ktravula – a travelogue!

Drama at the NLNG

I realized, just last week, that the call for entries for the Drama Category of the annual Nigeria Prize for Literature is out. The Prize, as will be familiar to those following Nigerian literary conversations, carries $100,000 and is awarded annually in four rotating genres. Last year’s winner, Ikeogu Oke, won for poetry (and you can watch my interview with him here, or read a review of his willing entry).

At a lunch invitation in Lagos with interested stakeholders, literary journalists, and selected members of the public, Mr. Tony Okonedo, Manager, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs at the Nigeria LNG spoke about the progress of the prize, fielded questions about its shortcomings and public expectations, and announced a number of initiatives being planned for this year’s edition.

One of the attendee inputs that got a favourable response by the organizers is the suggestion that NLNG consider sponsoring a command performance of whichever play that won the prize last. In this case, that will be Iredi War written by Sam Ukala, and which won in 2014 when the Drama Prize was last awarded. I can already imagine such a performance (open to the public, perhaps) helping to draw more attention to the prize, the winning writer, and the genre in particular.

Another suggestion which I particularly like will involve having the NLNG sponsor a type of writing workshop every year either with all the longlisted authors in its prize categories or for selected and/interested writers who are then taken to the Island of Bonny where NLNG makes most of its money through the liquified natural gas. Either that or a type of residency. What I’ve heard of the tranquil nature of that island makes this something of a perfect fit.

According to a press release, the NLNG-sponsored Science Prize will also be accepting entries on Innovations in Electric Power Solutions. The literature prize opened on February 13, 2018 and will close on March 29, 2018. The window for the science prize, on the other hand, opened on February 15, 2018, and will close on May 25, 2018.

Professor Matthew Umukoro will chair the panel of judges for this year’s Literature prize competition. He is a professor of Theatre Arts at University of Ìbàdàn. Other members include Professor Mohammed Inuwa Buratai, a Professor of Theatre and Performing Arts and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria; and Dr. Mrs Ngozi Udengwu, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Do people still write plays? Silly question, I know. But are there still many being published every year, a vibrant industry like we have for prose and, sometimes, poetry? I don’t know. Are unpublished plays eligible for this prize even? If not, why not? I know, though, that Sefi Atta published a collection last year, so I look forward to seeing the writers on this year’s long and shortlist. Who knows, maybe I’ll get to interview the shortlisted playwrights as well. Still, about 10 days for you to enter if you qualify. More information here.

Drama at the NLNG was published on March 19th, 2018, under the Drama, Literature, News category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

At the Korean DMZ

Visiting the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ, as it’s commonly called) was, I think, one of the most exhilarating parts of my trip. Nowhere else in the world, perhaps, is as illustrative of tension and hostility between two countries as the DMZ is. It is the world’s only remaining demilitarized zone laid bare in a 250-km long border barrier between what is now known as North Korea and South Korea.

Parts of the DMZ are open to guests, though subject to last-minute cancellations in many instances. On the day of our visit, the Olympic delegation from the North had just passed through the Civilian Control Line, on the way to Seoul on a historic visit. Had we arrived there just a few minutes earlier, we may have been delayed to make way for them.

The parts of the South where visitors can visit have a number of interesting landmarks, including an observatory post from where one can peep into North Korea and see its Propaganda Village and a flag, erected to be taller than anything else near it, placed strategically near the border. There, there is a small museum showing how the Korean conflict started, the many skirmishes between both of them over the years, and other relevant information. Over the years, the North Koreans had plotted to take over the South using many sly tactics. One of them is the use of a tunnel, four of which have been discovered before they did too much damage. Guests to the DMZ can take a look at some of them, and even take a walk in them, since they’ve been preserved for touristic purposes.

A place I thought I was going to visit, but learnt isn’t much open to the public, is Panmunjom with the famous blue house split across two national boundaries, and where most high-level diplomatic meetings between the countries usually take place. From Paju, where the observatory was, Panmunjom was a few miles out of view even of the mounted telescopes.

One thing that was exciting to discover is that, due to the state of war between the two Koreas and the untouched nature of the wilderness in the DMZ, it has grown over the years to become something of a nature park. Exotic birds and animals of diverse natures now live in the four-kilometre-wide minefield that separates the two Koreas. It has been proposed that in the case of future unification, the two countries agree to keep the DMZ as a heritage site of protected flora and fauna.

I can get behind that, as well as the idea of returning to the country after a state of peace has finally returned. Hope is frail but it’s hard to kill, as the saying goes. From the conversations with ordinary Koreans throughout the trip, it appears that I’m not the only one with at least a desire for a better future in that part of the world. May it be soon, and may the cost not be too high for the world to bear.

At the Korean DMZ was published on February 15th, 2018, with the tags , , , , , under the Travelling category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Onward Aké – A Travelogue

by Torinmo Salau

 

I got to Oshodi few minutes past 7am, my plan was to take off from Lagos before 6:30 Am. Rather I found myself panting under the weight of the Khaki travel bag strapped to my back, frantic to get on the next vehicle en route Kuto, Abẹ́òkuta which finally set out few minutes to 8am.

The grey Sienna car was badly dented and its rear windscreen had a slight crack which ran diagonally across its full length. The vehicle moved swiftly, faster than I even envisaged and within 30 minutes, we were approaching the tollgate. With Ma Lo by Twa Savage and Wizkid playing quietly in the car, I tried to go through the Aké Festival program schedule on my Samsung tablet.

“Are you going to Aké too?” the husky voice who sat beside me asked, jolting me out of the thoughts which clouded my mind.

“Yes”. I wondered why he was smiling sheepishly and from the way the words rolled off his tongue, you could guess his name would either be Emeka or Ifeanyi. But I did not guess right, his name was Chike.

After conversing for some minutes, I discover that Chike is a lawyer but he daylights as a freelance writer and editor.

“Shit I forgot my drugs,” he said midway through the conversation, mumbling words I barely understood.

“I forgot my antidepressants, he continued, sounding more distressed with anxiety ripping slowly through his face. His anxiety was palpable as he shifted from left to right in his seat, visibly shaken from the reality which just dawned on him.

“Are you depressed?”

Then I realized that was a dumb question to ask, if he is not suffering from depression, then why is he is shaking like a crinkled leaf which has lost its moist to the parched harmattan wind.

“Yes, I am depressed. But I will be fine without the drugs, he said shrugging his shoulder limply. Then he turned his back towards me, looking out of the window and staring at lush green vegetation which lined the road.

We were way past Mowe-Ibafo and its environs, I knew this because there was no sight of human habitations along the road again, just signposts after signboards and signages which had rusted and were barely legible to read.

“Sorry to hear, you are suffering from depression.”

I said the word ‘Depression’ almost inaudibly, carefully curating every word I spoke like somebody walking on eggshells, eggshells which can crack just by the slightest omission of a letter.

“Please don’t be, Chike said looking away from the window, smiling, I guess he was trying to hide his disappointment.

“I get a little cranky when I miss my medication but I will be fine, it’s just for two days”.

This was the second time he was saying, “I will be fine” within the space of five minutes.

While he sounded fairly reassuring, I still felt worried. Worried by the fall in his countenance and the dark shadow cast over the bubbly persona he exuded at the onset of the journey. Wondering what the resultant effect of missing a pill or two could be, wondering why he had to repeat himself if he would really be fine?

Then the journalist in me kicked in.

“How long have you been feeling depressed?” I asked with my curiosity etched up, hungry to dig down the layers of this story, hoping it is not what I think it is.

“Two years thereabout”.

“Besides antidepressants medication, why didn’t you explore other means of managing this condition?”

“I did. I tried therapy first but it was quite expensive. Then I switched to a psychiatrist, the doctor placed me on drugs which have been more effective than therapy”.

“But contrary to what I am aware of, therapy works best, better than tying your daily existence to a bottle of pills?”

“Yes it does, for some people. But the antidepressants help to balance my moods, keeps me from bouncing from one end to the other.

“Are there any side effects to antidepressants?”

“Yes of course, especially the withdrawal symptoms which varies among individuals, ranging from anxiety, insomnia, nausea, fatigue amongst others. It can either be mild or severe.

Chike turned his back to me again, but this time, he wasn’t looking out of the window. Rather, just staring at the brown threadbare carpet on the floor of the car, which was caked with red sand. By then the song playing in the car was ‘Joromi’ by Simi, with light chatter from fellow passengers, some talking about the Spanish La Liga while others were lamenting the epileptic power supply across the country. But for few seconds, there was a transient suppression of verbal expression. The gulf of space between us was taken up by silence and it stood there for what seemed like an eternity.

Though I pretended to read a book, Chike’s words kept throbbing my mind. His mental health struggles mirrored exactly what I was going through but what I was also denying and the more I looked in, the more I saw a reflection of myself.

On some days, I am just floating through space, watching my life from a distance as my dreams and ambitions vapourize into thin air, without any drive to rescue them.  Though I feel sparks of euphoria and drift to a different time space with my heart clustered with sugary fantasies tickling my taste buds, it is not for too long. Reality always lingers and thoughts of pulling the trigger moonwalk across my mind often. I want to run away, yet I am too scared to die.

I was excited as the car approached the ‘Welcome to Ogun state’ signboard. I could feel its momentum rising to 120KM/H, as the driver drove past the Governor’s Office which was painted in the colours of the national flag, heading into town.

***

While this was my second visit to Abẹ́òkuta, the city of rocky hills within the space of a decade, it was my first time at the Ake Book and Arts Festival, the fifth edition of AKEFEST. An annual literary, art and cultural event which pools authors, creatives, writers, artists, musicians, activists to share their work and ideas. It is no doubt a booklover’s dream as it offers the opportunity to interact with some of the major voices in the contemporary African literary scene.

I found the theme for the 2017 edition of Ake Festival, ‘This F-Word’ really intriguing, this was undeniably a profound time to have this conversation and stanchly confront the issues revolving around it. But the big cherry on the cake was the headliner for the event, Ama Ata Aidoo. Renowned poet, novelist and feminist. My favourite amongst her books is Anowa, a Ghanaian play about a young girl who rejects suitors proposed by her parents and marries a stranger, Kofi Ako. Kofi is angered by Anowa’s attitude of being a modern women and asks her to leave when she could not conceive a child. But Anowa discovers later that her husband had lost his ability to bear children, so the fault was his not hers. This discovery of the truth forces Kofi to shoot himself while Anowa drowns herself.

The trip ended at Kuto, it lasted for about 90 minutes. As luck would have it, the location of the literary festival, Arts, and Cultural centre was situated right beside the bus park, along Ibrahim Babangida Boulevard, Kuto. Chike and I were the last passengers to highlight from the car, I mumbled a short prayer to the heavens, grateful for the miracle of surviving the road.

Though the literary festival was a weeklong event, precisely five days from November 14th – 18th, 2017, I arrived at AkeFest on Day 4, Friday, hoping to still maximize the best of the event within the last two days. Chike and I exchange phone number and parted ways, promising to stay in contact with each other. He wanted to hear Toni Kan speak but I ran off to the current session underway, Book Chat with Alexis Okẹ́owó and Dayọ̀ Ọlọ́pàdé.

Storytelling with Mara Menzies on The illusion of the Truth was an enthralling moment as she told a Kenyan story of how Gikuyu women were not permitted to eat meat. Mara’s undulating body rhythm and the subtle tenor in her voice added more spice to the story. The fork in the road was one woman’s search for the truth and determination to fight the cultural stereotype which beleaguered women in her community. The day ended with a stage play by Yolanda Mercy on Quarter Life Crisis, a monologue which mixes expressions of spoken word and addictive baselines infused with a side dish of comedy. Most individuals go through a quarter-life crisis, but they don’t know it. Just like Alice, the main character in the story, we are swiping from left to right. Young, exuberant yet confused, not knowing what to do with the blank cheque called life, given to us. Though everyone around her thinks they know where they are going in life, the stage play which shows Alice trying to find ways to cheat growing up ends with a hilarious climax. However it doesn’t end without asking the audience with these two questions, ‘What does it mean to be an adult?’ and ‘When do you become one?’

Dusmar Hotel

I retired for the night at Dusmar Hotel, situated next to the Art and Cultural centre which saved me an extra cost of commuting within Abeokuta to the literary event. The hotel’s reception struck me with a major throwback to the mid-90s, refreshing fragments of my memory littered here and there. The furniture and furnishings were quite antique. The windows, still the same old model fitted with louvres reminded me of an incident I did not want to remember and I would rather not talk about it. But I found myself wondering why a hotel bore this type of window fittings even in the year 2017, though mildly nostalgic yet largely traumatizing.

Day 5, Saturday, the event was winding down but more people were still pouring it. As the literary festival teetered towards its climax, everything became fast paced. People frantically buying discounted books and F-Word books from the bookshop. The flashlight of cameras everywhere you turned to, as people tried to seal the memories and friendships formed within the space of five days. There was a book signing spree, authors inking their thoughts on books purchased by readers and their fans which was consummated with the millennials’ trademark autograph, Selfies!

My highlight of the day was the Life and Times session on Ama Ata Aidoo. The renowned author who has been writing for over sixty years spoke liberally about her life, work and feminism. It was an emotionally charged atmosphere for many in the hall as she paid an emotional tribute to Mariama Ba, Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta and other women pioneers of African writing.

“I hope you will extend the love and appreciation, you have shown me to my sister writers – living and past.” But what stuck with is the last line of one of the poems she read, “A girl’s voice doesn’t break, it gets firmer.”

***

I returned to Lagos on Sunday morning with a belly full of feisty aspirations, determined to change my misconceptions about feminism. Also to commit myself to unlearning and relearning, as the words of Mona Elthaway persistently rings in my ears, ‘Fuck the Patriachary’. Part of the main insights gained from the Ake festival is the universality of our experience as women whether black, white, or queer and why it is critical to challenge the elephant in the room, especially peculiar societal norms and beliefs which have repressed us decades.

____________

Torinmo Salau’s work has been published online and offline in literary publications, magazines, and anthologies.

Onward Aké – A Travelogue was published on February 14th, 2018, with the tags , , , under the Observations, Travelling category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

My Korean Nostalgia

It has been about two weeks since I returned from the Korean Peninsula as a guest of the Ministry of Culture for the PyeongChang Humanities Forum, a culture Olympics of sorts, but my heart has remained in the country. It had dawned on me, long before I got on the plane that took me out of Incheon Airport, that this is a special place. From the first welcome, through all the stops at Seoul, Pyeongchang, Busan, and other places in-between, the country warmed itself (a curious word since it was freezing cold in the subzeroes for the duration of my trip) into my bones. And now, I realize that I will never be able to read any news story about the Korean crises without a personal pull.

There is a story in the Wall Street Journal this morning about a successful concert at the at the Gangneung Arts Center by the North Korean orchestra attended by an audience of South Koreans of all generations in which the prospect of peace and unification again came within reach, even if only sentimentally. While I was in Korea, we had taken a trip to the Demilitarized Zone and learnt through a television in the bus, right before entering the Civilian Control Line, that a delegation from the North had entered the country through the same entrance just a few minutes earlier. They had been sent by Kim Jong Un as an advanced team to prepare grounds for sending the athletes that the North had agreed to have participate in the Ice Hockey event under the same (unification) flag along with the South, and in the same team. It warmed my heart up. (This has happened, by the way).

Almost everywhere we visited in South Korea, but none more pronounced than the DMZ areas, there is a palpable sense of hope for an eventual unification of the two countries under peaceful terms. It sometimes felt too jarring when compared to the rhetoric I’d been familiar with, from outside looking in, about a prospect of war that appeared real almost every day and with every tweet from the POTUS. Almost everywhere at the DMZ had something about ‘unification’ or ‘freedom’. The road we were on was called Freedom Road. There was a house at Paju that had boldly written on it “End of Separation, Beginning of Unification” in English, Chinese, and Korean. It’s unlikely that any North Korean would see it from across the border a few miles from there, but it showed an attitude that permeates everywhere I looked. The people of the South would want nothing more than a chance to reunite with their long lost national siblings.

A question I’ve been asking since I’ve been back is not just the North feels the same way (we have seen many defections to know that some appetite for this exists) but whether the outside forces will let it happen. In this case, we have China on the one hand whose communist hegemony is threatened by a unified Korea under capitalistic/democratic terms, Russia (which, to my surprise at its enormous size, does share a national border with North Korea as well) on another who has formed an inscrutable relationship with Kim Jong Un and would want nothing more than another outpost with which to poke the US, and then the administration of Donald Trump in America who have done nothing more than stoke flames of war in a transparent attempt at shoring up support for their unpopular domestic and conservative agenda. Listening to the media tell us about the possibility of peace, it comes through an inevitable path of war or denuclearization where America wins and Kim Jong surrenders to the will of Mr. Trump. The latter seems improbable, leaving us only the possibility of war. But the situation on the ground didn’t seem to offer only this binary. Watching Koreans live their life as normally as anyone can, with nothing resembling the worrying anticipation with which others around the world look at the peninsula brings up the possibility that some other less inflammatory resolution to the conflict can be found. I don’t know what it is, but maybe we should ask the Koreans rather than saber-rattle from afar as we’re wont to do. By ‘we’, I mean Donald Trump and the US.

In any case, this was supposed to be a recollection of my fond memories of Korea, and not a rant on global politics. When I watch the winter games on television today, I will remember walking through the ski village in Pyeongchang, watching the workers prepare the venues for the athletes, and wondering why anyone will leave their house to come compete in such a cold weather. But I will also retain a hope for the eventual unification of the country on more favourable terms to those who live in it and whose futures are tied to its peace and security, away from the many competing interests of the global powers.

My Korean Nostalgia was published on February 9th, 2018, with the tags , , , , , , under the adventures, Observations, Opinion, Travelling category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

NLNG presents $200,000 to 2017 Literature, Science Prizes winners

Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Limited, yesterday at a Public Presentation in Lagos, formally presented The Nigeria Prize for Literature and The Nigeria Prize for Science, which come with a cash prize of $100,000 each, to four winning entries that emerged from the 2017 cycle.

Author of the winning entry for The Nigeria Prize for Literature, The Heresiad, Ikeogu Oke, was awarded a $100,000 cheque, while joint science prize winners Ikẹ́olúwapọ̀ Àjàyí, Ayọ̀délé Jẹ́gẹ́dẹ́, Bídèmí Yusuf, Olúgbénga Mokuolu and Chukwuma Agubata were awarded the Nigeria Prize for Science, with a cash prize of $100,000, split evenly.

The science prize sought to find solutions to malaria through its theme for 2017, Innovations in Malaria Control.

The joint winning entries for the science prize were “Improving Home and Community Management of Malaria: Providing the Evidence Base” by Ikẹ́olúwapọ̀ Àjàyí, Ayọ̀délé Jẹ́gẹ́dẹ́ & Bídèmí Yusuf; “Multifaceted Efforts at Malaria Control in Research: Management of Malaria of Various Grades and Mapping Artemisinin Resistance” by Olúgbénga Mokuolu; and “Novel lipid microparticles for effective delivery of Artemether antimalarial drug using a locally-sourced Irvingia fat from nuts of Irvingia gabonensis var excelsa (ogbono)” by Chukwuma Agubata.

The 2017 cycle of the science prize ended a seven-year drought of winners. There had been no winner since 2010.

VIPs who were present at the high profile event include the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Akínwùnmí Ambọ̀dé, represented by the Commissioner for Special Duties, Honourable Olúṣẹ̀yẹ Adédèjì; the Honourable Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, represented by Dr (Mrs) Julie Momah; Honourable Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, represented by Mrs Elizabeth Ibezim; the Obi of Onitsha HRH Nnaemeka Achebe; Egbere Emere Okori 1 Eleme, His Royal Highness Appolus Chu; Paramount Ruler of Ondo Kingdom, HRM, Oba Dr Victor Adésìḿbọ̀ Kiládéjọ Jilo III; members of the NLNG Board of Directors; members of the diplomatic corps; members of the Advisory Board for Literature and Science; members of the panel of judges for both prizes; the media; the academia; as well as invitees from the Nigerian literary community and secondary schools in Lagos.

Tony Attah, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NLNG, in his keynote remarks, said “The question is often asked, why Nigeria LNG Limited chose to honour writers and scientists despite its huge basket of Corporate Social Responsibility programmes that include the provision of roads, light, water and wide-ranging education intervention scholarship schemes.

“Our answer is very simple. No business can exist in isolation and be sustainable. Just like the adage says, “If you want to go fast; go alone, but if you want to go far; go together”. And for Nigeria LNG Limited, as a company, we have chosen to walk together with Nigeria.

“In Nigeria, we have the intellectual capability, we also have the resources; what we need is the will, and together we can all continue to progress the reputation of Nigeria in these spaces,” he added.

The Deputy Managing Director, Sadeeq Mai-Bornu, also remarked: “The Science and Literature prizes have come this far because stakeholders, especially the advisory boards, the panel of judges and our very distinguished guests have shown rare commitment towards making the prizes a success and one of the most prestigious initiatives of its kind in Africa.

“It is important to highlight here that Nigerian Scientists have continued to demonstrate that they can defend their space against the best anywhere in the world. So we look forward to more entries to provide solutions to issues classified as Nigerian problems in our subsequent competitions to enable us actualize this lofty ambition to speed up Nigeria’s socio economic advancement,” he said.

He announced that 2018 literature competition would be on Drama while the science prize theme is Innovations in Electric Power Solutions.

Accepting the award for Literature, Oke said: “In a world in which we do not always get what we deserve, and fortune does not always favour the most qualified or hardworking, I think we should all feel humble and appreciative for any success we achieve. This, besides happy, is how I feel as the recipient of this honour. To Nigeria LNG Limited, the members of the Advisory Board of the Nigeria Prize for Literature and the award-giving judges, I say, “An award-winning poet salutes you!”

The winners of the science prize also commended NLNG for instituting the prize and urged the academia and innovations to have more interest on the prize to showcase Nigeria’s talent.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature has since 2004 rewarded eminent writers such as Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (2016, Prose) with Season of Crimson Blossoms; Sam Ukala (2014; Drama) with Iredi War; Tade Ipadeola (2013; Poetry) with his collection of poems, Sahara Testaments; Chika Unigwe (2012 – prose), with her novel, On Black Sister’s Street; as well as Adeleke Adeyemi (2011, children’s literature) with his book The Missing Clock.

Others are Esiaba Irobi (2010, drama) who clinched the prize posthumously with his book Cemetery Road; Kaine Agary (2008, prose) with Yellow Yellow; Mabel Segun (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) for her collection of short plays Reader’s Theatre; Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) with her book, My Cousin Sammy; Ahmed Yerima (2006, drama) for his classic, Hard Ground; and Gabriel Okara (co-winner, 2005, poetry), Professor Ezenwa Ohaeto (co-winner, 2005, poetry).

The Nigeria Prize for Science has also been awarded to science laureates such as Professor Akii Ibhadode (2010); the late Professor Andrew Nok (2009); Dr. Ebenezer Meshida (2008); Professor Michael Adikwu (2006); and joint winners Professor Akpoveta Susu and his then doctoral student, Kingsley Abhulimen (2004).

The Nigeria Prize for Literature and The Nigeria Prize for Science are some of Nigeria LNG Limited’s numerous contributions towards building a better Nigeria.

NLNG presents $200,000 to 2017 Literature, Science Prizes winners was published on February 8th, 2018, with the tags , , , , under the Literature, News category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.