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Richard Mammah: Cultivating enlightenment in a society of philistine culture – A Review

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Richard Mammah: Cultivating enlightenment in a society of philistine culture - A Review

Title: My life in the world of books (A memoir)

Pagination: 119

Author : Richard Manmah
Reviewer : Adebayo Obajemu

Publisher : Mace Books
Year of Publication: 2024

Reading Richard Mammah ‘s coming -of-age memoir immediately calls for employment of contrast, metaphor and irony. A discerning critic can easily decode to the nuances and coded meanings in the book that lie beneath the syntax and racy prose in the book that recall Armah bereft of pejorism, in its pure command of language.

It is not only to Armah that Mammah owes debt, there are brilliant flashes of Farrah, Ngugi (Writer’s Prison Diary) and a whole lot of writers noted for their brilliant command of form and language.

The contrast is immediately clear when we look at the book and another brilliant life, the memoir of Maya Angelou: I know why the caged bird sings. Unlike Angelou’s, Mammah’s work invites the reader to be a participant, as the experiences he narrated are quite familiar, he does not personalized it unlike Angelou, where though enjoyable, the reader still feels an outsider.

Mammah has taken us through phases of his life in just 119 pages, beginning with prosaic Wordsworthian, idyllic painting of Koko, a coastal pastoral setting in Delta state, where he was born into a wonderful family with ties to book culture and the intellectual path.
The book runs through eighteen chapters, each depicting a phase in the life of the author, leaving no one in doubt that Mammah is born to run in a track stacked on both sides of the field by books. His abiding quest for knowledge and life-meaning is the major leitmotif of the book, and often reflects existentialist strain.

The book begins with the author’s experience as pupil at St. Mary Primary School, Koko, when, as early as this period, the stirrings of his brilliance had shown. From there, he moves to the famous Government College Ughelli. The Mammah clan is aptly described, the happy family life; the matriarch of the house is seen as God-fearing business woman, while the father harps on discipline, the puritan nature of the parents have ramifications on the moral development of the children.

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He completes his secondary education, and easily secures admission to University of Calabar, where the older brother Chris attended. His romance with books and the book ecosystem fully comes to the core in Calabar.

The Calabar years fertilized and radicalized his thoughts pushing him towards humanistic stirrings, pan African nationalism and students politics of the left.

Calabar occupies a central place in African literature, as it was then a host to international conference on African literature. Mammah is immersed in the effervescence of all this, which affords him opportunity to meet prominent voices in African literature.

But at the same time, his interest in politics and the national question increased as a result of the kind of people he meets, such as Edwin Madunagu, Eskor Toyo, Nkenna Nzimiro, Bassey Ekpo Bassey and others.
From then on, he has elected for the world of books, literature, book promotion and reading culture. He did his national youth service at University of Uyo, and immediately goes for his Master’s at his alma mater.
He returns to Lagos, a place that has served as his base after Ughelli years. In Lagos, he devoted his time to variety of calling, journalism, book promotion through his various outlet from Synergy Educational to others. In the course of all this, he is introduced to Dr. Adulazeez, an associate of General Musa Yar’ Adua , thus begins a new phase of involvement in political activities, at the levels of communications, mobilisation and advocacy.

In the process he gets to meet important political figures in the country. This goes side by side with his deep involvement in the Lagos literary circle via Association of Nigeria Authors, and in the process, he served as secretary of Lagos chapter of ANA. He made his mark as a avid promoter of reading culture in schools, and in no time, Mammah meets important stakeholders in the books ecosystem and they collaborate in many conferences on books. He soon becomes one of the rallying points in the affairs of Nigeria Book Fair, and other organizations responsible for books promotions.

In recognition of his indefatigable contributions, he had been invited to various international books fairs in Germany, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and today, Mammah’s name has become synonymous with books promotions and ecosystem.

He also publishes The Difference Newspaper, after stints at Business Hallmark, The Mirror and Daily Times, and in all this, at the highest levels of editorial positions.

He has come across in the eyes of many to be what Mathew Anorld would call ‘total man on account of his eclectic interest and scholarship. The book is a rich account of his stewardship in the books ecosystem.
Like Sartre, chief of the existentialists, at least, as objectified in the book and turned into a symbol, Mammah believes in the essential freedom of individuals, and he also believe that as free beings, people are responsible for all elements of themselves, their consciousness, and their actions. This much is reflected in the decisions he took in the various phases of his life. That is, with total freedom comes total responsibility and accountability for life choices. He believed that even those people, who wish not to be responsible, who declare themselves not responsible for themselves or their actions, are still making a conscious choice, and are thus, responsible for anything that happens as a consequence of their inaction.

From the beginning of the book, Mammah reveals much about his own ethics and the ways in which individuals might ideally interact with each other to affirm their respective humanities.

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The highlights of his peregrination in the world of books was when he was introduced to the mercurial German foreign minister Joscha Fischer at the Frankfurt International Books Fair, and also when he sparred with Robert Mugabe at the Zimbabwe International Books Fair in Harare.

Richard Mammah: Cultivating enlightenment in a society of philistine culture - A Review

My Life in the World of Books

 

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