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What is last week’s main theme?Which nations have we dealt with? Ugwu as the seed of hope for this nation/place’s
autonomous/cultural development (the intellectuals’ Pan-Africanism, or tribalism.) Seeds of conflicts in the neighborhood in Kano, and
in Olanna’s family. India, Pakistan, Iran, Kurd (as people without a
nation), Sri Lanka, Liberia, Sierra Leon, Uganda and Nigeria
Uganda picked by Lonely Planet as Number 1 Country to Visit in 2012 (source)
Reminder: Place Names … Half of the Yellow Sun: setting of chaps 1-2 Nsukka Lagos Kano (Kainene – Port Harcourt, running her father’s business); Odenigbo from Abba
War Game– Jos Amafor--UmuahiaNsukka
Abba
Recent News about Nigeria Global Voices
http://zh.globalvoicesonline.org/hant/category/world/sub-saharan-africa/nigeria/
Nigeria for backpackers: http://www.backpackers.com.tw/guide/index.php/%E5%A5%88%E5%8F%8A%E5%88%A9%E4%BA%9E
e.g. Lagos (有名的樂手 Fela Kuti就是來自拉哥斯市郊。 Ariya Night Club的老闆就是著名的 Sunny Ade), Kano (西非最古老的城市 )
King Sunny Ade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIoH_bJORho African Digital Art
http://www.africandigitalart.com/category/african-weekly-inspiration/
Recent Islamic Rampage in Nigeria 2011/4/25 (post-election); 2011/ 10/5 Kano 2011/11/5 in Northeatern Nigeria (by
Boko Haram) Red Cross: Gunmen, bombs kill 65 in Nigeria
1; 2 Religions in Nigeria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nigeria
Outline (1): Igbo Culture & Nigerian Writers
A. Igbo Culture Family
Marriage mother
Traditional belief Mask Chi New Yam festival
Superstition Twins Osu
B. Nigerian third- generation in the modern cities Diaspora & Urban
experience National identity vs.
Cultural identity
Joyce
Outline (2): War GamesC. War Games
I. Introd. Cheche — the
Nigerian version of Midnight’s Children
Ethnic rivalry in the North
History seen from a child’s perspective
Cheche’s experience of the war
Cheche’s experience of folk tradition
Next week
Igbo culture: Family Marriage
Polygamy Bride-price
Importance of being a mother Storytelling, songs, and
myths Nneka—meaning “Mother
is supreme” (TFA 133)
Nneka (singer) http://www.wretch.cc/blog/shadowboxer/32741358 “Africans” (YouTube from To and Fro)
Joyce
Residence Pattern of an Igbo Family
(source)
Stage I: A is married to two wives (B and C) each of whom is assigned a separate hut within the c
ompound where she lives with her children
Stage II: A's sons marry and bring in their wives, each of whom is assigned a new hut. His daughters move out as they marry.
Igbo culture: Traditional belief Mask New Yam Festival Chi
“when a man says yes his chi says yes also.” (TFA 27)
“man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi.” (TFA 131)
Zaouli(Gouro Dance Mask) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP9LeBXKZnUIgbo / Ibo People ~ Masquerade Pictures, 1959
Joyce
Igbo culture: superstition Twins killing Olanna & K
The twins were abandoned to a death by exposure immediately after they were born. The women gave birth to twins are usually abominated . (TFA 151)
Osu (outcast) cleansing ritual They are living sacrifice to
the deities of the Igbo. They live in a special section of the village and are forbidden to marry a free person or cut their hair. They are to be buried in the Evil Forest when they die. (TFA 156)
Joyce
Nigerian third generation: Diaspora & Urban experience
Young writers’ works are Less “authentically” Nigerian, but with more
global cultures? Less political but more personal?
“Nigerian” writers in global cities? e.g. Adichie’s short stories-- deal with Nigerian
immigrants’ experience of hardship in the United States and England.
Joyce
Nigerian third generation: National identity vs. Cultural identity
1. Nation: “[All] third-world texts are necessarily . . . allegorical, and in a very specific way they are to be read as what I will call national allegories.’’ (Fredric Jameson, 69)
2. Culture: The roles of “dibia” – in Half of a Yellow Sun Cheche’s “localization” in War Games
Joyce
War GamesA Child’s Experience of War-Time
Conflicts
(Nigerian-Biafran War, 6 July 1967–15 January 1970)
Dulue Mbachu (1961~)
Writer and Journalist (articles written by him) set up The New Gong publishing house to
publish the African Writers Series "After a war is fought, the victors immediately
write their history. But it takes a while for the victims to find their voice and tell their own side story.” (Mbachu on Igbo writers' obsession with the Nigerian civil war source)
War Games: Chaps 1 – 4 1. City Life: Happy childhood (mixed with miracle,
dance, sweets and an episode of being bullied)
2. Village Amafor: Going to Amafor, getting to know Grandfather
3. Amafor Umuahia: Cheche’s experience of the war
4. Amafor: Cheche’s getting to know Amafor and its rituals
War Games: The first 4 Chaps and the Novel Is the presentation of the village life
distracting from the novel’s real focus? 1/3 of the novel: Che Che’s playing with
friends, revels in various ceremonies. “less interesting than the rest of the book. In fact, since the book is so clearly about the Biafran War, they are annoying. (HAWLEY 19)
War Games: The first 4 Chaps and the rest of the Novel The war in the context of the conflicts
between traditional and modern/colonial cultures (in terms of religions, urban and northern Igbo people and Shaw-Shaw people),
Between Hausa and Igbo people,
-- Aren’t the rituals (Catholic or traditional) all games, of one kind or another?
War Games: The first 4 Chaps and the rest of the NovelWar Games, Village Rituals and Children’s Games
1.How do we deal with conflicts and evils?
2.Games– with rules and enforcing conformity—sometimes brutally
3.The experience of survival (“eat as much as you can”) and being a “rebel” or non-conformist.
Questions How do you relate to Cheche’s stories (about
childhood, the Biafra war and the Igbo rituals)? Do you find anything similar in your own life or culture?
What do you think about the narrator, his mixture of an adult and child perspectives?
How is Igbo’s folk tradition represented first through the Grandfather, and then the rituals?
The Happy Childhood in the CityCheche – The beginning of his memory – moving to the housethe center of the extended family’s and the tenants’ attention (3) Experience:
miracle of singing and dancing vs. being bullied (6-7) education – experience of racism, using Hausa songs
on Shaw-Shaw people (10) market and Papa’s shop dance
The Happy Childhood in the City His understanding as a child:
Mother/Father: attached to the mother (2), see grandfather as twice as big
the world as “a bumpy place” (4) Genealogy // identity – born 3 months after the birth of the
nation “only those younger than a country can belong to it” (10) chap 3 (p. 34)
Names – wants to use father’s name as his surname. A cloud watcher (13); Papa’s shop, diasppointing
Later understanding the role of money in the priests’ blessing. (5)
History Seen from a Child’s Perspective
pp. 16-17 (chap 2): lack of comprehension – parties –different from the birthday parties. why were Igbos singled out as the common enemy. “a
meeting somewhere?” pp. 28 – 29 (chap 3): sorrow and indignation over deaths--
Gowon vs. Ojukwu (Johnson T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi - Nigerian general); pogrom and programme
pp. 33-34 (chap 3): – nationalism (later: egg-rusher payment 171)
The boy– witnessing or hearing about deaths: a pregnant woman 17; 30
Chapter 2: Cheche’s surprise at seeing Grandpa Shaw-Shaw house
and the Grandpa of the Shaw-Shaw p. 23-24
Odukwe Compound –obu for men and boys, ohwo for the wives.
Obu house (source)
Igbo Farmers vs. Shaw-Shaw people P. 10 Cheche: exaggerates their
nakedness and poverty pp. 19-20 thinks their houses too small Igbo farmers also naked!!! p. 22; (later understanding) p. 23 Shaw-Shaw
people made fun of because they used leaves instead of clothes to cover their nakedness. But ...
Cheche vs. Grandfather
A mask depicting a dibia
(healer) (source)
1) In conflict with their Catholic belief (e.g. the chicken 25)
2) Grandpa vs. the radio – 27
3) (chap 4) p. 41 –with magic power –descending from the sky, passing as a pregnant woman
The War Experience of the war –
Sympathizes with Mama’s fears (pp. 18-) Worries over Papa, the neighbors’ secret pleasure
Tales of the survivors – brutal killings, rescue or betrayal of the neighbors (30);
e.g. Papa’s being rescued by Paradang (who was not particularly friendly) and betrayed by a friendly tenant.
The adults’ excitement over the nationalist war Air raids – Mama’s responses (36-37)
Chap 4: Embracing Amafor Cheche –ready to accept Amafor (Grandpa,
and the environment); becoming a village boy,
not wearing slippers or a shirt. p. 42 fighting bigger girls at their weaker spots p. 43
Ritual (1): Cleansing pp. 43-45 vindicated if the villagers’ response is “lyaa” or
“Ooooh!”; condemned if they are silent. e.g. Esoniru (poisoning people, including his wife);
Ekwegbe (killing young boys)
What do you think about this cleansing ritual? Why do the people die after being condemned in public?
The rule of the Majority – may not be justified
Ritual (2): Masked Spirit in the Ogwugwu festival (Ogwugwu-- ogwugwu is the strongest deity
in Nigeria. The deity is more than 300 years old. sited in the eastern part of Nigeria.)
Masked spirits – as sprinters 短跑者 , as dancers, inflicting diseases on others (46)
Feast, race (taunting the spirits and escaping their whipping) and dance of the spirits
Ritual (2): Masked Spirit in the Ogwugwu festival Echi-Eteka –tomorrow is too far (51) The song
“Respect yourself…
Medicine man/
Stop divinating for me/
The one you’re divinating for/
Understands the mysteries better than you do….
Meaning?
A rite of passage for the boys later he becomes one of the altar boys.
From War Games
toHalf of a Yellow Sun
A child’s experience (cityvillage)
adults’ experiences (traumatized; village city)
Reference http://www.igboguide.org/index.php?l=chapter9 G. I. Jones Photographic Archive of Southeastern Nigerian Art and
Culture. <http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/jmccall/jones/> Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print. Adesanmi, Pius and Chris Dunton. “Introduction— Everything Good is
Raining: Provisional Notes on the Nigerian Novel of the Third Generation.” Research in African Literatures 39.2 (2008): vii-xii. Print.
---. “Nigeria’s Third Generation Writing: Historiography and Preliminary Theoretical Considerations.” English in Africa 32.1(2005): 7-19. Print.
Hawley, John C. “Biafra as Heritage and Symbol: Adichie, Mbachu, and Iweala.” Research in african literatures, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Summer 2008): 15-26.
Jameson, Frederic. “Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism.” Social Text 15 (Fall 1986): 65-88. Print.