April 1, 2010

Poetry and Social Tensions

I have always noticed in times of conflict and social turbulence that poetry tends to mushroom from all corners of poets' hearts and minds. In wars, everyone becomes a poet. In times of social tensions like exile and forced emigration, poetry tends to thrive. Are we then to think that poetry nourishes itself on the miseries of society? Perhaps we should look at it differently. Maybe the heartaches of society are the envelopes that carry in them the most beautiful parts of the human soul.

March 15, 2010

Women in My Literature

Many people ask me why as a man I have all my main characters as women. My answer is: I was for nine months part of the body of a woman. And when I portray women characters, it is an intense learning experience. I cannot take anything for granted. I have to search for the genuine voice of a woman. It is an exciting and enriching experience for me as a writer when I discover that voice of a woman in its freshness and originality. It is also a humbling creative experience to search for 'the other' out there.

February 15, 2010

Literature and History

Whenever I arrive in a new village, a new town, a new place, I look for the best literary work born there. I learn a lot about the history of the place from the literary work which came from it. History books always tell us about heroes, but novels and poems tell us about the struggles and visions of ordinary people in ordinary circumstances. For me, that is true history. When I first came to the United States in 1994, I bought my first copy of Ralph Ellison's 'Invisible Man' and it taught me about the history of African Americans.

I suggest you choose a novel by an African-American writer, for this Black History month and see how much you can learn from the voices which come out in that novel. Or dialogue with me about whether literature is history or history is literature.

February 1, 2010

African Leaders without Vision

In my travels around the world, the questions I typically get from colleagues and students about Africa are about corruption, dictatorship, natural disasters, disease and mismanagement of public affairs. Those questions arise partly from bad media coverage and partly from bad African leadership.

We have to stop being romantic about Africa and face reality. The fact is that most African leaders have no vision of their countries except the vision of their own power.

Power in African politics has been used to amass wealth. African leaders think their countries are their own personal property so within a few months of assuming leadership all the national resources become their own private property.

The former president of Zambia, Fredrik Chiluba, had over 4,000 pairs of special shoes bought from all the best shoe shops in Europe. It is rumored that Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has over five thousand suits in his wardrobe! Even the wives of African presidents go on wild shopping sprees all over the world. And the country depends on donor agencies for food!

When Africa is portrayed as 'poor' I get disgusted. Africa is rich with all the natural and human resources imaginable. The poverty of Africa is a poverty of leadership.

Over 90 percent of aid given to Africa soon returns to the original countries as personal money for African leaders. In my research and experience, no African leader steals African money and banks it in an African bank. They put it in European and American banks instead! What’s worse is that European and American banks allow that as good business.

In all of this, we have to think about how Africa can ever develop its resources when development aid and human resources are so easily smuggled out of the continent. We have to think critically about the continent without being too romantic. African leaders have come to think that they are the nation, the 'one leader’ of their respective African country. It is through this mentality that many African countries suffer. Rulers that do nothing for the citizens they are sworn to protect.

It is the lack of a national vision that has destroyed African economies and societies, not the lack of wealth. Africa is rich with resources and hard-working people but the greed for power and personal wealth is our biggest problem.