Nigeria Seeks Revival Of Golden Age Of African Writers

Yemisi Izuora

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has

called on the new Secretary General of the Pan-African Writers’

Association (PAWA), Dr. Wale Okediran, to strive to revive the golden

age of African writers, who actively worked for the unity, development

and decolonization of Africa.

The Minister, who made the call when he received Dr. Okediran on a

courtesy visit to his office on Friday, said the main challenge that

confronted African writers in the pre-decolonization era was the

struggle for political independence.

He, however, said today’s crop of African writers have to contend with

economic challenges and the inculcation, in the youth, of pride in

African culture.

“I will urge Dr. Okediran to do his best in his new position to revive

that golden age of African writers, that age where African writers

collaborated with our politicians to attain independence. The

challenge before our writers today is not about political independence

but it is about how we take Africa out of the morass of despair and

how we take Africa out of the economic challenges we are facing

”It is about how we instill in our young ones pride in their culture,

pride in their tradition and how we use technology to promote our rich

culture and traditions,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

The Minister, who paid tribute to African literary giants such as

Chinua Achebe, Ayi Kwei Armah and Ngugi Wa Thiang’o, said they did not

only serve as role models but were also beacons of hope for the

continent.

He therefore urged the Secretary General of PAWA to encourage African

writers to continue to tell the African story in order to guard

against distortion of facts by foreign writers.

“I want to appeal to Dr. Okediran to please use his exalted office to

ensure that African writers continue to tell our stories in the best

African tradition, because if they don’t do it, others will do it in a

manner that will not be pleasant to us,” Alhaji Mohammed said

He said African culture and traditions provide enough materials for

any writer to explore and advised PAWA to work with the private sector

to ensure that some of the books written by African authors are

adapted into films in order to reach out to the young population.

In his remarks, Dr. Okediran said the African Union had since

recognized the power of literature and it’s using it effectively to

promote unity on the continent.

He said PAWA recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with some

international organizations to leverage literature for the promotion

of African cultures.

Dr. Okediran appealed to the Federal Government to support the

Accra-based PAWA through the payment of yearly subvention as approved

by the African Union.