I SAW THE SKY CATCH FIRE

By T. Obinkaram Echewa 
Dutton

Nigerian author T. Obinkaram Echewa implores those who study
African sons and daughters in the diaspora with a distant,
critical academic interest to open eyes and minds.

In his latest novel, I Saw The Sky Catch Fire, Echewa dispels
the notion that African literature is mere artifice of European
colonization. He says African novels have long been marred by
criticisms of being long tales with no heroes.

"For this reason," he says, "I consciously chose to have a
non-linear plot and a collective, rather than individual, heroism."

The heart of the alluring novel centres around the 1929 "women's
war" in a Nigerian township. Ndom, the women's solidarity group
that took up arms against colonial intrusion, acted as their men
stood idle -- unwilling, or unable to participate in the uprising.

Years later, Nne-Nne, a catalyst in the war, recounts the event
to her grandson Ajuzia.

The eve before he is to leave for university in the U.S., Ajuzia
sits transfixed, absorbed in the history of his people.

"Obviously, these were not the type of downtrodden, second-class
citizens you frequently hear about in the media, or from
Western-influenced Africans," says Echewa sardonically.

The novel is not intended to send messages, but to raise issues,
notably the condition where even resistance is cast in Western
terms and ideologies.

"There is a lot in traditional Africa that has not been explored
or given the intellectual status that it ought to have. Even
Westernized African students look at issues in North America,
and then go searching Africa for a similar example," he says,
laughing aloud.

"In the African context, we need to show what it is exactly,
that Africans do -- and then validate it on our own terms."


-- sigcino moyo                       original publication: NOW Magazine