Su’ur Su’eddie Vershima AGEMA,
SEVHAGE Literary and Development Initiative,
Makurdi
Abstract
Kyuka Lilymjok’s portrayal of politics in fiction is evident in such works as Bivan’s House and Sieged. His writings traverse politics, economic and social issues, cultural and environmental issues. Though politics takes the centre stage in Sieged, environmental values which to some extent help better understanding of of the novel are tangentially dwelled on. This paper looks at how the environment symbolized by the forest is captured briefly in Sieged. In doing so, the soothing nature of the forest and man’s unfortunate decimation of it are shown.
Introduction
African writers, regardless of generational differences, are largely socially-committed writers who deploy their works as weapons to fight anomalies in society. More than anything else, politics has featured prominently in the fiction of writers of old – from Chinua Achebe to Wole Soyinka, Abubakar Imam and Tar Ahura, Ama Ata Aidoo, Nadine Gordimer to Maria Ajima – and has continued to be a major theme in contemporary writings.
The environment has for a long time been an integral part of fiction, for its aesthetics and role of supplying the background for the setting of actions. However, literary appreciation has gradually evolved from merely perceiving the environment as an object of imagery to taking it up as a subject of enquiry in fiction. This is the crux of ecocriticism which is gaining grounds, not only in the field of literature but in social science as in natural science. This might not be unrelated to the added need to understand our environment in the light of destructive human activities.
Though Lilymjok’s Sieged is largely political, the environment plays a role in the text. Prominently in two chapters of the novel, Chapters Nine and Eleven, the author through the use of the symbol of the forest, shows the impact of the environment on man and vice versa. This paper sets out to examine the effect of the forest/environment as shown therein with its implications in following Asoo’s precept that:
The ecocritical evaluator must watch out for those aspects of the novel which while paying attention to man, tend to view man only as an appendage to the environment that supports and maintains him; gives him a culture and above all makes life meaningful to him. (57)
This paper shall also look at how in certain instances, man has been shown to be an appendage to the environment that proves to be bigger than him despite his exaggerated sense of self.
Theoretical Framework
Ecocriticism is the theory chosen for the exploration of this discourse. Ecocriticism is a crosscutting literary theory which bestrides many fields including natural science, social science and arts. Cheryll Glotfelty defines ecocriticism as the “study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment” (xviii). Buell, on his part, views ecocriticism as a “study of the relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a spirit of commitment to environmental praxis” (430). Glotfelty further explains that:
Just as feminist criticism examines language and literature from a gender conscious perspective, and Marxist criticism brings an awareness of modes of production and economic class distinctions and its readings of texts, ecocriticism takes an earth-centred approach to literary studies. (xviii)
Essentially, ecocriticism looks at the active presence or absence of the environment with its attendant effects in a particular work of literature. Indeed, it can be said to be a subgenre of environmental activism, a field whose African version, in recent years “has been brought to the world’s attention through the martyrdom of Ken Saro-Wiwa and […] the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Wangari Maathai (Caminero-Santangelo 698).
Speaking on the importance of this theory, Estok notes that:
ecocriticism has distinguished itself, debates notwithstanding, firstly by the ethical stand it takes, its commitment to the natural world as an important thing rather than simply as an object of thematic study, and, secondly, by its commitment to making connections. (220)
There are many issues of ecocriticism, which certain African critics and writers tend to regard as a Western theory (Slaymaker 684). Some Anglo-American schools of thought embrace the view that ‘anthropocentricism’ should be done away with by rejecting the nature-culture dualism which objectifies nature… (Caminero-Santangelo, 699). Other controversies exist too, but shall not be the focus of this paper. The need for more ecocritical studies, especially from African scholars, has been emphasised with the hope that it would bring about concern for the environment particularly in Northern Nigeria, where there is a need for more related research (Abdullahi, n.p).
An Overview of Sieged
Sieged is a 192 paged political thriller made up of twenty-one short chapters. It is set in the fictional West African country of Bivan’s House. It can be said to be a sequel of sorts to Lilymjok’s Bivan House. The major titans in the political thriller are Merima, the front runner of the ruling UAC party and Jamimi, a labour union leader dissatisfied with the quality of leadership in the country. The two lead men are in the race for the seat of the Primehead (President) of Bivan’s House. There is a lot of corruption, foul practice and other disturbing occurrences in the electoral drama that follows.
The ruling political party, the UAC, has almost run down the country, and the people are now in need of a new government. Jamimi’s PLM seems to be the answer. As campaigns go on, there is increased unrest and soon the land becomes sieged by agitations of change. There are plots and sub-plots by the incumbent prime-head, Boyama to abort the popular will of the people for change. Foul means and the machinery of state are used to frustrate the opposition ending in the rigging of the election by the government in power.
The political nature of the book is never in doubt as there are lots of scenes where detailed political rallies are described, strategies and the like are discussed exhaustively. It is almost as if the author sets out to exhaustively expose the intricacies that go on in the electoral process in most developing countries particularly in West Africa as exemplified in his fictitious Bivan’s House. Several readers, especially from Nigeria, and those conversant with the country’s politics would easily recognise the antics of some of the actors.
The major flaw of the book might be the near-fairy tale conclusion where the major characters opposing the ‘righteous’ Jamimi (like Merima and Boyama) fall into one misfortune or the other, with disastrous ends. In a normal nation, these developments sound like fairy tales. But in a nation politics originated from a society of headhunters and is practiced by people of the street, the happenings don’t sound that fairy. A game practiced by street people may well be aborted by street people. A game of thugs may as well be ended by thugs.
While Sieged is largely a political novel that sets out to show a post-colonial West African nation with its intrigues and political intricacies, there are several other aspects to the novel that makes it stand out. First, there is the use of several symbols notably that of the fictional nation of Bivan’s House and the portfolios of its government officials. A reading of the text closely shows a leaning towards Nigeria with little twists. There are certain explanations that make us realise that the author is making a conscious effort to differentiate the world of his narrative from the one in reality. We are told the leader of this society that would be called President or Prime Minister in other countries is known as Primehead in Bivan’s house. We are further informed that:
…what was called national assembly or parliament in other countries was called the house of archery in Bivan’s house. A governor was the big feast, ministers were ceremonial feasts, ambassadors were close banquets, commissioners were ceremonial pots, local government chairmen were common calabashes and councillors were hunting bags. From its headhunting ancestry, politics in Bivan’s house was to later graduate into a game played by people of the streets. (3)
From this perspective, one gets a view of the world that one is being led into: a world that symbolically differs from the one in reality while retaining close ties to it. In essence, the author seems to be reminding readers that while they are stepping into a world of fiction with different names, they – the readers – should draw notes and comparisons between what is being said in the book and reality. Hence, one can see that the book is largely symbolic and representative of many things in society.
Due to the largely political, symbolic, realist and post-colonial representations that run through the book, amongst others, there’s a view of environmental concerns that might be overlooked. It should be noted that while the author does not particularly make the environment overtly obvious as is the case with certain literature of the Niger-Delta, he takes time at different points to bring it into focus. As stated earlier, most of the pages have narratives of political happenings. When however, the narrative turns to the environment, there is a keen dedication to it that makes one forget that the novel could have been about anything else. In this paper, we shall look at this as particularly seen through the symbol of the forest which is one of the major representations of nature. Two chapters stand out in the depiction of the forest in Sieged: Chapters Nine and Eleven which present contrasting views of the perception of nature.
The Beauty of the Environment and a Wet View of the Forest
Chapter Nine of Sieged stands out as a chapter dedicated to the environment in its entirety showing the soothing aspect of nature, the beauty of the atmosphere and environment, simple understanding of natural phenomena as the rain with attendant effects, and why nature should be adored above everything else especially politics.
One who is familiar with politics knows that there are moments of depression from pressure or when things go wrong as seen in Sieged. In such a situation, there is always a need for recourse to something that would help bring one’s humour back. The easiest resort for some is turning to the environment. Kyuka Lilymjok by his portrayal of politics and nature in this novel (Sieged) seems to be saying if politics is the sickness, nature is the cure. Sicken by politics in town, Merima goes through the physiotherapy of nature in the forest to regain not only his health but also his humor.
The soothing effect of the environment on individuals is undeniable. For some, it is the beauty of the moon or just taking a walk in a natural environment. The resort explored in the fictional world of Sieged is that of the forest. The forest with its trees and wildness is a place many go to for peace and ease. In Sieged, we are told that:
Whenever things got too depressing in politics, Merima resorted to hunting to recover his humour. The freshness of the air in the forest and the quietness of nature around him were so soothing and pleasing to him that he always felt like a child in the lullaby of his mother whenever he was in the forest. Sometimes he felt like remaining in the forest and never returning home again. (76)
Thus, one sees the beauty of nature and its charm on humans. Many times to reconnect or find one’s self, one has to leave the human environment for the natural environment. When Merima does so, he sometimes does not want to return to the human environment again. In exploring the beauty of the environment further, especially as the effect shows on Merima, the narrative continues that:
The forests he hunted in were way out of town. In his Range Rover, it normally took him over an hour to get to any of the forests he hunted in. He hunted with only his two dogs as companions and sometimes without them…Going to the forest with someone would deny him the solitude he went there to seek he always told her… In the forest, even if a human being with him did not speak, his mere presence was prone to be resentful to him. It was the shadows of trees he wanted to hug him in the forest, not those of men. (76) (My emphasis)
At this point, one begins to wonder if Merima does not stand for the author himself, in this instance at least. Perhaps, like Merima, the author gets tired and depressed about writing about politics through and through and decides to find some respite in the lush green of the forests where he hopes to find some diversion and beauty to raise his spirits. He then decides to let the narrative not be concerned with anything else but the solitude and freshness of the trees, with the spirit of the shadow of the trees hugging his imagination, away from the presence of men and their vexations.
Seeking solace in the environment which leads Merima to hunting, he finds joy in rain. Rain, perhaps more than the forest, is known for its soothing nature as it counters the heat doled out by the sun. Merima sets out for the forest while rain is falling perhaps to be soothed by the falling rain on his way to the forest:
He set out for the forest while rain that started an hour earlier was still falling. There was no sun. The sun was behind the rain and mist pelting and soaking the earth. Nothing enlivens him like rain. Whenever rain was falling he felt like a child again. Like a child, he always wanted to be out of doors whenever it was raining. (77)
One taste rarely missing in Lilymjok’s literary brew is personifaction. In his novels, the grasses, trees and the wind talk. If not characters, these dews of nature are always voices in his novels. It is therefore not surprising that in his cerebral novel The Mad Professor of Zwigwi, Prof. Philjez the major character in the novel speaks to animals and trees as if they are human beings. In Sieged, the author deploys personification to sublime effect:
He began moving deeper and deeper into the forest, now more as a hunter on the prowl than the forest freak he was moments ago. He came by a whiff of grasses strewn on the ground like fodder a horse missed out. ‘The wind must have rested here,’ he murmured. It was his belief that whenever the wind was blowing, it used to pause and rest at some place before moving on. In the forest, he easily recognized places the wind rested in its movement. Usually those places were scrubby and pale. The wind usually fed on them before moving on. In the place he was now, the wind not only fed on the grasses, it left its teeth behind as evidence of its sojourn. It also left behind a ghostly atmosphere that was pressing heavily upon him. (p.81)
Personification of the wind in the above passage is so exciting as to be healing, if it is also a bit creepy and shocking. It takes one away from the smear of politics into the womb of nature to deliver him a healthy creature of humor.
More than just using the environment and atmosphere to show their soothing effect on Merima, Lilymjok uses the environment to reflect the African cultural worldview. For instance, we have a strong sense of Africanity in an explanation of why the sun is shining when the rain is falling:
In the outskirts of the town, the rain began to fall less. Along the highway, the sun burst out on the rain. ‘The devil is beating his wife,’ he murmured. His father once told him that whenever it is raining and the sun is shining, it means the devil is beating his wife. (77)
One notes the common African folkloric explanation that has been employed in the just shown quotation. The beauty of the lines with the imagery of the sun bursting out on the rain paints a picture of the golden fire of the skies appearing in between lines of rain. While the scientificexplanation would be different, the author takes a detour to bring in a mythic/folkloric explanation that shows a variation to a seemingly common phenomenon. Merima’s exploration into the forest continues. We are told that:
Halfway to the forest, the rain petered into drizzles. The sky was spitting like a pregnant woman or as if it were suffering a heartburn. With the driver’s glass lowered, he occasionally stuck his left hand out of the window to feel the cool breeze that came with the rain and the spits of the sky. He imagined the sky belching before spitting on him whenever a raindrop fell on his hand. (78-9)
The simile of the sky as a pregnant woman whose spit is rain is vivid. The sky no doubt is pregnant with rain and has not completely finish delivering the baby it is pregnant with. If the sky is the devil’s wife, why should the devil be beating his wife that is delivering his baby? The belching, which one will take as thunder, if also coming from the devil makes one also wonder why the devil should be thundering at his wife in labour. And why should the sun be shining while the devil is beating his wife? Is it to spotlight the evil act of the devil to shame him? Perhaps so because the sun shines less when he decreases the beating of his wife. ‘The devil was still beating his wife; but he seemed to be beating her less now’’ (p. 79). But from the various evil acts always ascribed to the devil, does the devil have shame the sun can provoke? While one thinks of the endless interpretations there might be to these things, the simplistic view again hits us in Merima’s next comment:
‘Heaven has really pissed down today like it has not in a long while,’ he said to himself. ‘Today the sky must have eaten something very sour to go on spitting like this long after the rain,’ he murmured and breathed in as if to inhale the smell of what the sky ate. ‘The quiet even before I get to the forest is so refreshing and calming. What am I looking for in this mess called politics?’
Soon, Merima gets into the forest and becomes one with nature:
He was getting so fused with the forest that he shared its rhythm and heartbeat… He was the forest man carrying the forest and all the games in it inside him and so could not see them, though he might feel them… Two grasscutters raced past him, but he did not see them. It was like they or the forest had cast a spell on him to chain the hunter in him. His eyes fixed and unblinking was cast over the forest which was rushing into him. It was when the gun fell from his hand that he came back to where he was standing. He shook his head and a new look of satisfaction and pleasure overran his face. ‘This is it,’ he murmured. ‘It is almost like coupling with the forest. Ah… man; your wife should not hear this. Else she will set this forest ablaze. But forest-man this is really something. Each time always seems better than the last. The forest has cleaned up the vomit of politics inside me.’ (80)
In humor one may say while a union of clouds has produced rain in which the devil’s wife goes into labor (the outcome of another union), what will the union between Merima and the forest produce? In futher humor, one may say it has produced cheer and peace for Merima, but one may not be able to say what it has produced for the forest.
One notes that there is a showing of local belief in the systems of the environment in the various excerpts quoted above. As seen in the preceding explanations of Merima’s view of the rain and the sun, we also get to note later that he holds other beliefs about nature. For instance, he believes that “whenever the wind was blowing, it used to pause and rest at some place before moving on. In the forest, he easily recognised places the wind rested in its movement. Usually those places were scrubby and pale. The wind usually fed on them before moving on” (81).
In the forest, we get to view more of other faces of nature. Merima comes across a little stream with an alligator that moves leisurely towards him. He hides behind a tree to watch it. He sees a big bird high up a tree chirping. The chirping of the bird for a while distracts him. When he looks down, the alligator has disappeared. He is scared and looks around. Finally, the alligator makes some movement and Merima takes a blind shot that kills the animal.
At this point, Merima compares hunting with politics and even wonders if the alligator he has killed was a politician. In the circumstances of Bivan’s house where politics originated from a society of headhunters this comparison hits home. If the alligator was a politician, it has been killed by its clansman, and this is not strange or a thing unfamiliar.
Merima covers the alligator with leaves and then moves further into the forest. After roaming about the forest for a while, he later leaves for home.
The next time we encounter the environment in the forest is not a romantic exploration as in the hunting expedition of Merima. This time, it is carnage, death and tears that rule the scene as seen in the next section.
The Thorns of the Environment and a View of a Forest Furnace
In Chapter Eleven we see the PLM campaign train travelling at sixty kilometres per hour. We are told that:
The PLM campaign train was travelling at sixty kilometres per hour when it went off the track while negotiating a bend. The train plunged into the forest like an angry bull charging after the source of its annoyance. From a distance, the train ripping through the forest was a very frightening and amazing spectacle. The train sailed through the forest like a grass snake for about fifty metres before it collided with a huge tree and its different coaches twisted out of its long trunk in a grotesque tableau. (95).
This scene introduces readers to nature’s disturbance by man, though by accident. The description of the train as a grass snake is not lost on readers. A grass snake is green. Green, the grass snake here unites with nature in color before wrecking the mischief of all snakes when it hits the tree. There is an immediate contrast that we note in this scene especially in comparison to Merima’s previous hunting scene. While Merima comes to hunt in the rain, the PLM train bursts into flames when it collides with the tree. While we have a wet forest in the first scene, we have a blazing forest in the second scene. While we find life and birds chirping in the first, we find screams and squeals in the second. The trees become ready tinder that is lit by the combusting train wreckage. Description of what happened when the train fell on its side and burst into flames is chilling:
People on top of the train either jumped down – some to their death – or were thrown clear or under the train when it fell on its side. Moments after hitting the tree and falling on its side, the train burst into flames […] The forest full of dry grass was kindling that fuelled the fire into a big inferno. Later it was found there were ditches in the forest into which petrol was poured. It was the petrol in the dug ditches that ignited the derailed train. The fire ripped through the coaches as if they were not of metal but of tinder. People lucky to be near windows or doors that were up in the air jumped out of the raging inferno – some of them on fire. (95)
After this, what strikes the mind in the incident of the forest furnace is the seeming simple action of herdsmen who are more concerned with their cattle than humans. The narrative informs us thus:
Two cattle herdsmen who happened to be nearby when the train went off the track were so concerned with the safety of their cattle to be of any help. Before the train burst into flames, they had hung around in shock and bewilderment hoping to be of help. But when it burst into flames, they began driving their cattle quickly away from the wildfire […](96)
This may strike the average person as odd, especially those who see humans as the centre of the universe. For someone who knows the importance herdsmen attach to their livestock and who thinks more of the ecosystem and animals as being important too, the action of the herdsmen would appear normal. Thus, we see here people who would rather save their eco-brethren first before going for humanity.
As the fire burns, we see insects – an often neglected part of our ecology, affected. We are told that “Grasshoppers leaping after insects suddenly found fire leaping after them, not with the inert limbs of frogs leaping out of water, but with the nimbleness of swooping hawks” (96). In trying to play the ecological card to a greater extent, the narrative compares the fire to hawks that are swift. The contrast with grasshoppers and frogs, shows the interconnectedness of living beings and also creates a picturesque scene. If one thinks the metaphoric comparison might have been in error, the next lines clarify issues: “Tears and splinters of fire leapt out of the train like birds with broken wings, flared for a while in midair before falling to the ground when they could no longer hang in the air” (96). This is in addition to the earlier explanation one gets of the fire that: “First, the wind puffed a little flame which flared unsteadily for a while like a drunken man loping home before sinking its teeth into the grass like a shark into a sea seal” (95).
A lot of people died in the accident before any help could come. Coincidentally, Merima hunting at another part of the forest on seeing fire goes to find what caused it. On finding what happened, he is shocked and sad. Being a member of the ruling party while victims of the crashed train are members of the opposing party, suspicion of him by the opposition ensues.
The accident that should ordinarily attract sympathy over the death of many people involved in the accident and also the degradation of the environment becomes a tool in the political duel of Bivan’s House. While Merima tries helping victims at the scene of the crash, he is later shown alongside the incumbent Primehead, Boyama, lashing at Jamimi for “not dying with his supporters” (115). It will not be far from the truth to say Merima’s first response to the accident was his human response while his later response is his political response.
Boyama talking on the accident with Merima beside him says, “certain people who were supposed to be in the crashed train had been found to have fortunately not been on it” (115). This shows the inhumanity of this character who should rather be grateful that another human escaped death – for whatever reason.
The above situation reflects the grim situation in our society: the politicking of every situation. Politicians without conscience exploit unfortunate happenings to score cheap political points! A governor who cannot pay the salary of civil servants in his state despite being given bailout money by the federal government to do so, on a clash between Fulani herdsmen and the governor’s tribesmen which led to the death of some of the governor’s tribesmen, the governor declared he was ready to die for his people – the very people he was not paying their salary. To this, one of his so-called people said, they did not want him to die for them; he should just pay their salaries.
Another question from the narrative of the forest fire is: what was done in the aftermath of the whole incident concerning the environment particularly the forest? The narrative suggests nothing. Thus, the environment which helps us in many ways is hardly seen as a victim and so is left to deteriorate without any intervention after big accidents as the inferno that resulted from the train crash in Chapter Thirteen of the text.
Conclusion
The environment plays an important part in human existence, and has increasingly been projected in fiction, sometimes overtly and at other times, covertly. In Sieged, the environment is given some prominence as particularly noticed in the negative and positive activities which happen in the forest.
This paper has largely explored the forest as a symbol of the environment. In the first instance, we saw how the forest – the environment, can act as a soothing balm for a human soul in turmoil bringing about healing as exemplified in Merima who often finds relief from distress in the forest.
Everyone has a duty to protect the environment given its priceless values. With climate change and other serious environmental problems threatening life on earth, there is need for renewed effort to take better care of the environment. Unless this is done, fires will scour the earth not only from tinders of forest furnaces but from the sun itself.
Works Cited
Abdullahi, Denja. ‘The Northern Nigerian Environment and the Creative Process.’ Paper Presented at Northern Nigerian Writers’ Summit 4th-7th May 2008 in Minna, Niger State.
Asoo, Ferdinand I(orbee). ‘An Ecocritical Evaluation of Suemo Chia’s The Story of Adan Wade: A Tiv Classic’ The Ker Review: A Journal of Nigerian Literature 3(2) July-December, 2007. 49-57
Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture. Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Caminero-Santangelo, Byron. ‘Different Shades of Green: Ecocriticism and African Literature’ African Literature: Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Eds. Tejumola and Ato Quayson. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2012. 698-706.
Estok, Simon C. ‘A Report Card on Ecocriticism.’ AUMLA 96 (November): 200-38.
Glotfelty, Cheryll and Harold Fromm (Eds). The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens and London: University of Georgia, 1996.
Glotfelty, Cheryll. ‘Revaluing Nature: Towards an Ecocritical Criticism’ Western American Literature 25 No 3 Nov. 1990.
Slaymaker, Williams. ‘Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses’ African Literature: Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Eds. Tejumola and Ato Quayson. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2012. 683-697.
Lilymjok, Kyuka. Sieged. Ibadan: University Press Plc, 2012.
The Man and his works: A Conversation with Kyuka Lilymjok
Who is Kyuka Lilymjok, sir?
I am an every day man on the street with very strong views on important issues of life like politics, religion, race, science and technology, justice, peace et cetera. Up to 2014, my name has been Adamu Kyuka Usman. But from that year, I started using the name Kyuka Lilymjok, particularly in my literary writings. Finding myself African, I wish to be authentically so, hence my preference for Kyuka Lilymjok especially in my literary works. In this name lies my genius and essence.
I notice you are a lawyer by profession; could you tell us what prompted you to go into literary writing?
Interest I suppose; and as it is popularly assumed that interest is a revelation of talent, talent perhaps. Right from childhood I have been a story teller and fiction writing is story telling.
What are the books you have written so far?
29 fictional books and 4 law texts: Hope in Anarchy, The Village Tradesman, The Butcher’s Wife, The Lord Mammon, My Headmaster, Bivan’s House, Sieged, The Death of Eternity, The Lone Piper and the Birds’ Case, The Heart of Jacob, The Disappointed Three, The Mad Professor of Zwigwi, A Journey of Hell to Heaven, Farewell to Peace, Gods of my Fathers, Twilight for a Vulture, The World Conference in Heaven,The Deportee, The Old Woman and the Birds, The Wind Scripts, Tales of Tartarus, Return of the Oracle and other Short Stories, The Dark Star North, Our Lady with the Sword, Slates and Bowls, Ebelebe, The Fall of Heaven, Broke, Stupid, The Law and Practice of Equity and Trust, Environmental Protection Law and Practice, Nigerian oil and Gas Industry: Institutions, Issues, Law and Policy, The The Theory and Practice of International Economic Law.
Has writing literary books detracted you from the law area?
Not much. That I am a professor of law is fairly proof of my presence in law.
What type of satisfaction have you derived from engaging in literary writings?
Living my dream. Literary writing is my dream – a sweet dream I am always depressed to wake from. Nothing excites me like using common words in an uncommon context. In literary writing, I always want to locate myself at the margin of words. For me, every sentence must be well plotted and well executed. For me, every sentence must carry a magnet that holds the interest of the reader to the next. Another satisfaction I have gotten from literary writing is that it has helped me put my time to good use. If I have a sense that I have not wasted my life, that sense comes from seeing my books. Most of the time I have spent in life, I have collected in my books. Naturally I am not a man given much to association with others. I don’t have many friends. I am not a man of ceremonies. Even as a young man I attended wedding and marriage ceremonies only when it was absolutely necessary. So I often find time at my disposal. When I returned to Nigeria in 2015 without my family after my brief sojourn in Canada, I found more time at my disposal. Literary writing takes this time. It keeps me away from mischief. You know they say the idle mind is the devil’s workshop. My mind is never idle. So the devil has no workshop in me.
In almost all your books, there is a deliberate and definite empathy you display for the downtrodden. As a member of the elite class most of whom want to hold onto their privileges as exclusive rights how do you explain your peculiar stance?
I think , as a person, I am passionate about justice. That is perhaps why I read law. That is perhaps why justice features in all the names of my children. The name of my first son is actually Justice. The name of the second is Sunfair i.e someone who will be as fair as the sun to everyone. The name of my only daughter is Fairprincess. I believe that justice is everyone’s birthright, if peace is not. Yeah, I read law thinking it is the handmaid of justice. But as I mature in legal jurisprudence, it dawned on me that law is not fundamentally different from politics; it dawned on me that law is an instrument of injustice. Every day, everywhere, the poor and so-called ignorant people are cheated and trampled upon, are served raw deals that will itch even the throat of a pig – with the law looking on, sometimes even strengthening the hand of the oppressor. This pains and riles me. This moves my pen to denouncement.
What do you think are the pragmatic remedies that could be adopted to address the plethora of social problems currently ravaging African societies like your fictional Bivan’s House or Sieged and your other writings?
Africans are nothing because they are nothing. They are nothing because what make a people , a plant, an animal something is suppressed in them. What makes a people , a plant, an animal something is genius – the guardian spirit delivered of genes. For Africans to amount to anything, worthwhile, they must first of all be themselves and stop aping others. Like wolves, they should express their genius, not frustrate or suppress it like dogs. Africans will rather be anything but Africans. They are either Arabs, Jews, Europeans or Americans. This struggle to be someone different from who they are, stifles the African genius and thus the African intellectual tree cannot bear fruits. With a suppressed genius, the African cannot invent, cannot innovate, cannot even produce. This is the thesis I pursued in my novella Gods of my Fathers. We are not ourselves. We are fakes and fades and as such, are neither here nor there. The struggle to be European, Arab, Jew, American creates an inferiority complex in the African that leads to a depleted sense of self-worth. This drives him to corruption to acquire gadgets and attires of refinements he associates with those he wants to be like. It is this negative psychology that leads to tragedies as those parodied in Bivan’s House and Sieged.
There is definitely a very rural and rustic flavour in your works, how has this come about?
This comes about because I am myself essentially rural and rustic. I was born and bred in the village. Back in my village, I have trees that are my age mates, I have trees that are my friends – trees I don’t visit the village without going to sit amongst. The bucolic elements in me are indeed the demons that drive my writing. As a literary writer, I am nothing without my village. In my cerebral novel The Mad Professor of Zwigwi, there is a chapter I titled: My Village, My Life. In this chapter, I made the point that I can compass the whole world from the dewdrops of my village.
In Bivan’s House you boldly portray the character Umaru on one hand and some Christian youths as violent religious fundamentalists. In an essay titled “Religious Violence and its Consequences…”, Maria Ajima points out that writers are yet to give us a peep into the real heart of the character of a religious fanatic(s) so to speak. This is because we need to know the motivating factor behind such evil minds and until such persons are understood, society cannot begin to redress religious violence in its midst. One wonders whether in your subsequent writings, you can take the challenge of unveiling the real minds behind the evil of religious violence and how their minds work. I am talking here of something similar to what former USSR’s renowned writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment did.
Fanaticism arises from how fanatics understand God and what God expects of them. Whenever a believer understands God as a being he should not tolerate any behavior that seems like an afront to, he is likely to be a violent fanatic.
Your writings are largely satirical, why?
A good portion of my novels dwells on politics and government. There is a lot of folly in politics and government that needs to be ridiculed. Sarcasm and ironies are the tools of doing so. I like writing on serious issues in a comic way may be because this is the type of writing I enjoy reading. I like spiting both gravity and humor from my pen. With gravity I censure; with humor I soothe. With gravity I torch; with humor I quench. If I can, I like people to cry and laugh at the same time when reading my book.
In the third world environment where life is more of a struggle to exist than anything else, how do you find time to relax and how do you relax if ever?
I hardly have such time. But when I do, I drive out into the country and take a walk in the woods.
Who are your favourite authors?
Chinua Achebe, George Orwell, Thomas Hardy, and the peerless and immortal Shakespeare
Which genre of literature do you love reading? Poetry, drama or prose?
Prose
Which book(s) are you currently reading?
None largely because good books are hard to come by these days in Nigeria.
Who are your favourite Nigerian authors and why?
Chinua Achebe. He tells a story in the most natural and realistic form. His novels are so real that they look like Igbo history. So real, his works find constant reference in real life situations.
Which poem have you read that lingers in your mind?
Kofi Awoonor’s Songs of Sorrow, JP Clark’s Night Rain and Abiku.
Which characters have you come across in your reading that you cannot forget and why?
Benjamin the donkey in George Orwell’s Animals Farm; Nwaka the Owner of Words in Achebe’s Arrow of God and Josiah the Trader in Achebe’s A Man of the People. Cynical, proud and self-seeking, these characters are ever-green in my mind.
Which of your books do you like best?
All. All because I find all my books interesting. I find them all interesting because I give every book of mine my best. In 2017, someone badged into my office and was surprised to find me crying. He was alarmed. He thought I was bereaved or some other terrible thing has happened to me. I told him none of these has happened. I was writing The Deportee and was at a scene two characters in the book were crying and I was crying with them. The guy who badged into my office was so shocked by what I told him that for a long time he stood staring at me without saying anything. I am incapable of writing a boring book. Though I find all my books interesting, I tend to find those with much of me inside them more interesting. Two of my books stand out in this regard: Bamai in My Headmaster and Prof. Philjez in The Mad Professor of Zwigwi. I see myself as Bamai and Prof. Philjez.
The most memorable character in your books.
Prof. Philjez. I mean the mad professor of Zwigwi. He is a larger than life character. He is an oracle and a cult of sort. For me, he is more than a character; he is a friend. Often I find myself interacting with him more than with any of my few human friends. His turn of mind and the weird things he says excite, shock and sometimes frighten me. Though I created him, this character is greater than me. That is perhaps why I sometimes find myself envying him.
Most Nigerian writers are living on the edge of starvation because they cannot earn a living from their writings’ what is your advice to them to survive?
Find something to do beside writing.
What can government or society do to alleviate the sufferings of writers in Nigeria?
Patronize the works of writers, however they do so.
Who do you think can take up writers cause for support?
The writers themselves and their publishers.
How can one be a good writer?
By reading the works of good writers and constant writing. By undertaking writing courses. By approaching writing as a serious business.
Should a writer write to create artifice for art’s sake; or write to address the problems in society?
Particularly in developing societies like Nigeria, writing should serve a didactic end, should serve the ends of society. But while trying to serve the end of society, a writer should also serve the end of literature by writing in a manner that thrills and entertain his readers. To do this, a writer will have to tell a fictional story, not a factual one. While telling his fictional story, he has to employ various literary techniques and devices that generate the beautiful colors and aesthetics literature is known for. Failing to do this, a writer may find himself writing sociology books instead of literary books.
How can creative book sales be boosted in Nigeria?
By reawakening the reading culture. By promoting book events in which writers or their publishers can market books..
What do you think can be done to encourage reading in Nigeria?
By making the younger generation recognize the value of reading. By discouraging obession with the internet, football and other distractions. By making literature a compulsory subject in secondary schools, and perhaps the university.
Writers like H.G. Wells, George Orwell and other contemporary writers from developed nations continue to write science fiction that has given ideas and impetus to technological breakthroughs in the Western world, what do you think Nigerian writers can do in this wise to contribute to the technological breakthrough that can bring Nigeria and in fact the African continent out of her seemingly unending perpetual bondage to the skirts of neo – colonial forces and lift the society out of the doldrums of underdevelopment?
Fiction writing is an inspirational affair. The quality and character of inspiration depends on the level of cultural evolution of the society a writer is bred. The more scientific and technological the society, the more likely the writer will be inspired to delve into science fiction and what not. That is why writers in developed western countries easily go into science fiction than writers in less scientific and technological societies like Nigeria. Before scientifically and technologically developed societies became such societies, their writers were not writing science fiction.
What can be done to make anybody aspiring for public office in Nigeria read all the critically important books that mirror the real Nigeria polity because we believe that the Nigerian elite is far from the masses (as in most other African countries) and it is only by coming face to with reality (which service creative books perform) that may be their hearts can be changed to do good for their fellow human beings?
Honestly, I don’t know. Our leaders are more interested in reading money than reading books.
What inspires you to write and do you have any creative muse(s)?
Situations inspire me to write than anything else. This is why most of my novels are situation than character driven. For me, characters derive their existence from situations. But again characters spin situations that sometimes make it difficult knowing who begets who between situations and charcters – the age long egg and chicken puzzle..
Kofi Awoonor in his seminal book The Breast of the Earth writes that “the contemporary novel in Africa seems to be locked in an agonized search for a vision of political excellence on that continent… perhaps the African novelist has not yet been able to achieve a break from the cycle of anger and frustration”. In a similar vein, Charles Nnolim the famous Nigerian critic asserts that African literature has been mostly lachrymal (that is sort of a continual crying over spilt milk). So then the question I want to pose to you is how can African writers break out of this identified mode of continuous crying, continuous anger, frustration and despair to chart a liberating vision for this great continent through literature; and will you be challenged to be part of such a new wave of writing?
Well, writers are products of their environment as much as their writing is their product. It is not totally an unhelpful thing to cry over spilt milk for such lamentation may prevent the spilling of more milk. Such lamentation censure the spilling of milk, and who knows, censor it. If the African writer is locked in an agonized search for a vision of political excellence, it is because Africa is still locked in agonized political ineptitude, bankruptcy and waywardness. If the African novelist has not been able break away from the cycle of anger and frustration, it is because Africa remains a theatre of political delinquency and irremediable follies. Fine, African writers should break away from crying, anger, frustrations and despair to chart a liberating vision for the continent; but isn’t their lamentations some charting of a liberating vision for the continent? Isn’t their lamentations critiques of the farcical way governance is carried on in Africa and tokens of liberating dialogue with the people? I think there is salvation in self-ridicule and contempt.
In your interesting and very political novel Sieged there are two “primehead” candidates in Bivan’s House, Jamimi and Merima; like other prophetic writers before you if we remember Wole Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forest, Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People or Christopher Okigbo’s Labyrinths with Path of Thunder, the emergence of Jamimi as the new prime head of Bivan’s House appears to be prophetic of Muhammedu Buhari’s ascendance to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which majority of Nigerians were excited and happy about, do you think that President Buhari will be able to escape the death grip of the power cable in Nigeria since in Sieged, Merima was part of and victim of such power cabals. This fear arises from a conversation between the party chairman and Jamimi at the end of the novel:
‘There is no one clean enough to succeed the primehead.’
‘Well, I don’t know about that,’ said Jamimi. ‘But let me hear the people.’
‘We are the people,’ said the party leader.
‘It’s so hard to see…’ murmured Jamimi. ‘But what I am hearing is opening my eyes to see what I can’t see.’
It is so difficult to tell. But if he escapes the death grip of the power cabal as you put it, or of power itself as I see it, this will be more a function of the strength of his character than the absence or weakness of such grip.
Towards the closing pages of Sieged the masses or the crowd seizes power and somebody makes the comment that “‘mobocracy will guide democracy in Bivan’s house.’” Is this statement to be taken seriously or is it one of those satiric statements that Sieged is laden with; and if so how will mobocracy work for Bivan’s house? Also does it imply that you are an anarchist?
Perhaps at heart and subconsciousness, yes. Certainly no in mind and consciousness. Yeah, my first novel is Hope in Anarchy. Yes, I posited at the beginning of this novel that order is a trick authority has sold to the poor and that when the poor find the lie in order, they will return it to the seller with a sword. As far as I can see, in almost every human society, order is a fraud on the poor majority. But the whorish seductive attraction of anarchy to the poor is not without a backlash. The intoxicating aroma of anarchy can easily lead to asphyxiation of the poor as of everyone. The poor can easily be prey to anarchy as they are predators in it. Herein lies the anarchic dilemma for the poor. They are caught in a Catch -22 situation. They are both hunter and hunted. Blood speaks for an infinitesimal minority in a monarchy; education and wealth speak for a sizable minority in a democracy; while brute force speaks for eveyone in anarchy. However, as anarchy is a recipe for everyone’s salvation, it is for everyone’s destruction. No, I am not an anarchist. But moved by sympathy for the poor majority who are cheated and trampled on in monarchies and democracies, I often find myself flirting with anarchic notions.
What does “Bivan” represents, seeing that the name features prominently in two of your books?
Bivan is the name of my maternal grandfather. He was a great man after the ways of his time. He was the Agwaboi –the head of the ancestral worshippers of our tribe from whose house the resurrected mystic called akrusak used to emerge from the land of the dead to etertain the living. He was the bearer of Azzzag the swearing totem of the Atyap people or what one of my characters in The Butcher’s wife called the Ark of the Covenant between the Atyap people and their ancestors. More than any man of his time, he could sing ajujoi – the war song sang by men who had seen life and death and denounced both.
Since 2014, you’ve changed your name to Kyuka Lilymjok in order to be authentically African; that’s quite understandable as Ngugi also changed from James Ngugi to Ngugi wa Thiong’o (i.e. Ngugi son of Thiong’o), so in your case Sir, what does Kyuka Lilymjok mean?
Kyuka means one who carries the burden of others. It is my extended family name. Lilymjok means a flaming pond. It is the name of one of my ancestors going back to the fourth generation before me.
You and Ngugi Wa Thiong’o appear to have a likeminded point of view regarding the African mindset. In Wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the crow, a lot of the characters like Titus Tajirika, suffer from “Whiteache” that is a desire to be like the white man. You are also pointing to the facts that Africans will rather be anything but Africans, which in effect stifles their creativity. This syndrome is a result of cultural colonialism. The unfortunate thing is that the syndrome persists with the prevalent penchant for foreign films and foreign music. More than fifty years after independence, shall the African continue to wallow in “Whiteache”? How can we break away from the syndrome?
By disclaiming and renouncing foreign influences on our lives such as alien gods and alien religions. By making a virtue of necessity which for some of us is like biting the bullet. To go forward in a meaningful and purposeful way, we must go backward and claim from our ancestors who we trully are. This is the thesis I pursue in Gods of my Fathers.
What are your aspirations for your books?
That they go where I couldn’t go. That they be well received in the world than I was. That they inspire a new vision of the world particularly in science and religious matters. Initially I used to fear a lot for my biological children that they will suffer if anything happens to me. Now I fear less for them with them doing well at school. Now I fear more for my intellectual children. I will like to see them far into the world before I go.
Your faith
You mean religious faith?
Yes.
I have none.
Why?
Because it is ridiculous to believe in any life hereafter. I am an existentialist that holds to heart the existentialists saying of: From the nothingness whence it came towards the nothingness it must end. Philjez, the mad professor in my novel The Mad Professor of Zwigwi, speaks my mind when he says: ‘‘A meteor rushes through the sky as if on an important errand only to extinguish in midair. It is the same thing with human beings.’’ I speak through the mad professor when he says: ‘‘I have dug deep into the earth and found nothing that says man is a special being. I have swam deep into the seas and oceans and met nothing that says it knows a being called man. I have flown far into the sky, but heard nothing about a being called man. What are all these funny and phony claims about then?’’
What types of food do you enjoy eating?
porridge.
What are your favourite colours(s)?
May be blue.
Blue?
Yes, blue. Why do you ask me again?
I asked you again because in literature blue is associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes loyalty, trust wisdom, faith, intelligence and truth.
Well, I don’t know if any of these values of blue is in me.