Making Africa
Africa as a story
Lecture by Chigozie Obioma
Debate
Following the success of his first novel, young Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma shares his vision on the reality of his country and the construction of Africa as a story.
In his first novel, Chigozie Obioma tells the story of four brothers whose fates are poisoned by a madman’s curse. With the famously stolen Nigerian elections of 1993 as his backdrop, the author weaves a parable of the country’s persistent troubles, tackling topics like colonization, corruption and fratricide with subtlety and depth. How was English rule like a vagrant’s prophecy? Does the hex wield its own power? Or is that power granted by those who believe in it?
Following his lecture, the author will speak with the journalist Ruth Fernandez, from the African art and culture magazine Wiriko.org.
Chigozie Obioma is a Nigerian writer and assistant profesor of literature and creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The New York Times has described him as “the heir to Chinua Achebe”. His latest novel, The Fishermen was published in April 2015 by Little, Brown and Company and was nominated for the Man Booker Prize 2015.
Presenters: Ruth Fernández
Participants: Chigozie Obioma
This activity is part of Making Africa, Africa as a story
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Chigozie Obioma
Africa as a story
Chigozie Obioma, author and assistant professor of literature and creative writing at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, explains that his novel aims to “build a portrait of Nigeria at a very seminal moment in its history (the annulled presidential elections of 1993), and by so doing deconstruct and illuminate the ideological potholes that still impede the nation’s progress even today.”
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