The Arts-Muse Fair

Aderemi Raji-Oyelade in his equally pioneering 2008 bibliography of Nigerian Women poetry entitled, ‘Notes toward the Bibliography of Nigerian Women’s Poetry (1985-2006)’supposes that women’s poetry in Nigeria is just about thirty five years old. Raji-Oyelade submits that Nigerian Women’s poetry has come of age and deserves serious critical attention from critics who appear to have been paid less attention to it. He asserts that, Interestingly, the increasing publication of poetry by Nigerian women authors has not been met with a commensurate critical study of the emergent works. It might well be repeated that the available poetry collections by Nigerian as well as African women writers in general have been rarely engaged as subjects of analytic discourse in contemporary literary criticism. Raji-Oyelade comments on women’s poetry in Northern Nigeria thus, “it is also useful to point to the relatively new tradition of anglophone poetry by women from the northern part of t

Northern Nigerian literature has for a long time been defined by its well celebrated Hausa texts. For several decades, writing in the Hausa language thrived to global acclaim with legends like Abubakar Imam (1911-1981) winning international acknowledgment as far as back the 1930s for his distinction as a creative writer of Hausa expression. The unprecedented growth of the Hausa literary tradition is linked to the Arabic-Fulani-Hausa culture occasioned by the existence of an Arab-Islamic epistemology which predates the advent of European colonialism in the demography that is today called Nigeria. In other words, the region had an already established knowledge system which accounted for its civilization as is manifest in its people’s high sense and fixation with their culture, which has survived several centuries to this day. A people that were already advanced and in touch with other external realities would have proven a hard nut to crack as it were, for the British colonialist

BY PAUL LIAM This analysis is primarily concerned with the utilization of the epistolary element as an instrument of postcolonial discourse by Sarah Ladipo Manyika in In Depence, and is based on the special edition of the novel published by Cassava Republic Press in 2016. This writer asserts that the novel in itself is not an Epistolary, but it deploys the epistolary technique in x-raying postcolonial themes with a special reflection on the realities that confronts post independent nations, located within the era of military rule in Nigeria. Besides the epistolary technique, the novel uses the third person point of view narrative technique in telling a story that is both didactic yet refreshingly creative. There are twelve epistolary exchanges in the novel, most them being the exchanges between Tayo and Vanessa, the central characters around whom the plot revolves.   Manyika was raised in Nigeria, has lived in Kenya, France and England. She holds a Ph.D. from the Univer

Writers approach the writing process differently. What works for Writer A might not work for Writer B, therefore, it is important for the aspiring writer to understand that what defines a writer is style, what is often referred to as the writer’s voice. However, style in writing is influenced by certain factors such as genre or subgenre preferences and the kind of books a writer reads. Those who love crime fiction are certainly going to be better at writing crime fiction, those who read poetry are already setting themselves up to becoming poets and those who love to read essays about criticism are already defining their paths of becoming critics and book reviewers albeit subconsciously. What the beginning writer needs to do primarily is to know which of the genre he or she wants to be known for, this identification creates a sense of focus and direction in the writer who then sets about learning the rudiments of the selected genre. Of course, after attaining some level of profi

Concluding part. Our meeting at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport was dramatic, and the ambience so genuine that an onlooker would think we had known each other all our lives. He clearly disarmed me with his affectionate conviviality of a cultured fellow. I had been trying to text him that I was outside waiting for him when I saw a six footer (not sure about his exact height) hurrying towards me with a wild smile and open arms spread in embrace. Of course, this act of familiarity took me off guard, it was after a long while that I realized it had been his own way of creating a psychological balance between us. He was a smart guy, I figured out independently. Being a student of Counselling Psychology, I understood where he was coming from and his predisposition to friendliness, he was a stranger and I was to be his   guide, so by disarming me at our first meeting, he would have created a cordial ground for our soon to become brotherly relationship. I reckoned this guy