Ben Okri Interview: Video

Okri talks of his novel In Arcadia in a one-minute interview. It is free from Google and can be downloaded. I had difficulty playing it in WMP, but codecs are available to WMP11 that allow it to play correctly. However, beware of bundled codecs as they sometimes contain viruses. An alternative solution is to download the DivX Player, which is free.

This interview is really brief but demonstrates Okri’s genius as a writer. I’m searching for a rumored audio-only reading from his novel The Famished Road, which is supposed to be at the Lannan Foundation site, but it’s either been removed or I just can’t find it.

The African Well Fund

Another socially conscious post. One thing a good number of people don’t seem to be aware of are the environmental problems the continent faces, one of these being water shortage (or if not shortage, contamination).

The African Well Fund focuses its energies on Sub-Saharan Africa, where this problem is at its worst. Please follow the above link and read some of the information. The site also contains links to other information resources on this problem.

Something ironic is that water shortages are not strictly confined to Africa, or even desert regions, but here in the US we’ve experienced them as well, and our reactions oftentimes, if not well thought out, lead to further environmental damage. California is a good example of this, and we’re seeing the effects of water shortages in Las Vegas.

URHOBO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Back to African Writers. I read Ben Okri for the first time a few years back in an international fiction anthology. Since the start of this course I’ve picked up a couple of his other works and found them just as satisfying as that first story I read.

Here, at the Urhobo Historical Society, one can find a good deal of information on Ben Okri, including a fantastic 1992 interview as well as links to other sites concerned with his fiction.

He is considered a top notch fiction writer, and I think he rivals, if not surpasses Achebe’s skill with language.

Genocide Intervention Network

Though it seems almost moot to place something in this blog concerning the most publicized social problem on the continent at this time, it is worthy in the sense that nothing is being done about it, and thus there is justification for more publicity.

If we are a nation that seeks to free people from tyranny and atrocity without conditions (oil), then we must, by necessity, take the genocide in Darfur seriously.

At the Genocide Intervention Network there is information available to help you (hopefully another student and not just the instructor) take action at a civilian level.

I hope you visit this site and others concerning this matter, and I hope it moves you to action.

The Mysterious Fate of the Library at Alexandria

An easy rebuttal to Hegel is to consider the Library at Alexandria, which predates Hegel’s thinking by a millennium.

Some have postulated that had it not been destroyed by the Romans, man might have landed on the moon five hundred years earlier than we did. Of course this is speculation, but here is a nifty little site examining the destruction of the Library.

Burnt libraries are like dead children to me.

A Change for a Change

Here is a link to a lecture given by the philosopher and social activist Cornel West. Nothing to do with fiction, but Dr. West is one of my favorite human beings. In this speech at the Lannan Foundation, he talks about social justice around the world, and the US role in social justice. If we take some of his talking points and apply them to current situations in some parts of Africa, we might be able to call ourselves a better country for doing so.

You'll need RealPlayer.

http://www.lannan.org/lf/cf/detail/2005-prize-for-cultural-freedom/

Things Fall Apart, Chapter 7: Okonkwo’s Weakness and the slaughter of Ikemefuna

This blog post is a sort of synthesis of what we’ve covered in the last couple weeks, taking Achebe’s novel and using it to counter the arguments of Hegel and offset the narrative approach of Conrad. While we read "Things Fall Apart" I might post other interesting factoids related to it as well.

This post ought to help readers view the text with a more acute eye and it gives further examples of Barthes’ “codes” which I mentioned in an earlier discussion post in class. The stuff with Barthes has nothing to do with the course, and there are other less complex ways to approach a work of literature, but this example will serve just fine to negate Hegel’s and Conrad’s respective views of Africa.

I want to draw your attention to pages 57 and 61 in the 1994 Anchor edition of "Things Fall Apart". This is chapter seven, when Okonkwo learns that Ikemefuna is to be killed, and that Okonkwo is not to have a hand in it. A weak reading will view the incident as Conrad would have, or Hegel, as something primitive and inhuman, but if we use Barthes’ five codes to tear apart two paragraphs, we can see that Hegel and Conrad were astoundingly wrong about Africans and that Achebe's narrative validates African culture as something universal to humanity.

First, a bit on Barthes’ five codes. I’ve mentioned the “cultural code” which plays off our prejudices outside the text, and the “semic code” which is connotative, but there are three others. First, the “proairetic code,” which signifies action, or serves as the indication of action. Second, the “hermeneutic code,” which poses questions or enigmas that heighten suspense. And finally, a close relative to the semic code, connotative of theme on a larger scale, the “symbolic code.” The codes will be denoted as follows: Proairetic—P; Hermeneutic—H; Cultural—C; Semic—SE; Symbolic—SY.

I’ll begin by taking apart the second full paragraph on page 57. Note the signifiers of Barthes’ code in parentheses.

“Yes, Umuofia has decided to kill him (C). The Oracle of the Hills and Caves has pronounced it (P) (C). They will take him outside Umuofia as is the custom (H), and kill him there (P). But I want you to have nothing to do with it (H). He calls you his father (SE).”

The first line grabs our attention and evokes in us an ethnocentric view of the narrative in line with Conrad’s description of Africa as a primordial place. The second line signifies a course of action that is pending, but also reinforces our ethnocentric view of Africa as primitive in the sense that they are obeying some sort of pagan god’s wishes. Another correlation can be drawn here to Greek tragedies such as the Theban Plays due to this instance of an oracle’s pronouncement. The third line provides for a bit of suspense as we don’t know what the custom is, but it also negates our prior ethnocentric view, and that of Hegel’s as well, in that it explicitly states there is a "custom." If a people are so primitive and outside history that they are not even considered human, then they must be incapable of formulating any sort of custom. In this instance Hegel is shown to be wrong. The fourth line again signifies suspense because we wonder, given the nature of Okonkwo’s character, whether he will actually play a role in the killing. And the fifth line, the instance of the semic code, alludes to familial relationships that are in no way primitive. Fatherhood is a universal theme.

Moving forward to page 61:

“As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his machete (H), Okonkwo looked away (SY). He heard the blow (P). The pot fell and broke in the sand (H). He heard Ikemefuna cry, ‘My father, they have killed me!’ as he ran towards him (SE). Dazed with fear (SY) (H), Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down (P). He was afraid of being thought weak (SY).”

The first line contains a reference to suspense, as well as a symbolic gesture made by Okonkwo. Oknokwo’s act of looking away is important in the sense that it signifies a sort of paternal bond, and an unwillingness to watch the murder of this boy he has taken in as a son. If the culture were completely devoid of human emotion there’d be no such action. The second line is a statement of action. The third a statement of suspense as we are not given any further information as to whether or not this blow was fatal, only that the “pot fell and broke in the sand.” The fourth line is representative of the semic code because it again connotes the relationship between father and son. The fifth line is symbolic in nature because Okonkwo is “dazed with fear,” as well as suspenseful because we can’t predict his action. We could assume on the one hand that he will kill Ikemefuna given the nature of his character as presented to us thus far. But we could be equally justified in assuming that Okonkwo will protect the boy given the affectionate bond he has developed with him, but the statement of action seals Ikemefuna’s fate. The last line is symbolic to the overall theme because it represents a poor choice, or a tragic character flaw in Okonkwo that caused him to act in such a way. This does not signify anything primitive in the nature of the culture, but rather props it up as one full of human complexity, and thus negates the narrative argument of Conrad, and the philosophical arguments of Hegel.

Such close reading is essential in order to actively engage the text and understand the context. Keep in mind, however, that there are multiple ways in which to analyze this narrative, not just from a post-structuralist standpoint.

At any rate, Achebe validates the culture as human.

Conrad's Weapon and the Myth of Savage Africa

Anything you read in a work of fiction has a code. See Barthes' critique of “Sarassine" and his five "codes" that underlie the structure of all fiction (supposedly).

According to Barthes' codes there are two of interest in this situation: The cultural code, which goes out beyond the text and plays off readers' prejudices. And then the semic code, which is connotative.

The excerpt from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness that was given to us in our Myth of Savage Africa assignment exemplifies these two supposed codes as they play off myths taken as fact, and connote something about a culture that is false but which the reader will internalize as a truth.

But arguing an author's intention becomes tricky. Most contemporary writers shy away from any subjective standpoint on an issue and take up a more objective approach to their writing to avoid these codes, though they are inherently unavoidable if Barthes is right.

We do not see omniscient narrators in contemporary fiction anymore, and if so, rarely, and if so, poorly rendered.

Conrad's treatment of Africa not only is a clear smack at the peoples of the continent, but also has far-reaching implications into twentieth century literature and the means by which writers work.

Here are some examples of the cultural and semic codes in the excerpt:

"...a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of clapping hands, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling..." Cultural Code. Our prejudices outside the text are piqued subconsciously.

"...under the droop of heavy foliage." Semic code. "droop" signifiying something not on the rise but in decline, and "heavy foliage" connoting a primordial landscape that has not been conquered by man.

Conrad's treatment of Africa is far more dangerous than Hegel's because with Hegel it’s explicit, whereas with Conrad it’s tucked into a narrative and imbibed subconsciously. To read Hegel one must read actively, but to read Conrad one just sits back and lets the image-bombs drop, completely unaware of their repercussions internally.

Some links of interest regarding Hegel's work and Conrad's novel, as well as the critic Roland Barthes' post-structuralist theory can be found here, here, and here, respectively.

Chinua Achebe's "A Man of the People"

Though it’s not a required text for this course, nor his most famous work, Chinua Achebe’s 1966 novel "A Man of the People" might be helpful to some in understanding Western influence on contemporary Africa, and in particular, Nigeria.

The novel is short (150 pages) and recounts the rise and fall of Chief the Honourable M.A.Nanga, and the regime he helped create. It is also the story of Odili, the narrator who went from skeptic, to supporter, to eventual challenger of Chief Nanga’s authority,and the authority of the government for that matter. The narrative emotion fluctuates back and forth between an acceptance of Western influence and a condemnation of it. As a consequence of western plundering a new Communist influence emerges (this is late 1960s Africa) in the country but the members of the new leftist party, including Odili, refuse to call themselves Communists for fear of being ostracized politically.

One can read this novel in two or three sittings, the only real challenges within the narrative coming every so often when the characters switch between English and Pidgin. If anyone reads this novel I would recommend they slow down and take the Pidgin carefully, as it illustrates important thematic points and is clearly deployed by Achebe at strategic intervals. The difficulty inherent in reading it can be eased by simply paying attention to the actions the characters are taking, and inferring from there.

I’m including a pair of links for anyone that’s interested (though I wouldn’t be surprised at a lack of interest over something not required for the course). The first is a short biography on Achebe including information on some of his work, including "Things Fall Apart" (which is a required text). It can be found here. And another link that will provide a summary, analysis, and overview of the novel for those who don’t have the patience to actually read can be found here. And even if you do have the patience it might be helpful to look at this in conjunction with the reading.

Introduction, or Why There Are The Things There Are Here...

I’m good with literature and so I’ve decided that my first actual post on this site will take up that subject. I’d anticipate more posts on the fiction of African writers on this site, and hopefully it will broaden the scope of those few readers out there, or better yet, encourage non-readers to start. But I won’t devote the blog entirely to fiction of course, as this whole thing is graded in the end on comprehensiveness. But I will say that my strength is in this field and people should feel free to discuss the topic, or ask questions. Even if they’re stupid questions, I guess.