The Day I Saw god – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Day at Okigbo Conference

During Shehu Shagari's regime, Pope John Paul II visited Nigeria . He flew to Enugu to begin a tour of the Eastern States. At the airport, a limousine was kept on standby to drive the Pope to Aba . When the Pope got to the car he pleaded with the chauffeur to climb into the passenger seat because he would like to drive himself. After an initial hesitation, the chauffeur obeyed and the Pope drove off.  

Few meters outside Owerri, policemen at a check point flagged down the Pope's limousine. The sergeant standing by the roadside peeped into the limousine and was shocked. He ran to his superintendent sitting inside a police kiosk near-by in panic.

"What's wrong?" the superintendent asked. 

"You can't believe who is in that car," the sergeant answered. 

"Who?" the superintendent queried.

You just can't believe it." 

"Who? Is it the local government chairman?" the superintendent asked, himself desperate. 

"No! Up! Bigger!" the sergeant responded.

"Is it the Governor?" the superintendent advanced. 

"No! Up! Bigger! Bigger!!" the sergeant said, involuntarily urinating in his pants. 

"Is it a Senator?" the superintendent pressed further. 

“Hey, will you stop panicking. Tell me who the hell is in that car or should I shoot you first?"

"Ok," the sergeant said, "I don't know who is in the car, but he is being driven by the Pope."

 Headlining Friday’s events at the Christopher Okigbo Conference were Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe, with a supporting cast that included the likes of Michael Echeruo, Denis Brutus, Ali Mazrui, Abiola Irele, Obiora Udechukwu, Henry Louis Gates Jr, etc. Watching the day’s proceedings, I thought it could not get any better. But lo and behold, Saturday, September 22, 2007 was billed as the climax. In their Friday’s performances, Soyinka and Achebe were mere drivers, someone said. So who were they driving? 

Who else but god, herself? 

I got the call a week before the conference from my friend, George. In his voice was a sense of urgency and excitement all at once: “Come to the city ( New York city ) at once,” he said. “My girlfriend is reading and signing copies of her books at Barnes and Noble in downtown Manhattan ,” he informed me.

He knew I was a fan of hers but did not know that I would not be able to abandon all I was doing for the day to be at the book signing, just as he did. 

“I had called my wife to prepare all the kids. I will be driving home now to pick them up for the 6.00pm event,” he enthused.

It was afternoon and I just couldn’t squeeze the event in my schedule. “I will see her in Boston next week at the Okigbo Conference,” I said, politely.

George went to the book signing with all his family members buying copies of her books for everyone. I called him later at night.

“How was it?” I asked. 

He paused for a few seconds, swallowing hot lumps of air heated by exhilaration. In a voice that sounded rapturous with a ting of finality, he answered, “I have seen god.”

I thought George was being overdramatic until I saw her at Harvard University on Saturday. Sitting beside her boyfriend, she illuminated charm long enough that it sucked up the energy in the hall and sent magnetic rays to the retina of all eyes around. 

Some women are beautiful. Few women look beautiful. And much fewer women know that they are beautiful. In the case of Chimamanda (My God will Never Fail) Ngozi Adichie, she is beautiful, she looks it, and she knows it. And that is a dangerous combination. The beauty, and the talent, that is. Her God did not fail for sure.

When she stood up to speak, with poise and wit, she captured the adoration of the old and the young. While the old wished she was their daughter, the young wished they could elope with her and live happily ever after.  

Adichie gave a good account as to why she is the shinning star of what Obiwu called the Age of Exile, that includes the likes of Ben Okri, Emman Usman Shehu, Olu Oguibe, Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Wale Okediran, Okey Ndibe, Maxim Uzoatu, Ike Oguine, T. Akachi-Ezeigbo, Uche Nduka, Biyi Bandele-Thomas, Sola Osofisan, Esiaba Irobi, Ogaga Ifowodo, Chris Abani, Nnorom Azuonye, Promise Okekwe, Helon Habila, Toyin Adewale-Gabriel, Obi Nwakamma, Sumaila Umaisha, Maik Nwosu, Obiwu, Chidi Ngangah, Unoma Azuah, Akin Adesokan, Isidore Diala, Nnedimma Okorafor, Chika Unigwe, Nana Embaga, Sefi Attah, Helen Oyeyemi, and Uzodinma Iweala. 

On how she found her footing in writing, she said, “I grew up reading a lot of British literature. I have been writing since I was four. I was writing stories where everybody was white because I believed that literature by its very nature has to have white people in it. When I was about eight or nine, I read Things Fall Apart. I have come to see Things Fall Apart as the book that gave me permission to tell our story.”

She surprised participants when she said that her book, Half of a Yellow Sun was written as a love story and not a war story. “I didn’t necessarily choose to write about Biafra . Biafra chose me. ” she said. “I’ve known for a very long time that I have to write about this… Those who didn’t experience the trauma of the war are the ones who will try to make sense of it…I did not want to romanticize the war”. She said she modeled the character, Okeoma, after Christopher Okigbo with modifications. On how she was able to depict accurately events that took place years before she was born, Adichie said, “I was almost a pest to my parents’ friends. I will ask all questions out there. Where were you in 1967? What were you eating? At some point, I think my parents sequestered me in my bed.”

She described what she did in Half of a Yellow Sun as a portrait of the dynamics of race, gender and class. She said that the book looked at what happens when you are deprived of things of life, how does it change your relationships with people? “It is a book I stopped very often to cry while I wrote,” she stated. Adichie warned that the reality of Biafra should not be hidden. “We think that the more we pretend that it didn’t happen, the more it goes away. I think the reverse is the case,” she said.

Using tales from her immigrant experiences in America , which would be the subject of her next novel, Adichie argued for “a world where difference is just difference and not better or worse.”  She told of how people she first met in America were expecting someone who stepped out of Africa ’s Things Fall Apart. The realization that many readers depend on what they read in books for their understanding of Africa she said was one she had to be aware of as she fulfills her role as a writer. “The problem with stereotype is that one story becomes the only story,” she noted.

During question and answer session, Esiaba Irobi described Half of a Yellow Sun as a novel he had always wanted to write. “Your novel changed my life,” he said. Irobi then narrated how he had chemotherapy and his libido was all but gone. But while reading Half of a Yellow Sun, he had some very polite erection. “Where did you learn how to write about sex and desire so well?” asked Irobi. 

She did not explain how she learnt how to write about sex so well. But she did say that it was a choice she made. She wanted to have not just the elite, but also the lowly house boys and girls have sex in her book. “It is part of the human experience and I do not want to leave it out the way we have done in our African literature for so long,” she said.

In answer to another question she said that, “it is good to win these awards but it is more important to know that my people are reading my works.” 

At the end of her presentation, she was swarmed for autographs and photos. She was constantly smiling as more and more fans lined up for pictures. There as no doubt she had transformed from a writer to a celebrity. After over half an hour, she seemed to have had enough. As more fans beckoned she tried to walk away. It prompted one participant to say, “Come let us take pictures. Stop carrying yourself like Queen Elizabeth.”

Soon after, still hounded by photo seeking fans, she retorted, “If you people don’t stop I will stick my tongue out.” 

In a way, her fans seemed to believe they owned her. One Igbo woman claimed to have said to her upon finding out that her boyfriend was Calabar, “Mba, you are not going to marry him – the Calabar man. You’re going to marry a fine Igbo man.”

“She was everything they said she was,” said a contemporary of hers who had been ambivalent about her journey to the pinnacle of her chosen career. 

Another contemporary who had a prior run in with her that left a bad test in his mouth said “she eventually came around.” He insisted that he wasn’t enamored like many others. “I told myself I wasn’t going to be one of her groupies. I wasn’t going to follow her around looking for autographs. She eventually came around. After all, I got my PhD before she started writing. She came around and that was how it was supposed to be.”

Yet another contemporary who had a less than warm reception from her had this to say, “I tried to greet her. I said hello, my name is …. She touched my fingers with hers and quickly pulled them away and said oh, as she moved on. Ha, ha, ha, I drink and hang with Nobel Laureates talk less of…” 

At the banquet that followed the conference, I found god dancing with her boyfriend. She was wearing a sexy evening dress and a long leather boot. I ran out to get my camera. By the time I came back, god had put on her jacket and was ready to go.

Minutes after she walked away with her boyfriend in tow, the party ended. It was as if someone had said, “ladies and gentlemen, god has left the building, the party is over”.

...Coming next, The Day Ali Mazrui Melted Down 

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Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo is the author of Children of a Retired God

Robot  Villager

# 1 She described what she did in Half of a Yellow Sun as a port...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 01.10.2007 12:07

aguabata  Villager

# 2 where i go find this book read, make i rest. infact no more western novels until i've read most african literature,hoping they dont bore the hell out of me. Posted by aguabata| 01.10.2007 14:12

denker  Villager

# 3 =aguabata;20915623>where i go find this book read, make i rest. infact no more western novels until i've read most african literature,hoping they dont bore the hell out of me. pm me with your postal address...and a copy is yours! Posted by denker| 01.10.2007 15:49

chimezgo  JJC

# 4 i got mine from amazon.com. just order and it comes immediately. Posted by chimezgo| 01.10.2007 17:42

Emperoneroh  Villager

# 5 I was at the Palms Lekki last Sunday and was able to buy myself Purple Hibiscus N900.00 I saw Half of A yellow Sun but hadn;t enough money else I would have gotten it too. (it costs N1600). Am having the Joy of My life reading Purple Hibiscus. I must confess that the only difference between my life and that depicted by Kambili in the book is that I wasn't opportuned to be from a rich family and that my father was never that Tough on us. Every event and story line brought me lots of Nostalgia. I looked back and had wished I could go back tot he East and start my life as a teenager once again. Good writing, Nice story telling ability and a good sense of Humour. I can't wait for the day I will meet the author. She's a model for the younger writing generation. We ought to believe in our abilities and do some out of the different. Kudos to her. I can't wait to get a copy of Half of a yellow Sun'. But its quite big up to 400 pages. Posted by Emperoneroh| 02.10.2007 03:50

akuluouno  Villager

# 6 Dear Rudolf, Thank u very much for this latest disapatch and hoping to read more of them. It seems that afterall, Nigeria was celebrated at 47 abroad. Chimamanda is indeed an apotheosis of a goddess.:D:D:D:D Posted by akuluouno| 02.10.2007 04:28

Mikky jaga  Villager

# 7 One Igbo woman claimed to have said to her upon finding out that her boyfriend was Calabar, “Mba, you are not going to marry him – the Calabar man. You’re going to marry a fine Igbo man.” The Igbo woman need not fear, she is just playing boyfriend with the Calabar man. When she wants to settle down for marriage, she knows there are fine Yoruba men to choose from. Do not say I told you. Posted by Mikky jaga| 02.10.2007 05:53

Amaju  JJC

# 8 Nice speech by Chimamanda. Video is already on you tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTJyRtypLEk Posted by Amaju| 02.10.2007 22:04