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This book employs the event of the Arab Spring revolution of 2011 to reflect on the event itself and beyond. Some of the chapters address the colonial encounter and its lingering reverberations on the African sociopolitical landscape. Others address the aftermath of large scale societal violence and trauma that pervade the African context. The contributions indicate the range of challenges confronting African societies in the postmodern era. They also illustrate the sheer resilience and inventiveness of those societies in the face of apparently overwhelming odds. What is the nature of political power in contemporary Africa as constituted from below instead of being a state driven phenomenon? What constitutes sovereignty without recourse to the usual academic responses and discourses? These two questions loom behind most of the deliberations contained in this book with contributions from an impressive field of international scholars.
Dani Wadada Nabudere, the illustrious Ugandan scholar, produced a diverse body of work on various aspects of African culture, politics, and philosophy. Toward the end of his life, he formulated a theoretical construct that he termed Afrikology. Unlike most other Afrocentrists, who have stopped with the task of proving the primacy of the Egyptian past and its numerous cultural and scientific achievements, Nabudere strenuously attempts to connect that illustrious heritage with the African present. This, remarkably, is what makes his project worthy of careful attention. His corpus is multidisciplinary, although a major preoccupation with Africa is discernible in virtually all his works. His writings deal with critiques of imperialism, African political systems, processes of globalization and Africas location within them, and finally the ideological and existential imperatives of Afrocentric discourse.
Dust, Spittle and Wind
(2011)
Dust, Spittle and Wind is a story of youth, dreams of innocence and transcendence told within a postcolonial setting. It follows Olu Ray, the main character of the novel through a bitter-sweet journey of loss and self-realisation. The novel focuses on the final moment before actual emotional maturity when dreams either become flowers of brilliance or cold ashes. The novel describes the cold hand of fate as it swings between both extremes. Olu Ray eventually survives at the price of the abrupt loss of his innocence. The book teems with colourful characters and the blistering heat of the physical terrain appears to mirrors the lush sexuality on display. It explores the nature of taboo, the frustrations caused by it and the compulsions it provokes. In Sanya Osha's telling, society seems to be on the verge of irreparable breakdown but somehow manages to pull itself back from the abyss. The tension that runs through the novel is relentless but then, there is also much tenderness and subtlety that balances everything out. This is unquestionably a feat of powerful artistry. It deservedly won the Association of Nigerian Authors' Prize for prose in 1992.
A Troubadour's Thread
(2013)
This volume powerfully conveys the pilgrimage of a singular spirit through adversity, equanimity, immanence and eventually, transcendence. It grapples with a range of emotions, topics and sensations. Christopher Okigbo achieved similar results but in an entirely different manner. Okigbo's vision is epical in its dimensions while Osha's work is infused with a sustained lyricism, mutedness or even more appropriately, quietude. Osha's poetry unveils a multi-layered journey from artistic infancy to complete aesthetic maturity. Most of this journey dwells upon the poet's inner states in which vast geographical vistas are revealed.
The most appealing quality of the novel is its haunting and unusual prose that really ought to be termed poetry. But this is poetry with an added touch as it is also a narrative that weaves together many lives engrossed in the daily struggle for survival. There are no heroes or villains, just ordinary folk trying to make the most of extraordinary circumstances.
At the end of his tether, Solomon Wenku contemplates a life gone awry amid widespread postcolonial squalor. Tani enters his life supposedly as a contrast to his encroaching existential gloom only to speed up the pace of his total collapse. Sanya Oshas cult novel beams a searchlight on what it feels like to survive personally and collectively in unyielding tropical malaise. This web of a narrative pits the rural versus the urban, tradition against modernity with a gallery of immortal characters and with a yearning that sings lushly of freedom.
