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Review: Spheres Public and Private: Western Genres in African Literature, Gordon Collier, ed. (Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, 2011) $187.00. 710 pp. Ernest Cole Hope College The editor of Spheres Public and Private, Gordon Collier, stated quite frankly that the title of the collection is “a supererogatory mask or placeholder” and contends that the “subtitle is tendentious and riskily, Eurocentric; open on all sides to combative deconstruction” (ix). No statement would be more appropriate. For a collection in which the essays engage a host of topics, and articulate the authors’ points of view from different and multiple perspectives, and examines themes and styles in the context of divergent cultures; it is evident that the title Spheres Public and Private does little if anything to capture and reflect the multiplicity of themes analyzed and the stylistic forms and structures within which they are examined. Indeed, divided into six sections – overviews, poetry, fiction, theater, creative writing, and reviews- the thirty-four essays that make up this Collection reveal not only the authors’ multifaceted approach to literary criticism but also their attention to detail, form and substance that illustrate the breath of panoramic of the literature of the continent as a whole and the intensity of the gaze with which they are explored. The “Overviews” section is arresting in the quality of the essays and in the perspicacity of the authors’ argument. In general, the essays engage issues of political history and the socio-political structures within which history is depicted. They illustrate the need to invent or re-invent an African aesthetics that is distinctly African and one that depict the African experience. Such a discourse should engage the socio-political concerns of the continent and promote traditionally content-oriented discussions within literary domains as narratology, poetry, fiction, and the theater. Wumi Raji’s paper “Imagined Transformation: Notes on Post colonialism of African Literature” sets the ball in motion. He discusses the relevance of postcolonial criticism to African literature, raises issues with some of the dominant theories, and negotiates a path through the more formidable ones to fashion an alternative for African literary discourse. He argues for the invention of a discursive practice that interrogates contemporary theories of postcolonial criticism of African literature and suggests an adoption of an aesthetics or praxis 141

that is distinctly African in its engagement of and relevance to the African experience. In his evaluation of postcolonial theory and its significance for literary criticism in African literature, Raji summarizes his contention as follows: Now let me summarize the critical positions so far articulated. First, there is the matter of nomenclature, with two main trouble-spots. One, that the prefix ‘post’ in ‘postcolonial’ is endowed with a baffling semanticity, as it applies to works published even during the period of colonialism; and, two, that the term itself encourages a false sense of security, as again the prefix ‘post’ relegates colonialism to the past, consequently holding out the danger of preventing collective resistance to continuing forms of colonial oppression. (11)

Raji’s position on postcolonial theory is instructive for it unveils the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in the term itself and in the application of the theory to African literature. In evaluating the problematics of the theory, Raji summarizes his argument in three brief points: first, in the way the term is articulated, for it serves only to promote the assumed cultural superiority of Europe especially as it stresses that the colonial had no voice prior to the arrival of the English language; second, that the theory covers too wide a geographical area; and third, that it ignores specific contexts and celebrates the notions of hybridity and syncretism. Further, he contends that “postcolonial theory also dismisses any attempt at recuperating aspects of original inheritance as a program of reversion to pre-colonial purity” (11). However, Raji’s analysis is significant not only for its unveiling of the contradictions but in its ability to create and work with new possibilities. He points out that while there is no denying the ambiguities in postcolonial theory the real issue is “that it is possible to turn the other side of the coin by arguing that no matter the intention of the namer, the term ‘postcolonial’ can be interpreted as anticipating a truly liberated future for citizens of formerly colonized countries” (11). It is in this gesture of possibilities that the brilliance and innovation of Raji’s analysis lies. From this analysis, he concludes that “like all theories, the discourse of post-colonialism is characterized by a profound crisis of legitimacy and by great antinomies” (13). In this regard, he emphasizes the effectiveness of a discourse of colonialism where writers and theorists would “insist on the inscription of the past as part of the progressive, even radical, movements of modernity’ (14). Raji 142

argues in favor of theorists in this group who “take pain to avoid cultural fixity and also to ensure that historical specificity does not congeal into absolutism” (14). He agrees with them that in emphasizing “the necessity for the constitution of different networks of cooperation in the process of collective resistance against hegemonic authority, even as they remain sensitive to whatever insights can be garnered from the best of Western discourse of modernity,” these writers could be foregrounding the possibilities of African modernity and its investment into the peoples of the different nation-states that constitute the African continent. Against this theorization ofmpost colonialism, Raji discusses Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Ngugi Wa Mirii’s I Will Marry When I Want. “Overviews” is also significant for the essays on literature and historical determinism and in this regard Sola Afolayan‘s piece “African Literature: A Showcase for Africa’s Leadership Problems” is quite profound. Afoloyan engages the relationship between history and literature, in essence, how history shapes literature, and in particular, how the political context of colonialism affect the creativity of African writers and determine the content and criticism of their writings. Drawing from Hippolyte Taine’s view of historical determinism in literary criticism, Afolayan eschews the crucial significance of history in shaping a writer’s point of view and the thematization of his work. He argues that because “an author’s experience is germane to the metamorphosis of his creativity, it is logical to assume that an author’s experience shapes his writing” (27). Thus, the historical trajectory of the changing trends in African political systems is reflected in the preoccupation of writers at each stage or phase of history. Since African literature is a mirror of changing political systems, he affirms that “African literary practitioners [are] the true cinematographers who bring into the limelight the disreputable acts of African leaders” (27). Using Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah, Afolayan details the corruption, ineptitude, and inadequacies in the Nigerian political system. At the same time, he draws from Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants and The Beautification of Area Boys to attack African dictatorship, totalitarianism and their attendant themes of violence, instability, human rights violation and abuses, poverty, crime and social and economic exploitation. Nelson Fashina’s essay “Lit-Orature Development, World Peace, and the Challenges of Literary Theory/ Criticism” highlights the “inevitability of 143

ambiguities and self-contradiction” in scholarship by exposing the “semantic ambiguity” of his topic and its suggestion of “an impasse between written and oral literature” (41). Emphasizing the values in oral literature and in reaction to theories asmpost colonialism that devalues and inferiorizes its significance, he argues for a view of orature that: seeks to explore the symbiotic relations of oral to written literature with a view to establishing inter-literary harmony of discourse as a way of initiating and expanding on the uses of indigenous verbal and literary values for the production of indigenous critical theory and the development of African society and, ultimately, to suggest a humanistic approach to world peace and development. (43) Fashina uses a variety of critical paradigms to explore the development of oral literature as the “ontological span of human and societal history” (44). He cites, among others, Oral-Written Text Permutational Analysis and the Drum and Dance as Icon Signification to point out the uniqueness of literature whereby textual approaches “do not suspend our traditional codes of reasoning and of problem-solving as resident in our Ifa corpus values, incantatory verses, hunters’ dirges, funerals, masquerades and harvest festivals, agro-allied cultures, commerce, and other ritualistic observances” (55). Arinpe Aadejumo’s piece “Thematization and Perspectivization of Conflict in Selected Yoruba Literary Genres” completes the section on “Overviews” and extends the conversation on oral literature and approaches to its study. His paper illustrates his attempt at exploration and management of conflict using contentanalysis approach to the study of literature and satirical representation of conflict as innovative strategy for management through examination of indigenous genres in selected Yoruba literary genres. The “Poetry” section of Spheres Public and Private constitutes a total of six essays. Of these four focuses on West African poetry. There are three essays on Nigerian poetry including a study of poets like Wole Soyinka and Tanure Ojaide as well as recent voices as Olu Oguibe and Ogaga Ifowodo and one on Ghanaian poetry that examines the influence of Hinduism on Ghanaian spirituality and revivalism. The other two essays by Reuben Chirambo and Kenneth Usongo focus on East African poetry and explore respectively the representation of Banda’s Malawian dictatorship in the prison poetry of Jack Mapanje and the 144

relationship between culture and identity in Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino. Kenneth Usongo’s essay “Cultural Identity and Literature: A Study of Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino” stands out among the others in this section of the Collection. In it, Usongo argues that the poem encouraged the idea of independence, political and literary, from Europe. He maintains that by virtue of the poems style and mode of construction, the author attempts to break free from the literary assumptions of Western writing and criticism, and challenges its parallels in non-Western literature. Like Sola Afolayan, Usongo stresses the importance of history in shaping identity and literature and asserts that oral poetry must demonstrate an “awareness of the history and culture behind its creation” (179). Accordingly, he maintains that “Song of Lawino is written against the backdrop of Acholi history, language, and cultural practices. Lawino comes down to us as an advocate of African cultural values, insisting that these need not emulate Europe’s standards in order to be recognized” (179). In this essay, Usongo argues for African literary freedom from European standards of writing, emphasizes the linguistic and cultural values of a people, redefines Western perspectives of indigenous culture not as binary opposition to Western values but as advocate for its accommodation of difference, and defends African cultural identity against Western cultural hegemony. In the creation of Lawino, Usongo makes the case that p’Bitek is affirming that African literature “is a literature in its own right, and ought to be appreciated by taking into consideration African thought, sociology, and aesthetics” (181). He continued that: “After all, art is not created in a vacuum; it is not simply the creation of an individual, but that individual is fixed in time and space, responding to a community of which he constitutes an important element” (181). Usongo points out that a particularly important aspect of Song of Lawino is its use of language. At a point where Western critics were skeptical of the capacity of indigenous languages to function as medium of literary expression by fully capturing and articulating the content of the literature of the continent, p’Bitek’s initial writing of the poem in Acholi dismisses this claim to skepticism and re-affirms indigenous languages as vehicles of literary and cultural expression. Hence, quoting Ofuani in “The Traditional and Modern Influences in Okot p’Bitek’s Poetry,” Usongo describes p’Bitek’s language in Song of Lawino as “characterized by the use of rhetorical devices, proverbs, direct translations, metaphor, understatement, and local words” (186). He goes on to say: “The traditional artist, like p’Bitek, speaks for his community, in that his imagery, 145

theme, symbolism, and forms are drawn from an accessible communal pool” (186). Of the six sections in this collection, “Fiction” has the highest number of essays. A total of fourteen essays, they examine a range of themes: the problem of perspective in the criticism of African literature as exemplified by Odebunmi and Olaniyan’s “Perspectivization in Fiction: A Deictic Study of Wole Soyinka’s Ake,” Tracey Watts’ “The Problems of Perspective in Mongo Beti’s The Poor Christ of Bomba;” the relationship between the public and the private as contested discourse and competing narratives in Olaoluwa’s “Contentious Absolutism: The Public Sphere and the Imperative of Circumvention in Ngugi’s Wizard of the Crow,” Ayo Kehinde’s “Rulers Against Writers, Writers Against Rulers: The Failed Promise of the Public Sphere in Postcolonial Nigerian Fiction;” stylistic elements in African literary aesthetics as the carnivalesque as discursive practice of engagement in “Subversion and the Carnivalesque: Images of Resistance in Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow,” the problematic of nomenclature in Nsiah and Marfo’s “What’s in a Title? A Reading of Amma Darko’s The Housemaid” and the exploration of themes as Vetinde’s “Sex, Power, and Community in Ousmane Sembene’s Vehi-Ciosane” and the ideology of solidarity in Masood Raja’s “Ousmane Sembene’s God’s Bits of Wood: The Anatomy of a Strike and the Ideologeme of Solidarity.” Since the problem of perspective is crucial to this section, I would take some time to make brief comments on Watts’ essay on Beti’s novel that highlights the ambivalence of perspectives in understanding and interpreting cultural encounters. In his essay, Watts argue that “Beti’s characters are to varying degrees complicit in and critical of the colonial project, and their own internal contradictions and ambiguities demonstrate the complex dynamics and power relations shaping individual roles and even identities of those involved in the system” (377). In exploring this position, Watts focuses on Beti’s use of irony and its implication for plot construction, character analysis, and plot interpretation. Commenting on the novel as an ironic and incisive critique of cultural politics, Watts points out the significance of foregrounding the Catholic mission at Bomba as the narrative centerpiece, a structural device, in his view, that fractures a “dualism that otherwise reduce African colonial politics to a facile opposition between sides.” However, by this technique, he contends, Beti is “able to construct a space fraught with ideological implications and contradictions” that 146

opens the novel to multiple perspectives and interpretations. Thus, he affirms: “Beti’s critique is a complicated one, both nihilistic in its mapping of ultimate failure and constructive in its more localized vision of individual tendencies in agency and perspective” (378). Justifiably then, Watts assets: “A close reading of the characters shows the spaces Beti has opened up outside of simplistic antitheses” (378). Watts’ examination of the themes of indoctrination, alienation and pragmatic response to the civilizing mission in French speaking Cameroon, his analysis of the ambiguities and ambivalences of the naïve narrator, and the Rev. Father Drumont all highlight the problems of perspective in the novel. Where Watts focused on the problematic of interpretation, Ogede turns to form and style. He describes the epistolary method as demonstrating “a complex interplay of objectivity and subjectivity” that lends vigor to a text with implications for reader and audience. Ogede argues that epistolarity, in so far as it relates to the composition of the novel, prescribes a primary objective: actualization of the sympathy of the Western world. By a careful analysis of the letter form in So Long a Letter, he makes the case that the novel “interrogates age-old Senegalese practices that conflict with some aspects of Western feminist ideals and discourses, [and it] enlists the support of Western audiences in the struggle to revise gender roles, family relationships, and Senegalese communal cultural affiliations” (400). Acknowledging the significance of the epistolary method on the novel’s theme, Ogede points out the political role of the personal letter in the structure of the novel. Tracing its connections to Samuel Richardson’s invention, Ogede explains the implications of this literary mode in the construction and interpretation of Mariama Ba’s novel. Citing the benefit of “communication without losing guard, the aura of self-protectiveness or seclusion” in the personal letter, Ogede adds that “with the conventional letter, individuals can hide many layers of emotion, because words are all the cold print depends upon. The letter, a sophisticated method of self-disguise employed by educated people to minimize the risk of inadvertent self-disclosure, is thus a paradoxical mode that can serve simultaneously as both an autobiographical and a subvertedautobiographical expression” (406). This claim, he states, is especially true of the Ramatoulaye-Aissatou relationship because the letter: “A performative mode, or method of image-making…permits individuals to share common concerns and worries and to offer each other encouragement and solidarity 147

within a closed circle” (406). By a close reading of selected excerpts from the text, Ogede demonstrates the operation and significance of the epistolary method in the novel. The section “Theatre” constitutes six essays. Ranging from the dynamics of verbal performance and visual aesthetics, history, and feminist identity, to existential theater and construction of self and other; this section deals with diverse themes in varying periods and contexts. There is the issue of social identity in the challenges to female identity in a patriarchal Ghanaian society as in Aidoo’s Anowa; history and socio-political transformation in Kenya as in Ngugi and Mugo’s The Trial of Dedan Kimathi; and the interplay of the marginal and the center in South Africa in Mda’s The Bells of Amersfoort. Ademola Dasylva’s “Playing With History, Playing With Words: Ngugi and Mugo’s The Trial of Dedan Kimathi” is instructive in the development of African theater. Dasylva affirms that the play “is a reconstruction of the Kenyan national history of pre-independence Mau Mau struggle against British imperialism” (531). However, Dasylva’s essay goes on to examine “the extent to which the authors’ materialist ideology has influenced their social and artistic sensibility, and what role this, in turn, has played in their choice of form and other dramatic devices in highlighting the socioeconomic reality of colonial Kenya” (531). Here, the relationship between ideology and theatrical form is clearly established. The influence of Marxist ideology on the form of the play is demonstrated in the rest of Dasylva’s essay. The remaining two sections of the collection are titled “Creative Writing” and “Reviews.” In the former, the editor has included three works “Areas of Shade, Areas of Darkness: Poems and Stories” by Sam Mtamba, “Tribute to Salih” by Edgar Lake and “Out of the Masks – A Play” by Tracie UtohEzeajugh. The “Reviews” section comprises four pieces: Ayo Kehinde’s “A Literary Critic’s Appraisal,” Brian Smithson’s “An Overlooked Medium,” Cristina Boscolo’s “Rekindling Memory” and Izuu Nwankwo’s “An Alternative Cinema for the People.”

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