By Uduma Kalu

Immortal Legends of Africa by Pa Anyi Agwudagwu reads like the Trojan war told by homer but it is deeper than the epic poem. It is closer to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart but it is not a war story.

While Achebe says he writes to teach that though Africa had its imperfections, it was not a one long night of imperfections, Agwudagwu embarked on African countries in 1960 to carry out a research in African culture and legends, focusing on “African legends because no book told us anything about what happened in the past on the continent. We could not learn about Africa‘s past, except through her legends.

Immortal Legends of Africa; Pa Anyi Agwudagwu; Blacks Unlimited; Ogwashi Uku, Delta state; 2009

I had felt that learning about the legends would tell me what happened in Africa in the past.” He travelled from Benin to Togo, Ghana, through the Ivory Coast and then to Kenya. He went to Ile-Ife and to Calabar, speaking with traditional bards and musicians because they were the custodians of traditional African history and legends.

“I recall that when I got to Republic of Benin I had to hire the services of an interpreter and I spoke to the people through him. I learnt a lot about Africa during these journeys. For example, at Bamako I learnt how the famous Timbuktu University was organized and why it declined”

He writes, “I admit that there are thousands of equally good legends lying uncollected in many African countries. But not until these are put into writing, read and appraised by experienced editors, their cultural, educational, ethical and commercial values remain elusive,” adding, “The Immortal Legends of Africa in this book have been selected by me because of their ageless contents and rare cultural and educational values after many years of visits and contacts with legendists, songsters, guitarists, translators, and linguists in some African countries.”

Restoring African glory

Both writers try to restore the glory of the continent. They want to show that Africa was not an empty space . On the contrary, it laid the foundation for global civilisation. The contributions in every aspect of human endeavour is the eternal message of these books.

However, while, Achebe’s TFA x-rays Africa, at the threshold of colonialism through the life of Okonkwo , Agwudagwu returns to precolonial Africa ravaged by war through the life of a greedy king Inikiti.

But both characters are united to a large extent, a similar character portrayals. Okonkwo is ambitious, full of anger, traditionalist and full of fear. But to large extent, he is admired those who see him as one who could withstand the ravages of the invading Europeans.

Inikiti on the hand is described as selfish and greedy. He is also ambitious and stubborn like Okonkwo. He loves his kingdom of Iba and is not ready to give up an inch for the sake of peace, unlike his father.

And this is the problem in the novel. It returns to old age African problem of land which is the reason for most conflicts. In the final analysis, should we let the sleeping dogs lie by sleeping our lands go out of fear. That may be the answer going by the story in this book. Nkikiti’s father knew this and advised his son so but out of pride, Nkiti ignored him and imperiled his kingdom.

So in a way, Inikiti and Okonkwo blend but the two books also remind us of the question: that people make stories but stories make people. Both Achebe and Agwudagwu, Africanists, in their quest for African redemption use a realistic approach to depict Africa of old. While the private lives of Okonkwo were used to show that past, Agwudagwu used the most intense period of a community-war- to depict that moment.

Agwudagwu traverses throughout Africa to tap from the legends. In his acknowledgments, the writer “expressed gratitude to the older generations of the African legendists, guitarists, musicians, folk songsters, linguists and translators in many African countries, who provided me with their home legends, including other materials and the vital critiques that immensely helped me to write this book.”

It took the author after 30 years of research and investigations in Africa’s unwritten traditional oral stories, saying, until African stories are written down, its legacies and contributions will be lost.

“The Immortal Legends of Africa in this book have been selected by me because of their ageless contents and rare cultural and educational values after many years of visits and contacts with legendists, songsters, guitarists, translators, and linguists in some African countries.”

So how do stories make people in Agwudagwu’s Immortals… ? This returns the book to its central quest: to show an African past in a moment when electronic media have taken over the days of oral tales. To depict the glorious past, Agwudagwu uses the festival scene to show a variety of Africa’s contributions.

King Aguba’s African Cultural Extravaganza takes the reader on a grand Safari to witness African developments: boat building, medicine, fire arms, weaving, and general goods such as kitchen wares, furniture, shoe, etc.

He shows African litigation which will greatly benefit the bench and the bar including modern African royalties, and the general public. He showcases poets, inventors, storytellers, scientists and songsters who were high intellectuals.

The books shows how Africans also lived. They were against promiscuity, adultery, and fornication. They had medical means of conducting anti acid concoction, immunity against gunshots, missiles, clubs, or swords, etc. Bullet extraction without surgery, instant wound healing, turning zombie into a go-getter.