₦airaland Forum

did she really say that?

unfortunately she did. read the article above

And by the way, I was not "defending" Oyeyemi. I was merely stating the obvious that Obong had mis-quoted her. I do not believe she needs any defending as she can choose to be whatever she likes. It is a free country and a free world.

i didnt quote her. i placed her words there for all to see. the woman plunders africans myths and history to give her writing exotica, but does not even identify with us despite being born in africa, having an african name and looking african. thats not a role model i want for my daughter, abeg.

she is free to do a she pleases, but let's call a spade a spade. they girl is lost.

whats the big deal about th nobel. its just a lot of money, but it doesnt mean the writer is the best out there. its jus tone more opinion

how is she a role model when she says she isnt even african?

The magic of myths
Cultural confusion lives in 'Opposite House'

By CONNIE OGLE
First published: Sunday, July 8, 2007

Helen Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria and raised in England, and she has
explored cultural dissonance in two vividly impressionistic novels
that dabble in Yoruba mythology and Western horror. But at the moment,
the 23-year-old Cambridge grad is excited about another location: New
York City, where she's moving in August to start work on her MFA in
creative writing at Columbia University.

"I can't wait," she enthuses from her flat in London. "I like the city
so much. It's such a wild mix! All the neighborhoods and everything.
It feels like being anywhere but in one specific place at the same
time, if you know what I mean."


We do , well, sort of. But seeking a place that feels like home is
business as usual for Oyeyemi, a literary phenom who left Nigeria at
4, grew up on a council estate in a London suburb and, while studying
for her A levels, wrote "The Icarus Girl" about a child haunted by a
devilish, invisible doppelganger.

Oyeyemi revisits the themes of cultural confusion in the complex,
challenging and utterly thrilling "The Opposite House" (Nan A. Talese;
288 pages; $23.95), which links the stories of pregnant Cuban
immigrant Maja and the Santeria emissary Yemaya Saramagua.

Yemaya lives in the somewherehouse, a magical construct with one door
to Lagos and another to London. "I was completely obsessed with the
somewherehouse," Oyeyemi admits, adding that she found the goddess
much easier to write about than the reality-grounded Maja, whose
search for identity as a black, Cuban Londoner shapes the book.

Oyeyemi is quick to laugh at the idea that identifying with a powerful
entity reveals something personal. Like Maja, though, she faces
generational clashes with her parents, whose backgrounds are so
divergent from hers.

"I don't identify as African, and obviously that's upsetting to them.
It's really alarming sometimes. I will say things, and they will look
at me and think, 'What is she talking about?"'

:Q: How has your writing changed as you've grown?

A: I've become aware of the way my favorite books and writers
influenced what I wrote. With "The Icarus Girl" I was putting down
words and telling a story about what was going to happen next. I had
this breathless sort of "Then this happened, and then this happened."
In "The Opposite House" I was trying to become more of a stylist. I
was really thinking how I was putting sentences together. It was much
harder, because I'd left the story completely up to the characters.
, I felt as if I didn't know Maja at all. I'd have to think hard
about her; it was good to get to the goddess. I wrote both narratives
separately, the goddess one first and then the Maja story and hoped
they would be two stories about the same thing in the end.

Q: What fascinates you about myths?

A: I just think in myth the most real things happen. I kind of live my
life always expecting something strange and bizarre to happen. I was
brought up on a lot of these stories that always reinforced that there
was another world below or above or beside the world we live in.

Q: You've been quoted as saying multiculturalism in Europe is "a load
of bollocks." Why do you think that?

A: If anyone says "multicultural" to me I cringe automatically. Maybe
there is a multicultural London, but I haven't seen it. , Things get
really ugly, especially if you don't have much money, like at the
council estate I grew up on. People reject similarities and stay with
their own. , And stuff like that makes me worry English people are
complacent about how accepting they are. At least America accepts that
there are fractures.

Connie Ogle writes for The Miami Herald.

All I can say is, I have read better and more objective African literature. Maybe a new genre of African literature should be started, called African Diasporic literature. That way, the reader knows where the author is coming from.

african diasporic literature is a brilliant idea. thats essentially what they are.

But she's the freshest thing to happen to nigerian literature.

says britain. i think habila is better

[b]Despite my crush on the author, I actually don't like the book.

Considering this was meant to be a book about the sixties, it was strangely very modern, like it could have been the nineties. Kaineine is a very modern character and I doubt they would have been many like her in the sixties.

The love story at the centre of the book I found also unconvincing and frankly treading on familiar ground. I know I have definitely heard the story of the modern couple who are haunted by the antagonistic traditionalmo mother in law who gets a local girl to get pregnant by the man bla bla bla.

Why she decided to posit Richard the white man as one of the main voices is also strange and I found him a strange fit throughout the book.

Ugwu the houseboy was very interesting though, and the rape scene at the end was probably the most convincing aspect of the book.

I also feel she should avoid the sexual innuendos especially in a sixties context. There was simply too much sex or sexual references in the book.

I can understand why she got the Orange Prize, especially when the judges are unfamiliar with Naija environment.

But for someone like me who has heard the story many times, it was somewhat boring.

My crush still remains though.[/b]

i agree with everything up there. i think she is a fine writer but we must understand her audience is not the typical nigerian. which is why we have no say in why she is supposed to be a great writer. that is decided abroad, for us presumably.

i will also add that i did not understand why eastern minorities had no voice in the east, especially considering the prominent role she gave to richard. in an interview she says she felt the british voice was important because of our history. but more important than those that lived in it? dunno.

am happy for her.it isn't no fluke because this is her second book that would get a nomination for the award.Funny thing,a Nigerian staying in Nigeria has not yet seen the book and 'Oyinbo' people are giving her an award.The Nigerian is me.

i find this interesting. so britain gets to tell us who our best writers is without us even having read the book first. hilarious

we need to stop depending on the west prizes to validate our writers. whether she wins or not has nothing to do with her talent

Abi as the prof. in America said she should write on somethig unfamiliar, she has decided to write on the Juju of Eastern Nigeria, and maybe how it played its part in the Civil War

has she decided to write on juju in the eastern part of naija?