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A Boost For Niger Delta Literature At Ojaide’s Event

By Ajiroghene Oreh
10 January 2016   |   1:11 am
THE pitiable situation of polluted environments, marginalisation, youth unemployment and restiveness and militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta has continued to generate literary responses from the region’s cultural workers. They continue to forge a firm bond with their beleaguered environment in their writings in poetry, plays, prose, biographies, scholarly works and essays. Unarguably, Niger Delta…
A cross section of writers and guests at Prof. Tanure Ojaide’s literary event on January 2 in Warri, Delta State

A cross section of writers and guests at Prof. Tanure Ojaide’s literary event on January 2 in Warri, Delta State

THE pitiable situation of polluted environments, marginalisation, youth unemployment and restiveness and militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta has continued to generate literary responses from the region’s cultural workers. They continue to forge a firm bond with their beleaguered environment in their writings in poetry, plays, prose, biographies, scholarly works and essays. Unarguably, Niger Delta literature is a protest literature forged as a truly radical cultural enterprise.

The radical themes in the literature emanating from the Niger Delta focus on issues of local colonialism, the plunder and dispossession of the Niger Delta folks and the attendant social and environmental disasters. These themes are pervasive in all literary works from the region.

One issue that stood out above others at this year’s Prof. Tanure Ojaide’s literary feast held in oil-rich city of Warri, Delta State, on January 2nd, 2016, was Niger Delta literature. The poet’s one storey building, off Jefia Estate, Effurun, quaked to the intellectual rumblings and radical thoughts and ideas from some of the region’s fierce literary generals. These writers ranged from the militant intellectual and Marxist, Prof. Gordini G. Darah to Ojaide, Prof. Tony Afejuku to Dr. Sunny Awhefeada, Dr. Tonukari, Dr. Enajite Ojaruega, Dr. Obari Gomba and their lieutenants, Captain Richard Maduku, Peter Omoko, Steve Kekeghe, Darah, Richard Ikeke, Esemedafe, Edegbe and others.

In his welcome remarks, Ojaide appreciated the writers, critics, journalists and students of literature and history that attended the literary event. He spoke on a number of issues that occasioned the annual gathering of
writers and critics. They included the need to share experiences, to carry everyone along, especially the female folks, trends in contemporary writings, the failure of last year’s The Nigeria Prize for Literature to award the prize for Children’s Literature category, his satirical writings and his newest works and a critical source book titled Indigeneity, Globalization and African Literature (2015).

It was at this stage that some of the writers introduced their newest works to the gathering. From Ojaide to Afejuku, to Omoko, Kekeghe, Gomba and others; they also read from their works. The reading and the critical evaluations were electrifying. The living room of the poet was charged; even the air-conditioners could not cool the restless ideas from the writers and critics who engaged each other in an intellectual warfare. Also, the event engendered an opportunity for the young writers to benefit from the masters by way of advice and how to they should go about their writing craft.

Writers whose works were subjected to critical reading and evaluation were Ojaide, Afejuku, Gomba, Ikeke, Isaac, Ms Onoyewere and Maduku, all peotry while the plays of Omoko and Kekeghe were also critiqued.

At the end, the literary event gave birth to revolutionary ideas that could transform Niger Delta literature into a yearly feast. A communiquè issued sued for the need to organise Niger Delta Literature and Arts Conference in July or August, A Journal for Niger Delta Scholarship and an Anthology for Poetry, Play and Short Stories.

Clearly, the Ojaide literary event was a stimulating and enriching one for everyone present and it gave Warri a humanising face.
• Ajiroghene J. Oreh is a student of English and Literary Studies, Delta State University, Abraka

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