{"id":4103,"date":"2021-09-25T12:40:22","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T12:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugandaupdatenews.com\/?p=4103"},"modified":"2021-09-25T12:40:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T12:40:30","slug":"wole-soyinka-on-his-first-novel-in-nearly-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wole-soyinka-on-his-first-novel-in-nearly-50-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Wole Soyinka on his first novel in nearly 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new work by a Nobel laureate is generally a cause for celebration, but in Wole Soyinka<\/a>\u2019s case, it\u2019s especially significant. It\u2019s been nearly 50 years since he published his last novel, \u201cThe Interpreters<\/a>,<\/em>\u201dand though his work has spanned multiple genres \u2014 poetry, plays, memoirs and essays \u2014 his new novel, \u201cChronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth<\/a>,\u201dmanages to chart fresh territory. At 87, the first sub-Saharan author to be honored by Stockholm<\/a> remains a brilliant thinker and tinkerer. \u201cChronicles\u201d combines elements of a murder mystery, a searing political satire and an \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d-like modern allegory of power and deceit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The novel picks up just as Nigeria \u2014 or the author\u2019s stand-in for his home country \u2014 is gearing up to celebrate its annual Festival of the People of Happiness, yet another example of official doublespeak. The ruling People on the Move Party (\u201cPOMP\u201d) have turned the country into a vast, innocuous reality show even as violence, fanaticism and ruthless plunder wreak havoc across the land. But when Dr. Kighare Menka, famous for tending to the mutilated victims of Boko Haram<\/a>, stumbles upon a black market in human body parts, the nation\u2019s ugly secrets begin to surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s just the beginning of the conspiracies, which stretch from a charlatan preacher<\/a> named Papa Divina to the president, Sir Godfrey O. Danfere. The mysterious death of Menka\u2019s blood-brother, Duyole Pitan-Payne \u2014 who came of age with Menka during the hopeful early years of independence \u2014 tightens the web of intrigue. What did he know? Who wanted him dead? And when, exactly, did Nigeria sink so low? These and other questions \u2014 personal, moral, social and political \u2014 percolate through Soyinka\u2019s acidly comic take on his country\u2019s \u201cgrim contest in human desecration, physical and mental.\u201d Soyinka spoke with The Timesvia email about the new book, his homeland and his own legacy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m curious how long this book has been germinating and what about this story demanded the form of a novel.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite a while, certainly close to two decades. However, the themes found release in other forms, mostly polemical. Let\u2019s say it found temporary outlet in my local interventions, both literary and political. So it had been building up in the mind. With that kind of pressure \u2014 rather like a flood behind a retaining wall \u2014 only the prose cascade seemed empowered to bear the burden of release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Were there unexpected challenges in writing a novel again after so long?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostly technical. I work \u2014 like most \u2014 directly from my laptop. I am not a sequential writer, so each session does not necessarily take up the story where it left off. Now, imagine resuming work where you thought<\/em> you had left your characters. The oftener you click that \u201csave\u201d button, the deeper you dig yourself into a hole \u2014 no, into several tunnels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You started writing during the early days of the pandemic, outside your home in Nigeria<\/a>. Was that out of necessity or preference?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, I started work just before the pandemic. Needed to physically distance myself from the provoking environment to be able to address it, and in full isolation. Two sessions of about eight days each \u2014 one in Dakar, the other in Ghana \u2014 I needed<\/em> those, to even begin. Then the pandemic locked me down in my own forested home, with just my characters for company. The heavy stuff took over, for some three or four months. Not a recommended regimen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The title is meant facetiously, but it was inspired by an actual news report on Nigeria\u2019s high rating on a global survey<\/a> of optimism.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, I even propose that the novel wrote itself, with the overpowering gamut of occurrences in manic vein. To encounter a report that this land, clinging to a marginal survival index, is rated high on the \u201chappiness\u201d scale \u2014 that scatters your brain! But, then, you also understand. Just recently, a carnival wedding party was staged. The bride was the president\u2019s daughter, and over a hundred private jets flew in guests from every corner of the nation. I had foolishly imagined that the nation was in mourning, what with a thousand or so students still held captive by religious fundamentalist loonies<\/a> and other homicidal maniacs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This novel can be read in many ways, but, ultimately, it moves with the pace of a whodunit. Was that something you\u2019ve wanted to try your hand at?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Always longed to write a mystery, no question about that. In secondary school, I ate up detective novels. Well, as \u201cChronicles\u201d progressed, my long-repressed antennae sniffed an opening and that was it. Backtracked and did some lateral adjustments. So it\u2019s been gratifying to receive comments of it being a kind of whodunit. At long last: Idunnit!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How closely did you want to stick to the realities of present-day Nigeria and how much artistic license did you allow yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would be pointless to deny that I wanted Nigerians to recognize themselves in the work. Yes, it is consciouslya J\u2019Accuse <\/em>of both power and the disempowered.And I drove my African publisher to distraction just so the work could emerge in time for Nigeria\u2019s 60th independence anniversary last year. And guess what? The government announced that the celebrations would be spectacular and would run a full year! Mind you, the anniversary project was simply abandoned<\/a>. Left to sink quietly in government sump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve been an outspoken critic of abuses of authority.You tore up your U.S. Green Card when Trump was elected in 2016. I\u2019m interested in how you viewed the Black Lives Matter protests of this past year.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Lives Matter<\/a> was long in coming, its tempo was merely crudely accelerated with the entry of Donald Trump and what he represented. It was psychic release. Trump was the revenge of American racism to the shock of unforgivable Obama. I hope, by the way, that \u201cChronicles\u201d is seen as not simply a critique of one\u2019s own government. It is meant to indict us also, the governed, as a people who have jettisoned the humane values that that same society impressed on my upbringing. Yes, I would give much to bludgeon Nigeria into accepting that Black Lives do Matter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve said before that winning the 1986 Nobel Prize brought with it a heavy burden \u2014 in a word, it was \u201chell.\u201d But it has also given you a powerful platform. Is this something you\u2019ve learned to embrace?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do recall, I did have a \u201cplatform\u201d even before the Nobel. I had and routinely exercised that voice. The Nobel, however, began to render the voice hoarse and brittle from expectations and demands. Worst of all was that I lost even my remnant shreds of anonymity. That\u2019s the unrecognized part, and one to which I am yet to be reconciled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the first Black African Nobelist, you\u2019ve also had an enormous impact on contemporary African writing. How do you think it\u2019s changed in the past half-century?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the prize did instigate literary emulation \u2014 not imitation, thank goodness \u2014 manifested in bolder, self-assured writing among the younger African generation. That alone was gratifying. The young female writers especially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look back at your oeuvre, what works do you feel represent your greatest legacy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, no, I never think in terms of legacy. And I can truthfully claim that I am quite at home in any genre \u2014 from poetry to polemics. The theme calls to the medium, and one can only aspire to be a faithful conduit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interview was first published in the Los Angeles Times<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tepper has written for the New York Times Book Review, Vanity Fair and Air Mail, among other places.<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new work by a Nobel laureate is generally a cause for celebration, but in Wole Soyinka\u2019s case, it\u2019s especially significant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-interview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/wole-soyinka-9489566-1-402.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14529,"url":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/i-will-marry-when-i-want-the-life-and-times-of-ngugi-wa-thiongo-87\/","url_meta":{"origin":4103,"position":0},"title":"I will Marry When I Want: The Life And Times Of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o 87","author":"UgandaUpdate","date":"May 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Born James Thiong\u2019o Ngugi to Thiong\u2019o wa Nduucu and Wanjika wa Ngugi, Ngugi is the fifth child of the third of Thiong\u2019o\u2019s four wives. 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