8th October, 2012
Onuora Nzekwu, the Nigerian writer who wrote the popular novella, Eze Goes To School, has said he wrote the children’s book because there were no books written about Nigerian children at the time.
He disclosed this yesterday at the Annual Book Party organised by the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA .
The event held at The Freedom Park on the Lagos Island as an interactive forum between the media and the nine writers on the long list of the Nigeria Prize for literature, an annual award organised by the Liquified Natural Gas.
“The reason for Eze Goes To School was because a few books had been written for Nigerians by Nigerian writers. But there was nothing about Nigerian children or for them to read. All the books that we had, when I was in school and when I came out, were books about European children. So I thought I should write something about our own children and how they live. And I wrote it based on our surroundings so that the child who is reading it will understand and appreciate that this is something that is familiar,” Nzekwu said.
Nzekwu, who has worked as a teacher, civil servant and journalist, also wrote Wand of Noble Wood, Blade Among the Boys and other fictional and non-fictional works.
Born in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Nzekwu had a part of his elementary education there. He lost his father when he was in Standard Three and relocated to the Eastern part of the country.
“My foster parents sent me back to Kafanchan to have my secondary education. I didn’t succeed to go to secondary school. I found myself in a teacher training college. I trained as a teacher,” Nzekwu, who retired from journalism as editor of Nigeria magazine, said. Nzekwu’s latest work, Troubled Dust, which is on the long list of the Nigeria Prize for Literature, is a fictionalized account of the Nigerian civil war.
Asked why he is coming out with the book 42 years after the war, he said he had written the book long before it was published, adding that the book took so long to be published because many publishers wanted to alter the content, which he wasn’t prepared to accept.
“The question is not why I wrote it now. It should be why is it being published now? I have been working on the book since the civil war ended. But one of the problems that I met is the question of getting a publisher who will accept it the way it is. I didn’t write the book now. I published it when I got a publisher who took it the way it is and did a good job for me and for himself.”
Writers, who are on the long list of the prize and were present at the parley included Lola Shoneyin, Tricia Adaobi Nwaubani, Jude Dibia and Ifeanyi Ajaegbo. They interacted with the writers and read excerpts from their works.
—Nehru Odey