Nigerian writers should endeavour to be sensitive at characterisation in their fictions
By Lechi Eke
Characterisation is the treatment of the people in the story, the artistic representation of human beings in stories and dramas. What we call characters are human beings who perform actions, or are involved in the events that happen in the stories writers tell.
Reading some Nigerian authors informed my decision to write this piece. Seriously, I don’t think the injustice I’m about to do an exposé on is intentional, but that’s the more reason why attention needs to be drawn to it. In Imasuen Eghosa’s Fine Boys and Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel (Lomba 2), I see what I can call “ethnic characterising”, which is unfortunate. The two authors characterise people from the ethnic Igbo tribe as thieves. Not only will this not sit well with people from this ethnic region, but it can widen that which separates us as Nigerians. Therefore, I’m inspired to write this piece and bring to the consciousness of my fellow Nigerian writers the insensitivity of such an act.
For the benefit of those who’ve not read the books referred to above, in Imasuen Eghosa’s Fine Boys, the main character and narrator, Ewaen, has a friend named Clement Unegbu. He’s popularly known as Oliver Tambo, or just Tambo and he’s of the Igbo descent. Tambo is characterised as a thief among a group of many friends. A very shameful thing transpires in their midst and I think it’s insensitive of the author to make Tambo a tribesman, not of his own stock.
READ ALSO:
Nkem is a character in the second Lomba short story in Helon Habila’s collection of short stories, Waiting for an Angel. He is Lomba’s Igbo neighbour in the tenement house, or face-me-I-face-you house. The character, Nkem, is of Igbo origin, and his occupation is stealing.
The sensitive thing to do in characterisation is to cast the bad or evil character to come from your own tribe or ethnic group, or cast the character to have an English name and be a detribalised Nigerian. That way, you’ll not appear biased to your readers, because I tell you, dear author, whether you know it or not, every Nigerian is an ethnic animal and will not overlook any injustice done their ethnic group.
When I was reading Imasuen’s Fine Boys, I discussed characterisation openly with people around me and all was of the opinion that it’s wrong to cast a tribe not the writer’s in an inglorious position. Also, my first put off when I read Habila’s Waiting for an Angel, is the characterisation of Lomba’s Igbo neighbour as a thief. It was instantly a turn-off for me. I think that in a country dense in ethnic population, it’s a highly insensitive thing to do. It not only can, but will definitely cause more polarisations in our land.
I think all Nigerian writers should endeavour to be sensitive at characterisation. We should make sure there’s fairness; and sensitivity should be the watchword.
Another major area where writers should be careful is characterisation of religious leaders as criminals. Unless, a writer is highly skilled in diction, if he or she can employ figurative language to create a character bedevilled with faults that the reader discovers through enjoyable fine language to possess the faults the writer shows (not tells), let the writer never delve into characterising a religious leader as a criminal in Nigeria. Irrespective of the religion; it is offensive!
Writers, even if you live in space, as long as you’re writing for the Nigerian society, or you desire for your people to celebrate you, be sensitive to these issues.
For instance, Olukorede Yishau’s In the Name of the Father threw a bad taste into my mouth when I got to the point of the fake pastor trying to romance a girl he’s not married to.
My humble advice is for writers to treat issues of religion and ethnicity with sensitivity: in Nigeria. If a writer is not highly gifted with diction, don’t attempt casting aspersions on ethnic characters and religious figures for your own good. However, if a writer is highly skilled in diction, he/she will carry it off with enjoyable choice of words that would be so enthralling that the reader will not realise until late that he/she’s been insulted. And when the reader does, he would chuckle over it.
Talking of gifting, even Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, who’s so very gifted in diction, leaves a sour taste in my mouth when he casts aspersions on a pastor’s wife in his Dreams and Assorted Nightmares’ Mororo’s Masterpiece.
As writers, we should handle this with a measure of tact. I know that many writers will rise up in demurral to declare that such character treatment or characterisation is realism as against idealism, but we should understand that it is wrong to make a generalised statement about a people or a race or a tribe because in every tongue and people, there are bad and good people. So, in everything writers should try to be sensitive, considering other people’s feelings. That’s all!
Well, since I’m on this issue of what is modest and proper. I will take the liberty to say to my tribeswoman, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, to please, consider the naïve young who are reading African writers at the impressionable ages of 13, 14 to 18. Half of a yellow Sun is too raunchy.
And a Word to the regulatory body, the Education Board:
Dear Sirs, Madams,
Kindly read through Literature books you recommend to young children in order to ensure that they contain wholesome materials. Some of us parents were embarrassed when Half of a yellow Sun fell into recommended Literature books for young adults in Nigeria.
Note that I’m not castigating Half of a yellow Sun as a bad novel, far be it from me, it’s a well-written novel, but not age-appropriate for young minds because of its sexual content.
