SYNW Felicitates with Odia Ofeimun on his 70th Birthday

SYNW FELICITATES WITH ODIA OFEIMUN ON HIS 70^TH BIRTHDAY

The Society of Young Nigerian Writer (SYNW) has felicitated with the former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Mr. Odia Ofeimun, on his 70th birthday.

This was contained in a congratulatory message issued and signed by the President of the Society, Wole Adedoyin on Monday in Ibadan.

SYNW in her statement enjoined Mr. Odia Ofeimun’s family, friends, literary associates, and well-wishers to celebrate this milestone of him attaining the joyous age of seventy in good health and sound mind.

According to the Statement, Mr. Odia Ofeimun is the best leader anyone could ask for. We are very proud of him and his literary achievements. He has been a literary role model and an example of a great literary personality to this generation, and we are proud to hold him as someone worthy of emulation.

SYNW finally prayed that the Almighty God will grant Mr. Odia Ofeimun longer life, good health and more strength to celebrate more fruitful years.

Odia Ofeimun (born 16 March 1950) is a Nigerian poet and polemicist, the author of many volumes of poetry, books of political essays and on cultural politics, and the editor of significant two anthologies of Nigerian poetry. His work has been widely anthologized and translated and he has read and performed his poetry internationally. 

Odia Ofeimun was born in Iruekpen-Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria, in 1950. He worked as a news reporter, factory labourer and civil servant before studying Political Science at the University of Ibadan, where his poetry won first prize in the University Competition of 1975. That year his work appeared in the anthology Poems of Black Africa, edited by Wole Soyinka. 

Ofeimun also worked as an administrative officer in the Federal Public Service Commission, as a teacher, as private (political) secretary to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria, and as a member of the editorial board of The Guardian Newspapers in Lagos. He studied at Oxford University on a Commonwealth fellowship. Returning to Nigeria at the annulment of the 1993 election, he wrote columns for The Guardian On Sunday, the Nigerian Tribune, as well as contributing to many other newspapers. He was chairman of the editorial board of the defunct daily, A.M. News, as well as The News and Tempo magazines. 

Ofeimun was publicity secretary (1982–84), general secretary (1984–88) and president (1993–97) of the Association of Nigerian Authors. He was also designated advisor to PEN Nigeria Centre and is a founding member of the Pan African Writers' Association. 

Ofeimun is the author of more than 40 works. His published collections of poetry include The Poet Lied (1980), A Handle for The Flutist (1986), Dreams At Work and London Letter and Other Poems (2000). His poems for dance drama, Under African Skies (1990) and Siye Goli - A Feast of Return (1992), were commissioned and performed across the UK and Western Europe by Adzido Pan-African Dance Ensemble in the early 1990s, and his most recent poem for dance drama, Nigeria The Beautiful, has been staged through major Nigerian cities to wide acclaim.

Awards

In 2010 Ofeimun received the Fonlon-Nichols Award for literary excellence and propagation of Human Rights, which was conferred on him by the African Literature Association.

Selected bibliography

Poetry

• The Poet Lied (1980)
• A Handle for The Flutist (1986)
• Under African Skies (Lagos: Hornbill House, 1990; ISBN 978-0951677407)
• London Letter and Other Poems (Lagos: Hornbill House, 2000; ISBN 978-9783527041)
• Dreams At Work and Other Poems (Lagos: Hornbill House, 2000; ISBN 978-9783527003)
• A Feast of Return (Lagos: Hornbill House, 2000)
• Go Tell the Generals (2010)
• A Boiling Caracas and Other Poems (2008)
• I Will Ask Questions With Stones If They Take My Voice (2008)
• Nigeria The Beautiful: Poems for Dance Drama (2011)

Anthologies

• Lagos of the Poets
• Salute to the Master Builder

Cultural politics

• A House of Many Mansions (Lagos: Hornbill House, 2012: ISBN 978-978-49005-8-4)
• Impossible Dream of the African Author
• Media Nigeriana
• In Search of Ogun: Soyinka In Spite of Nietzsche (Lagos: Hornbill House, 2014; ISBN 978-978-49005-9-1)

Politics

• Taking Nigeria Seriously
• June Twelvers' Dilemma
• When Does a Civil War Come To an End?
• This Conference Must Be Different

SYNW Unveils Three Projects to mark 2020 World Book Day

SYNW UNVEILS THREE PROJECTS TO MARK 2020 WORLD BOOK DAY

The Society of Young Nigerian Writers (SYNW) on Wednesday unveiled plan to celebrate this year World Book Day with three projects namely; National Book Awareness Week, African Book Week and the Children’s Book Week. All projects will run concurrently.

This was contained in a statement issued by the President of the Society, Wole Adedoyin in Ibadan on Wednesday.

According to the statement “the National Book Awareness Week (NABAWK) is an internet based literary project aim at promoting only Nigerian literary books. NABAWK will be showcasing old Nigerian literary books which people have forgotten, refreshing and bringing back their memories of such books. The African Book Week on the other hand will be showcasing African literary books written by renowned African writers, dead and living. While the Children’s Book Week will be showcasing notable children’s books.”

The internet based projects which promised to be a display of only literary and creative writing books will also be featuring reviews and historical details of such books.

The Projects will be featuring over 300 works of creative writers like Daniel O. Fagunwa, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare, Ola Rotimi, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Cyprian Ekwensi, Buchi Emecheta, Elechi Amadi, Tanure Ojaide and Ben Okri, Dr. Wale Okediran, Chris Abani, Denja Abdulahi, Tony Marinho, Bayo Adebowale, Ayobami Adebayo, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lola Shoneyin, Adams Ibrahim, T.M Aluko, Yemi Ogunyemi, Yemisi Aribisala, Sefi Atta, A. Igoni Barrett, Helon Habila, Chigozie Obioma, Helen Oyeyemi, Nnedi Okorafor, Chinelo Okparanta, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Chika Unigwe, Ogaga Ifowodo, to mention but few and all the books under the African Writers Series will be covered.

SYNW Mourns Renowned Literary Scholar Harry Garuba

SYNW MOURNS RENOWNED LITERARY SCHOLAR HARRY GARUBA

Society of Young Nigerian Writers (SYNW) has sent her condolences to the family and literary associates of the late literary figure and Nigerian academic Prof. Harry Garuba.

The late Prof. Harry Garuba burst on to the literary scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s and made a name for himself. Prof. Harry Garuba passed away on Friday evening in South Africa, following a long illness. A statement on Saturday by the University of Cape Town where the departed poet had taught for much of his career, announced his death.

Reacting to the death of Prof. Harry Garuba, Wole Adedoyin, the President of SYNW in a statement issued on Saturday, said the literary works of the late don would leave lasting memories of his literary legacy.

“SYNW commiserates with family of the renowned academic and poet, Prof. Harry Garuba, who passed away on Friday 28th February, 2020, urging them to find solace in the good deeds and the good life lived by the departed.

“SYNW also condoles with friends and literary associates of Prof. Harry Garuba, whose outstanding contributions to the tenet of African studies and literature will be sorely missed.

SYNW finally prayed that the almighty God will accept the soul of the departed, and comfort his family.

Born in Akure, southwestern Nigeria, in 1958, at age 17, Garuba gained admission to the department of English at the University of Ibadan. The budding young scholar drew on his academic and intellectual formation at Ibadan to graduate with a BA honours and later with a master’s degree.

From there he obtained his PhD in 1988 and composed a work of scholarship, Mask and Meaning in Black Drama: Africa and the Diaspora, illustrating his groundbreaking thesis on genre and technique in African, Afro-Caribbean and African-American drama with a comparative study of the plays of Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka, St Lucian Derek Walcott and the American Amiri Baraka.

From 1981, he taught at Ibadan for more than 15 years before migrating to South Africa in 1998, first teaching English at the University of Zululand and, from 2001, teaching English and African studies at the University of Cape Town.

Ibadan, Nigeria’s premier university, offered the creative space within which his talent could flourish. Garuba was still a teenager when his one-act play, Pantomime for Saint Apartheid’s Day, appeared in the Festac Anthology of Nigerian New Writing (1977), compiled on the occasion of the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, which took place in Lagos, Nigeria, from January 15 to February 12 1977.

But that was child’s play compared with what he achieved five years later. In 1982, New Horn Press, the Ibadan-based publishing house built by the late, great Nigerian literary scholar Professor F Abiola Irele, brought out Garuba’s first volume of poetry, Shadow and Dream and Other Poems, when the poet was only 24. It’s a relatively slim book but contains some of the greatest and most original poetry ever written. The first poem in Garuba’s distinguished debut comprises perhaps the most memorable opening lines in modern Nigerian poetry in English since The Passage in Christopher Okigbo’s debut Heavensgate (1962) published by Mbari, another Ibadan-based house, 20 years earlier.

SYNW Congratulates Prof. Remi Raji on Conferment of Chieftaincy Title of Mogaji Adegboro Clan.

SYNW Congratulates Prof. Remi Raji on Conferment of Chieftaincy Title of Mogaji Adegboro Clan.

  Wole Adedoyin, the President of the Society of Young Nigerian Writers (SYNW) has congratulated Prof. Remi Raji, popularly known by his pen name as Remraj on the conferment of chieftaincy title of Mogaji (Mogaji of Adegboro Clan of Idi Arere, Ibadan), by Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji (Aje Ogunguniso I).

The title “Mogaji” is the foundation and the pivot of the Ibadan traditional system, the very foundation on which the superstructure of the system is expected to rest – from the peace, progress and patriotic contribution of every Ibadan household to the sustenance of a system that becomes the envy of other areas of Yorubaland. In strict interpretation, it is a distinctive first recognized traditional title in Ibadanland which connotes the first grade in the hierarchy of Ibadan chiefs.

Wole Adedoyin, in a statement issued and signed in Ibadan on Tuesday, felicitated with the former Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan and the former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) on the recognition.

According to the Statement, the recognition was inspired by his (Remi Raji) contributions to the development of Ibadanland as the second largest city in Africa, Oyo State as a state and Nigeria as a country.

In the ancient days, the Mogajis were military leaders and their authority extended to tribute areas in the countryside. Today, Mogajis, who live in town, control family land. The Mogajis of the town are superior to the village heads whom they appoint. A recognized Mogaji may be followed and obeyed by several thousand people in the town and the rural districts, although his own extended family does not normally exceed 300 individuals.

Wole Adedoyin commended Prof. Remi Raji’s extended family for nominating him as the head and leader of the historic and renowned Adegboro Clan.

SYNW finally urged the newly installed Mogaji not to disappoint his people and Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji (Aje Ogunguniso I). 

Aderemi Raji-Oyelade (born 1961) is a Nigerian poet, writing in English. He is popularly known by his pen name as Remraj. 

Remi Raji, a Salzburg Fellow and visiting professor and writer to a number of institutions, among them Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, the Universities of California at Riverside and Irvine, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Cambridge University, UK, Raji has had scholarly essays published in journals including Research in African Literatures and African Literature Today. He has read his poems widely in Africa, Europe and America. In 2005, he served as the Guest Writer to the City of Stockholm, Sweden. 

His volumes of poetry include Webs of Remembrance (2001), Shuttlesongs America: A poetic guided tour (2003), Lovesong for My Wasteland (2005), Gather My Blood Rivers of Song (2009) and Sea of My Mind (2013). Raji’s works have been translated into French, German, Catalan, Swedish, Ukrainian, Latvian, Croatian and Hungarian. He has been an Alexander von Humboldt Scholar to Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. 

Remi Raji was elected as the Publicity Secretary of the Oyo State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in 1989. His second elective position was as Vice-Chair of the ANA in 1997. He became the substantive Chairman of the ANA from 1998 to 2000, at the election of Dr. Wale Okediran to the national executive committee of the ANA. Raji served as the Year 2000 Editor of the ANA Review, the official journal of the association. On 3 December 2011, during the 30th-anniversary celebration of the founding of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Remi Raji was elected as the ANA's 11th President. 

Raji was the National Coordinator of the resuscitated Nigerian PEN Centre in 1999 before he was elected as the Secretary of the Centre, a position he held till February 2010. During this period, Raji facilitated international workshops and strategic meetings of African PEN Centres within Africa and in Europe. He was unanimously elected as the first Coordinating Secretary of PAN, the Congress of PEN African Centres, at a special meeting of the group on 22 November 2003 in Mexico City. 

At his university, University of Ibadan, the Professor of English and African Literatures and Creative Writing has served in many administrative capacities which culminated in his appointment as the Head of the Department of English in 2011. Over a year after that substantive position, he was elected as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts. 

Books authored by Prof. Remi Raji include: A Harvest of Laughters, 1997, joint winner of the Association of Nigerian Authors/Cadbury Poetry Prize and winner of the Association of West African Young Writers' VOCA Award for Best First Published Book, Webs of Remembrance, 2001, Shuttlesongs America: A Poetic Guided Tour, 2001–2003, Lovesong for My Wasteland, 2005, Gather My Blood Rivers of Song, 2009, Sea of My Mind, 2013.