plus there was a dictatorship then; you couldn’t think; you had no freedom; you couldn’t do what you wanted to do. But now I think it’s much better,” Helon said in that interview.

“Now they have models. There are people like Chimamanda Adichie who have done it. And if you want to look at men, there are people like me who have done it, people like Bi Bandele, and so on. So, they can actually not say that they can’t do it because it’s not been done, or because it’s impossible. They have exemplars, they have people who have done it, and we started from here. It’s not as if I was born in America or London, no; or I wrote my book there, no. Actually, I lived here and I wrote it here and I got it published here. People like Tricia Nwaubani are even living here now and they’ve won Commonwealth prizes. So, I think things are better than they were, and any other person who wants to do this has no excuse not to achieve, or not to go as far as the skies, if that is what you want,” he added.

Very reassuring words for the conscientious aspiring writer! And you can add a list of other Nigerian writers who live here and are making a success of their career right here in Nigeria. You can also add that the NLNG-sponsored Nigeria Prize for Literature has over the years virtually been won by home-based writers, with the foreign league occasionally strolling in. That’s a big statement. So, unless you decide to kill the spirit, just know that you can get to where you want to, no matter your location, if you work hard at it.

One more thing: don’t be discouraged if publishers do not readily accept to publish your work. And don’t abuse them. Don’t complain that they only accept works from known writers. Just try to understand with them. Think of it, these publishing companies are in business; they are taking on writers that can guarantee quick return on their investment. If you were in their shoes you’d probably do the same. Just keep writing, and keep using online platforms to push out your works. Someday, if you work hard enough, and if you stand out, publishers will be falling over themselves to publish your book.

In concluding, the words of Akachi Ezeigbo, accomplished writer and professor of English at the University of Lagos, in a recent interview I had with her, come in handy: “You see, writing is not all about producing a manuscript and rushing to the publisher or the printing press to print it out. There is a kind of programme that any work must pass through for it to come out well. That’s why there are publishers. Overseas they have literary agents and editors before the publisher comes in. A book really has to go through these processes if it has to come out well. But when you just produce a manuscript this year, and you are in too much of a hurry, three months you go and print it, no matter how talented you are, that book will suffer some disadvantages. Many people may be having this problem because they are too impatient; not because they are not writing well, but because they are not following due process. There is due process in writing too. There are trained editors, and you need to let them see your work. There are publishing houses in Nigeria which have good editors, and if they publish you, they are not in a hurry. So, I think the writer should be more patient and tarry a while to edit and re-edit before publishing.”

I rest my pen!