LITERATORS' CORNER

I abhor writing drama reviews. And this is not because dramas do not find much favour with me, it is just that I have been hit by the realisation that our modern world is devoid of play acting and theatres have become antiques, yet the best place to encounter a play is not on the pages of a book, but in a theatre! How does one get the electrifying and thrilling experience of seeing a play come alive on stage if it can only be seen in a book? Surely, no review of any work belonging to the drama genre can be complete without the actual performance experience. Well, given little or no option, I am compelled to meet drama pieces in black ink and white papers while using my imagination to fill out the missing gaps. Today, I bring to you Wale Ogunyemi's Kiriji . Kiriji is a historical drama bordering around the Ibadan and Ekiti Parapo decade long Kiriji war. The Ekiti country had invited the Ibadan warriors to come stop the Fulani military campaign; started in Ilorin after the death of ...

 Trevor is not the hero in his own story: Review of Trevor Noah's Born a Crime Born a Crime is the memoir of South Africa's world-renowned comedian, Trevor Noah, The book chronicles Trevor Noah's life from the moment of conception to the time he became a young adult. Ordinarily, one would expect that Trevor should take Centre stage in his own story and pull the spotlight to himself. However it is Trevor's Mother who gets the shine of it all, not him. Nelson Mandela is released and Apartheid (the official racial segregation policy of the white South African government) comes to an end six years after Trevor is born. So, except for the fact that his very existence is a contravention of an apartheid law, he doesn't get the opportunity to go against the system or become an activist as many have done before him. Rather, Noah grows up spoilt and almost entirely entitled. Even his grandmother is afraid to Spank him because he turns 'red' while black children remain...

  Of Memories, Motherhood and Love: A review of Nkosiyazi Kan Kanjiri's Looking for Mother by Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy Indeed, the bond between a mother and her offspring is as strong as the anchor of a ship. Many a poem have I read about motherhood, but only a few have nearly bled my eyes as Kanjiri's does. Kanjiri writes with such depth of emotion and effortless surface simplicity that he easily calls us into his emotions. 'Looking for Mother' is the poet's rite de passage into the authorship world. In the anthology, the poet goes back in time to trace events from his days of innocence to a present state of experience. Nkosiyazi poems may be terse and not as lengthy as the classical types we are wont to encounter in literature classes; meanwhile, they are nonetheless quite profound. Some are in fact quite memorable and I AM certain every reader would have mastered at least one poem by the time they finish perusing the collection. Here is one for exampl...

At a time when the Somali society held tenaciously to beliefs that a good woman's place was in her home and that she had no business engaging in public life or seeking education; as either path would only soil the honour of such a woman's family; 'crazy' Edna was born into the prestigious household of Doctor Adan Ismail and she was determined to change the narrative; not only for herself, but for every Somali female child. The story in her memoir, A Woman of First , is a testament to this very fact.  From a very young age, Edna was quite conscious of the fact that she was different from other girls, for example, she sought the company of boys, participated in their games, attended classes with them, and joined her father on his daily rounds as the first Somali medical doctor. Her father's love for his profession, devotion to treating the sick among his people, and the awful experience of losing two siblings at infancy would inspire Edna's life-long dreams: to pu...

If there were one review I would rather not write, it would be this one. I remember that I once found it amusing hearing a professor of mine lamenting his inability to complete Buchi Emecheta's Joys of Motherhood due to the outburst of emotions welled up by the events in the story. Well, it appears nemesis has come for me in form of Nuruddin Farah's Maps ; the fictional novel is such a powerful and grief-stricken one that leaves one feeling sad every time it is recalled. More than anything, it demonstrates the power of words on paper by showing how a writer can manipulate our emotions through words and force us to empathise with their characters. If this were all there was to the novel, it would still be a powerful one, but there is more. Nuruddin Farah's Maps tells the tale of Misra, an Ethiopian-Amhara divorcee, who comes to live among the Somalis before the Ethio-Somali war of 1977-78. Misra had been abducted as a young girl by a Somali warrior following a tribal raid ...

Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives is humorous tale which revolves around a paterfamilias; Baba Segi; and his four wives—Iya Segi, Iya Femi, Iya Tope, and Bolanle. It so happens that while illiterate Baba Segi goes around bragging about his conquests as an accomplished polygamist (his fourth and latest being a university graduate to boot) and how he dominates his household, it is revealed that our proud man is just a soldier without ammunition, or a paper tiger. Worried about his fourth wife's infertility, Baba Segi comes to discover that he is actually the one afflicted with sterility and that his purported children from his first three wives were actually fathered by other men. We also come to see that his idea of control over his household is a figment of his imagination as his home is actually run by his first wife, Iya Segi. The story is told using the voice of the characters alongside that of the narrator. By allowing the characters tell their own sides...