The art of activism

Art in its real sense has rarely ever been for art’s sake; it has almost always been for a cause.

It is for this suspicion that artists like Chinese Ai Weiwei, have continued to shuttle from studios to prisons till date in China for every conceivable or inconceivable reason as deemed appropriate by the Chinese government.

Internationally acclaimed multi-award winning writer Prof Chinua Achebe may have not set this trend or even defined its course, but of recent has toed the path of acclaimed writers who have transcended the literary pages or canvass to assert the roles they have propagated in their works. And that list is never-ending.

In Nigeria, the likes Prof Wole Soyinka, Amatoritsero Ede and Ken Saro-Wiwa and many others have lived with and by their beliefs as contained in their works and have paid the price (with Saro-Wiwa, the ultimate price), however, the urge to step up to be counted in terms of aligning with their opinions have drawn many a writer to the path of activism.

Consider also that at the recently-concluded third edition of the Achebe Colloquium on Africa which held at the Martinos Auditorium in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts on the Brown University, United States’ campus, issues pertaining to politics formed the focus of panel discussions and speeches on Africa, along with the traditional poetry readings and literary discussion.

Speakers from both the academic and political sphere led seven panel discussions on topics including the Arab Spring, foreign intervention in Africa and the prospects for peace in Darfur, South Sudan and Zimbabwe at that the two-day colloquium.

Along with the panel discussions, there were three keynote addresses by Ali Suleiman Aujali, Libyan ambassador to the United States, David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, and John Schram, former Canadian ambassador to Zimbabwe, Angola, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Sudan.

The question of the appropriate level of foreign involvement in African affairs was raised often throughout the colloquium’s talks. Two back-to-back panels focused entirely on the presence of the United States and China in Africa. “Only Africans can fix African conflicts,” Schram said in his keynote address. But he explained this does not free Western nations from responsibility.  Foreign states and organizations can provide support in nations like South Sudan, he said, “but it will only work in the long term if the people of South Sudan can design and build the country they want and they deserve.”

At the end of the “Zimbabwe: Prospects for a Stable Democracy or Dictatorship?” panel, former Commonwealth secretary general, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, who was not a panellist, rose during questions to make a long, impassioned speech about the reasons for negative sentiments toward Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and “the centrality of the land issue” in Zimbabwe that traces back to its independence, which he felt had so far been neglected in discussion.

The point essentially remains that as writers find it hard to be separated from their works in terms of their choice of thematic occupation, the environment that breed these writers have in most instances formed the springboard to propel their ideas in the literary genre, or any other genre professed, for that matter.

When thus, last Sunday, the same Achebe joined over 35 other writers from the country supporting revolt against removal of fuel subsidy or the perceived cuts to funding for fuel costs, it did not come as strange or out of place.

For Achebe, it was particularly expected especially as the move comes barely six weeks after his pronounced rejection of a national merit award for a seemingly umpteenth time on grounds of morality.

The bestselling novelist and author of Things Fall Apart, was joined by Caine prize winner EC Osondu, Commonwealth writers prize winner Helon Habila and 35 other Nigerian authors in issuing a “Statement of Solidarity with the Nigerian People” last Sunday.

The authors called the timing of the move “ill-advised”, coming as it does shortly after a series of religiously motivated attacks on churchgoers.

“We stand with the Nigerian people who are protesting the removal of oil subsidy which has placed an unbearable economic weight on their lives. This action has clearly imposed an untenable and unfair burden on those segments of Nigerians who are already impoverished – subsisting on less than $2 a day. We call on President Jonathan to immediately change course,” said the authors in their statement.

“By reverting to the old prices of petroleum products, President Jonathan can work to diffuse tension in the country and exemplify the true servant leader who not only serves but also listens to his people. To insist on having his way, and to deploy state security and legal apparati to crush growing popular uprisings is to stamp on a highly valued tenet of democracy – the right to peaceful assembly – and to inadvertently promote greater violence in the country.”

Achebe and his fellow authors also called on President Goodluck Jonathan and Nigeria’s political leaders to “tackle the state of lawlessness in certain parts of the nation and address the trepidation and rage that has reached dangerous levels within the Nigerian populace”.

“Clearly, the sophistication and deadly impact of the terrorist attacks suggest an agenda to create widespread fear and, possibly, to foment anarchy or war. President Jonathan has no greater duty than to ensure that Nigerians are safe wherever they live or visit within the country,” they wrote, suggesting that Jonathan “outline both short and long-term plans to comprehensively address the scourge of terror”, that he “appoint competent and committed officials to head the various security agencies”, and that he “serve as an agent to heal the many divisions plaguing Nigeria, and persuade all well-meaning people to enlist in the fight against festering violence”.

Achebe had in late November officially turned down a national merit award in a letter addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan, after a second time the Nigerian author gad been awarded national honour, having initially refused it in 2004.

“For some time now I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. The reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed let alone solved. It is inappropriate to offer it again to me,” the Professor had stressed his reason.

However, while the writer himself had posited that he has lost the justification to accept the awards on the strength of the fact what he stands for as an advocate of change has been infringed upon by government’s seeming inaction in addressing some societal ills prevalent in the country.

“Forty-three years ago, at the first anniversary of Nigeria’s independence I was given the first Nigerian National Trophy for Literature. In 1979, I received two further honours – the Nigerian National Order of Merit and the Order of the Federal Republic – and in 1999 the first National Creativity Award. I accepted all these honours fully aware that Nigeria was not perfect; but I had a strong belief that we would outgrow our shortcomings under leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples. Nigeria’s condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honour awarded me in the 2004 Honours List.”

Achebe, winner of the Man Booker International prize in 2007 presently lives in the United States.

Best known for Things Fall Apart (1958) and Collected Poems (2004), Achebe is the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana Studies at Brown. Osbey, the 2005-07 poet laureate of Louisiana and author of the award-winning All Saints: New and Collected Poems (1997), is currently a distinguished Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Brown. The conversation will be moderated by author Nduka Otiono, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Africana Studies.