War
Tradition
Modern
City
Nigerian
Third- Generation Writers
Joyce Chen and Kate
Liu, Fall, 2011
What is last week’s main theme?
Which nations have we dealt with?
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Ugwu as the seed of hope for this nation/place’s
autonomous/cultural development
(the intellectuals’ Pan-Africanism, or tribalism.)
Seeds of conflicts in the neighborhood in Kano, and
in Olanna’s family.
India, Pakistan, Iran, Kurd (as people without a
nation), Sri Lanka, Liberia, Sierra Leon, Uganda
and Nigeria
Uganda picked by Lonely Planet as Number 1
Country to Visit in 2012 (source)
Reminder: Place Names …
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Half of the Yellow Sun: setting of chaps 1-2 Nsukka  Lagos  Kano
(Kainene – Port Harcourt, running her father’s business);
Odenigbo from Abba
Abba
Nsukka
War
Game–
Jos
Amafor-Umuahia
Recent News about Nigeria
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Global Voices
http://zh.globalvoicesonline.org/hant/category/world/subsaharan-africa/nigeria/
Nigeria for backpackers:
http://www.backpackers.com.tw/guide/index.php/%E5%A5%88%E5
%8F%8A%E5%88%A9%E4%BA%9E
e.g. Lagos (有名的樂手Fela Kuti就是來自拉哥斯市郊。Ariya Night
Club的老闆就是著名的Sunny Ade), Kano (西非最古老的城市)
King Sunny Ade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIoH_bJORho
African Digital Art http://www.africandigitalart.com/category/africanweekly-inspiration/
Recent Islamic Rampage in Nigeria
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2011/4/25 (post-election); 2011/ 10/5
Kano
2011/11/5 in Northeatern Nigeria (by
Boko Haram)
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Red Cross: Gunmen, bombs kill 65 in Nigeria
1; 2
Religions in Nigeria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nigeria
Outline (1): Igbo Culture & Nigerian
Writers
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A. Igbo Culture
 Family
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Traditional belief
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Marriage
mother
Mask
Chi
New Yam festival
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B. Nigerian thirdgeneration in the modern
cities
 Diaspora & Urban
experience
 National identity vs.
Cultural identity
Superstition
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Twins
Osu
Joyce
Outline (2): War Games
C. War Games
I. Introd.
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Cheche — the
Nigerian version of
Midnight’s Children
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Ethnic rivalry in the
North
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History seen from a
child’s perspective
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Cheche’s experience of
the war
Cheche’s experience of
folk tradition
Next week
Igbo culture: Family
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Marriage
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Polygamy
Bride-price
Importance of being
a mother
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Storytelling, songs, and
myths
Nneka—meaning “Mother
is supreme” (TFA 133)
Joyce
Nneka (singer) http://www.wretch.cc/blog/shadowboxer/32741358
“Africans” (YouTube from To and Fro)
Stage I: A is married to two wives (B and C)
each of whom is assigned a separate hut within the
compound where she lives with her children
Residence Pattern
of an Igbo Family
(source)
Stage II: A's sons marry and bring
in their wives, each of whom is
assigned a new hut. His daughters
move out as they marry.
Igbo culture: Traditional belief
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Mask
New Yam Festival
Chi
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“when a man says
yes his chi says
yes also.” (TFA 27)
“man could not rise
beyond the destiny
of his chi.” (TFA
131)
Joyce
Zaouli(Gouro Dance Mask) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP9LeBXKZnU
Igbo / Ibo People ~ Masquerade Pictures, 1959
Igbo culture: superstition
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Twins killing  Olanna & K
 The twins were abandoned
to a death by exposure
immediately after they were
born. The women gave birth
to twins are usually
abominated . (TFA 151)
Osu (outcast)  cleansing ritual
 They are living sacrifice to
the deities of the Igbo. They
live in a special section of
the village and are forbidden
to marry a free person or cut
their hair. They are to be
buried in the Evil Forest
when they die. (TFA 156)
Joyce
Nigerian third generation:
Diaspora & Urban experience
Young writers’ works are
 Less “authentically” Nigerian, but with more
global cultures?
 Less political but more personal?
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“Nigerian” writers in global cities?
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e.g. Adichie’s short stories-- deal with Nigerian
immigrants’ experience of hardship in the United States
and England.
Joyce
Nigerian third generation:
National identity vs. Cultural identity
1. Nation: “[All] third-world texts are necessarily . . .
allegorical, and in a very specific way they are to
be read as what I will call national allegories.’’
(Fredric Jameson, 69)
2. Culture:
 The roles of “dibia” – in Half of a Yellow Sun
 Cheche’s “localization” in War Games
Joyce
War Games
A Child’s Experience of War-Time
Conflicts
(Nigerian-Biafran War, 6 July 1967–
15 January 1970)
Dulue Mbachu (1961~)
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Writer and Journalist (articles written by
him)
set up The New Gong publishing house to
publish the African Writers Series
"After a war is fought, the victors
immediately write their history. But it takes
a while for the victims to find their voice and
tell their own side story.” (Mbachu on Igbo
writers' obsession with the Nigerian civil
war source)
War Games: Chaps 1 – 4
1.
2.
3.
4.
City Life: Happy childhood (mixed with miracle,
dance, sweets and an episode of being bullied)
Village Amafor: Going to Amafor, getting to
know Grandfather
Amafor  Umuahia: Cheche’s experience of
the war
Amafor: Cheche’s getting to know Amafor and
its rituals
War Games: The first 4 Chaps and
the Novel
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Is the presentation of the village life
distracting from the novel’s real focus?
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1/3 of the novel: Che Che’s playing with
friends, revels in various ceremonies. “less
interesting than the rest of the book. In fact,
since the book is so clearly about the Biafran
War, they are annoying. (HAWLEY 19)
War Games: The first 4 Chaps and
the rest of the Novel
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The war in the context of the conflicts
 between traditional and modern/colonial cultures (in
terms of religions, urban and northern Igbo people
and Shaw-Shaw people),
 Between Hausa and Igbo people,
-- Aren’t the rituals (Catholic or traditional) all games, of
one kind or another?
War Games: The first 4 Chaps and
the rest of the Novel
War Games, Village Rituals and Children’s
Games
1. How do we deal with conflicts and evils?
2. Games– with rules and enforcing conformity—
sometimes brutally
3. The experience of survival (“eat as much as
you can”) and being a “rebel” or nonconformist.
Questions
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How do you relate to Cheche’s stories (about
childhood, the Biafra war and the Igbo rituals)?
Do you find anything similar in your own life or
culture?
What do you think about the narrator, his
mixture of an adult and child perspectives?
How is Igbo’s folk tradition represented first
through the Grandfather, and then the rituals?
The Happy Childhood in the City
Cheche –
 The beginning of his memory – moving to the house
 the center of the extended family’s and the tenants’
attention (3)
 Experience:
 miracle of singing and dancing vs. being bullied (6-7)
 education – experience of racism, using Hausa
songs on Shaw-Shaw people (10)
 market and Papa’s shop
 dance
The Happy Childhood in the City
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His understanding as a child:
 Mother/Father: attached to the mother (2), see
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grandfather as twice as big
the world as “a bumpy place” (4)
Genealogy // identity – born 3 months after the birth of the
nation “only those younger than a country can belong to
it” (10)  chap 3 (p. 34)
Names – wants to use father’s name as his surname.
A cloud watcher (13); Papa’s shop, diasppointing
Later understanding
 the role of money in the priests’ blessing. (5)
History Seen from a Child’s
Perspective
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pp. 16-17 (chap 2): lack of comprehension –
 parties –different from the birthday parties.
 why were Igbos singled out as the common enemy.
“a meeting somewhere?”
pp. 28 – 29 (chap 3): sorrow and indignation over
deaths-- Gowon vs. Ojukwu (Johnson T. U. AguiyiIronsi - Nigerian general); pogrom and programme
pp. 33-34 (chap 3): – nationalism (later: egg-rusher
payment 171)
The boy– witnessing or hearing about deaths: a
pregnant woman 17; 30
Chapter 2: Cheche’s surprise at
seeing Grandpa
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Shaw-Shaw house
and the Grandpa of
the Shaw-Shaw p.
23-24
Odukwe Compound
–obu for men and
boys, ohwo for the
wives.
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Obu house (source)
Igbo Farmers vs. Shaw-Shaw
people
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P. 10 Cheche: exaggerates their
nakedness and poverty
pp. 19-20 thinks their houses too small
 Igbo farmers also naked!!! p. 22;
(later understanding) p. 23 Shaw-Shaw
people made fun of because they used
leaves instead of clothes to cover their
nakedness. But ...
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Cheche vs.
Grandfather
1) In conflict with
their Catholic belief
(e.g. the chicken 25)
2) Grandpa vs. the
radio – 27
3) (chap 4) p. 41 –
with magic power –
descending from the
sky, passing as a
pregnant woman
A mask depicting a dibia
(healer) (source)
The War
Experience of the war –
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Sympathizes with Mama’s fears (pp. 18-) Worries
over Papa, the neighbors’ secret pleasure
Tales of the survivors – brutal killings, rescue or
betrayal of the neighbors (30);
e.g. Papa’s being rescued by Paradang (who was not
particularly friendly) and betrayed by a friendly
tenant.
The adults’ excitement over the nationalist war
Air raids – Mama’s responses (36-37)
Chap 4: Embracing Amafor
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Cheche –ready to accept Amafor
(Grandpa, and the environment);
becoming a village boy,
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not wearing slippers or a shirt. p. 42
fighting bigger girls at their weaker spots p. 43
Ritual (1): Cleansing
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pp. 43-45
vindicated if the villagers’ response is “lyaa” or
“Ooooh!”; condemned if they are silent.
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e.g. Esoniru (poisoning people, including his wife);
Ekwegbe (killing young boys)
What do you think about this cleansing ritual?
Why do the people die after being condemned
in public?
The rule of the Majority – may not be justified
Ritual (2): Masked Spirit (Egwugwu)
Joyce
Ritual (2): Masked Spirit in the
Ogwugwu festival
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(Ogwugwu-- ogwugwu is the strongest
deity in Nigeria. The deity is more than 300
years old. sited in the eastern part of
Nigeria.)
Masked spirits – as sprinters 短跑者, as
dancers, inflicting diseases on others (46)
Feast, race (taunting the spirits and
escaping their whipping) and dance of the
spirits
Ritual (2): Masked Spirit in the
Ogwugwu festival
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Echi-Eteka –tomorrow is too far (51)
The song
“Respect yourself…
Medicine man/
Stop divinating for me/
The one you’re divinating for/
Understands the mysteries better than you do….
Meaning?
A rite of passage for the boys  later he becomes
one of the altar boys.
From
War Games
to
Half of a Yellow Sun
A child’s experience (cityvillage)
adults’ experiences (traumatized; village  city)
Reference
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http://www.igboguide.org/index.php?l=chapter9
G. I. Jones Photographic Archive of Southeastern Nigerian Art and
Culture. <http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/jmccall/jones/>
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.
Adesanmi, Pius and Chris Dunton. “Introduction— Everything Good
is Raining: Provisional Notes on the Nigerian Novel of the Third
Generation.” Research in African Literatures 39.2 (2008): vii-xii.
Print.
---. “Nigeria’s Third Generation Writing: Historiography and
Preliminary Theoretical Considerations.” English in Africa
32.1(2005): 7-19. Print.
Hawley, John C. “Biafra as Heritage and Symbol: Adichie, Mbachu,
and Iweala.” Research in african literatures, Vol. 39, No. 2
(Summer 2008): 15-26.
Jameson, Frederic. “Third-World Literature in the Era of
Multinational Capitalism.” Social Text 15 (Fall 1986): 65-88. Print.
Next Week
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[Group Q&A Time] 456--Nadine Gordimer
"Amnesty"
The week after next [Group Q&A Time]
123: "The Prophetess“ by Njabulo S.
Ndebele ..Group report: Yesterday