In The New York Times Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani wonders Who Are African Books For ? noting/claiming that: "Success for an African writer still depends on the West".
She has a point, of sorts -- African (meaning, as too often in these types of stories: sub-Saharan: northern Africa tends inexplicably (or perhaps due to some rather ugly explanations ...) to be treated as an entirely separate entity ...) infrastructures complicate achievement of any sort of 'domestic' success.
Nevertheless, this looking-for-validation abroad -- common though it is, almost everywhere else, too, not just 'Africa' -- is a pernicious, ugly thing.
'Success', surely, is a more complicated matter -- and I suggest there's considerably more of it on the continent, and beyond it, than she allows for (or is willing to acknowledge as 'success').
I point only to two prominent examples of alternative successes, of sorts: much-admired-hereabouts Ayi Kwei Armah (Two Thousand Seasons), who abandoned Western 'success' but seems to be doing just fine with Per Ankh; and the offerings available through the wonderful African Books Collective (hardly, for the most part, titles 'successful' abroad, but at least readily available -- a foundation that can and should be mined by interested readers).
As with literature from everywhere else in the world, I don't cover nearly enough from Africa at the complete review; still, I think even the very limited selection under review at least points to a bit of a world just beyond 'Western' notions of success and acceptance.
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Posted on 11/29/2014
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