Benue Book and Arts Festival

(Being a text of the Keynote Address at the Benue Book and Arts Festival (V) held in Makurdi at Empire Suites on 21st February, 2025)

Let me begin this keynote address by sharing a quote from my favorite playwright and thinker, Bertolt Brecht, who famously said, “Anyone who wishes to speak the truth must have one foot in the crowd and the other in the library. A book is a weapon; grab it, you who are starving.”

The significance of this transformative festival in Makurdi cannot be overstated, and I would like to congratulate the organizers and participants. Makurdi City has emerged as a vital beacon in the fight against ignorance. Knowledge is power, and there is no greater cultural expression than the shared understanding of culture conveyed through books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. These mediums have highlighted the remarkable proliferation of ideas in Central Nigeria and throughout the country.

The revolution in technology, ICT, social media, and print has made even the most remote parts of the world accessible, allowing previously unheard voices to be heard and to become consequential. This has broken down the barriers to knowledge between Western countries and the rest of the world. Writings and scientific and academic books, once published and distributed solely within Western spaces, are now available to the rest of the globe.  Likewise, educational, scientific, and other books published in the non-Western Southern Hemisphere, especially in Africa, can now be fully accessible to the West.

For hundreds of years, the West monopolized knowledge and dominated critical discussions, shaping the philosophical foundations of the slave trade, slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonialism. However, the book revolution has broken down cognitive barriers, enabling us to challenge Western cognitive empires and the coloniality of knowledge.

We need our writers, artists, and intellectuals to understand that the war against racism, colonialism, neocolonialism, imperialism, and neo-imperialism is not over. African writers must be warriors in the unfinished struggles for our liberation from hunger, poverty, destitution, and dispossession, as well as identity concerns and questions. The words in our books are the mass weapon for re-worlding the World.

We need our writers and actionists in arts and culture to chart a path towards self-determination and challenge the global status quo of unipolarity and the legacies of imperialism we are witnessing recently in the Hamas-Israel conflict and the Russian-Ukraine wars. We are confronted, here in Nigeria, with the tragic internal displacement and dispossessions and expropriation of our people’s lands forcefully by ethnic militias and governments without compensation.

As weapons of mass instruction and liberation, our books must bring marginalized voices to the center and prioritize justice and equity as critical resistance to free our downtrodden and severely deprived rural communities.

Books are the guardians of culture. They serve as the foundations of culture, selectively determining what is essential, dominant, and acceptable and what is fringe, unimportant, and insignificant. A people’s culture embodies everything in their collective way of life. It encompasses the arts, artifacts, morals, materials, and lifestyles of the people. It also includes their technology, perspectives on life, and daily lives.

The world recently acknowledged that Nigeria may fall behind in science and technology. Corruption in our public institutions is widely condemned. We lack security measures, and living in Nigeria can be perilous. Despite these low rankings in the quality of life index—poor health, education, and personal safety—Nigeria is a cultural superpower.

Our culture is rich and diverse, with over 500 languages. Nigerian culture has significantly contributed to the global landscape through music, literature, film, fashion, and food.

Nigerian music, for example, is celebrated globally. Its various genres include Afrobeat, highlife, Fuji, and Swange. Nigeria has even won the world’s Nobel Prize in Literature, and its writers are also published in the West. Here in Benue State, we have produced the Tiv Kwagh–hir, which is recognized as one of the world’s most recognized heritage arts.

Nigeria’s film industry is one of the largest in the world, producing over 1,000 films annually. The country’s fashion designers are making waves globally, bringing vibrant, eclectic styles.

The Makurdi festival of books and culture has become the wind of change blowing across river Benue, creating a radical shift that is transforming the literary landscape of Nigeria and opening possibilities unimaginable to previous generation authors like me and my generation. For centuries, the information flow has been one-sided. For decades, the only path for writers like me was to publish in the West. Even as late as 2022, when I published my ANA award-winning novel, The Conquest of Azenga, in Nigeria, the New York Times Literary Review refused to publish its excellent reviews written by one of the world’s respected literary critics. Their reason was that the Novel was not published in the United States.

Africa has changed all this. We do not need the West to tell our stories to us. Neither do we want to continue to “discover” us. Our writers are now discovering the West and telling the West how we found them.

African writers and their agents are signing deals with African publishing houses, trading books right, and collaborating on everything from editing, proofreading, and cover designs. Makurdi has become a significant hub of book production and activities, where high-level Makurdi books are produced with global standards in small studios.

In the U.S., the percentage of writers in a population of 331 million is only 0.053%. In Nigeria, it is likely much lower. Writing involves being a thinker, a public intellectual, and a thought leader. Writers are important; they speak truth to power, representing the few thinkers in any country who serve as the conscience of the land. Writers in Nigeria deserve recognition. If they don’t acknowledge you, then acknowledge yourselves. This festival aims to honor our writers and critics, especially those who have risked everything, embraced their lives, and explored their inner selves.

The writer’s life is busy. He must think, read, and write extensively. Writers cannot accept a reality that is filled with injustice and anti-people sentiments. Writing requires courage because writers are aware of the truth, and the truth challenges the status quo, which is often upheld by a web of lies. Ultimately, the writer must unleash the cleansing power of truth against the ugly face of authority. In writing fiction, we first grasp a subjective reality in our minds, then shape its contours and give it an ideal form. The writer must be an enthusiastic reader who continually broadens their knowledge about what has been, what hasn’t, what is clichéd, and what is fresh and significant, as well as what resonates and inspires.

The writer needs courage to snatch a passing phase of life to reveal its color, form, and movement. Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize-winning author and protégé of Chinua Achebe, stated, “I feel angry most of the time. It’s nearly constant, which is why I write books. That’s where I discover control and can think freely about everything.”

Many of you want to write because you hope to earn money. If making money is your primary motivation for writing, consider exploring a different career path. Most of us write to make a difference and create a better world. Writing is a form of refined thinking. A great piece of fiction transports readers to another realm. The best fiction allows readers to forget they are holding a book. Some believe that writing could give them a political advantage. That’s fine, but as long as you write honestly, your time in politics might be limited. The key to good writing is to read constantly and write without feeling inadequate or overwhelmed.

Other writers see revenge as a motivating force in their work. They turn to writing to channel their productive anger, aiming to confront past and present societal issues. Many of us, whether playwrights or novelists are trained to critique societal aberrations and inspire change in the undesirable status quo.

All novels, plays, and short stories have political significance. In all my literary oeuvre, I deliberately concentrate on political themes. I critique the politics in Nigeria, Africa, and the world, where structures of inequality, inequity, and corruption continue to affect citizens today. In all my writings, I explore and critique deception, poor leadership, and social aberration. I am still trying to understand the interconnectedness and the pervasive impact of politics and human consciousness.

Every good writer relies on an editor, a proofreader, and a second reader who ensures the author’s work is authentic and grounded in integrity. Skilled editors are highly valued and sought after. They combine artistic vision with technical expertise to guarantee accuracy and thoroughness.

Proofreaders identify details that authors often overlook, such as repetitions, inaccuracies, and other mistakes. However, the most important factor in the book industry is the reader; without the reader, the book would not exist. Indeed, the first reader of any book is the writer. The reader’s role is to engage critically and empathetically with the written material and to share reflections and opinions.

Conclusion

Edward Bulwer-Lytton said, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” But I tell you, your pen is more powerful than any gun. It is a weapon of mass instruction. It is a force that brings about widespread liberation because it transforms minds and sparks revolutions that change society—and this revolution begins in the human mind.

Congratulations on the festival, which is the beginning of greater and better things.

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