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Nigerian Third - Generation Writers

Nigerian Third - Generation Writers. Joyce Chen and Kate Liu, Fall, 2011. What is last week’s main theme? Which nations have we dealt with?. Ugwu as the seed of hope for this nation/place’s autonomous/cultural development (the intellectuals’ Pan-Africanism, or tribalism.)

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Nigerian Third - Generation Writers

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  1. Nigerian Third- Generation Writers Joyce Chen and Kate Liu, Fall, 2011

  2. What is last week’s main theme?Which nations have we dealt with? • Ugwu as the seed of hope for this nation/place’s autonomous/cultural development • (the intellectuals’ Pan-Africanism, or tribalism.) • Seeds of conflicts in the neighborhood in Kano, and in Olanna’s family. • India, Pakistan, Iran, Kurd (as people without a nation), Sri Lanka, Liberia, Sierra Leon, Uganda and Nigeria • Uganda picked by Lonely Planet as Number 1 Country to Visit in 2012 (source)

  3. Abba Nsukka Reminder: Place Names … • Half of the Yellow Sun: setting of chaps 1-2 NsukkaLagos  Kano • (Kainene – Port Harcourt, running her father’s business); • Odenigbo from Abba War Game– Jos Amafor--Umuahia

  4. Recent News about Nigeria • Global Voices http://zh.globalvoicesonline.org/hant/category/world/sub-saharan-africa/nigeria/ • Nigeria for backpackers: http://www.backpackers.com.tw/guide/index.php/%E5%A5%88%E5%8F%8A%E5%88%A9%E4%BA%9E e.g. Lagos (有名的樂手Fela Kuti就是來自拉哥斯市郊。Ariya Night Club的老闆就是著名的Sunny Ade), Kano (西非最古老的城市) • King Sunny Ade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIoH_bJORho • African Digital Art http://www.africandigitalart.com/category/african-weekly-inspiration/

  5. Recent Islamic Rampage in Nigeria • 2011/4/25 (post-election); 2011/ 10/5 Kano • 2011/11/5 in Northeatern Nigeria (by Boko Haram) • Red Cross: Gunmen, bombs kill 65 in Nigeria 1; 2 • Religions in Nigeria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nigeria

  6. Outline (1): Igbo Culture & Nigerian Writers • A. Igbo Culture • Family • Marriage • mother • Traditional belief • Mask • Chi • New Yam festival • Superstition • Twins • Osu • B. Nigerian third- generation in the modern cities • Diaspora & Urban experience • National identity vs. Cultural identity Joyce

  7. Outline (2): War Games C. War Games I. Introd. • Cheche — the Nigerian version of Midnight’s Children • Ethnic rivalry in the North • History seen from a child’s perspective • Cheche’s experience of the war • Cheche’s experience of folk tradition Next week

  8. Igbo culture: Family • Marriage • Polygamy • Bride-price • Importance of being a mother • Storytelling, songs, and myths • Nneka—meaning “Mother is supreme” (TFA 133) Joyce Nneka (singer) http://www.wretch.cc/blog/shadowboxer/32741358 “Africans” (YouTube from To and Fro)

  9. Stage I: A is married to two wives (B and C) each of whom is assigned a separate hut within the compound where she lives with her children Residence Pattern of an Igbo Family (source) Stage II: A's sons marry and bring in their wives, each of whom is assigned a new hut. His daughters move out as they marry.

  10. Igbo culture: Traditional belief • Mask • New Yam Festival • Chi • “when a man says yes his chi says yes also.” (TFA 27) • “man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi.” (TFA 131) Joyce Zaouli(Gouro Dance Mask) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP9LeBXKZnU Igbo / Ibo People ~ Masquerade Pictures, 1959

  11. Igbo culture: superstition • Twins killing  Olanna & K • The twins were abandoned to a death by exposure immediately after they were born. The women gave birth to twins are usually abominated . (TFA 151) • Osu (outcast)  cleansing ritual • They are living sacrifice to the deities of the Igbo. They live in a special section of the village and are forbidden to marry a free person or cut their hair. They are to be buried in the Evil Forest when they die. (TFA 156) Joyce

  12. Nigerian third generation: Diaspora & Urban experience Young writers’ works are • Less “authentically” Nigerian, but with more global cultures? • Less political but more personal? • “Nigerian” writers in global cities? • e.g. Adichie’s short stories-- deal with Nigerian immigrants’ experience of hardship in the United States and England. Joyce

  13. Nigerian third generation: National identity vs. Cultural identity 1. Nation: “[All] third-world texts are necessarily . . . allegorical, and in a very specific way they are to be read as what I will call national allegories.’’ (Fredric Jameson, 69) 2. Culture: • The roles of “dibia” – in Half of a Yellow Sun • Cheche’s “localization” in War Games Joyce

  14. War Games A Child’s Experience of War-Time Conflicts (Nigerian-Biafran War, 6 July 1967–15 January 1970)

  15. Dulue Mbachu (1961~) • Writer and Journalist (articles written by him) • set up The New Gong publishing house to publish the African Writers Series • "After a war is fought, the victors immediately write their history. But it takes a while for the victims to find their voice and tell their own side story.” (Mbachu on Igbo writers' obsession with the Nigerian civil war source)

  16. War Games: Chaps 1 – 4 • City Life: Happy childhood (mixed with miracle, dance, sweets and an episode of being bullied) • Village Amafor: Going to Amafor, getting to know Grandfather • Amafor  Umuahia: Cheche’s experience of the war • Amafor: Cheche’s getting to know Amafor and its rituals

  17. War Games: The first 4 Chaps and the Novel • Is the presentation of the village life distracting from the novel’s real focus? • 1/3 of the novel: Che Che’s playing with friends, revels in various ceremonies. “less interesting than the rest of the book. In fact, since the book is so clearly about the Biafran War, they are annoying. (HAWLEY 19)

  18. War Games: The first 4 Chaps and the rest of the Novel • The war in the context of the conflicts • between traditional and modern/colonial cultures (in terms of religions, urban and northern Igbo people and Shaw-Shaw people), • Between Hausa and Igbo people, -- Aren’t the rituals (Catholic or traditional) all games, of one kind or another?

  19. War Games: The first 4 Chaps and the rest of the Novel War Games, Village Rituals and Children’s Games • How do we deal with conflicts and evils? • Games– with rules and enforcing conformity—sometimes brutally • The experience of survival (“eat as much as you can”) and being a “rebel” or non-conformist.

  20. Questions • How do you relate to Cheche’s stories (about childhood, the Biafra war and the Igbo rituals)? Do you find anything similar in your own life or culture? • What do you think about the narrator, his mixture of an adult and child perspectives? • How is Igbo’s folk tradition represented first through the Grandfather, and then the rituals?

  21. The Happy Childhood in the City Cheche – • The beginning of his memory – moving to the house • the center of the extended family’s and the tenants’ attention (3) • Experience: • miracle of singing and dancing vs. being bullied (6-7) • education – experience of racism, using Hausa songs on Shaw-Shaw people (10) • market and Papa’s shop • dance

  22. The Happy Childhood in the City • His understanding as a child: • Mother/Father: attached to the mother (2), see grandfather as twice as big • the world as “a bumpy place” (4) • Genealogy // identity – born 3 months after the birth of the nation “only those younger than a country can belong to it” (10)  chap 3 (p. 34) • Names – wants to use father’s name as his surname. • A cloud watcher (13); Papa’s shop, diasppointing • Later understanding • the role of money in the priests’ blessing. (5)

  23. History Seen from a Child’s Perspective • pp. 16-17 (chap 2): lack of comprehension– • parties –different from the birthday parties. • why were Igbos singled out as the common enemy. “a meeting somewhere?” • pp. 28 – 29 (chap 3): sorrow and indignation over deaths-- Gowon vs. Ojukwu (Johnson T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi - Nigerian general); pogrom and programme • pp. 33-34 (chap 3): – nationalism (later: egg-rusher payment 171) • The boy– witnessingor hearing about deaths: a pregnant woman 17;30

  24. Chapter 2: Cheche’s surprise at seeing Grandpa • Shaw-Shaw house and the Grandpa of the Shaw-Shaw p. 23-24 • Odukwe Compound –obu for men and boys, ohwo for the wives. • Obu house (source)

  25. Igbo Farmers vs. Shaw-Shaw people • P. 10 Cheche: exaggerates their nakedness and poverty • pp. 19-20 thinks their houses too small •  Igbo farmers also naked!!! p. 22; • (later understanding) p. 23 Shaw-Shaw people made fun of because they used leaves instead of clothes to cover their nakedness. But ...

  26. Cheche vs. Grandfather • A mask depicting a dibia (healer) (source) 1) In conflict with their Catholic belief (e.g. the chicken 25) 2) Grandpa vs. the radio – 27 3) (chap 4) p. 41 –with magic power –descending from the sky, passing as a pregnant woman

  27. The War Experience of the war – • Sympathizes with Mama’s fears (pp. 18-) Worries over Papa, the neighbors’ secret pleasure • Tales of the survivors – brutal killings, rescue or betrayal of the neighbors (30); • e.g. Papa’s being rescued by Paradang (who was not particularly friendly) and betrayed by a friendly tenant. • The adults’ excitement over the nationalist war • Air raids – Mama’s responses (36-37)

  28. Chap 4: Embracing Amafor • Cheche –ready to accept Amafor (Grandpa, and the environment); • becoming a village boy, • not wearing slippers or a shirt. p. 42 • fighting bigger girls at their weaker spots p. 43

  29. Ritual (1): Cleansing • pp. 43-45 • vindicated if the villagers’ response is “lyaa” or “Ooooh!”; condemned if they are silent. • e.g. Esoniru (poisoning people, including his wife); Ekwegbe (killing young boys) • What do you think about this cleansing ritual? Why do the people die after being condemned in public? • The rule of the Majority – may not be justified

  30. Ritual (2): Masked Spirit (Egwugwu) Joyce

  31. Ritual (2): Masked Spirit in the Ogwugwu festival • (Ogwugwu--ogwugwu is the strongest deity in Nigeria. The deity is more than 300 years old. sited in the eastern part of Nigeria.) • Masked spirits – as sprinters 短跑者, as dancers, inflicting diseases on others (46) • Feast, race (taunting the spirits and escaping their whipping) and dance of the spirits

  32. Ritual (2): Masked Spirit in the Ogwugwu festival • Echi-Eteka –tomorrow is too far (51) • The song “Respect yourself… Medicine man/ Stop divinating for me/ The one you’re divinating for/ Understands the mysteries better than you do…. Meaning? A rite of passage for the boys  later he becomes one of the altar boys.

  33. Biafra war and its related conflicts From War GamestoHalf of a Yellow Sun A child’s experience (cityvillage) adults’ experiences (traumatized; village  city)

  34. Reference • http://www.igboguide.org/index.php?l=chapter9 • G. I. Jones Photographic Archive of Southeastern Nigerian Art and Culture. <http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/jmccall/jones/> • Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print. • Adesanmi, Pius and Chris Dunton. “Introduction— Everything Good is Raining: Provisional Notes on the Nigerian Novel of the Third Generation.” Research in African Literatures 39.2 (2008): vii-xii. Print. • ---. “Nigeria’s Third Generation Writing: Historiography and Preliminary Theoretical Considerations.” English in Africa 32.1(2005): 7-19. Print. • Hawley, John C. “Biafra as Heritage and Symbol: Adichie, Mbachu, and Iweala.” Research in african literatures, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Summer 2008): 15-26. • Jameson, Frederic. “Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism.” Social Text 15 (Fall 1986): 65-88. Print.

  35. Next Week • [Group Q&A Time] 456--Nadine Gordimer "Amnesty" • The week after next [Group Q&A Time] 123: "The Prophetess“ by Njabulo S. Ndebele ..Group report: Yesterday

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