“Elnathan Was One of My Boys at the Workshop” – nine words which caused quite a media circus on social networking website, Twitter a few days ago. On Monday morning, the Nigerian literary world woke up to a certain furor caused by an interview which had been published in the Boston Review.
Nigerian writer and Orange Prize winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had an interview with Aaron Bady in which she spoke about her work, race, her friendship with Binyavanga Wainaina and more. Then she spoke about the Caine Prize for African Writing and her thoughts on the awarding body.
Below is an excerpt of the interview – “The varieties of blackness” with Aaron Bady.
AB: I would love to ask you about the Caine Prize. I find it interesting that so many Nigerians are on the short list this year—that it’s four Nigerians out of five . . .
CA: Umm, why is that a problem? Watch it.
AB: Well, none of them are you!
CA: Elnathan was one of my boys in my workshop. But what’s all this over-privileging of the Caine Prize, anyway? I don’t want to talk about the Caine Prize, really. I suppose it’s a good thing, but for me it’s not the arbiter of the best fiction in Africa. It’s never been. I know that Chinelo is on the short list, too. But I haven’t even read the stories—I’m just not very interested. I don’t go the Caine Prize to look for the best in African fiction.
AB: Where do you go?
CA: I go to my mailbox, where my workshop people send me their stories. I could give you a list of ten—mostly in Nigeria—writers who I think are very good. They’re not on the Caine Prize short list.
Also, you do realize that Nigeria is the most populous country, and we have a crazy, chauvinistic nationalism. So when you say anything bad about Nigeria, we attack you, but when we all go back to Nigeria, we attack each other. That’s how it works. We’re very happy that there are four. Actually, we think all the people on the short list should be Nigerians, because we are born with the natural arrogance of the Nigerians. Of course, what’s wonderful is that there’s nothing to be arrogant about. Nigerians feel very superior to Ghana, for example, but then you go to Accra, and Accra actually works [laughs].
Who’s the other Nigerian on the short list? There’s Chinelo and Elnathan but I don’t know who the others are.
Read the full text of the interview {HERE}
Caine Prize nominee and social commentator, Elnathan John who had participated in the Adichie organized Farafina workshop took to Twitter to express his thoughts on Chimamanda’s words.
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