NLNG calls for entries for 2019 Science, Literature & Literary Criticism prizes
By Prisca Sam-Duru
The Advisory Boards for The Nigeria Prize for Science,
The Nigeria Prize for Literature and The Literary Criticism Prize,
sponsored by Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Limited, have announced entries for the
2019 edition of the prizes.
The call flags off this year’s competitions.
The Science and Literature prizes, which are now in their 15th year,
each come with a cash prize of $100, 000 while the Literary Criticism
Prize has a prize money of N1 million.
Focusing on Climate Change: Erosion, Drought and Desertification, the
Science Prize, recognises outstanding scientific achievements by
Nigerians and non-Nigerians.
While the Literature Prize, focuses on Children’s Literature. The
prize which honours the author of the best book by a Nigerian, rotates
among four literary genres, namely Prose Fiction, Poetry, Drama and
Children’s Literature. The Literary Criticism Prize, which also aims to
promote Nigerian Literature, will receive entries on works in literary
criticism of Nigerian Literature, especially critical essays on new
writings in Nigerian languages.
The Call for Entries for the Literature prize and Literary Criticism
opened on February 15, 2019 and closes on April 5, 2019. The entries for
the science prize also opened on February 15, 2019 but will close on
May 3, 2019.
Chairman of the 2019 panel of judges for this year’s Literature and
the Literary Criticism competition is Professor Obododinma who is a,
poet, editor and a translator. Prof Oha is a professor of Semiotics,
Stylistics, and Creative Writing at the Department of English,
University of Ibadan. He writes poems in English and Igbo. NLNG calls for entries for 2019 Science, Literature & Literary Criticism prizes
Other members of the panel include Professor Asabe Usman Kabir and
Dr. Patrick Okolo. Professor Kabir is a professor of Oral and African
Literature at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto. Dr. Oloko, a Senior
lecturer at the University of Lagos Nigeria, specialization in African
postcolonial literature, gender and cultural studies.
As it is customary, the winners of the Literature and Literary
Criticism prizes will be announced at an award ceremony in October 2019,
to commemorate the anniversary of the first LNG export from the NLNG’s
Plant on October 9, 1999. The Science Prize winner as usual will be
revealed earlier in the year.
Recall that three winners emerged in the prize categories in 2018.
They were Soji Cole who clinched the Literature Prize award with his
play, ‘Embers’, Dr. Peter Ngene was awarded the Science Prize, for his
work in “Innovation in Electric Power”, and Professor Isidore Diala, a
professor of African Literature at Imo State University, Owerri, took
home the Literary Criticism Prize.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature has rewarded eminent writers such as
the late Ikeogu Oke (2017, Poetry) with ‘The Heresiad’; Abubakar Adam
Ibrahim (2016, Prose) with ‘Season of Crimson Blossoms’; Sam Ukala
(2014; Drama) with ‘Iredi War’; Tade Ipadeola (2013; Poetry) with his
collection of poems, ‘Sahara Testaments’; Chika Unigwe (2012 – prose),
with her novel, ‘On Black Sister’s Street’; as well as Adeleke Adeyemi
(2011, children’s literature) with his book, ‘ The Missing Clock’.
Other awardees are Esiaba Irobi (2010, drama) who clinched the prize
posthumously with his book ‘Cemetery Road’; Kaine Agary (2008, prose)
with “Yellow Yellow”; Mabel Segun (co-winner, 2007, children’s
literature) for her collection of short plays, ‘Reader’s Theatre’;
Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (co-winner, 2007, children’s
literature) with her book, ‘My Cousin Sammy’; Ahmed Yerima (2006, drama)
for his classic, ‘Hard Ground’; and Gabriel Okara (co-winner, 2005,
poetry) for his book Chants of a Minstrel and Professor Ezenwa Ohaeto
(co-winner, 2005, poetry) for his book The Dreamer: His Vision.
…U.S. PAO says its history full of heroes and heroines
By Prisca Sam-Duru
“Nevertheless, the need to tell our stories, accurately, and with
pride, is just as important today as it ever was. There are still
doubters among us, there are haters, and there is the need to instill a
sense of pride in our children and grandchildren. That need will never
cease.”, were words of U S Consulate Public Affairs Officer, PAO,
Russell Brooks, at the opening ceremony of 2019 Black History Month.
Held today at the University of Lagos, UNILAG, Brooks who was Keynote
Speaker, had his well detailed remarks titled; “From 1619 to 2019: Why
We Must Continue to Highlight Black Excellence.”
He described the event marking the Black History Month as an
important event rich in “Meaning and symbolism. It is especially
gratifying to me that the invitation was extended by your Institute of
African and Diaspora Studies since I am a member of the African
diaspora, who fortunately has made his way back home.” PAO, Russell Brooks
Explaining his choice of title for the occasion, US PAO noted that
“When the leaders of the Institute approached me, they suggested that I
speak on the topic of “Black Excellence.” I said to myself, Wow, that
is a broad area. I am thankful that I was given some discretion about
how to interpret this charge. I decided that I would like to reference
Black Excellence by explaining why there is, and possibly always will
be, the need to celebrate Black History. I am entitling my remarks
“From 1619 to 2019: Why We Must Continue to Highlight Black Excellence.”
According to him, “Black History Month actually began as Negro
History Week in 1926. It was founded by a noted black historian by the
name of Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro
Life. The week was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of both
Abraham Lincoln, February 12, and Frederick Douglass, February 14.
It is not terribly surprising that his idea to recognize the
achievements of black Americans and black people throughout history
would eventually be deemed worthy of an entire month rather than a week
and by 1969, black educators began advocating for a Black History Month.
The first celebration of Black History Month took place at Kent State
University in 1970 and six years later, President Gerald Ford officially
recognized Black History Month during the celebration of the United
States Bicentennial.
In the U.S., we have been celebrating Black History Month for so many
years, for some it has become routine, it appears to be
institutionalized.
We have an annual Presidential Proclamation marking the occasion and
schools, churches, and community organizations generally organize
activities to remind us of great African-American historical figures
from Crispus Attucks, who died in the Boston Massacre that helped stoke
the American Revolution; to Harriett Tubman, the courageous escaped
slave who returned to the South numerous times to help free
approximately seventy others; to more recent heroes such as Martin
Luther King, Jr and former President Barack Obama.
“At U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, we mark Black
History Month by conducting programs to remind both local audiences and
our fellow Americans of the significant contributions of black people in
building the United States into the great country that it has become
today.
Why do I use the year 1619 in the title of today’s remarks? Please
recall that the first African slaves to arrive in the English colonies
of North America arrived in that year, 1619, to Jamestown, Virginia.
Dutch traders who had seized them from a Spanish slave ship brought
them there. For that reason, this year is being marked as the
400th anniversary of that momentous event.
“I actually don’t believe most people are by nature mean, cruel,
brutal, or unjust. Therefore, I have noted that throughout the history
of blacks in the New World, whether it be in the United States, in
Jamaica, Cuba, or Brazil, there has always been a desire, perhaps a
need, to justify race-based inhumanity to one’s fellow man.
Among the consistent justifications have been the claims that blacks
are not equal to other races, especially intellectually, and that blacks
have contributed very little of value to the world anyway, besides
their manual labor.
For the young people among us, this may seem shocking but
I encourage you to read about the intellectual arguments used to
justify slavery and colonialism.”
There has been an erroneous notion that blacks have no history but
doing justice to correcting that wrong notion, Brooks pointed out that,”
A central tenet of white supremacy in America and Europe has always
been that blacks had no real history; that they left behind nothing of
value in Africa; that they had no real culture; that the black race had
contributed nothing of value to the advancement of the world; and slaves
should be thankful for what their slave masters had done for them.
Perhaps needless to say, this made those who benefited from slavery feel
much better about that cruel, inhumane system and the same could be
said for those who advocated race-based discrimination, colonialism, and
imperialism.
“I doubt that those who advanced these theories of racial superiority
were aware of the Kingdom of Mali, the Songhai Empire and the greatness
of ancient Timbuktu, Abyssinia, the Kingdom of Benin or the Oyo Empire.
Nevertheless, for many, many years, not only were white Americans
ignorant of the true history of Africans and African-Americans but many
black Americans were just as oblivious of their history.”
Going further with unraveling the history behind the Black history
Month, Brooks explained that, “Carter G. Woodson created Black History
Week because he saw the cruelty that can be justified when one group of
people lack respect and empathy for another group of people. He also
understood the effect that absorbing misinformation about the history of
Africa and African-Americans had on the sense of pride and self-worth
of back Americans. It should come as no surprise that the creation of
Negro History Week coincided with the period of black American
self-awareness known as the Harlem Renaissance and similarly the quest
for a Black History Month began during the Black Pride or Soul Power
movement of the nineteen sixties and seventies.”
Sadly according to Brooks, the misguided notions that were used to
defend slavery or racial discrimination, also warped the minds of some
black Americans, who actually accepted these notions out of their own
ignorance. READ MORE: Hoodlums unleash mayhem in Oshodi, attack traders
“If black Americans were to be able to throw off the psychological
shackles that imprisoned them, they would have to know much more about
their actual history.
I know that the actual history of African-Americans is a wonderful
story full of heroes and heroines who have contributed immensely to the
world. Permit me to mention just a few: PAO, Russell Brooks
Are you familiar with George Washington Carver, the agricultural
scientist and inventor who developed hundreds of products using peanuts?
Have you heard of Dr. Charles Drew, the surgeon who pioneered methods
of storing blood plasma for transfusion and organized the first large
scale blood bank in the U.S.? How about Dr. Ralph Bunche, the political
scientist and diplomat who won the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his
mediation following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War? Did you know that
Benjamin Banneker, a black surveyor and mathematician reproduced the
design for Washington, DC from memory after the Frenchman hired for the
project quit and stormed off with the original plans?
“When we discuss black history, we also do not restrict the
discussion to African-Americans. I would encourage the students in the
room to take note of the fact that the author of The Three
Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas, was a black
man. Alexander Pushkin, known as the quintessential Russian writer,
supposedly took his inspiration from his African great-grandfather,
Abraham Petrovitch Gannibal, who was kidnapped from Africa as a young
man but rose to become a general and a member of the royal court of Tsar
Peter the Great.
On the African continent, I am sure you take great pride in the
accomplishments of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Chinua
Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Fela, Kofi Annan, Angelique Kidjo, Miriam Mkeba,
and many, many others.
Wrapping up his address, Brooks quoted from one of his personal
heroes which he said, came from the famous African-American female
journalist and civil rights activist, Ida B. Wells, who risked her life
numerous times to investigate and report on the lynching of
African-Americans during some of the worst periods for race relations in
American history.
It reads “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
To correct the historical wrong of neglecting or diminishing the contributions of the black race to humanity,
I believe we will always need to turn the light of truth on
falsehoods and ignorance by passing down the stories of our excellence,
Black Excellence. I do so with pride and I hope you will too.”
