Posted by By SOLA BALOGUN on
Plans to turn the Federal Capital City into a center of artistic and literary activities may have paid off as the city over the weekend hosted the major events which celebrated literary icons, Professor Chinua Achebe and the late Cyprian Ekwensi.
Plans to turn the Federal Capital City into a center of artistic and literary activities may have paid off as the city over the weekend hosted the major events which celebrated literary icons, Professor Chinua Achebe and the late Cyprian Ekwensi.
The two events, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the celebrated novel, Things Fall Apart, written by Achebe also sought avenues through which Nigerian literature could be preserved for posterity.
While notable scholars, friends, students and admirers of Achebe gathered at the NTA open arena at Abuja to listen to Eugenia Abu's lecture on Things Fall Apart and the Nigerian Child, the minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, led another set of writers and bureaucrats to the renaming ceremony of the Abuja Centre for Arts and Culture to Cyprian Ekwensi Cultural Centre at Area 10, Garki.
Kayode, who extolled the virtues of the late Ekwensi as a literary gem whose legacies should not be forgotten, also recalled how Nigeria has been so blessed with geniuses in the humanities. He described the ‘renaming' gesture as a token by government to recognize the great contributions by the departed literary giant to national development.
On the need for outlets to preserve our literary products, Mr Segun Awolowo, son of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Secretary for Social Development at the FCT said 'The truth of the matter is that there is nowhere today in this country where all the works of Nigerian authors in English and our indigenous languages may be found. Even works by Cyprian Ekwensi, a writer of the most popular literatures, are difficult to find in the marketplace.
A depository to which all authors may contribute is therefore also a way of paying tribute to the great man himself. Such a depository, beyond the statutory demands of the Copyright Commission, should be given a proper standing as there is a need for a house, a domain, in which everyone of the books in our literature may be found."
Awolowo, while commending the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), led by Dr Wale Okediran for organizing the feast in humour of Achebe, also said 'As stakeholders in the business of promoting Arts and Culture, we feel extremely proud and grateful to be part of the worldwide celebration of this great gift (Chinua Achebe) to humanity and generations yet unborn… we expect, very soon, the addition of a new wing, a library of Nigerian Literature to the Cyprian Ekwensi Centre for Arts and Culture. Our hope is that this wing shall accommodate a Special Depository of Nigerian letters in which every work of Nigerian literature and even manuscript shall be given a place of security."