The one week event which held at the University of Port Harcourt under the theme:Writers Without Borders, had in attendance the Rivers State Governor, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Africa’s first Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, Ghanaian diplomat, notable writer and theorist, Professor Kofi Awoonor, Nigerian born and America- based writer and academic, Okey Ndibe, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Professor Don M. Baridam, Nigeria-based and fast rising writer, Kaine Agary and America-based writer, Petrina Crockford.

Negative perception

Organised under the auspices of Port Harcourt-based Rainbow Book Club in conjunction with Rivers State Government with the support of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Alliance Francaise and Reading Association of Nigeria, the festival was aimed at changing the negative perception, which the world has come to associate the state with, as a result of militant activities in the state and its environs.

In his brief message at the occasion, the governor noted that there was need for that kind of gathering which above other things, would make the world have a re-think about all that they hear about Rivers State. According to him, "This festival is meant to show the world that all the things they read in the papers are not correct.”

He added that the festival was also meant 'to challenge the students to take their studies more seriously’ noting also that it was a privilege for the students to meet one-on-one with some of the finest African writers in the persons of Soyinka and Awoonor.

“I read a lot of the books of Wole Soyinka and Kofi Awoonor, but I never met them. I am in fact meeting Awoonor for the first time today," he said, and urged the students to desist from such negative activities that mar the beautiful image of the state and instead take their studies more seriously in the hope that such a move would take the state to the expected end. Amechi said:

“The Rivers State Government has lofty ideas for the promotion of education and eradication of illiteracy in the state. Books are the tools by which such aspirations can be met. We are planning to establish bookshops in the University of Port Harcourt, where you can buy at publisher’s prizes.”

Also in his remark at the occasion, Nobel laureate, Professor Soyinka thanked the organisers of the festival for their foresight arguing that writers and writing are capable of addressing and situating better the ordeals of the Niger- Delta region.

Soyinka said he was moved to grace the occasion because he likes to appropriate any of such chance invitations to troubled zones to enlighten the youths on the negative impact of violence. He cited the case of South Africa’s 1976 Soweto riot, which claimed a lot of lives and the Liberian crisis as case studies of the capacity of such tendencies to waste a whole generation of educated and productive sector of a country’s population.

The eminent writer and social critic also reiterated his challenge against the citing of the Institute of Cultural and International Understanding in the private library of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. For him, the institute as a national archive can be located in any part of the country but definitely not in the place he described as the 'inglorious library of a failed ruler.'

In the same spirit, Mrs Koko Kalango, founder, Rainbow Book Club also explained that mental change of attitude through education was necessary in the fight of restoring Rivers State to her lost place of glory. According to her, "The decline in our educational system has affected every other facet of our lives and we are poorer for it.

We must fight to preserve our society from the high cost of illiteracy. We would have to take this fight beyond the walls of the classroom. We must wage the war from every platform: the media, the board rooms, Nollywood, the market place, the playground and our homes.

An enlightened citizenry would take us across cultural, linguistic and national borders to a place of prominence on the global stage.

The occasion also witnessed workshop and interactive sessions where students had opportunities to interact with the Nobel laureate, Kofi Awoonor, Okey Ndibe, Kaine Agary, Petrina Crockford read from their works and as well asked questions on the craft of writing.

University of Port Harcourt- based lecturers at the Department of English also presented papers that took on new perspectives on emerging writers and their writing; and especially as it had to do with the theme of the festival.

Led by renowned literary critic, Professor Charles Nnolim, a new insight was brought to the reading and understanding of Nigeria’s younger writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Half of a Yellow Sun.

In discussing the award-winning novel, the notable critic examined how the novel establishes new frontiers of women writing in the 21st Century and thereby crosses new  borders against the previously stereotyped borders occupied by women writers. Professor Chidi Ikonne also spoke on African-American experience in relation to the theme of the conference.

Write Comment
Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article. Personal verbal attacks will be deleted. Please don't use comments to plug your web site. Such material will be removed. Just ensure to *Refresh* your browser for a new security code to be displayed prior to clicking on the 'Send' button. Keep in mind that the above process only applies if you simply entered the wrong security code.
Name:
E-mail
Title:
Comment:
Code:*
	I wish to be contacted by email regarding additional comments

Be the first to comment on this article