Renowned Indian poet and playwright, Professor Shiva Prakash, was recently in Nigeria. In fact, he was hosted by one of Nigeria’s earlier female playwrights, scholar, poet and a Professor of Global Letters, Tess O. Onwueme.

The visit of the 70-year old Indian was not in any way taken for granted. His host left no stone unturned in ensuring that he returned with sweet memories of Nigeria and her people – the warmth, cuisine and the creative ingenuity of the younger generations of Nigerian theatre artists were unleased.

Some of Onwueme’s plays were performed to the admiration of the August visitor. Directed by Steve Daniel and performed by students of Theatre and Performing Arts Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the collage featured Shakara: Dance Hall Queen; Missing Face, Ban Empty Barn and What Mama Said.

Before introducing her guest to the audience, Onwueme commended the effort of Daniel and his students for the honour done to her. In her usual manner, she appreciated member of the audience, particularly those who contributed to the success of the evening in diverse ways.

Revealing the masquerade, Onwueme stated that the least she could do was to stage a befitting dinner in honor of Prof Prakash for travelling all the way from India to identify with her.

“In all these contexts of my professional encounters with Professor Prakash, he has remained an exceptionally genuine, outstanding, respected, critically engaged, passionate and consummate scholar and teacher of my creative work.

“The least I could do in all these years of his fervent interest and invested appetite for my creative work, is to stage a well-deserved dinner in his honor, as he even made the unprecedented journey to my homeland, Nigeria, just to visit and put actual images to the enduring visions, ideas and thinking of Nigeria.

“The dinner may mark the allegory of a heartfelt salute to a consummate professional and ‘writerly’ brother”

In a flash back, Onwueme recalled sometime in 2007, when the United State Department appointed her to the US Public Diplomacy Speaker/ Specialist programme for the North, West and East India with the mandate to “make friends for America.”

“A major press conference with Indian writers and journalists was already scheduled for me in the Indian School of Drama, New Delhi, by the American Embassy diplomatic officials.

“One of the prominent writers present for that initial official interview was the Indian Poet/Playwright, Professor Shiva Prakash. And he specifically interviewed me for a feature in their prestigious Indian Theatre Arts Journal.

“I was stunned by his compelling depth of knowledge, not just about the works of pioneer African writers like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and J P Clark but also about his in-depth analytic knowledge of my own plays (which were being taught by him and various university colleagues in their classes, apart from supervising several Ph. D students engaged in doctoral studies on my drama.

“At the final reception hosted in my honor by the American Embassy officials in New Delhi, Professor Prakash was there with other Indian writers also at the invitation of the American Embassy

“Three years later, in 2010, Prakash, along with his prestigious team of directors collaborated to stage production of my play, Shakara: Dance- Hall Queen performed in both English and Hindi languages in New Delhi in September 2010.

“Again in 2014, I was one of the invited international playwrights featured at the International Theatre Festival that was championed by Professor Prakash for Manipur, India.”

Two other prominent writers were equally expected alongside Prakash but their visit was cancelled due to personal reasons.

“It is a stupendous honour to have Prakash here. For him to threaten to come to Nigeria to see me is a threat and I decided to bite and asked him to come. There were supposed to be two other highly renowned writers but circumstances beyond our control has deprived us their presence”, Onwueme said.

Prakash was in Nigeria for the first time and he stated that a college of Nigerian writers was an organ of the country’s rich culture, and he did not see much difference between India and African cultures.

Speaking on the performance staged in his honour, Prakash expressed delight that theatre art, which is rich in human resources is fast becoming commercially viable.

Describing theatre art as an art of self-expression, resistance again justice and the voice of human conscience, he admitted to have seen all such elements featured prominently in the performance.

“I am lucky enough to be part of this as a member of the audience who witnessed this performance. This is the kind of theatre I always like to watch. I saw the materialization of my constituent of theatre in your performance. It was facilitated by the play written by the great Tess Onwueme.

I believe she is the greatest writer in the world and I am hoping and praying that she will soon get the Nobel Prize.

“I don’t know whether Nobel Prize is deserving or not but really, she deserves Nobel Prize. I hope she gets it and there would be performance all over the world”, he said.

“I said so because I have read quite a few Nobel Laureates. The 2023 winner of Nobel Prize for Literature, a Norwegian author, Jon Fosse is a wonderful writer but not always does Nobel Prize go to deserving person.

“Some other writers wrote well and deserved it but they did not get it. So, getting Nobel Prize is often a luck or something else.

“But sometimes, good people do get it. For example, one of my favourite writers, Wole Soyinka got the prize. In his acceptance speech, he advised that the Blacks should institute an award in Africa and give to Whiteman, and 50 years after, it is still a remarkable speech.

“Tess Onwueme’s writings are no less powerful than Soyinka’s. Soyinka is a very powerful writer; he is too much of a fiction writer but for the first time, Tess brings into the language of theatre, the feminine sensitivity and sensibility. And her works are set to bring powers and magical powers; this is very rare in literature.

“I think she deserved it long time ago, if she has not gotten it, it is a fault of the award committee”, Prakash said.

He also talked about Indian literary culture. According to him, the country prides itself in diverse cultures, languages and literatures.

“And Indian literatures shaped my two classes of traditions – arts and aesthetics. As a writer, I am interested in diversity of arts and I write in my language and stick in my own culture. I like to pick the best from all over India and from all over the world. Nigeria has made a big impact on me as well as Latin America”, he added.

Prakash has written 14 books of poems in his language, 15 plays and about 2,000 pages of prose, essays and columns and many more.

Dr. Monday F. Ekpe of the University of Abuja and member, Editorial Board of ThisDay Newspaper, further described Onwueme as a gift to the literary community, to Nigeria and the world at large.

“People who know her worth have described her as a leading playwright in Africa and that is a huge status. She belongs to the group of playwrights and literary icons that flourished in pre-internet and pre-social media period.

“They did not have social media to amplify whatever they were doing but they excelled in terms of the originality of their works, thematic depth, rich dialogue and actions.

“She is a focused person; she can be involved in her art but that does not take from her, the ability to relate with other people. She is very humane and connects with human beings.

“If I am to describe her religion, her religion is humanity: She has lived her life for humanity and touched lives in so many ways that I will not be able to count.

“She is so many things rolled into one. She is also somebody who is proud of her heritage. I have known her for many years; it came on a line of duty in the early 80s and since then, we have maintained cordial relationship,” Ekpe said.