By Prisca Sam-Duru
Kole Omotosho is one of the Patrons of the prestigious Etisalat Prize for Literature and one of Nigeria’s veteran writers who has played leading roles in promoting African literature globally. In this interview, Omotosho shares his thoughts on the essence of Etisalat Prize for Literature, why no Nigerian has won the prize since inception and other sundry issues affecting writers. Excerpt.
ASIDE giving writers opportunity to showcase their debut novels, what has the Etisalat Prize For Literature done?
try to define an area which we thought is not being catered for and also to expand the field so that its not just writers who are based on the continent and blacks writing in Englsh but writers irrespective of their language. Once the writers have ancestral link to Africa, their publishers can make their novels available. Also, to encourage quality works, we don’t deal with self publishing because of lack of critical…though I’ve known a few writers like Ken Saro Wiwa who would do incredible editing of their works as if they belong to somebody else. Yet we insist publishers make the works available. Insisting that publishers submit works of writers is just to ensure that there has been prior editing and re-editing because by the time you read a page or two of the poorly edited works you know they aren’t going anywhere. It is a major criteria that we don’t want self published works in the competition.
•Prof Kole Omotosho
We’ve seen Zimbabwe, South Africa and DRC Congo come tops, considering quality of their works, how would you rate African literature?
There’s no problem with the quality of works, our problem is how do we find the market for African literature, how do we create a ready market for it, and this is where Etisalat Prize is different. This Prize has a list of more than 50 outlets, libraries across the continent where copies of these books are sent each year. I have about 5 different libraries, one in Cape Town, Jo’Burg, two in Akure, etc where I send each copy of the three final books to, each year. And I get feedback on how much people are reading them. So one of the things the Etisalat Prize does is to do the distribution to schools, state libraries and anywhere, just to make sure we find readers for African literature.
Are you not bothered that for three consecutive times, no Nigerian has won the Etisalat Prize For Literature.?
I’m not bothered , why should I be bothered, most of the people who have been winning the Booker Prize are not all English people. People who win the Pulitzer Prize in America, Dele Olajede… we cannot begin with that limited vision. Yes, I think two or three Nigerians have appeared in the long and short list but its up to the judges, I don’t know what the result is gonna be until it is announced. None of us received the long list or shortlist. I mean I’ve just started reading these three final books and I’m hoping that by Saturday I would have finished them so that by the time the result is announced I would be able to say okay, this or that. I’m not bothered.
Could it be that there is something we are not getting right?
Yes! there are things we are not getting right, our writings especially of those who are at home are not as tight and as rigorous as the writings by Nigerians outside. You read Teju Coal or any of these other guys and compare with what is being published in the country, you will be surprised. There is need for greater editorial management but how many publishers in this country care about manuscripts. So the writer is thrown on his or her own and that is where work has to be done. We cannot interfere in terms of who wins or who doesn’t win.
After winning some laurels in the 80s, you moved to South Africa, what motivated such movement when you were already doing great?
Well the circumstance of my leaving Nigeria was basically, two things, I had a primary challenge with ‘Just Before Dawn’ when it came out, the Military going all out simply threatening saying that they are not going to court, they are not going to do anything, Obasanjo went to court to stop the publication of the book because he said I said something which he said wasn’t right, so I decided to simply get out and let my publisher handle it.The second was more of a fundamental problem. As a university professor, I looked at my prospects and I looked at the children I had to train and I couldn’t see how if I continue as a university professor in Nigeria, I would be able to give them good education as I received from my parents. So, to that extent, I needed to go somewhere where I could be myself, practice my art as a theatre person, do my teaching and writing. At that particular time, South Africa was going through major changes, but teaching engagements as well as theatre in London and Lesotho kept me busy as time went on. One of the things that happened was that I did a small advert for an emerging phone company, Vodacom that became one of the major companies in the world and that cut on, for almost 15 to 20 years, I was involved in that and of course that gave me a greater profile in the country. That means that profile can aid Nigeria, aid Nigeria literature and aid Nigerians in South Africa, giving a totally different positive image of people from the country
. Can you be more specific?
Well, I’ve been lucky my children are all successful and yes, in a way its almost like being able to bring up kids in a different environment but where they don’t forget home. If you watch any of Akin’s films, or you read Yewande’s novels, or the poetry that Folayon writes (his children), you will know that as Niyi Osundare always calls me, ‘We carried everything with us from Nigeria…’ In any way, I feel fulfilled that so much has been done. The challenge I have now is how does one make up in old age, for going away. The going away on a personal level, very successful, but on the more social Nigerian based level, I feel dismayed.
makes you think they wouldn’t have been successful if you didn’t leave the country?
The systems in which Yewande, Akin and Folayan studied and operated in allowed them to build for themselves and succeed but that is what is lacking in Nigeria. Our system here does not work. So many of our young people are talented but that talent is not picked up by the system that should pick it and that is where the problem is. That is why we are trying to see how can we set up infrastructure that would help us to build, that will make it possible for our young people to move forward. So, that is it but it is obvious that being outside Nigeria, helped a lot.
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