Colonial  Lagos

Our  cities  today  are  hell;  real

hell! Each time I go to Lagos
I  marvel  at  the  audacity  and
the  courage  of  people  who  live  there.
There  is  so  much  chaos,  so  much
degeneration.  There  is  no  planning.
There  is  really  no  time  to  stand  and

LITERATURE AND THE CITY

NIYIOSUNDARE

stare.  So  I  think,  in  a  way,  our  cities  L 
A-*~~ 
discourage creativity because when you 

•_ 

,., 

.• 

j ir 

. 

spend four hours on one spot in a traffic
hold-up, it is not likely that you will get 
- 

6 

• 

i_

home and write your best poem or your
k 
best short storv  or your best  play.

.  u 

1/ 

i

' 

v 
You are simply  fagged  out  and  angry.

A

t 

, 

Z

governments  we've  been  having  have
not planned  any of our cities as centres
of inspiration. But be that as it may, this
is not enough reason for us to fold up our
hands and say all is lost.

Certainly  not.  There  is some  kind  of
negative inspiration, afterall.  Although
the cities are so bad, we are still writing
about them. We criticize and satirise all
those who get the funds  to improve our
cities but put these money in their bank
accounts and theirstomachs. So creative
writers  and  artists  are  asking  for  the
authorities  to  bring  some  humanness
back  into our cities.

However, cities are not the only place in
Nigeria.  In  fact,  the  cities  cannot  exist
without the rural areas. I'm a poet of the
rural areas, for example. There is nothing
wrong  in  our  writers  going  to  the
countryside.  In  fact,  the  trend  in  the
developed  parts  of  the  world  today  is
towards  rural  migration.  There  is  also
nothing  wrong going abroad to write. I
have done it before. Midlife  which won
an award  was basically  written in Iowa
City, US A in 1988.1 was then a resident
artist  at  the  university  under  the
International Writers' Programme. The
manuscript  I have  in press now,  Horse
of  Memory  which  is due  out  any  time
from now  was written in Yaddo in New
York. It really helps a lot when you can
step out for a while and  recapture some
of  the  inspirations  that  the  home  base
has  provided.

It was once a trend for  African-American
writers to go to France, especially Paris,
to  write.  Langston  Hughes  and  James
Baldwin  are typical examples. I have a
collection  I'm  working  on  which  is  a
kind of travelogue in poetic form. As an
artist  I  have  tried  to  ensure  that  every
part  of  the  world  that  I have  been  has
become  a part of me and also that I am
part of that area of the world. I'm  not a
stranger  anywhere:  China,  Australia,
Japan, Canada, US, France, etc.

This world  belongs  to all of us. IGRI

3

those  who  are 

Our cities have been dehumanized  and
that  is  why 
their
inhabitants  have  been  dehumanized.
Cities  are  supposed  to  be  inspiring.
Dublin 
for  James  Joyce,  Abeokuta,
Ibadan  and  Ishara  for  Wole  Soyinka,
London for Charles Dickens, etc. Cities
have some anonymity  about them; that

kind  of  plural  mentality  which  should
really make creativity possible. But that
is when these cities are organized: where
there are  parks and  open  spaces; when
there  is enough  shelter  for  everybody;
when  highways  are  not  blocked  by
garbage. These  are the negative  things
you  see  in  our  cities  today.  The