Eyoh Etim: Echoes, tone-marks, reverberations of the critic as a scholar

A conversation with a winner of a major literary prize could be something of great delight to a man, especially if the participant in the discourse is close to the glowing ambience of ‘literary jurisprudence’. Such conversation could light the pathway in the horizons of the upbeat literati.

The result is the unseen monologue that echoes out more sonorously as the sequestered dialogue peters out! Some call it the epiphany of the nuance-jinxed, others called it the pantomime of absurdities but I call it the glamourisation of the critic on ascent. The beauty of it all is the ability to cause the belching out of the inner rumbles and the unflappable demeanour of the critic-turned celebrant.

And so it was recently, when I called Eyoh Etim, PhD, a gleeman, a raconteur, a university teacher and the 2023 winner of the Nigerian prize in literary criticism to discuss issues that shape the global literary landscape.

Like the chicken that comes home to roost, the youthful laureate is not only a bundle of creative genius; he is also an epitome of creative superfluous with innovative mindset.

And that makes me remember Patty Sylva, who once wrote that the Stone Age did not end because men ran out of stones but because of the emergence of ideas. The young scholar-critic, who has also ventured into publishing, is a bundle of ideas who already has his future on the plough.

Professor Riskey Odhiambo, a former cabinet minister in the regime of President Uhuru Kenyatta, however, believes that our society is not bereft of men with ideas, what is in short supply is innovators. “These scarce people are the ones that know how to implement ideas,” Odhiambo surmised.

Literary critics of Eyoh Etim’s stature are scarce. He is not criticising for criticism’s sake, but he is criticizing to strike a balance.

“I’m conscious to ensure that there is a balance in my criticism,” he told me in a voice that sounded serious, sincere, and believable.

He was reacting to the polyphonous exploit of Professor Bernth Lindfors, an American literary critic with tones of work on African literature.

In the course of our conversation, I had told him how Lindfors had lifted my article, “Africa and Politics of The Nobel Prize”, earlier published by Obi Nwakama in Vanguard into his anthology “Black African Literature, 1997- 1999.” The anthology was published by James Curry Publishers in London.

He had reacted sharply by describing Lindfors as ‘biased’ in his criticism of African literature. Thus, if Eyoh Etim turns out to be diametrically opposite to the likes of Lindfors, then we can beat our chest that a critic with human face and with condign milk of human kindness has emerged in the literary horizon.

Why am I going this whole hog?

It is because critics are aupie-de-latre the scourge of many authors, sensu stricto. They can inflate or deflate an author’s ego by elevating their works to the pantheons or by smashing them into smithereens. The reason why Orange prize in literature was introduced was because of what critics did to the works of female writers. They were unfairly treated by the male-dominated cult of critics whose “biased” (emphasis mine) evaluation caused female writers to chill their creative talent and aspiration. And the prize was introduced to bring female writers back from the brink.

Writing in The Spectator’s magazine (Australian Edition), Nicholas Sheppard noted that “women found it difficult to get their books published. If they succeeded, their works were all too often unappreciated and under-acknowledged by critics.”

Today, it is not littotical to say that women have not only woken up from the slumber that critics sent them, they have taken the global literary industry by storm. They now dominate the writing, editing, publishing, distribution and the review lines of the industry.

According to surveys conducted by high profile literary newspapers in Europe and America, the female dominance of the fiction genre is now a fait accompli. Eighty per cent of The Guardian’s (of London) debut novelists in 2022 were women. In the same vein, 67 per cent of yearly debut novelists in the last five years according to The Observer of London were women while 13 out of 15 New York Times bestselling novels in 2022 were written by women. The statistics reveals further that the female folk buy 80 per cent of all novels, wrote 624 of 1,000 of bestselling books in 2020 and constitute 60 per cent of global literary agents and 78 per cent of publishing staff in United States. And to crown it all, between 2015 and 2023, five women have won the Nobel Prize in literature as against four men, a radical departure from the tradition where only seven women won the prize as against 93 men in the first 100 years of the Nobel prize (1901-2000).

So, one can say that the women folk have overcome the scourge of critics as even the winning entry that gave Eyoh Etim the prize were on works of two foremost female writers from Nigeria, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Professor Agachi respectively.

Having said that, Eyoh Etim’s concern is who could emerge as the next Nobel Prize winner in literature from Nigeria. He believes quite strongly that Chimamanda stands a chance if literary excellence and popularity could be the yardstick. He is also concerned that Achebe lost the prize despite his popularity and excellence. When I told him that Achebe lost the prize because he was too popular to need the prize, he expressed deeper concern for Chimamanda whom he described as an offspring of Achebe’s literary school.

Of course, literary excellence apart, there are four other paradigms in the choice of the Nobel Prize. They include breaking of new grounds, involvement in human rights struggle, projection of minority rights and in some cases the projection of obscure works. He expressed fear that since Chimamanda is following Achebe’s footsteps, she may suffer Achebe’s fate lock, stock and barrel.

The good thing going for Chimamanda is that there are now more women in the committee that selects laureates even though writers are still expected to break new grounds or bring innovation into their style or themes to make them unique and peculiar. She is also popular with the Swedish literary scions who have doubtlessly celebrated her works in the Scandinavian country.

Svetlana Alexievick of Belorussia won the Nobel Prize in 2015 for incorporating polyphonic voices into her novels while the ‘skivvy-eyed girl’, Annie Enmaux from France who won the 2022 edition was awarded the prize for presenting her sexist writings widely resented in the form of “auto social biography” (emphasis, The Nobel’s) rather than an outright romance sub-genre.

Winning the Nigerian prize in literary criticism will give Eyoh Etim more visibility and convey on him an authoritative voice on matters concerning Nigerian literature. What he says or writes concerning books that come out of Nigeria has weight henceforth. He will also be invited to judge many award competitions in Nigeria and abroad.

But, my profoundest fear is that he may be snatched away from Akwa Ibom State University where he and other star lecturers are lecturing in the Department of English and Literary Studies. He needs to blossom there and ignite his students with the flame of intellectual flavour and shape them at least in the area of literary criticism instead of joining the japa flight.

The likes of Obi Nwakanma and Nduka Otiono are doing quite well as they bestride the literary horizon of North America like the colossus that they are. These were stars that were ignored at home but have been shinning abroad. They could have been engaged by Nigerian universities with their literary and journalistic skills but they were not. Obi is now the professor of Literature in Central Florida University in United States while Otiono is director of African Studies of Carleton University, Ottawa in Canada. They are all poets and critics like Etim who started by winning ANA prizes back home in Nigeria.

Edeke is a literary journalist and publisher. He is the prime mover of globe-centric literary movement, a purveyor of literary globe-centrism and General Administrator of Writers Trust of Nigeria.