cramjones:

If you say Chimamanda hasn't gone that far: Then I think you a TOTALLY ignorant. Chimamanda is even more famous in the United States and Europe that she is in Nigeria, and you say she has not gone that far! Well I will blame it on ignorance!

How far could she have gone?
We know that she is popular, even failures can be popular for their failures.
She is young and promising but her arrogance can cut her short.
Imagine publishers start ignoring her.
Let her write and read her books herself.
Humility is the ultimate attitude of humankind.
Great people have fallen, I hope she doesn't end up on that list.

shymexx: Basically, when I said her books are soulless, I was alluding to the fact that she writes like an outsider looking in and not like an insider telling her story to the world with innate passion. You can go back and check the works of all the great African/Nigerian writers like: Soyinka, Achebe, Okri, and even Christopher Okigbo(these are the ones that I've read their works). They have all got a style of writing that's quintessentially African and you would feel the African-ness, once you start reading their books. However, with her, everything is just so plain. I can draw comparisons with Taye Selasi's "Ghana Must Go" and her branching out to telling an African story. Though, Taiye is of African ancestry, but because her experience is different and she was born in London and raised in Massachusetts, she wrote like an outsider looking in...and that evidently made the book plain and soulless.

However, since Chimamanda was born and raised in Africa, and after all the hype, I expected something soulful from her, but after reading her book...I wasn't impressed. And I've been saying this for time and not just on this thread. Perhaps, she writes the way modern day Africans are - with no depth in their culture and traditions, and things that make Africans unique. But hey, you can't blame me for feeling the way I feel because I prefer the old African consciousness - to the new pseudo-consciousness. It's just like watching the Brazilian football team play without the joga bonito style that made them the most entertaining football team to watch.

No hate here, just speaking my mind.

I never blamed any person for critiqing Adichie's work. How naïve that would be of me.

I was only surprised at how folks pounced on her before one could say jack. Instead of calling out her calous and arrogant statements...they went straight for her works. Same work they've been praising since her first showed up on world stage.

That left me with lots of things to ponder on. Has she been a target all these while? Seems so.

On the other note, I don't feel you are in a best position to describe her works as very un African given that you have never visited nor lived in Africa. How do you know what entails real African literature?

Look, Achebe and co were/are exceptional African writers...but they wrote according to the periods they were narrating. So is Adichie.
Or do you expect Adichie to use phrases and proverbs in TFA in Amerricanah? It wouldn't work.

With this your quoted post which is mature, you are clearly understood.

cramjones:

If you say Chimamanda hasn't gone that far: Then I think you a TOTALLY ignorant. Chimamanda is even more famous in the United States and Europe that she is in Nigeria, and you say she has not gone that far! Well I will blame it on ignorance!

So, normally i just like reading threads on NL and not commenting, but imma break my silence this one time. My rejoinder is aimed at cramjones. First off, i live in d US, WASHINGTON D.C to be exact.i also work there. I travel to NY regularly and all over the East coast. I am yet to hear one person mention Chimamdas name in the last 2 years. The problem most "pseudo-accomplished" naijas have is to downplay others achievements, especially here in the US. If you dont have anything positive to say, keep quiet. I love reading books, but methinks Chimamanda needs to work harder if she wants to be on the same pedestal with with the likes of Wole Soyinka., and at that not in a few years. Enough said

This thread is yet another prime example of colonized Nigerian minds at work tearing each other apart. That country can't see progress, I swear it.

A properly educated African would be able to see that Chimanda's comments had nothing to do with her. She was obliquely critiquing the institutional neo-colonization that the Cain Prize represents. Why should a board of wealthy westerners tell Africa who its best writers are? Chimanda runs regular writers' workshops and thus, she gets lots of manuscripts from all across Africa. It is well within the bounds of humility for her to say she has read better writer's from her inbox.

Poor wretched Nigerians! Oyinbo throws them one miserable prize for the ENTIRE continent, and they fight each other like mongrels for a bite. I pray Nigeria gets colonized again, this time by worse brutes (e.g. the Chinese). Stupid, poorly educated people don't deserve freedom.

Nuzo':

I never blamed any person for critiqing Adichie's work. How naïve that would be of me.

I was only surprised at how folks pounced on her before one could say jack. Instead of calling out her calous and arrogant statements...they went straight for her works. Same work they've been praising since her first showed up on world stage.

That left me with lots of things to ponder on. Has she been a target all these while? Seems so.

On the other note, I don't feel you are in a best position to describe her works as very un African given that you have never visited nor lived in Africa. How do you know what entails real African literature?

Look, Achebe and co were/are exceptional African writers...but they wrote according to the periods they were narrating. So is Adichie.
Or do you expect Adichie to use phrases and proverbs in TFA in Amerricanah? It wouldn't work.

With this your quoted post which is mature, you are clearly understood.

Thanks, bruv. However, about my knowledge of what African literature entails: don't forget I'm African with an inborn African spirituality. I might not be able to express it like those who were raised around that experience - but when I come in contact with it, I can feel it in my subconscious mind just like every other black person. Hence, why, though I can't play the talking African drums - but whenever I listen to the sound from those drums, it resonates my body, soul, and spirit. That's the African-ness in me in its purest form.

Perhaps, the new generation of African writers need to go back to what made the old ones great. They will never win anything prestigious with their new superficial style of writing. Ben Okri is Nigeria's biggest hope right now because of the African spiritual realism in his works.

That's just my 2cents.

yuzedo: ^^^ *shrugs* It is what it is, bruh. You can't compare it with say, Sefi Attah's (Everything Good Will Come). I don't even want to call the real ogas like Ben Okri (Famished Road).. Ah! Ejoor o!

See, Purple Hibiscus is a good debut, no doubt; but it is far from a great book. Can never be rated a classic.. Half Of a Yellow Sun? Yes. Purple Hibiscus? No. Respect to Adichie, nonetheless.

bros wetin!!!!! . .. E neva reach fight nah!! . . Ben okri Loun-Loun,ha!! . . . This is a 54 Old man That represents this country on all fronts,chi has Not gotten to that level of comparison with ben biko!

C A didn't sound arrogant to me, she only said how she felt about the award. Most upcoming writers will take her like a storm but till then. There are good African literatures, I still enjoy her short story "The things around your neck" and another author "A life elsewhere"and " Everything Good will come" and so many of them. Please let's learn to be tolerant to other peoples view.

I think they should write for passion rather hyping an award. If they are not hyping an award, this shouldn't be an issue. Inbox thing or enlistment whatever. I guess successful Africa writers like Chinua Achebe of blessed memory, Prof Wole Soyinka and others toll this line. They never expected they could get nominated.

yes,go and read Agary's Yellow yellow and know that we do have great writers.

Abbott:

I admit that Everything Good may not be Sefi Atta's highpoint, but their is something about it, the ordinariness, the monotony and the dramatic that is the life of nondescript and obscure people. The beauty lies not in its banality but that this people lead lives that yearns to be witnessed and noticed too. Still a fav to me anyway. Would love to get the rest and read 'em.

I see your point. It was for its ordinariness and monotony that i struggled to finish it.
However,another ordinary book that i ended up loving was FINE BOYS by Eghosa Imasuen. Very ordinary book that sounded almost autobiographical but i just loved it. His mastery of writing in pidgin was superb and despite the stroy being ordinary, i still could not stop.
Check it out.very good read. Infact my wife thinks it should be made compulsory reading for every SS3 boy,for very obvious reasons.

aghaibiam: yes,go and read Agary's Yellow yellow and know that we do have great writers.

very surprising recommendation,in my view.

Truth be told,there are a lot of good Nigerian fiction available at the moment.I will recommend a few more,if i can find the time away from South African fiction that seems to dominate my almost non existent reading list at the moment.

Hmmm...I think I'll go to book store and buy some african literature.

Seems there are good books from nigerians out there as far as this thread suggest.

I wish I could encourage abimbola adelakun of punch to write books, her articles on thursdays of Punch Dailies are the nearest I've got to reading anything insightful from a new generation Nigerian writer.

django1: Hmmm...I think I'll go to book store and buy some african literature.

Seems there are good books from nigerians out there as far as this thread suggest.

I wish I could encourage abimbola adelakun of punch to write books, her articles on thursdays of Punch Dailies are the nearest I've got to reading anything insightful from a new generation Nigerian writer.

She will be disappointed to hear that you do not know that she already has one and a good one at that.
Under The Brown Rusted Roofs

mbulela:
She will be disappointed to hear that you do not know that she already has one and a good one at that.
Under The Brown Rusted Roofs

I guess she is referring to Ibadan.

mbulela:
She will be disappointed to hear that you do not know that she already has one and a good one at that.
Under The Brown Rusted Roofs

Oh o. How did the book do? She's a good writer, how come her book isn't popular?

eaglechild:
I guess she is referring to Ibadan.

Yep

Nuzo':


I never blamed any person for critiqing Adichie's work. How naïve that would be of me.

I was only surprised at how folks pounced on her before one could say jack. Instead of calling out her calous and arrogant statements...they went straight for her works. Same work they've been praising since her first showed up on the world stage

Who are the people you're referring to?

When a vast number of people start any discussion of someone's work with predetermined chants of "this is the best i've ever seen" and refuse to engage in any objective analysis of the same, i guess you will assume everybody has always been praising the works in question.

django1:

Oh o. How did the book do? She's a good writer, how come her book isn't popular?

Because commercial success is one of the many ways of measuring how good a book is.
It is like football,i have seen boys with more talent and even application in my part of town than Mikel Obi and Jay Jay okocha but some how luck and chance never showed up for them. For all the buzz and adulation of Chimamanda Adichie,i have actually enjoyed better tales from lesser recognized writers. Books are a bit like women, our tastes differ and often our desires are shaped by the peculiarities of our needs at the moment.

It is a very good book but maybe she did not create the right buzz,did not get the right publisher,etc.
it was released in 2011/12.I guess her next work will be better circulated.

django1:

Oh o. How did the book do? She's a good writer, how come her book isn't popular?

If you liked Lola Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, then you'll love that Abimbola's book. there is a similarity.

tpia@:


Who are the people you're referring to?

When a vast number of people start any discussion of someone's work with predetermined chants of "this is the best i've ever seen" and refuse to engage in any objective analysis of the same, i guess you will assume everybody has always been praising the works in question.

I'm very sure that if I decide to agree with all you've said, you will still find a way to disagree with me for acceting your opinion. That's how unstable you can be most times.

Let's be honest for once, Adichie is not as over hyped as some people would want us to believe now. She deserve whatever success she's ridding on now. Okri, Soyinka, late Achebe and numerous prestigious awards have all attested to this fact.
What othe validation do we need?

And the disgruntled folks I was refering to were just waiting for the opportunity to strike...and they got it. But they were carrried away with the bitterness and envy that they forgot that her books were not on trial but her arrogant personality.

I'm all for critism albeit objectively and neutrally.

Plese refer back to Elnathan John's "The Consequences of Loving Ngozi". That guy summed up the whole situation.

Chimmamand is absolutely correct in this notion.the best among the shortlisted stories for the caine is elnata john's BAYAN LAYI.you can google out the stories and check,that tope folarin is no where near adichie's boy.truth be told.that guy will rock african literature like film trick. @the ranting writer;he should behave like an intellectual though i feel his pain.

obowunmi: Now Achebe is dead....who will give her honest review of her work?

Americanah SUCKED.

Pls refer to this...http:///7GZnS68sbz

yuzedo: Hahaha! I went through this Abubakr's tweets and i am impressed by his soundness of mind and zero-attitude to brown-nosing!

Adichie needs to chill if she has a chip on her shoulder. I understand that it can be a little hard imbibing/maintaining humility with all the attention and reverence she receives, but honestly? Honestly? Purple Hibiscus was MEDIOCRE!!! Half of a Yellow Sun was either a tour-de-force or a stroke of luck; for the benefit of all that hard work she put into it, i'll concede the former. Americanah? Haven't bothered reading, but the reviews haven't been encouraging.. Even as This Thing Around Your Neck didn't cause a buzz.

The literary world is such an egotistic, insecure one, with negative competition rife and playing to the gallery the in-thing. Chimamanda feels threatened by young turks, that's the simple truth, and maybe understandably so.

Check dis...http:///7GZnS68sbz

Talking:
Check dis...http:///7GZnS68sbz

there is no need to check anything. He makes valid points. While i might not agree that she feels threatened by the young turks, i share the rest of his sentiments.

Double194:
Thank God U said U are not really into African Literature cos on a scale of 1 to 10, her books score -0 in comparison to Achebe not to talk of the icon Soyinka [I still read his books with a Dictonary next to me].

. You're not a good storyteller if your audience doesn't understand your words. Soyinka's verbosity is what turns me off from his writing. The best authors don't need all that. Unless you're Dostoyevsky, that is...

dplomaticVal: To the piglet who quoted me, I'd ve ignored u blitheringly because the means u chose to display ur childish exuberancy lacks decorum to the core. Notwithstanding, IF Adichie ws so Famed in US and Europe as u sheepishly asserted then we shd be asking u why she havnt won a single prize there. Besides,it's crystal clear that she made her literary debut lately,though she've caved a niche for herself bt that dosnt giv her the prerogative and audacity to dictate for Africans on who they shd giv literary prizes and who they shldnt.

Er...she did win the Orange Prize for fiction...d@ isn't nigerian or african @ 'won a single prize over there'

'I go to my mailbox, where my workshop
people send me their stories. I could give you a
list of ten—mostly in Nigeria—writers who I
think are very good. They’re not on the Caine
Prize short list.'

Frm what I read,she isn claimn d@ those shortlisted don't deserve to b there,she stated d@ she just doesn't use d Caine list as a benchmark for ascertaining the best writers out there. In other words, d fact d@ we see certain names being celebrated in various fields doesn't mean they r the best or d@ there aren't any good talent who are actually unknown. Nigerians,learn to read before barking haba!

i suppose she might have meant the list in her inbox consists of writers who are in nigeria.

this particular winner, is american with nigerian parents.

he's only spent one year in nigeria, everything else was in america, south africa and england.

Now it is very true to say Writers bruise easily. I never believed that but I'm beginning to. Elnathan has currently picked on the 'one of my boys' phrase as an insult of which I don't think there's any reason to after reading the context it was being used. Bad blood obviously runs among all of them for the Ibrahim guy to venture into some 'queen mother' diatribe. Seems Chimamanda has rubbed them off the wrong way prior to this incident. This woman is articulate enough to defend herself fearlessly. Let the battle begin!

stillwater: Now it is very true to say Writers bruise easily. I never believed that but I'm beginning to. Elnathan has currently picked on the 'one of my boys' phrase as an insult of which I don't think there's any reason to after reading the context it was being used. Bad blood obviously runs among all of them for the Ibrahim guy to venture into some 'queen mother' diatribe. Seems Chimamanda has rubbed them off the wrong way prior to this incident. This woman is articulate enough to defend herself fearlessly. Let the battle begin!

writers have the most fragile egos.