(http://www.saharareporters.com/sites/default/files/page_images/interviews/2011/Niyi_Lectures.jpg?1294753893)
Distinguished Nigerian poet Niyi Osundare lectures at the University of New Orleans in America. He suffered painful losses following the devastating Hurricane Katrina in the US in 2005, but has risen like a phoenix from the ashes. Osundare, who is set to publish the first in a planned series of books on the experience, speaks with Ademola Adesola
What is your assessment of the state of Literature in our country today?
(Laughs)I could almost guess that we were going to begin from there! What we have is a platter of contradictions. On the one hand we have a lot of enthusiasm, especially from the younger writers or those coming to the literary scene for the first time. Quite a lot of them and that itself is commendable. Books are being published, especially those on poetry. And I think the stakes are disproportionately in favour of poetry. The way things are at the moment it appears that for every five books of poetry you publish, you probably get a book of prose. And for every 10 books of poetry published, there is one book of drama. That is not healthy enough. I have been wondering why poetry is so popular, although publishers often say that poetry doesn't sell. Again, that is part of the contradiction of the Nigerian literary situation. Poetry is the most practised genre in this country today. But books of poetry don't sell or are not made to sell. How do we resolve that contradiction? I think the problem is that poetry is being published but it is not being promoted. I have so many publishers and I tell them this all the time. It is not enough to publish books of poetry; you also have to promote them. Last year, between January and May, I received about 15 requests from Nigeria. Students in different Nigerian universities were asking me to help them out because they were working on my poems and they did not know how and Where to obtain the books. The terrible irony again, I was in the US, these students were in Nigeria, these books were published in Nigeria, and the students were writing to me across the ocean asking me to help them out. I had to tell them to go to Heinemann, Spectrum, Evans, University Press PLC, Kraft Books, Agbo Areo, etc. And I would described where these publishers were located. On one or two occasions I had to personally contact staff of the publishing houses here in Ibadan with requests passed over to and through me in the US. Nothing could be more eloquent about the situation of book distribution and promotion in the country. Most Nigerian publishers believe that if they publish the books, the best place for the books to stay is their warehouse.
And if you want to read you have to come there to buy the books, no matter where you are in the country. Many of the established publishers have depots in different parts of the country, but these have done little to make books available to readers nationwide.
Shortly before the recent convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), I had to send a kind of advice to one or two of my publishers; 'before heading for the convention, please get a catalogue of the books you have published and then do a flier containing information about the titles and short descriptions of your forthcoming titles. With the catalogue, the reading public will have an idea of what books you have already published. With the fliers of books in press, it will have an idea about what books to expect. And that in a way will generate an appetite for the books you are going to publish.' This is what happens almost automatically and almost instinctively abroad. I think the Nigerian publishers' mentality has been conditioned by text-book publishing, particularly textbooks published for primary and higher schools. You don't need to promote those books because there is already a captive readership for them. In fact, book sellers and book dealers often come to the publishers for supplies. There is something wrong in that. If you don't promote the books there is no way those of us who write for the tertiary levels will be able to sell or reach the public. What I'm saying is, you don't promote all books, and you don't disseminate all books the same way. Some books by their very nature do promote themselves, but for the majority, a consistent and reasonable advertisement is necessary. But in saying all this, I'm not oblivious of the gigantic challenges confronting Nigerian publishers and the effort many of them have been making.
But a lot more needs to be done. One of my publishers brought about five books to me a couple of days ago. Just before I left in August he also visited and he gave me about 12 books. Clearly, 98% of the books he gave to me are poetry. You would say 'oh yes, that should make you happy.' Yes, it does make me happy in a way because poetry is the genre that I practise, and it appears to be flourishing. But the unevenness in the quality of these books also makes me cringe. Some of the poems are good, no doubt. But many, many others 'need work', as they say in the US. These books are dazzlingly and attractively produced, but many of them suffer from errors of the rendering. This leads me to another aspect of the literary situation in Nigeria, self-publishing. A lot of self-publishing is going on in the country.
'No university In Nigeria Is Standard'-Prof. Niyi Osundare (http://www.saharareporters.com/interview/%E2%80%98no-university-nigeria-standard%E2%80%99-prof-niyi-osundare)