As AE-FUNAI hosts 2021 ANA International Conference
The National President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Mr. Camilus Ukah has described Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State, as a knowledgeable institution.

The President stated this recently during the 2021 Annual ANA/AE-FUNAI International Conference and workshop Themed, ‘’Re-imagining Belongingness in 21st Century Africa’’.

He likened Literature to carbon, noting that as carbon is an important element in the life of every living thing, so also is literature, because of its ability to enter any subject. He stressed that anyone that knows literature is knowledgeable, and described AE-FUNAI as a knowledgeable institution because it promotes literature and literary works of the Nigerian authors having consistently hosted ANA conference in the past few years.


VC, Prof. Sunday Elom in a group photograph with Executive of ANA during their courtesy call to him at the VC’s conference room before the commencement of the conference
While welcoming the ANA President and his team during a courtesy call before the commencement of the conference, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sunday Elom, noted that AE-FUNAI is aspiring to become a world class University and assured the association of the continued support of his administration, promising to abide by the Memorandum of Understanding they signed with the immediate past administration of the institution.



The Vice-Chancellor further stated that the University has a conducive environment for the cross fertilization of ideas such as the conference, noting that though the it is still relatively young, yet it is one of the most serious public universities in Nigeria.

In her opening speech, the Coordinator, AE-FUNAI/ANA partnership, Prof Gloria M.T Emezue, stated that during the 2007 ANA convention, she was shocked by the poor technical quality of the works of some internationally, nationally and locally acclaimed authors, and wondered how these authors do not understand or perhaps were not acquainted with the rudiments of literary and imaginative writing.


A cross section of participants at the 2021 ANA/AE-FUNAI International Conference
She stressed that even more disturbing was the poor number of critical works that focused on many of these emerging issues, so she had to call the attention of some elders of the Association and the Executive, on the need for the Association to do something about these emerging trends of our time.



Prof. Emezue, added that the formation of ANA by the late literary icon,Prof. Chinua Achebe and his colleagues was a necessary response to a period in Nigeria’s literary writing when the issues of the authenticity of African writing and the volume of Nigeria (Africa)’s writing were at their lowest. Thus, there was the urgent need to do something that would continually bring writers together, in order to forge some form of formidable front and provide separate identities against the fast advancing western literary corpus that threatened to swallow everything from its erstwhile colonial subjects and colonies.



She further noted that there is no doubt that the Conference and the creative workshop will provide avenues for strong synergy between the University and the general public.

Delivering the key note speech, Dr, Chika Unigwe, who addressed participants through Zoom, noted that the theme of the conference “Re-imaging Belongingness in 21st Century Africa” was necessary at this time when the nation is battling the effects of the #ENDSARS Protest, Police brutality and many other abnormalities.

She stressed that the theme of the conference was also topical because we are at a time when there is quest for identification and belongingness in Africa, adding that its aptness could also seen by the violence, protests and strikes we are witnessing in the polity, maintaining that it will further address the stereotype of being tagged an African writer which hardly gets readership outside Nigeria.


Dr. Chika Unigwe addressing the conference via Zoom
Dr. Unigwe pointed out that the understanding and representation of the idea of African identity is being based exclusively on the notion of blackness, and countered such an idea of African identity as flawed, explaining that the conference will propound the idea of intermediary as a new modality of thinking about the importance of embracing the idea of tolerance for the differences in identity, and also see Africa as a hub for talents which is accessible to people of all races and identities.



The highlight of the event was the creativity workshop where skills of those in attendance were tested in the art of composing poetry, drama and prose fiction. At the end, a 400 level student of Political Science of the University, Kalu Abraham Justice won the Prose Fiction category; a 100 level Law student of the University, Nwele Stanley Chiemerie was the winner of Poetry category while a 400 level student of Linguistics, also of the University, Nwigbo Sally Ebube won the drama category. The Winners were awarded prizes for their sterling performances.