Arts & Books
All literary prizes have institutional interest—-Sule
E.E. Sule is a literary critic who has taught literature in several Nigerian Universities, he currently lectures at Ibrahim Babagida University, he spoke with Adeola Ogunrinde on a wide-range of issues, including his thought on African literary prizes.
What inspired you to go into literature?
The inspiration came from things around me mostly from the books I have read but I think my experiences in life are what draw me into writing, interaction with people, trying to understand certain things in my environment is another.
You are also a literary critic, what do you think of African literature?
We are doing quite well , we started from somewhere, it was hatched from the colonial experience and we have assumed our own voice, we seem to be going in the right direction, it is something of generation and historical realities but what is very good about African literature is that we can hardly separate it from our history so history and literature go hand in hand , that has helped a lot in giving an alternative history of the continent and also the ideas of writers who are able to do something to change their society , an idea of protest. African writing is one that has so much energy and with a lot of changing the society for the better especially in terms of political and economic realities.
African literature is now in sub-genres what do you think?
It is fine, categorization must exist, that is very important giving the idea of the temper of each age, all ages have their own peculiar ambience and African literature has able to capture the ambience of every age. The first generation dealt with the issue of colonialism, fight for independence, immediately after that, is the issue of dissolution, what can we make out of it , then the political problems we had when the military made adventure into politics , that too, is captured in our literature, almost currently what is happening in our society is captured in our literature , the literature has been quite active.
Do you think our literature has been able to capture the historical progression of Nigeria as a country, starting from the independence period?
The truth of the matter is that there is nothing like history as a story , there are only histories as stories, different stories, they say history is what someone who is capable of talking can say, if something happens and I ask you to narrate what happens with three others depending on your interest, there is nothing like this is what happened in the past, there is only this is what I think or I can remember happened in the past in that case, history becomes subjective and history becomes pluralistic and that is why many people say, you tell your own story .When Chimamanda Adiche wrote her own Biafran story , that story can be contested by another Nigerian who tells his or her own story. She tells it from her own point of view, another Nigerian can also write that same story from his or her own point of view whether he or she is from the North or West or even Eastern Nigeria. If something happened in that past I believe that thing is either lost or can be captured in several ways pending on who is telling the story so our desire to capture our history for the sake of our children becomes elusive. That is why today we have conflicts when stories are told, even within the North, those of us in the central Nigeria , when we tell stories , some people say no this is not how it happened, there is pluralism that is why post structural thinkers like to believe there is nothing like history anymore only histories, histories are always subjective , people tell stories based on what their interests are or what they think happen but the realities of what actually happened might not even be captured anymore. Do you know that there are lots of Institutions insisting that the Holocaust never happened? Some people came out saying it never happened. History today is no more a single narrative, it is those who are powerful that can tell stories and if you are powerful enough to tell stories how are you capturing the voice of those who are not powerful.
Are you saying some stories have more voice than others?
Good, meaning that if I have the power to tell a story, I will tell it to subdue other voices because I possibly want to project my own voice or I am in a conflict with those other voices. Eventually there will be no single history for us but histories as people who think they know what happened in the past.
As a people with own perspective, is it not correct to write our authentic story different from what others have written about us?
There are very few who challenge these stories, those who have intellectual power, and those who know the stories and do not have the intellectual power can’t challenge the stories, most especially the non-literate. In historiography they problematize the problem of history, the idea of narrating history, historians themselves argue. How do you narrate history? Edwin White, an American, was one of those who questioned the idea of narrating story, narrating the story of your ethnic group, how are you sure you won’t narrate the story to suit your own lineage. Supposing you are a slave in that community, will you write that story and say yes I am a slave? That is why some argue that there is no historian in the real sense.
What do you think about the African literary Prizes in Africa and outside Africa, the NLNG prize, Etisalat Prize Caine Prize and other African Prizes?
All prizes have institutional interest, they want to control an empire and they administer it from that control, in that case there are particular stories they are looking for , particular angles to talent and if you fit into that angle you get it, it is good because it brings out certain talent.
Do you think the Etisalat is a Pan African Prize?
The institution is theirs, they have their money, they select whoever they want to select to judge and the judge influence whoever they want to win the Prize. In that case it becomes a contribution to Literature which is seriously influenced by the interest of Institution.
Being a literary critic over the years, what do you think about the quality and rigour of the students you teach?
It is declining, things are getting worse, and this is from the basic level, the problem I have is that the basic level of education is actually neglected and that is also a problem that we at the higher institutions overlook. ASSU fight for infrastructure in the University but you can have the best infrastructure in the University when you have student coming from primary and secondary school where they are taught nothing, I see a big a gap between the higher institution and the basic institution and unless that gap is closed, the challenge is still there, that is why bodies like ASSU and MUT must work together, they must have a common goal to struggle for infrastructure at the basic level before the higher levels.