Protest Writing is narrowly defined to mean writing that takes a direct radical position on social issues, the texts selected for this discussion embrace work that conducts an objective examination of social issues.
Post-independence writing in Africa is largely characterised by writing that sought to examine the African condition and covered themes including slavery, negritude, colonialism, apartheid and the liberation struggle and the place of the African in that time as in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God. Since the first flurry of such writing in the 1960s and 1970s, much of that work has petered out due, ironically to the challenges of nationhood the newly independent countries faced – corruption, a corruption of ideologies or the caught in the cross hairs of the Cold War.
It appears a new form of protest writing is emerging – one that provides a clinical post-mortem of colonization and its role in African history as in Olasupo Shasore’s Possessed or provides a commentary on the state of African governance as in Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain.
This panel will review The Beautyful Ones Are not Yet Born (Ayi Kwei Armah), Arrow of God (Chinua Achebe), Arrows of Rain (Okey Ndibe) and Possessed (Olasupo Shasore, SAN).
Event: AUTHORS’ CONVENTION
Theme: Writing Protest Literature
Reviewing, discussing and interrogating texts dealing with the theme
(Followed by a ‘Drinks Reception’)
Date: Saturday November 14, 2015
Time: 6pm
Venue: Esther’s Revenge lounge, Freedom Park, Lagos (Sponsored Panel by Quramo Publishing Ltd)
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