Dennis Brutus as Objet a

By Obiwu

“They remind us that of all the identitarian markers of the subject – the poet and his pen/is – circumcision is the most circumspect, if circumstantial.”
- Obiwu

For some inexplicable reason, the passing of the South African poet Dennis Vincent Brutus (November 28, 1924 – December 26, 2009) finds me wondering about the nature of the objet petit a – or in the stylish Lacanese, “Object small a.” Brutus would understand my reference since he was the first notable African writer to study psychology in the university. “I had many drinks with Christopher,” Brutus had said while raising his glass of beer to mine during the 2007 International Conference on Christopher Okigbo at Harvard University. The small letter “a” is for desire; desire is for love; love is for death and resurrection. As the first letter of the Alphabet, “a” is the beginning of the Word which is reputedly made flesh in the body and blood of the Christ. In this context, “a” is the signifying Alpha Subject which is the Author of life and its end. In a nutshell, “a” is a sign of death unto life and the power of life over mortality.

In the poetry of Brutus sharp images dance extemporaneously in melancholic wonder. Only three other poets equally astound with the leap of their imaginative particular, the triumph of the clunk and clank of the violent projectile: the Greek Archilochus, the white South African Roy Campbell, and the Nigerian Christopher Okigbo. Before the four harsh images that jar the “drink lobes” in the hands of many a distinguished poet, startle with the triumphant glory of a Mendelssohnian symphony. No other poet has more successfully deployed a massive volume of scary hologram – bullet, canon, gun, iron, javelin, knife, scabbard, Sharpeville, spear – in a greater production than Archilochus, Campbell, Okigbo, and Brutus.

The four poets were all soldiers, militant activists, and artists and exiles of justice. The first was a legend and mercenary of multiple Hellenic wars. The second was a campaigner of First World War, Second World War, and the Spanish War. The third was an arms runner and soldier whose Biafran legend came on the heels of his sensational demise on the battlefield. The fourth was a founding member of the National Action Committee Council (NACC) which was formed after the banning of the ANC in 1960, and in which he "had worked closely" with Walter Sisulu (1912-2003). His numerous skirmishes against the South African apartheid regime earned him a prison term (1964-1965) with Neville Alexander (leader of the Yu Chi Chan club), Govan Mbeki, Nelson Mandela, and Sisulu (leaders of the ANC), with all of whom he “broke stones” in the same maximum security section of the infamous Robben Island, before his one-way ticket out of his ancestral land.

The four were famed for their love of women and wine. Archilochus reportedly unleashed a caustic satire on his prospective father in-law at the feast of Demeter, which caused the greedy Lycambes and all his daughters to hang themselves. The thunderous clash of his denunciation of Neobule’s vile and his praise of her purity elicit nothing but tickles of amusement. Campbell’s fight for the love of his wife against a lesbian affair with Vita Sackville-West (lover of Virginia Woolf) was a celebrated scandal of the Bloomsbury Group at Oxford and the subject of many books including his own epic, The Georgiad (1931). Okigbo’s famous dalliances have been sacralized in Chinua Achebe’s novel Anthills of the Savannah (1987), just as Brutus’s greatest love is the subject of his own collection Letters to Martha and Other Poems from a South African Prison (1968). They teach us that the boorish and translucent lights of the ticklish subject are not mutually exclusive.

The poetry of Archilochus, Campbell, Okigbo, and Brutus is revered for its clinical precision, like the centipedal forge of a Chinese military parade. In all cases, the parts are equal to the whole; the bits are individuated knots in the concatenated centrifuges of a chain gang; each unit is a mark; the cicatrices or kinks grow like the rows of tombs or the plumed headstones of a vast cemetery.

Dennis Brutus was the last in the tradition of Agwu acolytes who made tragedy a song and dying beautiful. They remind us that of all the identitarian markers of the subject – the poet and his pen/is – circumcision is the most circumspect, if circumstantial. Circumcision is always already about incision and excision and exile. It is about the cut or cleavage or hole or missing link. The lost object is the point de capiton of all our being – the subject of a massive global (man)hunt. What is lost in the silence of the unconscious is recovered in the monstrosity of the real. In effect, “a” is the rejected stone, the broken piece of foreskin or prepuce (qua objet petit a), which has become the head of the house. “a” is the magical signifier which Brutus repeatedly circles in his poems as the “simple lust,” a yearning for earth’s succoring femininity, which is all the woe of the desiring machine.

Today, without want or need or lust, having looked for the last and final time “on all things lovely,” poet Brutus eternally rests in the land where he was born, from which he was excised and exited like some vile pus against his sturdy will, a hero. A wandering letter always already arrives at its destination.

On the Award of the "Donatus Nwoga Prize for Literary Criticism in Poetry"

I wish to congratulate the Abuja Writers Forum for its very successful outing at the 2nd Abuja Literary Festival, December 15-19, 2009. I commend the AWF executive members and their sponsors especially for giving critical scholarship an equal pride of place as other literary arts for the first time in the history of Nigerian literary prize awards. In my opinion literature is one, from verse composition to the critical/analytical tradition.

I thank the AWF, indeed, for the award of the first Donatus Nwoga poetry criticism prize to my essay, "The Ecopoetics of Ezra Pound and Christopher Okigbo." I have no doubt that both Nwoga and Okigbo would have had a hearty laugh at the very idea of the prize and its pioneer winning essay, after which they would have definitely cornered some palm wine and bush meat at the Cambridge House in Ibadan or somewhere around the anthills of Nsukka. Pound himself would have found it completely appropriate to be discussed and feted even at the remote end of the tropical world since his view of literature was consistently of a globalized structure where, for instance, the Japanese haiku informs the flash-point experience of an American troubadour trapped in the vortex of the London Metro.

Nothing defines a community as its literature. I am, therefore, gratified that the Abuja Writers Forum and its visionary leadership are pointing the path to the essence, the very heart of our unified traditions.

Obiwu

AWF 2009 Literary Contest Winners

At the exciting and well-attended grand finale of the 2nd Abuja Literary Festival, which held on December 19, at the International Conference Centre, winners of the 2009 AWF National Literary Contest were announced by the chairman of the panel of judges, Professor Barth Oshionebo.

The contest which debuted last year with entries restricted to the Federal Capital Territory featured an expanded edition this time, opening up the contest to Nigerian writers within and outside the country, and with an international category for short story writers all over the world. A landmark addition is the innovative introduction of a category for literary criticism.

According to the organisers entries were received from as far as Canada despite the limited submission time frame, and a total of over two hundred entries were received. While the judges were enthralled by some interesting things being done across the genres, they were also disappointed by a variety of glaring insufficiencies that led to the disqualification of several entries or the non-emergence of winners in some categories. Indeed one of the judges noted the wide disparity between what emerged as the sole winner and the other entries in one of the categories in the following words; “if it were a hundred metres dash (the winner) would have breasted the tape a clean hour before (the others).”

There were several poignant moments during the ceremony including when the Ibrahim Tahir Prize for Fiction was announced. Dr Tahir, a leading northern academic, politician and novelist, had only recently passed away.

The following were adjudged winners:

SECTION ONE
Exclusively for writers resident in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) – that is Abuja and the Council Areas of Abaji, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali.

(a) Short Story
1. “On the Hot Seat” – Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
2. “Heart of Steel” –Abundance Jona-Effiong
3. “Rites of Passage” - Mike Ekunno
Honourable mention: "Chapters From Dante" - Abdulnasir Imam; “Someone Should Know” – Azih Ifeoma

(b) Poetry
1. “Cosmic Romance” – Paul Allen Oche
2. “To My Left Hand” – Owojecho Omoha
3. “Us” – Ozioma Izuora
Honurable mention: “Fashion Statements” – Aniete James Okuku; “The Hymeneal Night” – Tyessi Kuni; “Who Is To Blame?” – Omene Omena

(C) Drama
1. “The Family Meeting” – Ozioma Izuora
2. “Green Bus” – Oluchi Agbanyim,
3. “Choices” – Edeimu Daniel Omoghene
Honurable mention: “Pride of the Potter’s Vessel” – Obilor Jonathan Chinedu

SECTION TWO
This section is in two-parts and is open to Nigerian creative writers and scholars regardless of where they are domiciled.

Part 1: Creative Writing

(A) Cyprian Ekwensi Prize for Short Stories endowed by Emzor Pharmaceuticals.(Manuscripts and published works)
1. “Houdini and Other Marvels” – Rotimi Babatunde
2. “Fires” – Bolaji Odofin
3. “A Fistful of Tales” – Ayodele Arigbabu
Honourable mention: “The Length of Light” – Unoma Azuah

(B) T. M. Aluko Prize for a first book of Fiction (Published works only)
1. “The Abyssinian Boy” – Onyeka Nwelue
2. “Personal Angle” – Fatima Alkali

(C) Ibrahim Tahir Prize for Fiction (Manuscripts and published works)
1. “Personal Angle” - Fatima Alkali
2. “The Abyssinian Boy“ - Onyeka Nwelue
3. “Houdini and Other Marvels“ - Rotimi Babatunde
Honourable mention: “Edible Bones” - Unoma Azuah; “A Fistful of Tales“ - Ayodele Arigbabu“; “A Question of Marriage” - Auwalu Hamza

(D) Mamman Vatsa Prize for Poetry in Pidgin English sponsored by the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) (Manuscripts and published works)
Honourable mention: “Elefant Don Fall and Other Poems” – Raymond I. Anyanwu

(E) Carlos Idzia Ahmad Prize for a first book of Poetry (Published works only)
“I Am Memory” - Jumoke Verissimo

(F) Anthony Agbo Prize for Poetry endowed by Senator Anthony Agbo (Manuscripts and published works)
1. “What the Sea Told Me” - E. E. Sule
2. “I Am Memory” – Jumoke Verissimo
3. “Home Is Where It Hurts – Unoma Azuah
Honourable mention: “It Grows in Winter and Other Poems” – Chinyere Grace Okafor; “Piccolo” – Chuma Isidienu

(G) Zulu Sofola Prize for Drama (Manuscripts and published works)
1. “Pandemonium” – Ayo Adewumi
2. “Requiem” – Isaac Ogezi
3. “Blood For Palmwine” – Ozioma Izuora
Honourable mention: “Devil is a Young Lady” – Elvis Ogenyi; “Eagle-Eye” - Oluchi Agbanyim; “Sleep Na Wahala” – Africa-Zahemen Osondu Ukoh

Part 2 – Critical Writing

(A) Ime Ikiddeh Prize for Literary Criticism in Fiction, endowed by the Akwa Ibom State Government
1. “Infraction and Change in the Nigerian Feminist Novel: Zaynab Alkali and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo” – Sule E. Egya
2. “Do You Think I am Mad? Between Consciousness, Madness and Creativity in African Literature” – Owojecho Omoha

(B) Donatus Nwoga Prize for Literary Criticism in Poetry
1. “The Ecopoetics of Ezra Pound and Christopher Okigbo” - Obiwu Iwuanyanwu
2. "Dimensions of Productivity in the Poetry of Chinua Achebe" - Ikeogu Oke
3. “In this Land We Love with Pain: A Reading of Toyin Adewale’s Poetry” – Sule E. Egya

(C) Oyin Ogunba Prize for Literary Criticsm in Drama sponsored by Alhaji Ibrahim Nasir Arab, Clerk to the National Assembly
No entry deemed worth the prize.

(D) Sunday Anozie Prize for Literary Theory (including literary history, criticism of non-fiction, and criticism of criticism/theory)
No entry deemed worth the prize.

The panel of judges comprised Professor Barth Oshonebo, Dr Dan Omatsola, Professor Kanchana Ugbabe, Dr Dul Johnson, Toyin Adewale-Gabriel, Aracelli Aipoh, Crispin Odobuobok-Mfon Abasi, Chris Otaigbe, Elnathan John, Emaka Agbayi, Dr Cecilia Kato, Dr Kolawole and the U. S. based Professor Maureen Ngozi Eke.

Meanwhile the deadline for the International Category of the Contest (Section 111), is December 31,2009. Winners will be announced on the AWF website by the last week of March 2010.

Contact: http://www.abujawritersforum.com/awf_contest_winners.html.

:::: Copyright © 2009. Abuja Writers' Forum ::::

Three Masters of Nigerian Soccer: Okwaraji, Okocha, and Kanu

By Obiwu

[Note: In this twentieth year of Samuel Okwaraji’s demise (1989), first full year of Austin “Jay-Jay” Okocha’s retirement from professional soccer (2008), and eighteenth year of Nwankwo “Papillo” Kanu’s career (1991-), this essay pays tribute to the reign of Nigeria’s finest and most popular soccer legends. It evaluates their careers, compares their contributions to the development of Nigerian football, and marks their place in the national history of the game. It makes the case that as professionals they are rare and as citizens they are widely beloved patriots who always heeded to the call-to-service of their country. As humanists, their global acclaim and recognitions made them humble and their enormous influences and riches made them generous. Okwaraji, Okocha, and Kanu are by all accounts the foremost celebrity athletes in the history of Nigerian sports.]

I saw “Chairman” Christian Chukwu, “Mathematical” Segun Odegbami, Emmanuel Okala, and Samuel Okwaraji play soccer on television. I consider the four men among the first legends of Nigerian football. Okala was, to me, the greatest Nigerian goalkeeper of all time. There was none bigger – or taller – either before or after him. One of the two most horrifying sights that I have ever seen on live television was watching as Okwaraji collapsed in midfield never to regain consciousness during the 1989 World Cup qualifier in Lagos between Nigeria and Angola. (The other was seeing the second hijacked plane fly into the second of the New York Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.)

It is, however, the dimension of roundedness that is often ignored in the discourse of Nigerian art generally, from football to literature. Okwaraji's most significant contribution to the art of football is that he pointed the way to the future of Nigerian soccer: internationalism, high education, big business, and most of all sensationalist fanfare. No Nigerian footballer celebrated the player's hair before Okwaraji introduced braids into the soccer pitch. No Nigerian player was considered fully Nigerian and at the same time international before him. The Fashanu brothers Justinius and John were always British throughout their active playing days. Nigerian football was never mentioned in the same breath as academic scholarship before Okwaraji, and no notable Nigerian footballer has ever matched his academic accomplishment as a doctoral student (in law). Okwaraji was the first home-grown player to open Nigerians' eyes to the money that flowed in the sea of international football. Millions mourned his untimely passing and many of his relations and acquaintances bewailed the loss of his patronage.

What Christopher Okigbo and Wole Soyinka did for Nigerian literature, Okwaraji did for its football by introducing the dimension of enigma. Everyone mined Okwaraji’s three-dimensional narrative. Those who knew little about his story easily made it up. As the critic Ben Obumselu said of Okigbo, both those who knew him and those who didn't padded his narrative with untruths that were not necessarily lies. The mythmakers genuinely believed the truism of their stories, which was founded on the purity of unparalleled admiration for their subject. In the enchanting beauty and brevity of their art, Okigbo and Okwaraji were the most beloved and most tragic of all Nigerian artists. At Okwaraji’s sudden and sensational transcendence speculations, citing family sources, mounted that he was – like Okigbo – indeed an ogbanje, one of those shooting stars of the misty firmament who uncomfortably bestride the realms of men and gods.

Our narrative so far includes two grievous omissions: Nwankwo Christian Nwosu Kanu and Augustine Azuka Okocha! “Papillo” or “The King,” as Kanu is fondly called began his football career in the placid city of Owerri, southeastern Nigeria, as a gangly “Jay-Jay.” An American kid at a Bronx neighborhood playground once said on the ESPN Television that the difference between “MJ” (Michael Jordan) and all the other “great” American basketball stars before and after him was that everyone talked about “His Airness,” but no one would imitate him. If a basketball player tries to dangle or hang out his tongue like a famished dog in a game, he is so roundly jeered that he would run to a corner with his tail between his hind legs. Like Jordan, the “Greatest” boxer ever Mohammed Ali and the “King” of pop music Michael Jackson (an earlier “MJ,” 1958-2009) are beyond imitation.

In Nigerian soccer only one person has ever imitated “Jay-Jay” Okocha with equal accolade and near equal success: Kanu. No other two Nigerian players have had a greater friendship, professional collaboration, or respect for each other than Okocha and Kanu. No two Nigerian players have won more local and international laurels than the two. No two Nigerian players have won more championships together as members of Nigerian national teams than the two. No two Nigerian players have played in bigger international teams in more countries than the two. No two Nigerian players are more recognized on the international football stage than the two. No two Nigerian players have experienced greater longevity in global football than the two. No two Nigerian players have altogether signed more international team money than the two.

No other Nigerian player has won more international championships and rings than Okocha, but Kanu whom one source describes as “the most highly-decorated African footballer” in history. The great Pele had actually picked Okocha as Africa’s greatest football promise before Nigeria’s Gold Medal triumph at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. In 2004 he was listed on Pele’s “FIFA 100” as one of the greatest living players. Prime measurements of an artist's genius include his or her influence and reverence. No Nigerian footballer has had more generational influence on the game than Okocha, and no other Nigerian player almost equals Okocha’s reverence on the global stage as Kanu. Not even a near-tragic heart condition (requiring intervention at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation here in Ohio) could stop Kanu, who like the greatest maestros of the most popular sport on earth turned his sorrow into glory by establishing Africa’s foremost Kanu Heart Foundation philanthropy in service of the continent’s children.

Looking back at their mind-boggling careers, one could only surmise that what Kanu owes to Okocha is what both Okocha and Kanu owe to Okwaraji. Okwaraji was born on May 19, 1964, exactly forty-five years ago. More significantly, the month of Okwaraji’s death (August 12, 1989) was also the month of the birth of both Okocha (August 14, 1973) and Kanu (August 1, 1976). Like Okwaraji, Kanu suffered from an enlarged heart; but the organic ailment that occasioned the tragic bent of Okwaraji’s unprecedented career also channeled the deus ex machina that weaned Kanu’s illustrious longevity. Okocha and Kanu adopted Okwaraji’s scientific mastery of the game in raising Nigerian football beyond the brute force and flat passivity of the unkempt grass and rough patch in which it languished before their time.

A big heart is a weak heart, a doting and passionate spirit which is the wellspring of the charity and generosity that overdetermined the social intercourse between Okwaraji, Okocha, Kanu, and millions of their worldwide fan club. Okocha’s big heart is manifest in the glowing halo of his archetypal playfulness and personal brand “stepovers,” midfield dances and tricks, and the permanent smiles, laughters, and hulas which erupt and run through the cacophony of his adoring spectators. Now in retirement Okocha devotes himself still to the pleasure of both old and young in championing the higher enjoyment and superior advancement of the game in Nigeria through more accessible media exposition, clinics, and institutions. No other Nigerian player, not even the ego-shyster Etim Esin, ever commanded the elegance, aura, class, and power that Okwaraji, Okocha, and Kanu brought to bear on and off the field of football.

Okwaraji is, like Okigbo, an old star that departs and makes way for the new. It is hardly the case that two stars persist in any one generation of a country as we find in the football careers of Okocha and Kanu, except as is signified in the writerly legends of Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. They are like the prophetic twins of an old tradition, created of the same chi and begotten of different mothers. As we learn from New Testament scriptures, the foremost of cosmic stars foretell the birth of a legend. So it is with the three musketeers of Nigeria’s greatest sport of soccer: Okwaraji, Okocha, and Kanu.

AWF 2009 LITERARY CONTEST SHORT LIST

AWF 2009 LITERARY CONTEST SHORT LIST

The following have made the shortlist for the various categories of the 2009 Abuja Writers Forum (AWF)Literary Contest. Winners will be announced on December 19, 2009 at the 2nd Abuja Literary Festival.

SECTION ONE
Exclusively for writers resident in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) – that is Abuja and the Council Areas of Abaji, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali

A. Short Story
“Chapters From Dante” - Abdulnasir Imam, “Someone Should Know” – Azih Ifeoma, “Heart of Steel” –Abundance Jona-Effiong , “Rites of Passage” - Mike Ekunno, “On the Hot Seat” – Sylva Nze Ifedigbo

B. Poetry
“To My Left Hand” – Owojecho Omoha , “Us” – Ozioma Izuora , “Cosmic Romance” – Paul Allen Oche , “Fashion Statements” – Aniete James Okuku, “The Hymeneal Night” – Tyessi Kuni, “Who Is To Blame?” – Omene Omena

C. Drama
“Green Bus” – Oluchi Agbanyim, “Pride of the Potter’s Vessel” – Obilor Jonathan Chinedu, “The Family Meeting” – Ozioma Izuora, “Choices” – Edeimu Daniel Omoghene

SECTION TWO
This section is in two-parts and is open to Nigerian creative writers and scholars regardless of where they are domiciled.

Part 1– Creative Writing

A. Cyprian Ekwensi Prize for Short Stories endowed by Emzor Pharmaceuticals.(Manuscripts and published works.)
“Fires” – Bolaji Odofin, “The Length of Light” – Unoma Azah, “Houdini and other Marvels” –Rotimi Babatunde, “A Fistful of Tales” – Ayodele Arigbabu

B. T. M. Aluko Prize for a first book of Fiction.(Published works only.)
“Personal Angle” – Fatima Alkali, “The Abyssinian Boy” – Onyeka Nwelue
Only two entries considered worth the prize.

C. Ibrahim Tahir Prize for Fiction. (Manuscripts and published works.)
“Houdini and Other Marvels “- Rotimi Bamidele, “A Fistful of Bones “ - Ayodele Arigbabu, “Edible Bones” - Unoma Azuah, “Personal Angle” - Fatima Alkali, “A Question of Marriage” -Auwalu Hamza, “The Abyssinian Boy “- Onyeka Nwelue

D. Mamman Vatsa Prize for Poetry in Pidgin English sponsored by the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC). (Manuscripts and published works.)
Only one entry worthy of honourable mention

E. Carlos Idzia Ahmad Prize for a first book of Poetry. (Published works only.)
Only one entry adjudged to be worth considering for the prize.

F. Anthony Agbo Prize for Poetry endowed by Senator Anthony Agbo.(Manuscripts and published works.)
Shortlist for this category will soon be made available.

G. Zulu Sofola Prize for Drama. (Manuscripts and published works.)
“Sleep Na Wahala” – Africa-Zahemen Osondu Ukoh, “Eagle-Eye” - Oluchi Agbanyim, “Pandemonium” – Ayo Adewumi, “Devil is a Young Lady” – Elvis Ogenyi, “Blood For Palmwine” – Ozioma Izuora, “Requiem” – Isaac Ogezi

Part 2 – Critical Writing

A. Ime Ikiddeh Prize for Literary Criticism in Fiction, endowed by the Akwa Ibom State Government
“Do You think I am Mad? Between Consciousness, Madness and Creativity in African Literature” – Owojecho Omoha, “Infraction and Change in the Nigerian Feminist Novel: Zaynab Alkali and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo” – Sule E. Egya
Only two entries adjudged to be well written.

B. Donatus Nwoga Prize for Literary Criticism in Poetry.
“Dimensions of Productivity in the Poetry of Chinua Achebe” -Ikeogu Oke , “In this Land We Love with Pain: A Reading of Toyin Adewale’s Poetry” – Sule E. Egya, “The Ecopoetics of Ezra Pound and Christopher Okigbo” - Obiwu

C. Oyin Ogunba Prize for Literary Criticsm in Drama sponsored by Alhaji Ibrahim Nasir Arab, Clerk to the National Assembly.
No entry deemed worth the prize.

D. Sunday Anozie Prize for Literary Theory (including literary history , criticism of non-fiction, and criticism of criticism/theory).
No entry deemed worth the prize.

Judges:
Professor Barth Oshonebo, Dr Dan Omatsola, Professor Kanchana Ugbabe, Dr Dul Johnson, Toyin Adewale-Gabriel, Aracelli Aipoh, Crispin Odobuobok-Mfon Abasi, Chris Otaigbe, Dr Cecilia Kato, Dr Gboyega Kolawole and Professor Maureen Ngozi Eke

Meanwhile the deadline for the International Category of the Contest (Section 111), is December 31,2009. Winners will be announced on the AWF website by the last week of March 2010. Contact: http://www.abujawritersforum.com/awf.html

:::: Copyright © 2009. Abuja Writers' Forum ::::