writer. researcher. editor.
In almost all of Nigeria’s history, this is the standard narrative and the most potent trigger for the japa waves. In this way, Efe, the central character in To Kill a Monkey, is an everyman, an every Nigerian. For the unemployed, or the underemployed, as in the case of Efe, what remains is often a desperate search for an exit route, one that usually leads to crime.
My immediate reaction to his win bordered on perplexity and would shift to saddening shame, only redeemed somewhat later-later when it was clear that nobody seemed to know the man, except very few whose knowledge of him could never have nudged them to think he'd ever be considered, let alone announced as winner of the Nobel. My own perplexity and shame hinged solely on a realization that I did not encounter Gurnah at all across two degrees pursuits at arguably the most important university in the discourse of African literature.
Tobi Idowu 