Five
months after his death, the late Prof Chinua Achebe’s influence on many
African writers, especially the young ones continues to show at
literary platforms.
Last
Friday, Nigeria’s celebrated international writer and current winner of
Chicago Tribune Heartland prize for fiction Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
said Achebe’s writings gave her the confidence to go into writing.
She
said Achebe was very important to her like others such as Flora Nwakpa.
She spoke at a reception tagged; Literary Evening marking the closing
of a 10-day workshop for 22 talented creative writers organised by
Farafina Trust and Nigerian Breweries Plc in Lagos. Adichie said she
initially found it difficult carrying on with the writing of her earlier
books, adding that it took her about two-and-a-half years to complete
her first book. “In fact, my second book took me five years to complete.
You
live to prepare to fall and rise again,” she said of how she weathered
the many challenges of writing. Reacting to why she abandoned medicine
for political science and communication, she said it was the best
decision of her life. Adichie, who claimed she is not into poetry
writing, said: “I passed well in science. I left medical sciences
because it did not seem right for me.
During
lectures, I will be writing poems on the back of my note books. Leaving
medicine was the best for me. I did not want to study literature after
that, so I took to political science and communication.” She observed
that at the workshop, writers that came with best entries never emerged
as the best of the lots, but added that there are enormous potentials in
the writers.
Eight
hundred entries were received for this year’s workshop, out of which 22
were selected. Managing Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Nicolas
Vervelde said the partnership between Nigerian Breweries and Farafina
Trust which began five years ago, was founded on the company’s desire to
encourage the development of literary writing skills in Nigeria, as
part of “our strategic corporate initiatives towards talent development
and youth empowerment.”
“We
expect that the impressive parade of facilitators this year just like
in the past years would help give birth to a new generation of writers
in the mould of the Chinua Achebes, Wole Soyinkas, Ben Okris and
Chimamanda Adichies among others,” he said. Vervelde hoped that the
writers that have emerged from the workshop would have the potential to
become future Nobel Laureates in literature.
The
literary event, which was held at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria
Island, Lagos was spiced up with poetry performance by Efe Paul, one of
the participants and musical performances by KCee, of the Limpopo fame.
Certificates of participation were presented by Mr Vervelde and
Chimamanda Adichie to al the 22 participants.
Other
writers that facilitated at the workshop included Kenyan writer, Mr.
Binyavanga Wainaina; who won the Caine Prize for his short story
Discovering Home in 2002, Mr Aslak Sira Myhre; a Norwegian politician
and former party leader of Red Electoral Alliance (RV), Dr. Eghosa
Imasuen; a Nigerian writer, medical doctor and author of Fine Boys.
