A close look at the literary speedboat who is pacesetting professional book review in Ghana

An interview with Nana Fredua-Agyeman. By Darko Antwi

Introduction: Fredua-Agyeman is a poet, and a leading Ghanaian reviewer who handles ImageNations and other two blogs of world literature. In 2008 he graduated from the University of Ghana with a Master of Philosophy degree in Agricultural Economics. He lives in Accra.

DARKO: Out of an avid reading habit, and a critical mind, you have built a reputation as, what convinces many, a prolific reviewer and critic. I’m curious. What inspires you to do what you do?

NANA: The need to contribute to the development of the literary arts in Africa is my inspiration and driving force. We can’t continue to complain and do nothing about that which we complain. I don’t know if I have the reputation yet, or could even call myself a critic.

Besides, one can lead but one life. Books offer the individual the opportunity to live several other lives and be whoever one wants. Through books one can accumulate certain experiences and knowledge impossible in one’s singular, non-lateral, life. Art is life, we must not forget.

DARKO: From Amma Darko to Martin Egblewogbe, and from John Mahama to Kofi Annan, you have reviewed diverse Ghanaian authors of recent publication. Do me a favour: Summarize the quality of modern Ghanaian literature, if you can.

NANA: Modern Ghanaian literature, like any literary epoch anywhere in the world, has the good, the bad, and the ugly. However, we need all these to move forward. Time will save the best and kill the rest. The names you’ve mentioned belong to the good and, in addition to Nii Ayikwei Parkes, their works will stand the test of time. They love what they do and spend time with it. Good writers know their craft and know its demands. They know that the beauty of writing isn’t the name embossed on the front page of the work but having someone commend you for what you’ve done. Amma Darko’s social commentaries are what should be assigned to readers in Secondary Schools by the authorities and not the Sweet-Valley-High kind of books they currently read. John Mahama and Kofi Annan have shown that any African – leaders or otherwise – who has led a great life must put his or her life’s work in books to inspire others. I like what they have done even if I disagree with some of the things they have done or they espouse. Martin’s writing shows that there’s another way to African writing; that the African writer need not cocoon himself or herself into a one-subject matter author or necessarily pretend to be the voice of the millions of Africans. The African has the same capability to question life, the universe, the metaphysical in his work just as Kafka, Mann and others did.

Unfortunately, there are those who think too highly of the things they do. They have no patience with the craft of writing; they are eager to publish and so come out with something that has hardly been edited or critiqued. They cover themselves in titles that put off any form of criticism. This could mostly be found with that amorphous group called poets. The anthologies they produce are weak, unfocussed, and most often prosaic. I don’t exclude the novelists at all, but the poets carry with them that I-know-it-all arrogance. What we need are hard-hitting critics. I might have failed here. People should be told directly that what they are doing isn’t art or creative in any form. I once expressed a negative view of a novel and I was attacked by readers. But this is what we need, frankness.

DARKO: I assume; you come from a home of intellectuals. Your parents must have encouraged your love for the arts. You have pioneered haiku among your compatriots. You are excelling in criticism. With reference to your poems at Akwantuo and other magazines, we can give you credit for outstanding contribution. Yet I find something odd about you: That’s your science background. Is your degree in Agric Economics; a distraction or a booster to your literary pursuit?

NANA: I don’t think my parents could be described as ‘intellectuals’, as that word has come to represent. With a quasi-farmer for a father and a Community Health Nurse for a mother, one can hardly say they are intellectuals; they are both educated though and know the essence of good education and do read. I still remember my mother reading Tender Fire and Beyond Pardon. They silently support, and even revel in, my writings.

Is having a science background odd? Most Ghanaian writers I know are science-biased. Writing is life and life is an amalgam of all experiences; it’s not discrete like courses/subjects taken in school. In life, the real life, there’s nothing like a Geography event or a Physics event; there are just events one must face and to do so one must rely on all experiences and knowledge. That’s what I do with my writing. For instance in Drunk Chromosomes of a Drunk I brought both reincarnation and genetics together. Consequently, I do not see it as a distraction; it’s, just part of my bundle of experiences.

DARKO: ImageNations has become a rich deposit of worldwide book appreciation. On that ground, it is certain that your objective does not limit you to Ghanaian literature. If that broad approach does not deny a concentration of Ghanaian books, how helpful would it be to the progress of Ghanaian literature?

NANA: The objective of ImageNations is to promote African literature, or that’s what I pretend to do. When I started blogging, book blogging to be specific, I found that there was a dearth of African books on the lists of book bloggers. The only book that was likely to have been reviewed was Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Incidentally, in 2009 – the year I started blogging – I had decided to read mostly African books. The question was, should I complain of the non-availability of African books among book bloggers or should I keep quiet and dedicate my blog to it? I chose the latter. During this period I hardly reviewed non-African authored books, though I read one or two. Later, I expanded my reading scope to cover literary fiction, both African- and non-African-authored. I took a decision to review them to attract readers to the blog so that in their search they may find other African books I have reviewed. If someone comes to read my review of War and Peace and discovers Mawuli Adzei’s Taboo or another, I would have served my purpose. It’s a way to draw in readers who would otherwise have been put off by my singular objective and who have, unfortunately, maligned literature coming out of the continent. Thus, the strategy is similar to the carnivorous plant: attract and trap. I hope this isn’t just theory but that it is working. I haven’t conducted any research to find out; however, I know the most read blog posts are the reviews of African books.

DARKO: I have a great deal of respect for your professionalism. But when I draw reference from past debates at OGOV, I begin to doubt your temper to sustain argument. You appear to me as someone who does not go liberal to open discussion. You are too comfortable within the zones of your sole-operative popular blog.  It’s obvious that in matters of critique, there are bound to be opinion differences. Do you feel provoked when opposed? Or embarrassed when misunderstood?

NANA: I love debates; it’s the only way you can learn from others. But one need not to rollover and accept what people say just because they’re saying it. No. One has to purvey irrefutable facts if one wants to convince another person in an argument; the mere regurgitation of what others have said or written about won’t do for me. I like people who do independent thinking of issues. This is what is required so that we can question the status quo. However, this is the one thing people find it difficult to do. I do succumb to reason and change my perspective when the other person’s argument has shown the weaknesses and illogicality in mine.

I do recall the debate you mentioned. For me life is complex. It isn’t a linear mathematical equation. That debate was about polygamy and AIDS. It had been argued that polygamy lead to the spread of AIDS and I had argued that it doesn’t and that polygamy, in and of itself, has nothing to do with the spread of AIDS but that unprotected sex does. The logic here is that if one is monogamous one won’t spread AIDS, but this isn’t true, is it? We’ve seen several supposedly monogamous relationships destroyed by the disease because one partner or the other had had unprotected sex with another person outside the marriage. So there is no linear relationship between polygamy and AIDS. I won’t reawaken that argument, only to say that I just won’t fall and roll because the Church and some Western folks want us to believe that polygamy (polyandry) is evil or uncivilised. So when the logic is lost, I feel I have not communicated well, which saddens me but more often I feel the person has taken an entrenched position, which makes me worry especially if that position is fortified by religion or Western pronouncements and expectations. We can mention several famous monogamous marriages that were monogamous only in name: Bill Clinton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, etc.

I do attend programmes organised by other organisations other than the Writers Project of Ghana, though I don’t do it that often. I’ve observed that people are uncomfortable when opinions different from the status quo are espoused. That’s what the world has made it. Words have been used to prevent people from thinking. For instance, if you ask whether the ‘establishment’ is telling the truth on an issue, you’re described as a conspiracy theorist. This designation, with its negative connotation, has prevented people for interrogating events and statements. You are a ‘conservative’ if you express your dislike for a thing or another. And because people want to be seen to be ‘liberals’, and therefore progressive, they accept things they inherently detest. I don’t want to be in the midst of people who only regurgitate and cannot go a step beyond the status quo, in thought. Hence, I may be in a comfort zone but it is a zone that helps me think.

DARKO: In a radio appearance, you were admirably introduced as someone who has the drive to read ‘every’ book. Standing at a novel per week, your reading frequency is an exemplar to be praised. But looking at the rate with which you read and re-read, I believe you are an interesting reader who has a compulsive obsession. I think you need some clinical help. I wonder if you have any time left for your private life!

NANA: I love reading; or more importantly, knowing. The fact is the more you read and discover the more you realise that you know less, which calls for further reading and searching. Yes, I will love to read every book, important book for that matter. But do I have a compulsive obsession to read to the point of it requiring clinical help? No, I truthfully do not think so. Why am I saying this? I have read only one book this month (September) – excluding the one I started last – and I am not experiencing any withdrawal symptoms. I read less during my undergraduate and postgraduate studies and also when I am very much into writing. I seem to be reading more now because I temporarily suspended writing – writing here refers to poems and attempts at short stories.

I also have a coterie of friends – a quartet that usually dissolves into a triad – which meet once in a while to talk about life. We pretend to dissect and ratiocinate over current issues to find out where ‘we got it all wrong’. My family is a young one and you should see how the child in me dominates when we settle to play. In fact, I postpone reading when the children aren’t asleep and I have to wake up early if I have to cover some pages.

DARKO: I have studied your interest. I know you to be someone who contributes to political commentaries. You have accommodated diverse views in that regard. But may I know: If given the opportunity, you would review politics rated literature like The Stolen Verdict, Chasing the Elephant into the Bush by Arthur Kennedy and Kwame Nkrumah: The Anatomy of an African Dictator by Peter Omari? Why would you, if you would? And why not, if you won’t?

NANA: Why not? I read every kind of book. I read and reviewed Kwame Nkrumah’s Neo-Colonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism and David Rooney’s Kwame Nkrumah Vision and Tragedy. I read them when I wanted to know the man Nkrumah from his own perspective and from another person’s. I reviewed Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid – Why Aid is not Working and How there is another Way for Africa. So I will review them. However, I approach such books differently. I don’t review them for their literary merits but for the veracity of the issues raised and the originality and possible effects of the ideas in them. In reviewing these books I interrogate the ideas, the issues they raise and unlike fiction I don’t easily allow myself to be carried along. I do this even with memoirs, like Kofi Annan’s Interventions – A Life in War and Peace.

However, some novels reflect the political reality of the people more than these non-fiction books, which are usually politically biased or motivated with the aim to discredit, defame, or as in memoirs, repair. Works by Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Ayi Kwei Armah are political. But we need all these to appreciate and understand the issues.

DARKO: Over the years, you have reported and analyzed the major literary prizes. Leaning on your knowledge, let me drag the issue of politics: The Man Booker Prize has released its 2013 shortlist. The Zimbabwean NoVoilet Bulawayo is on the list. Her book, We Need New Names has many things to say about Robert Mugabe and politics in Zimbabwe. The Guardian, in no derogatory terms, says that it [Bulawayo’s book] is ‘rooted in specific political realities’. Against Guardian's neutrality, do you think that politics-centred books are a contamination to creative literature? Has politics any connection with general literature?

NANA: Literature is life and since politics is about life politics-centred books cannot be a contamination to creative literature. It only becomes a contamination when the effects of bad or negative politics – as in the emaciated people, diseases, corruption – become the only motif or canvass of the author. When the story describes hungry natives with flies landing on their eyelids waiting to be rescued by foreigners; when all that the author does is to present pictures of the life of a certain group he or she thinks is its voice. When an author refuses to interrogate further, to psychologically analyse, to go beyond what everybody sees or to see the same thing differently, when an author’s work is not different from the reports NGOs send to their funders for more funding, that author would have failed and that work would have negatively benefitted from that ‘politics’ he or she was trying to play.

We don’t read Dostoevsky’s The Karamazov Brothers or Ayi Kwei Armah’s Two Thousand Seasons or even Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes because they merely described events. They interrogated philosophically, socially, intellectually a political issue. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina dealt with the political nature of marriage and the Church’s control over the state but he didn’t write it just as everybody saw it – he interrogated it, just as Thomas Hardy did in Jude the Obscure. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment has as part of its theme the discrimination against the peasants and their abject poverty. But the book went beyond mere paintings to psychologically examine the nature of crime and what it could lead to. In fact, one might say that literature has benefitted tremendously from politics. Most of the hard-hitting Russian and German writers suffered politically and it offered them a keen insight into human nature and thought. They didn’t become bitter writers or suddenly transformed into the voice of the people as some writers are eagerly struggling to become here; they became writers who philosophically and psychologically examined the human condition. Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table is not just a compendium of his experiences during the holocaust; it’s a work of art. Literature is a work of art and a work of art must say more than what the ordinary person sees, else it loses its artfulness. It becomes bland and dull.

Unfortunately, most politics-centred African novels are no different from NGO reports and are written with an agenda – bash the politician, especially the ones the West bashes and you shall be published soon and be hailed as the voice of the people in major foreign newspapers. The effects of negative politics are our reality; but they are only part of our reality. We don’t have a singular reality. Why do people make it seem that Africans have only one reality, which they must uniquely represent? And if these authors want to represent that reality, shouldn’t they do so artistically? Should it be plain and direct and bland? Is that what Bulgakov did with his famous Master and Margarita? Is that what Elias Canetti did with Auto Da Fe? Anyone who has read Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o etc. will know that you can be political and still be artistic. Try that excellent book, Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiog’o.

DARKO: Writers Project of Ghana is an organization you associate. Can you please tell the role you play?

NANA: Writers Project of Ghana thrives on the volunteerism of people with similar passions. For instance, both Goethe Institute and Citi FM offer us physical space and airwaves, respectively, for free because they believe in what we do. It’s on that same common interest and in the spirit of volunteerism that I associate with the organization. I do not have a formal role but I work as the convenor for the organisation’s Book and Discussion Club. I also serve as its book reviewer. And I avail myself to other assignments that would be demanded of me. We need such volunteerism to make things work.

DARKO: In an interview with Geosi Reads, you said that “Reading triggers the mind to think farther and wider” As part of your favourite quotations, you cherish Augustine of Hippo’s philosophy: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
Great quotes! But the quotations alone might not influence a lazy fellow. Do you have any practical help or advice for someone who wants to start reading?

NANA: People should be both angered and motivated by that prejudiced but frequently-quoted statement about hiding something from the African by keeping it in the book. As I have said before, in this world, we can only lead but one life. Books allow the reader to live several lives and experience several things. It expands his or her understanding and the workings of this world. To develop a reading habit, first start with a subject or genre of interest. Then begin small, say ten pages a day. Keep to the ten pages and be consistent with it. This will come to an average of 300 pages a month, which is slightly higher than the average novel. Consistency is the key. Some say they have no time but they don’t work 24/7. If you estimate the hours they spend doing nothing you’ll marvel.

DARKO: Thanks for your time on The Street. So grateful!

NANA: Thanks for the opportunity.