the Village Square  presents

village books

a showcase and critique of Nigeria-related books and authors

 

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The Hearts of Darkness
How White Writers Created the Racist Image of Africa

by Milton Allimadi
Reviewed by NEOP

 

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This book in many ways is a personal narrative of one man’s journey into the murky waters of the past. It is simple enough, yet amazingly clear. The subject of this work is obvious; it is the invention of Africa. This book details how western mediums of influence created and propagated the images of Africa which continue to resonate into the present. It reveals the shocking ignorance, the appalling laziness and the ever present paranoia that have characterized media images of Africa for the past 2 centuries.

In this work, Milton Allimadi shows that in order to justify the hypocritical underpinnings of colonialism; Africa had to be invented. It had to be invented as a land full of exotic beasts, fantastic creatures and epinormal humans. It had to be invented as the “other” by which the west could reference itself, an antithesis of sorts – a opposite who had to be “put down” in order to grant the construction of occidental identities any legitimacy

 

Read on

 

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The Nigeria - Biafra War Letters:

by Brig. Benjamin Adekunle a.k.a. The Black Scorpion

Compiled and edited by: Abiodun A. Adekunle
Reviewed by Gaga Ekeh

 

"The Black Scorpion. Divorced from its more humble beginnings as a compassionate octopus, it finds itself a dramatic appellation. African warriors are famous for emphasizing their prowess with such invigorating poetic sojourns. Not most will forget the crazy chicken who ate the entrails of his enemies after pecking them to death, leaving death and destruction in his wake... or something the like. To be sure, those who had the misfortune of answering to Wazabanga did not take his title so lightly. But his ultimate demise was not merely the image of a disheveled, disease-ridden fugitive, forever bursting into tears at the betrayal of his subjects, but instead his cautionary tale in the African book of life as the warrior who was too foolish to understand the intent and scholarship inherent in the poetry of the great white man. What then ought we to conclude about our own controversial warrior, the Black Scorpion, Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle?" Read on

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Graceland

by Chris Abani

 

Americans know very little about the rest of the world. The rest of the world, however, knows a great deal about us. In Nigeria, for example, they know about our money, our movie stars, and our music. Nigerian culture is therefore a fertile mix of indigenous forms pollinated by contact with the United States. Indeed, Lagos may be the only place besides Memphis (Tennessee, not Egypt) where it seems entirely natural for a young man, the protagonist of Chris Abani's multilayered new novel, ''GraceLand," to be named Elvis. Like many Nigerians, Elvis has had a hard life. His mother, Beatrice, died young and his father, Sunday, is ''a good man who has lost his way." Once a civic leader in the provincial town of Afikpo, Sunday has abandoned any hope he once had for himself or his nation. Now father and son have moved to the capital, where Sunday is a jobless alcoholic living off a new woman, and Elvis is a teenager on the loose. Read on

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Africa's 100 Best books of the 20th Century

A jury considered over 500 nominations from the original list of 1,521 nominations. The final list of "Africa's 100 Best Books" was launched in Accra, Ghana, on February 18, 2002.  

1. The Top 12

2. Creative/ Fiction

3. Non-fiction/academic

4. Children's

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Afro-American Folklore
by Harold Courlander

"Below is an excerpt from the book Afro-American Folklore authored by Harold Courlander. The text come from the pages of 547-548. The observations of the Negroes/Africans was written by a George W. Cable Congo Square is where the Africans/Negroes would converge to dance, sing, etc. You also have to keep in mind who wrote this. It is from a racist point of view. However, the information and observations that were offered as relevant He gives you an idea of different types of Africans He mentions the Igbos." Read on

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The Debt.. What America Owes To Blacks
by Randall Robinson

"In this powerful and controversial book, Randall Robinson Esq. a distinguished Harvard Law graduate, a political thinker, leader and pioneer in the US of the anti-Apartheid movement of the TransAfrica fame, makes very persuasive case for the restoration of the rich history that slavery and segregation severed. He draws evidence and his conclusions from his research and personal experience in America, he shows that only reclaiming African American lost pasts and proud heritage, can African Americans lay the foundation for a viable future. " Read on

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Purple Hibiscus
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

As a girl in Nigeria, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote story after story about the sort of people she read about in books: 'white people with blue eyes who ate apples and had winter.' Only as a teenager, after reading Chinua Achebe's novel 'Things Fall Apart' and realizing her people's own stories were worth telling, did she begin describing the world she knew. Yet when she graduated first in her high school class, she abandoned writing to enroll in pre-med. Doctors could always find work, and in her troubled homeland, Sunday churchgoers pray not only for peace and love, but also for U.S. visas. " Read on

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Inside Aso Rock: The Day Abacha Died
By Orji Ogbonnaya Orji:

Friday June 5, 1998, was a cool bright day. Before we left the Villa, the Press Corps was informed that the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, would be making a brief stop-over at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, enroute Morocco. And he was expected to hold a brief discussion with the General Sani Abacha. We were therefore expected to be at the airport to cover the event on Sunday, June 7. It was a topical assignment in view of Nigeria's neutral position in the Middle East conflict. Besides, the rest of us were keen to meet Mr. Arafat, the man at the centre of the storm." Read on

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