Of Nationality, Nationhood and Miss Shaw

Yesterday while checking on a multilingual website, in search of further networks in translation and linguistics, I came across a curious thing. On the homepage was the language option for the user, and each language option was represented with a flag: the flag of Germany for German, the French flag for the French language, the Union Jack for English, and the Star and Stripes for American, the flag of China for Chinese etc. If there were Zulu there, I have no doubt that I would have seen a South African flag there, and a Kenyan flag for Swahili even though it is also spoken in Uganda and Tanzania. I did not find Yoruba, or Hausa on the site, but I had a chance to think that if they were recognized as international languages of communication, they would each have been represented by the Green-White-Green Nigerian flag. Very few countries in the world have the privilege of being populated by strong and different nations/nationalities who speak different languages that have each been recognized as a distinct national language.

Nigeria was coined by Miss Flora Shaw, the mistress of Nigeria's Administrator Lord Lugard from the word "Niger" which was what they called the large West African river. Some said Niger itself could have been a variant of "Nigger", and Nigeria the same as "an area of the Niggers." It is thus not surprising the revolt and cultural revolution of the new generation of Nigerian youths which has produced another variant of the name, now Naija. The older generation are still struggling to come to terms with the re-definition, as can be found in Dr. Reuben Abati's article A Nation's Identity Crisis. In many ways, it could be read as a reflection of an ageing generation's wonder at the dynamism of the new. The article, and the subsequent rejoinders will go into the archives as a marker of public self reappraisal. A wind is blowing through our polity, and out of it hopefully will arise something new and fresh - a renewal so long overdue.


Quote:
"One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people." - Author Unknown

Of Lagos, George Carlin and Short Vacations

I spent last week in the city of Lagos, meeting old acquaintances, and attending a book reading, but mostly attending a pre-departure orientation programme for us Fulbright grantees going to the United States on various Fulbright Programmes this summer. It was held within the US Consulate at Lagos Island.

We were told about racism, homosexuality, loneliness, cold, money, food, jetlag and many other issues we'd have to deal with in the United States. I liked that, although it was a little scary to listen to the co-ordinator Atim George describe the experience of cold in the USA. Someone who has never lived in very cold weather before might be petrified, and I'd say that I still am although we were given a few tips on how to survive the American cold. I still remain in reverent dread of the Midwestern American cold where I hope to spend the winter this year. The event ended with a press conference where journalists were invited to see, listen, and ask questions. Up until now, I've trawling the web trying in vain to find one report from the event. None so far.

Earlier in the week, I had the pleasure of a boat ride across the Ikoyi River in company of two friends from the Fulbright pre-Orientation Programme who had been lodged into the same hotel as me at Ikoyi. We had strolled out into the breezy Lagos night, hoping initially just to enjoy the evening, until we stumbled on the idea of a boat ride just for the fun. Actually it was his crazy idea. We dared the night and speeding speedboats and crossed the river giggling like school children. In a few minutes, it was over. It was however an enchanting experience.

In Lagos last week also, I also managed to re-unite with George Carlin, whose irreverent rants I've missed all my life, except for the cameo snippet in the movie, Dogma. It was a great pleasure to gain possession of most of his spoken word albums and a few video performances. He's surely one of America's greats. The weekend wrapped up with a visit to the cinema to watch the Terminator Salvation. Not bad for an action movie although many fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been disappointed with the little role given to the man. Oh, was that even a man in the movie playing him?

That was it. I'm back to base, sipping water and complaining about a parched throat, general lassitude, and slow internet connections. I've written a short commissioned article on the new writings from Nigeria for Nigerianstalk.org. Check it when you can, and leave comments. I'm now off to listen to more politically incorrect irreverantings of George Carlin, one of the most famous stand-up comedians of our time, and to rest. I need that.

Behind the Door

Hi There Dear Invisible, Silent Blog Readers,

My first published short story - if you'd call it that - was published, online on the 29th May. Titled "Behind the Door", it is published by Story Time.

Let Us Go Behind the Door

My first short story to be published online will appear on StoryTime on Sunday, 31st May 2009.

It is titled "Behind the Door".


Storytime is an online publishing collective created to bring out new fictions from Africa.

Essay On Richard Feynman

There is an interesting article on the great physicist, Richard Feynman, written by W. Daniel Hillis for Physics Today, here.

The Language of Porn, and other Ramblings on Language

Yes, you heard right. I am at present curious about the language of pornography. I want to know whether when the viewer picks up a video and presses play, the language of the actors have anything to contribute to the appreciation - enjoyment if you will - of the performance. Considering that there are different kinds of pornography, I would think that the answer would depend on what the viewer wants. Won't it? Well, since this is not an expose on the film genre in particular, we won't bother with expatiating the categories. But for the purpose of this inquiry, can we ask whether the actresses that speak French or Spanish please the viewer better than those who speaks in English or Chinese?


On a totally different but similar matter, I have always also wanted to know what language the referees of international football matches speak. For instance, a match tomorrow between the English club from Manchester will meet with the team from Barcelona, Spain. How would the players be able to hear the referee when he tries to warn a player without using a card. How would the referee be able to hear the players when they scream their grievances? One guess would be that referees are trained in the major languages of the world. But I doubt it. I think they only speak "cardese", a language based only on the colours of the warning cards. This should explain all those hand gestures, and angry mouthing of expletives by the players whenever they feel slighted. I once read about deaf people who complained about not being able to enjoy soccer without noticing the profanities on the mouth of players. I guess being able to read lips could have its own disadvantages. But even within teams, how do they communicate? Didier Drogba of Chelsea is from a French-speaking African country and is in the same team as Michael Essien of Ghana and Mikel Obi of Nigeria. Do they communicate at all in the dressing rooms. If so, how. If not, why not? How does Christiana Ronaldo speak with his coach Sir Fergusson at Manchester?

Questions, questions. Things I've always wanted to know.

Quote of the Week

A friend sent this to me via email last week:

"A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits."- Robert Heinlein

I hesitate to ask why, but I think it may have something to do with the speaker's resentment towards a sleight-of-hand effect of a good public performance of an otherwise terrible poem.

Who knows.

Indian Movies in Yoruba II

Here is the first opinion piece in a Nigerian newspaper on the phenomenon of Yoruba voice dubbing on old Indian movies. It's written by novelist Bimbola Adelakun.

A Day of Book Readings in Ibadan

I was privileged at the weekend to attend a reading in Ibadan organised along with a book tour by Auggust Media featuring nine new Nigerian writers and spanning four cities. It was one of the best gatherings I have attended in a while. Ibadan was the second city where the reading train has stopped on its way into the heart of the Niger Delta. There's more information about the programme tagged 9 Writers, 4 Cities HERE, HERE and HERE.

Now I have got a stack of the following new books to read:

I am Memory, a collection of poetry by Jumoke Verissimo
Night of a Creaking Bed, a collection of short stories by Toni Kan
From the Caves of Rotten Teeth, short stories by Igoni Barrett
To Saint Patrick, a novel by Eghosa Imasuen
Under the Brown Rusted Roofs, a novel by Bimbola Adelakun, and
The Poet Lied, collection of poems by Odia Ofiemun.

Just before Saturday, I had completed Tolu Ogunlesi's book for young adults titled Conquest and Conviviality.

The informal after-event get-together at the University Staff Club was an icing on the already pleasant day. It is not everyday that one gets to dialogue with authors, critics and editors over drinks and good music. Present were Sola Olorunyomi, author of Afrobeat: Fela and the Imagined Continent, Remi Raji, poet and author of Lovesongs for my Wasteland, Amatoritsero Ede, poet and editor of Maple Tree Literary Supplement, and moderator of Krazitivity, Toni Kan, telecoms exec, columnist and author of Night of a Creaking Bed and Songs of Absence and Despair, Eghosa Imasuen, author of To Saint Patrick among others.

Those interested in the itinerary of the 9 Writers, 4 Cities Book Tour should look up http://blog.farafinamagazine.com.

The inserted photo has Jumoke Verrisimo autographing her book for the blogger. "From one writer to another", she writes.

Of Poems and Indian Movies in Yoruba

I know it's none of my business, but I had cause this morning to review my prejudice to the "Praise Song" poem for Barack Obama's Inauguration. The poem, written by Elizabeth Alexander, and performed on the Capitol Hill Inauguration event has been subject of many vile and sometimes ignorant review. Many of my friends said that it was too prosy, lacked poetry and was not properly performed, even hinting that Ms Alexander might have been too intimidated by the event, and the weight of responsibility of her role on that day to deliver like Maya Angelou did for Bill Clinton. While I didn't get to watch all of the poetry performance itself, I agreed in part that it might be hard to judge a poem only by what we hear.

Well, I read the poem in full today at Eshunetics and was delivered. I found someone who somehow gave voice to my thoughts. You can look it out too, and tell me what you think. For a differnt view of the poetry performance, go to the critical website here.


Meanwhile, I've been seeing some old Indian movies on the street of Ibadan. This time, they're totally in Yoruba. From the begining to the end, every word you hear, every cry and expression has been voiced over in good and colloquial Yoruba. This is very exciting. Whenever you see people gathered around a public television set these days, it's most likely to be one of those shows where the great Indian movie legends could be seen serenading an equally beautiful Indian actress in flawless Yoruba. I have not seen anyone of those movies myself, but I've seen people looking at them. I've also seen them being sold as DVDs: "Toofan Lede Yoruba", "Ghazab lede Yoruba" etc as the titles now read. I'm quite impressed. I will buy one of those soon, and let you know what I think.

Brave New Words: Another Call for Submissions

Brave New Words: Call for Submissions for literatures in translation.

Rise of Machines: Fun, Fact & the Future

This little rant is from a recent conversation with a language engineer here on Ibadan campus - by recent, I mean two hours ago, today - about the future of machine translation technology and African languages. What brought the discussion was a suggestion by the humble blogger that humans are not ever going to be dispensable in this coming technological future. My interlocutor believed otherwise, quoting from empirical and research progresses that suggest that although not "yet uhuru" for machine translations, in about ten years or less, we'd get to a position where humans would be totally dispensible in language tranlation. In short, if the language technicians and scientists ask the right questions, we'd soon get to a place where machines would actually be able to translate nuanced and culture-contexted texts from African languages into English. He said: "the question is not whether/or, it is how soon, and what are we doing to make it come to pass". TA being his quintissential self, I let his arguements pass. He's one such linguists at the fore-front of African technology initiatives in language. And as surely as there are so many advantages of language technology, the human angle (yea I said it out loud) should not be overlooked. i.e the future of men when/if it ever happens that machines take over their work and capabilities.


Looking back, as much as I agree with the eventuality that many human translators will be out of business soon, I decided to retain the right to laugh at the future instances of machine foibles and flops (like that of inserted photo, culled from blogamundo). And rather than sweat to hasten the coming apocalypse for human translators, I can also poke fun from the safety of my still nuanced African linguo.


I am a trained linguist, yes, but I am also many other things besides. My choice for this discipline is somewhat of a "rebellious" association which equips me with tools and privilege with which to poke fun at my own foibles and that of my environment. In short, I can now consider myself a cunning linguist. (no pun, please).

More in my recent post at Instablogs

African Languages (Technology): Call For Papers

Language Technologies for African Languages

March 30 or 31 (to be determined), 2009

Athens, Greece

A Workshop at the annual meeting of the European Association forComputational Linguistics

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

In multilingual situations, language technologies are crucial for providing access to information and opportunities for economic development. With somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 different languages, Africa is a multilingual continent par excellence and presents acute challenges for those seeking to promote and use African languages in the areas of business

development, education, research, and relief aid. In recent times a number of African researchers and institutions have come forward that share the common goal of developing capabilities in language technologies. This workshop provides a forum to meet and share the latest developments in this field. It also seeks to include linguists who specialize in African

languages and would like to leverage the tools and approaches of computational linguistics, as well as computational linguists who are interested in learning about the particular linguistic challenges posed by African languages.

Limited funding available for participants from Africa

The reviewing will be blind and the paper should therefore not include the authors' names and affiliations. Submission will be electronic. Papers must be submitted no later than December 19, 2008 using the submission webpage that will be available soon. Submissions will be reviewed by 3 members of the Program Committee. Authors of accepted papers will receive guidelines on how to produce camera-ready versions of their papers for inclusion in the EACL workshop proceedings. Notification of receipt will be emailed to the contact author.

More Information at http://aflat.org/ and http://www.mail-archive.com/africanlanguages@yahoogroups.com/msg00670.html

On Translation

Well, the Nobel fever of last week did achieve one thing: highlighted the importance of literary translation, which, by the way, is not an exclusive preserve of linguists.

What are my challenges as a linguist/translator in Africa? Besides the dearth of works by African writers in indigenous languages. I know that I do not make a new point when I comment that most of the literatures of indigenous Africa that need/mandate translation are not written but oral. Thus, it would seem that any serious work in that area by a willing linguist has to necessarily include lots of fieldwork and gathering of indigenous narrations that make for good textual literature.

I am discovering a few more blogs that explore the experience of living as a translator, and its challenges.

...And Some Flak for American Literature

In a related news, the American literary world has received flak from Mr. Engdahl of the Nobel Academy for being "shallow". The comment according to NY Times "provoked a wave of indignation when he criticized American writers as “too isolated, too insular” and “too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture.” Europe, he declared, is “the center of the literary world.”

No American has won the Nobel literature prize since Toni Morrison did in 1993.

Well, no Nigerian has won the Nobel Literature Prize since Wole Soyinka did in... wait for it... 1986. If American literature, with the likes of Roth, Angelou, Ashbery et al is considered too insular, what does that say of Nigerian literature? Food for thought? Any thought for new Nigerian literatures that do not make the Military regime, civil wars, hunger and ritual sacrifices all that define us as a people? Any thought for the new literatures that acknowledge outside influence and mutations. Any new ideas from us to the world. Or are we finally done, finally culturally unravelled as not to have anything more to add to the world. If so, might that perhaps not be a new reality to be explored in new literatures?. Well, all tongue-in-cheek comments aside, it has been acknowledged that the Nobel exercise is as political as it is literary so there, such comments should not be taken as the final word on literature!

A Nobel Week

Many interesting things happened in the gone week. One was most remarkable.

The Nobel Prize for literature was given to a Frenchman whose works interestingly have not been accessible to the many people of Africa, and even of Europe where he resides. Jean-Marie Gustav le Clezio was given the prize for being the "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization"

His book Onitsha (after the Eastern Nigerian city) details his experience of living in colonial Nigeria - one of such accounts by a foreigner would make a good read, if only for its unique perspective. There is of course a mild irony that Chinua Acbebe an annual member of the speculative shortlist of the prize is from that same region of Nigeria, though born a decade before this year's prize winner.

The New York Times writes in this recent article that "Mr. Le Clézio is not well known in the United States, where few of his books are available in translation, but he is considered a major figure in European literature and has long been mentioned as a possible laureate. "

His not being known here, and in the United States might be due to a lack of adequate translations of his work. But you have to know a writer's/story's prospects before venturing into translating them. What have the French-English literary translators been doing all these while? No doubt the writer has now become a hot cake and will now be made more accessible now that his name has joined the greats. This year's award thus throws a light on a branch of literature often neglected at great risk to the sustenance of literary culture: translation. Not many people in Africa and America will know what Le Clezio has written in his native French language until and unless his works are translated. And we can't force him to write in English!

This week also tasked my opinion and knowledge on the language questions in (African) literature. It is a wide debate: which language should the African write in? These recent events have only vindicated the opinions of great voices like Chinua Achebe who insists on writing in whatever language, as long as he passes his message across. That language of course happened to be English, although the question remains whether he would have been so globally recognised if he had written Things Fall Apart totally in his Igbo language. Ngugi wa Thiong'o now writes in his native Gikuyu language, and later translates them himself into English. In all, literature exists in different cultures and only translation can make them more accessible either from a dominant language into teh minority ones, or vice versa.

Needless to say, that book, Onitsha has now joined my reading wishlist. Sadly, one may have to wait until Nigerian publishers secure publishing/translation rights for those works of the writer before we get them to buy here in Nigeria. Any other suggestions?

Here is a phone interview with Le Clezio. And an old interview. Finally, here is a link to a short story by the writer, translated.

Internet and the Questions of Privacy

The past few days got me thinking about privacy on the internet. No doubt it is one of the main issues in its functionality and relevance. A fellow Nigerian Blogger complained about impersonation. An old friend had to leave Facebook after a few months involvement in its social network. He had come to the conclusion that he was losing his tab on his activities, words and contacts. In short, no more in control. It seemed so easy these days to get lost in this modern world of social interaction. That's why many of us go back to make a deserved re-appraisal. I have cause to agree with my friend - also a Blogger - but still I find myself unable to be so bold. I still can't get my thoughts away from the internet after just a few hours of disconnection.

In a recent publication, it was said that addiction to/demand for internet pornography is now on a steep decline because of the ubiquity of online social networks like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube etc. Can you believe it? A good thing perhaps, as we are now too busy poking ourselves with imaginary Facebook pens and Yahoo buzzes to want to do a little peeking at naked breasts at Bang Bros.

Here is a recent news report where Aerosmith's frontsman Steven Tyler (pictured) sued anonymous bloggers who had laid secrets of his and his girlfriend's life on Blogspot. And who can easily forget the News Agency of Nigeria's trouble in the past few days when a "hacker" was reported to have sent damaging report about Nigeria's president from one of their dead email addresses?

Two weeks ago, in this same cybercafe from where I write, a malicious virus that displays a .gif image of Kenya's opposition leader cum Prime Minster Raila Odinga on the user's computer preventing them from using it was finally removed. It had been developed somewhere in Southern Africa perhaps by supporters of the East African politician, and sent around Africa in a supposed campaign of solidarity for their perhaps patron. More on the Odinga Virus here.

These are interesting times for privacy - that word that has come to take on a new 21st century meaning that we cannot yet fathom.

Grammatika!

Musicians are not all known to be good speakers of English. But musicians whose language is English, and whose primary audience are English speakers are at least expected to have some mastery of the language. My opinion. And I am fairly sure that everyone would consider Pop icon Michael Jackson a native speaker of the language. How then did the following from his pen get past the scritiny of his many editors and producers into a top hit track?

from I'll Be There

If you should ever find someone new

I know he'd better be good to you

But if he doesn't...

(then) I'll be there

...

My emphasis is on that third line. Look at it again. If he doesn't do what? Elementary grammar shows that verb inconsistent with the preceding "He'd better be good to you", and the most correct alternative would have been "...but if he isn't...", which means "if he isn't good to you, I'll be there."

But I guess it may not make much musical sense now. After all, we're talking about the King of Pop. Perhaps we could write it off as an innocent dialectal variant of American English, if that would sell.

Never mind that it was he as well who wrote the #1 hit single "We are the World" in which the following was also written:

from stanza 2. Note the emphasis, mine

As God has shown us by turning stone to bread

And so we all must lend a helping hand

God of course never turned stone to bread. At least not in any written scripture I know. The closest was when Jesus was tempted by the devil. He was teased to turn stones to bread so as to ease his hunger from fasting. In another instance, Jesus himself multiplied some loaves of bread to feed a multitude. The only thing he turned, I think, was water - into wine. So where did Michael and Lionel Richie get their "stone to bread" from? We could find more of such examples if we tried to pay more attention to the lyrics of the songs we hear.

But don't mind me, I sometimes let my critical faculty dwarf my appreciation of an otherwise beautiful work of art.

The Blogger is Back!

The Blogger is Back!

I admit, it has been a while since I posted anything worthwhile here. I even (selfishly, I agree) took the blog off the net for a few months. Let me apologise for this, and thank all those who asked, and those who kept checking up for new updates. There are many roads to be trod.

The blogger, however, is back, and he'll be here for some time. This blog might undergo changes, but it will remain.

For those who want to know, an alter ego of this blogger has been writing and commenting on news issues in Nigeria and beyond on a Citizen's Journalist website called InstaBlogs.com. More on this later. You can read past and current articles at www.igwatala.instablogs.com

Enough now. Gotta run.

News item

Salman Rushdie's book to be read in Cologne Mosque
Bin Laden "quite likes" the Satanic Verses

Note: Only one of it is real news, but both are worth reading.