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8/10/2019 Ben Okris Spirit-child- Abiku Migration and Postmodernity
1/11
Ben Okri's Spirit-Child: "Abiku" Migration and PostmodernityAuthor(s): John C. HawleyReviewed work(s):Source: Research in African Literatures, Vol. 26, No. 1, New Voices in African Literature(Spring, 1995), pp. 30-39Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3820085.Accessed: 13/03/2012 10:56
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2/11
Ben Okri's
Spirit-Child:
Abiku
Migration
and
Postmodernity
John C.
Hawley
"It
s
a
long
farewell
It
is
now
a
matterof
meetingalong
the
road,
It is now indreams."
-Yoruba
prayer
celebrating
he
change
in
relationships
wroughtby
death
The
widespread
notion
of the abiku
in
Nigerian
culture
says
volumes about
the
heartrending
eathsof countless
newborns
hroughout
he
region's history.
It also
testifies o a belief in the
permeability
f
the
membrane
ep-
aratinghespiritworldfrom"our"world.Astheabikuputs t, in hisfamilyhe is sur-
rounded
by people
"who
are
seeded
in
rich
lands,
who still believe
in
mysteries"
(Fam
6),
people
who hold that"one
world contains
glimpses
of
others"
Fam
10),
and
people
who
acknowledge
a
personal elationship
with these
spirits
n
the course
of
daily
life.
In
western
Nigeria,
however,
a mother
who
suspects
hather
newborn
is
one
of
these
child-spirits
must
do
whatever
he can to
persuade
he
baby
to
stay
in
this difficult
world,
rather
han
have it return o the
spirit-world
where it will be
bathed
"in
the
ecstasy
of an
everlasting
ove"
(Fam
18).
Mothers
will
give
suchchil-
dren names like "Malomo-Do Not Go
Again";"Banjoko-Sit
Down And
Stay
With
Us";
"Durooro ike-Wait And See How You
Will
Be
Petted";
and "Please
Stay
And
Bury
Me"
(Maclean
51,
57).
Special jewelry
and foods are
prepared
o
tempt
the
baby
to choose
life,
and circumcision or such
young boys
is
frequently
postponed
(56).
John
Pepper
Clark
has recorded a
poem
from
one concerned
observer'sview:
Coming
and
going
these severalseasons
Do
not
stay
out on the
baobab
ree,
Follow
where
you
please your
kindred
pirits
If
indoors s
not
enough
for
you.
Then
step
in,
step
in
and
stay,
Forherbodyis tired,
Tired,
hermilk
going
sour
Where
many
more
mouths
gladden
heheart.
cited
in
Maclean
51)
TheFamishedRoad
dramatizes he abiku'sdifficult
choice,
an
interior
truggle
hat
adult
onlookers
recognize
as
beyond
their
ken
(Fam
20).
Wole
Soyinka
has a
poem
from such a
child's
point
of view:
In
vain
your
bangles
cast
Charmed ircles at
my
feet,
I
am
abiku,
calling
for the first
And therepeated ime.(citedinMaclean51)
8/10/2019 Ben Okris Spirit-child- Abiku Migration and Postmodernity
3/11
John C.
Hawley
31
But Okri
nicely
stresses he abiku's
perceived
responsibilities
oward
his
world,
as
well:"Iwanted o makehappythebruised ace of thewoman who wouldbecome
my
mother"
Fam 5).
As I
hope
to
suggest,
Okri's choice of this
narrators
particularly ignificant;
but
youthful
narrators ave
always
fascinated
him.He will
not talk
abouthis
own
childhood n
interviews,
pecifically
because
he
believes thatone's
youth
s
inevita-
bly
the stuff of
one's fiction
(qtd.
in
Wilkinson
77).
His first
novel,
Flowers
and
Shadows
(1980),
written
when he
was
19,
is a
study
of
the
impact
of the
sins
of
the
fathers
upon
their
sons. As
Adewale
Maja-Pearce
otes in
a
foreword,
his violent
story
s
nonetheless"anovel of
great
optimism:
The
cycle
of
corruption
ndevil
has
been
played
out andJeffia
[theyoung protagonist]
an
begin
all over
again" x).
In
the short
story
"Laughter
Beneath
the
Bridge"
(Incidents
at the
Shrine),
a man
reflectsback on
his
girlfriend's
murder
by
the
military
when the
boy
was
only
ten.
Honing
his
artistry,
Okri
briefly
does
here what t took him
many
more
pages
to
do
in
Flowers and
Shadows;
as
AlastairNiven
notes,
"in
twenty-one
pages
a
boy
has
been
educated n
the harshest
essons that ife can offer"
(279).
But
since
the
story
is
presented
as a
memory,
we have little
way
of
knowing
the
impact
he
murderhas
had
on the
narrator's
wn
subsequent
ife.
In
the
title
story
from Stars
of
the New
Curfew,
on
the other
hand,
a
young
man
earns
he
cynical
realities
of
a
political
sys-
tem,
and
earns,
as
well,
how
to
makethe most
of
it.
Okri's
preference
for
youthful
protagonists
inds echoes in the
writings
of
many
of
his
contemporaries,
f
course.
In
comparing
he
portrayal
f
the child in
stories
rom
Africa,India,
and
Australia,
S.
K.
Desai
notes that
the
concept
of
the child as
manifested
n
the
Africanstories
is,
what
one
might say,
moder.
The
child is
no Romantic
angel;
he is
a raw
soul,
a
bundle of
impulses,
sensations,
emotions
and
perceptions,
facing
life,
struggling
o
comprehend
t,
trying
o
piece together
his
fragmentary
xpe-
riences;
he is
a
complex
being
with an
unformed
mind,
often
more com-
plex
than he
adult,
subjected
o
an
unpredictable
rocess
of
growth.
45)
Okri'suse of
the abiku
s,
perhaps,
he most
cogent
and
concentrated
ersion
of
the
poignancy
of such
a witness:this
is a
characterwho
still
remembers
bits of
knowl-
edge
acquired
n his
former
ife,
one
who can often
see
through
he
materialworld
of
objects,
one
whose
apparent
ewilderment
"I
prayed
or
laughter,
a life
without
hunger.
I
was
answered
with
paradoxes"-Fam
6)
is
really
clairvoyance
("As
a
child I
could read
people's
minds.
I
could foretell
their
utures"-Fam
9).
But Okri's
choice
of
an
abiku
narrator
oes more
than
ntensify
youthful
pow-
ers
of
observation.
Describing
a
broadly
African
aesthetic,
he
says
that "it's
not
something
that
is
bound
only
to
place,
it's
bound
to a
way
of
looking
at the
world...in morethanthreedimensions.It's the aestheticof
possibilities,
of
laby-
rinths,
of
riddles-we
[Africans]
ove
riddles-of
paradoxes.
think
we
miss this
elementwhen
we
try
to
fix
it too
muchwithin
nationalor
tribal
boundaries"
qtd.
n
Wilkinson
87-88).
The
significance
of an
abiku
narrator,
n
termsof
this
aesthetic,
is that t moves
African
iterature
loser to the
postmodern
movement.
In
a
recent
nterviewwith
Alastair
Niven,
Chinua
Achebe
turned
his
attention
to the new
generation
of
Nigerian
writers,
among
whom could
be
numbered
Festus
Iyayi,
Adewale
Maja-Pearce,
Niyi
Osundare,
and
Bode
Sowande.
He
mentioned
thathe
particularly
dmiredBen
Okri,
andsaid
this,
Niven
relates,
as if
consciously
passingthetorchto theyoungerman(Niven277). When BenOkriwas laterasked
8/10/2019 Ben Okris Spirit-child- Abiku Migration and Postmodernity
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32
Research
in
AfricanLiteratures
how he relatesto the older
generation
of
Nigerian
writers,however,
he
responded,
"Iacceptthem" qtd. n Wilkinson82). His lukewarmacknowledgment f his fore-
bears
suggests
that
his
agenda
or fiction
s not whathe
imagines
heirs o have been.
In
this
respect,
The
FamishedRoad offers
support
o AlastairNiven's
analysis
of a difference
between the writersof Okri's
generation
and
those in whose foot-
steps
they
follow:
"Always
n
Achebe,
Ngugi,
Armah,
Soyinka
andOusmane
here
is the
judgement
hatthe future
development
of Africa must
lie in
political
action,
whether hatcomes frombetter
eadership,
s Achebe would
hope,
or from he force
of
popular
action,
as advocated
by Ngugi
and
Ousmane.Okri
does not
have that
faith
in
a
political possibility.
He turnsthe
problems
of Africa into self-examina-
tion"(281). Storiessuch as "LaughterBeneath heBridge"andSongs ofEnchant-
mentare
implicit
condemnations
f
tribalbattleswithin
Nigeria,
but,
in
wordsthat
practically
cry
out
for
misinterpretation y
the more
politically-minded,
Okrihas
stated hat
"...there'sbeen too muchattribution f
power
o the
effect of
colonialism
on our consciousness. ....
A]
true nvasiontakes
place
not when a
society
has been
takenover
by
another
ociety
in termsof its
infrastructure,
ut in termsof its mind
and ts dreamsand ts
myths,
and ts
perception
of
reality....
There
arecertainareas
of the Africanconsciousness
which will remain
nviolate"
qtd.
n Wilkinson
86).
This
consciousness
s less
personal
han t is "African."
While Niven's analysis s basicallycorrect, herefore,hisdescription f Okri's
storiesas "self-examination"
may
be focusedtoo
narrowly
n the individual.
n
The
Famished
Road and
Songs
of
Enchantment,
Okri is not intent
upon
replacing
one
rulingsystem
by
another,
but
neither
s he
writing
raditionally
ealisticnovels that
thoroughly nvestigate
Azaro's
psyche.
He wishes instead to
recognize
and cele-
bratea distinctive
way
of
encountering
and
describingreality:
he has an
aesthetic,
rather
han
overtly
political
or
psychological,
aim. In
comparingMongo
Beti to
Wole
Soyinka,
Abiola Irele
suggests
that he
former
emphasizes
"the
criticaldocu-
mentation
of
the
objective operations
and effects
of
the
political system
he exam-
ines,"and the latter"inclinesmore towarda generalmeditationuponthe inward
significance
of
the
relationsof
power
and the tensions of
history,
[and]
upon
their
repercussions
on the individualas well as the
collective
sensibility"
(77).
Okri,
I
would
suggest,
moves
beyond
Soyinka's
examination
of
characters.
He
says
of
TheFamishedRoad that
"this
book is
my
modesteffort to...alterthe
way
in
which
we
perceive
what
s valid
andwhat
s
valuable"
qtd.
n
Wilkinson
87):
he wishes to
grind
a lens andteach
us its use.
If
Soyinka
can be taken
as a mediatorbetween the
overtly
political
and the
more
self-consciously
aesthetic,
t is
interesting
o note his own
use
of
the
trope
of
theabiku.Inhis HerbertReadMemorialLecture,deliveredat the Institute or Con-
temporary
Art
in
London n
1985,
he
notes that t
is
tempting
o use the abikuas a
metaphor
or the
phenomenon
of
creativity.Suggesting
the
controversy
over
the
role
of
politics
in
artand ts
proliferation, hough,
he
goes
on
to ask:"would t be an
optimistic
metaphor
r an
expression
of doom.... Will the
creativehandearthAbiku
once for
all,
or has the worldbeen
handedover
to Dr.
Strangelove-Third
Worldor
Netherworld,
no difference?
The
problem
s whetherone
sees,
on the
cover
of
an
Ake,
an
idyllic
image
of
recaptured
hildhood,
or a
figurefleeing
in
terror rom
an
uncomprehended
isaster"
196).
The
true
artist,
Soyinka
seems to
suggest,
leaves
thequestionhanging ntheair,seekingtowedoutrage ohope.Whether rnot Okri
8/10/2019 Ben Okris Spirit-child- Abiku Migration and Postmodernity
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John
C.
Hawley
33
explicitly acknowledges
it,
his
own
artistry
embodies such ambivalence
and
suggestshisgeneration's ophisticatedblendof artistic xperimentationndpoliti-
cal
savvy.
The
debate over the
possible points
of
intersectionbetween
postmodernism
and
post-colonialism
s
by
no
means
settled,
and
he case
of
Ben Okriraises
nterest-
ing questions
n
this
regard.Stephen
Slemon
notes that
postmodernism
s
variously
defined
by
FredricJameson
as
"the
pastiche energetics
of
Western
society
under
late
capitalism,
where a 'new
depthlessness'
n
representation-one
grounded
n
the fetishizationof the
image
as simulacrum-marks off
a
profoundly
ahistorical
drive
which seeks to efface the
past
as 'referent'and eave behind tself
nothing
but
'texts"'
(Slemon 4-5),
and
by
IhabHassan
and
others
as "a
catalogue
of
figurative
propensities(indeterminacy,
multivalence,
hybridization,
tc.)
whose ludic cele-
brations of
representational
reedom...are
grounded
in
a
'dubious
analogy'
between artistic
experimentation
and
social liberation"
Slemon
5).
Linda Hut-
cheon
strategicallyargues
that
postmodernismdisplays
a
"contradictory
epen-
dence on
and
independence
rom that
which
temporallypreceded
it
and
which
literally
made t
possible"
Poetics
18).
In
Hutcheon's
view,
it
seems,
postmodern-
ism is
a victim of colonization
by history,
an
anxiety
of
influencewrit
arge.
But
if
postmodernism
necessarily
admitsa
provisionality
o its truth laims"
(Slemon5),
Slemon andothers
argue
hat
"an nterested
post-colonial
critical
prac-
tice wouldwantto allow for thepositive productionof oppositional ruth-claims"
(9).
There is
in
much
post-colonial
fiction,
in
Slemon's
view,
a
great
deal
that
is
postmodern:
t
may
be
"fundamentally ragmented
and
hybridized;
t
engages
overtly
n
a
decentring
and
decanonizing
abour;
t is
enormously
elf-reflexiveand
ironic;
t
draws
obviously
and
excessively
on
the
devices
of
'fiction' to
demystify
imperialist
versions
of
'history';
t 'uses
and
abuses' the received
codes of
popular
culture
n
order o effect
a serious ntervention n the
Production ndcirculationof
majority
opinion"
Slemon
10)-and
muchof
this can be seen
in
Okri's
works.But
post-colonial
fiction also "retainsa
recuperative mpulse
towards he
structure
f
'history'andmanifestsa Utopiandesiregrounded n reference" Slemon 10).As
Linda
Hutcheon lsewhere
argues,
"the
post-colonial,
ike the
feminist,
s a
disman-
tling
but also
constructive
political
enterprise
nsofar
as
it
implies
a
theory
of
agency
and
social
change
that he
postmodern
econstructive
mpulse
acks"
"Cir-
cling"
171).
In
Benita
Parry's
words,
this involves
a
recuperation,
remembering
and
relearning
of
"therole of the native
as
historical
subject
and
combatant,
pos-
sessor
of
an-other
sic]
knowledge
and
producer
f
alternative
raditions"
34).
And
Parry's
words
aretrueof Okri.
But
Hutcheon's
description
of "a
theory
of
agency
and social
change"
are
vaguelypresent,
at
best,
in
Okri.Before
the
publication
f
The
FamishedRoad,
rit-
ics
turned their attention
principally
towards The
Landscapes
Within,
his
1981
Kunstlerromanhathas
been
compared
o
Joyce's
Portrait
of
the
Artistas a
Young
Man
(see
Porter,
Mamudu).
In
discussing
the
book,
these
critics
grapple
with
Omovo's
frequent
withdrawal
rom the
problems
of
the
world
around
him,
his
apparent
ttempt
o
findor create
a
quiet
zone
for the creationof
something
beauti-
ful.
A
bit
defensively,
these
critics nsist thatOkri's
protagonist
hows
more
gump-
tion than his
counterpart
n
Ayi
Kwei
Armah's The
Beautyful
Ones
Are Not
Yet
Born
(1969),
despite
Omovo's
obvious
desire
for
protection.
Thus,
Abioseh Porter
writes
that,
"unlike
Armah's
anonymous
protagonist,
who
merely
drifts
aimlessly
and helplessly in a sea of corruption...Omovo...become[s] apable of making
8/10/2019 Ben Okris Spirit-child- Abiku Migration and Postmodernity
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34 Research
in
African
Literatures
down-to-earth ssessments
of eventsaround
im andable
to act
accordingly"
204).
The"action"owhichherefers,however, s principallyhecreationof art-art that
is
honest
and,
herefore,
politically
dangerous
esponse
o thechaos fromwhich
he
has
temporarily
withdrawn,
but
hardly
he
sort
of action
that
will
topple
a
govern-
ment.But Omovo does
learn
whatDr. Okocha ells
him,
that
"[i]t's
always
a
duty
o
try
and
manifest
whatever
good
visions
we
have....
In
dreams
begin responsibili-
ties"
(LW 119).
Eleven
years
later,
Azaro
learns
the
same lesson
in
Songs
of
Enchantment.
Ayo
Mamudu
describes
he artist
Omovo's
"suspended
nimation" s
escapist,
but
"only
n
the sense
that,
n
the
flights
of
fancy,
detachment,
ndretreats
nto
self,
Omovo
seeks relief for his
perfervid
consciousness"
(88).
All
the
ugliness
that
oppresses
him,
becomes
grist
for hisartisticmill. For
Omovo,
nMamudu's
words,
"passionate
nvolvement
and
detachmentare
paradoxically
inked,
in
leading
to
momentsof
heightened
onsciousness"
88).
It
is
interesting
hatbothof these
crit-
ics show
a need
to
demonstratea
political
consciousness
in
Okri's
character,
implicitly
asserting
he
author's
ineage
as
a
like-mindeddescendantof the
estab-
lished
generation
of
Nigerian
novelists. But he
is
not,
in
fact,
all that
ike-minded.
In
the
"compromise"
eached between
Stephen
Dedalus and his
alter-pater
Leopold
Bloom,
the
modernist ames
Joyce
moves
away
from
the cool aesthetic
he
hadearlieradvanced n
Portrait.
By
contrast,
n
his own
most recent
work
Okri
spe-
cificallyendorses heaesthetiche earlierespousedthroughOmovo:"When think
of
Omovo,"
he
writes,
it's
not
just
as the
young
artist:he's
what the
artist in his
progression
through
ime,
through
age, through
xperience
would end
up
as.
So
that's
what
you
are when
you're
young,
but that's
what
you
should
be,
on
a
higher
evel,
as
you
get
older:
seeing experience
pure,
seeing
without
pre-
conceptions....
He's an
ideal
filter,
a
prism:
n
thatsense
he's an
ideal
art-
ist.
He's a
complete
contrast rom
the
artistswho have
ideas,
distort
he
world n termsof
their
deas,
and
hen
reflectan
dea-distorted niverse.
So
it's not the worldthey're really writingaboutbut something produced
from a
refusal o see.
(qtd.
n
Wilkinson
81)
If,
as
another
critic has
written,
"the
outstanding
attribute f
the moder
African
writer...is
his
immediate
engagement
with
history"
(Irele
69),
one is
at a
loss to
shoehorn
Okri
nto such
a
scheme. The
political
struggles
of
The Famished
Road
and
Songs
of
Enchantment re
airly
imeless."We
haveto
change
our
perception
f
how we
speak
of
people's
accomplishments,"
e
recently
argued.
"Pyramids
s
one
way,
but there
are
pyramids
of the
spirit" qtd.
n
Wilkinson
86).
Or,
as the
abiku's
father
puts
t,
sounding
a
bit
like
Jung,
"the
whole of human
history
s
an
undiscov-
eredcontinentdeepinoursouls"(Fam498). ThismaysupportNiven'scontention
thatOkri
s
interested n
self-examination,
but Azaro's
father s
speaking
of
a
col-
lective
consciousness.
We
shouldalso
note
Mamudu's
econd
observation: he
"swings"
between
wo
extremes.
This
dynamic
becomes
the
central
structural
device
in
The
Famished
Road,
and
suggests
Okri's
characteristic
urn
away
fromovert
politics
and
towards
what
might
be described
as the
politics
of
the
interior.He
has
elsewhere
signifi-
cantly
described
narrative tself as
"tension,
opposites,
anything
hat
pushes
for-
ward"
qtd.
in
Wilkinson
79).
If this
suggests
thatOkri's
principal
demand or
his
literature s
that it move
forwardwithin ts
self-contained
ictive
world,
it
is
none-
theless truethat The LandscapesWithin,while acknowledging he tropeof the
8/10/2019 Ben Okris Spirit-child- Abiku Migration and Postmodernity
7/11
John C.
Hawley
35
artist's
escape
to
a
romantic
etreat,
proposes
a
theory
of art hat s
confrontational,
not lovely (he calls his art "scumscapes").The confrontation s first with the
self. Omovo
says
"I
need
to
face
myself
before
I can face the
terrors
f this
world"
(LW
164).
He can
"speak"only
"whenthe
landscapes
without
synchronised
with
those
landscapes
within"
(LW
206).
Then the confrontationbecomes social.
As
Okri
puts
t,
"The
moment
you
see
it,
you
have to
say
it. That'swhere
responsibility
begins" qtd.
n
Wilkinson
78).
Whether he
"political"activity
is interior
or
exterior,
t is clear thatAzaro
is
not
realistic
in
any
sense that a
nineteenth-century
uthorwould
recognize.
He is
more
accurately
described as a
late-twentieth-century oorkeeper
between
two
imagined
worlds:thatof the
spirits
and that of the mortal.The
"self,"
n
the
tradi-
tional
Western
sense,
is
therefore
not
as
rigidly
defined,
nor
as amenable o exami-
nation. For
the
abiku,
one's
personal
vision is a shared
possession
of the
community,
andone's
idea
of
self
is a
directresult
of the
interchange.
We
do well to make a
distinctionbetween
Omovo,
the
youthful
artist,
and
Azaro,
a
non-Western reation mbedded
n his
community.
Both The
Famished
Road
and
Songs of
Enchantment
mbody
several
aspects
of
Omovo's
aesthetic,
but
they
do so
ironically.
He
asserts, irst,
hat"theartistneeds to
see the one
thing,
the
one
experience,
n
relation o all
thingstimelessly"
Mamudu 9),
and
Azaro
seems
to have little
choice but
to
follow this
norm. Omovo furtherassertsthat
"the
[art-
ist's]
heightened
stateof
consciousness...represents
n
intellectualeffort at order-
ing
the
universe"
(89).
But this
blessed
rage
for
order takes on a
markedly
postmodern ymmetry
n
Azaro's
universe,
one that
pays comparatively
ittle
atten-
tion to
space
and floats
in
a
transcultural
ynchronicity.
Omovo
says,
"...[T]he
sky
has no
meaning.
The
meaning
s
hidden nside me as
are
many
othermad
things"
(LW
164).
But
Azaro's
experience
s
different:he finds
meaning
flooding
into the
world
hrough
ts
objects
n
such
a
madtumult hathe
reels
between
he
animate
and
the
inanimate.
"'Everything
s
alive,'"
his
father ells him
(Song
222).
In
Azaro's
life
it is
theplenitude
of these hidden
meanings,
rather han heir
vacuity,
hat
comes
to thefore. Hecannotorder hem,but
they
arenot"his"
meanings
oorder,and t is
largely
irrelevant o
describe
his
efforts as
"intellectual."
How should
I
use
my
eyes?"
Azaroasks his
father
n
Songs
of
Enchantment,
ndhe
is answered:
"By
not
using
your
head first"
261).
The
resulting
narrative eveals
history
as
partial
ven
as
it
suspends
all
hermeneutics.Closure
cannot
be
brought
about,
simply
because,
as Azaro's
mother
eaches
him,
"All
things
are inked"
Songs
270).
But
is
this
postmodern?
Like
Slemon,
Helen
Tiffin
agrees
thatthere
are
many
elements of
post-colonial
writing
that have
postmodern
characteristics-"...the
move
away
from
realist
representation,
he
refusalof
closure,
the
exposure
of the
politicsof metaphor,he interrogationf forms,therehabilitation f allegoryand
the attackon
binary
structuration
f
concept
and
language"
172)-but
she
argues
that
"they
are
energisedby
different
heoretical
assumptions
nd
by
vastly
different
political
motivations"
(172).
Therefore,
"the
postmodern
label
should...be
resisted"
171).
Acknowledging
hese
distinctions,
believe it
is
nonetheless
help-
fully
descriptive
o
apply
the
label
"postcolonial
postmoderity"
to
writers
who
do
two
things:
first,
hey
"resist he
European
master
narrative f
history
because
they
can
essentially
oppose
its
incursions with
alternative
ontological
systems...
[especially]
within he
societies
whose own
opposing
or
differing
epistemes
arestill
recuperable"asTiffinsaysChinuaAchebeandRajaRao do [176]);and,secondly,
8/10/2019 Ben Okris Spirit-child- Abiku Migration and Postmodernity
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36 Research
in
African
Literatures
they
are
markedly
xperimental
n
their
narration,
arrying
nto theirfiction
many
of thepostmoderntylisticcharacteristics escribedabove.
This,
I
think,
s
whatOkri s
doing
with
the
concept
of the
abiku.It
portrays
n
ontological
system quite foreign
to
the
colonizer's,
at the same time
that t
does
not
display
a
"recuperativempulse
towards
the structure f
'history"'
(Slemon
10).
Okri's
discussionof "The
African
Way"
(Song
158-61)
suggests
whathe does
feel
to be
recuperable,
ut it
is
hardly
ystematic:
"The
Way
that
develops
and
keeps
its
secrets
of
transformations.
hriving
n
a
universeof
enigmas,
our
accomplishments
denied
by
the dominant
history
of the
short-sighted
onquerors
f the times"
160).
As
with Western
postmodernists,
his
resistance
o
the
fixing
of boundaries s
one of the strongestcharacteristicso emergefrom Okri'sdiscussion of his own
work.
His
choice
of
a
liminal
figure
ike
the
abiku o serve as
his
spokesman,
trad-
dling
both
worlds and
drawingpower
from
both,
summarizes
his
determination
o
imagine
something
new. If
his choice of a
child-witness
places
him
firmly
n
the tra-
dition of
the novel
of
the
sixties and the
seventies,
the
unself-conscious
movement
backand
orthbetween
he worldof the
spirits
and
thatof
everyday
ife in The
Fam-
ished Road
places
him
alongside
such
protean
extravaganzas
as the
Trinidadian
RobertAntoni'sDivina
Trace
(1992).
Like
the
unique
child-narratorf
that
recent
novel,
the
abiku sets
himself,
Okri
says,
"against
he
perception
of the world
as
being
coherentand
therefore
readableas a text. The
world isn't
really
a
text,
con-
trary
o
what
people
like
Borges say.
It's
more hana text.
It's moreakin
o
music....
Texts
without words.
That's
why
I
probably
ean more
towardsdreams"
qtd.
in
Wilkinson
85).
Strictlysequential
narrations
not
a
value,
so
when Azaro's
mother
complains
to her
husband,
"Your
story
isn't
going anywhere,"
he
receives the
reply,
"A
story
is
not a
car.... It is a
road,
and
before that
t
was a
river,
a river
that
never
ends"
Song
266).
Narration
s
"akin
o moments
n
tidal
waves"
(Okri
qtd.
n
Wilkinson
83).
Not
tidalwaves as
such,
butmoments
within hem:
a
forceful
moving
ahead
of
the
mass,
but
experienced
rom within
as
a series of
relationships
and
counterva-
lences. "Thenovel moves towards
nfinity,
basically.
You're
dealing
with a
con-
sciousness...which
is
already
awareof
other ives
behind and in
frontand
also
of
people
actually iving
their
futures
n
the
present"
Okri
qtd.
in
Wilkinson
83).
A
confusing
world, herefore,
but
"so
many
things
that
will
seem
puzzling
n
the
book
are
actually
n
the
possibility
of
a life
lived
simultaneously
t
different evels of
con-
sciousness and in
different
erritories"
83).
We are
dealing
with a
type
of
realism
here,
or
at least
verisimilitude,
but
the
worldthat
shapes
his
character's
onscious-
ness is
shapedby
a
non-Western
mythology,
an
animistic
appreciation
f a
surging
and
constantly
ransmogrifying eality.
In
Okri,
he
Western
dilemmaof the
disso-
lutionof the
subject
s celebrated."Isn't t
just
possible,"
he
asks,
"thatwe areall
abikus?....
[Since]
there
areno
divisions
really
n
life,
just
a
constant
low,
forming
and
reforming..."
qtd.
n
Wilkinson
84).
This
is
muchthe
conclusion
drawn
by
the
abiku's
father,
who,
sounding
a
bit
like
Mikhail
Bakhtin,
ells
his son that
"many
people
reside in
us...many
past
lives,
many
future
lives"
(Fam
499).
The
masks
employed
n
his
novel-those
of the
egungun
and
gelede
(Maclean
58),
those
of
the
political
parties,
those
even
of
sequential
ime-are
recognized
as masks
by
the
abiku.It
is the
forces
of
negativity
hat
say
otherwise,
and
thatseek
stasis:
Madame
Koto,
the blind
old
man,
the
thugs,
and
even
the
spirits,
attempt
o
hold him in
their
world(Wilkinson84).
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John C.
Hawley
37
The
Famished
Road's
opening,
with its
play
upon
the
logocentricmetaphor
f
John'sGospel, saysasmuch:"In hebeginning herewas a river.The riverbecame
a roadand he roadbranched
ut to
the
whole world.And because he roadwas
once
a
river t
was
always hungry"
Fam 3).
But
the
abiku's father ells
him,
"[M]y
son,
our
hunger
an
change
the
world,
make
t
better,
weeter"
Fam498).
The
hunger
of
the
road,
somewhat
incomprehensible
but nonetheless
threatening
o
a
Western
mind,
s "our"
hunger
o
Azaro-a
part
of
us,
as
"we"
are
a
part
of it.
This
is rather
disturbing magery,
butOkrihas "cometo realize
you
can'twrite
about
Nigeria truthfully
without
a
sense
of violence"
(qtd.
in Wilkinson
81).
We
have seen him
assert
hat hereareessentialelementsof the African
consciousness,
the
"mythic
rame" hat
"shapes
he
way
we
affect the worldand
the
way
the world
affects
us.
It's
these invisible
things
hat
shape
he visible
things....
The unbreakable
things
in us"
(qtd.
in Wilkinson
88).
They
are here
embodied
n
the
frangible:
he
garishrepresentations
f life-and-death
attles,
drenched
n
the blood
of
riots,
box-
ing
matches,
and sacrificed
chickens,
a world
of
intoxication and
gleaming
machetes.
Little
wonder,
then,
that the abiku
recognizes
that
"being
born
was a
shock
from which
[he]
never recovered"
Fam
7).
Okri
accepts
the fact that
"suffering
s
one
of the
great
characters f the
book,
the different
ways
people
suffer."
His
ratio-
nale for
its
pervasivepresence
s
important
o our theme:
"It
defines
the
boundaries
of selfbut also breaksdownthe boundaries f individual dentifications....Anyone
of
[the]
children
elling
their stories would be
telling
a
story ust
like
this
one,
but
with its own
particularity.
herearehundreds f
variations,
but
there s
just
one
god
there,
and that
god
is
suffering,pain.
But
that's
not
the
supremedeity.
The
higher
deity
is
joy" (qtd.
in
Wilkinson
85).
This
seems
a
bit
Manichaean,
but
is
another
instanceof the wave-like
consciousnessof the book.
If
you
listen
carefully,"
Azaro's father
ells
him,
"the air
is full of
laughter"
(Fam
499),
and the
abiku achieves a sense of
joy,
and even
peace.
At
novel's
end,
the airhas
cleared,
he
spirits
seem
in
abeyance.
The
next
day
begins,
and,
t is
true,
herecognizes hat"thegoodbreeze"willnot lastforever-but he is nolongerafraid
of Time
(Fam
500):
he has learned
o
swim in
it.
His
consciousnessremains
ocused
and
courageous,
and
comfortable
n
its stateof flux.This
stands
him in
good
stead
n
Songs of
Enchantment,
when the usual strainsof
adolescence are
complicatedby
the
estrangement
f his
parents,
he
deathof his best
friend,
andthe
collapse
of
the
political
system.
Yet
if,
as the
Greek
philosopher
noted
ong ago,
all
things
are
flowing,
t is little
wonder hat
many
on this
"road
of...vulnerability"
178)
are
not
as
resilientas
the
abiku.
Okri
s
obviously
awareof this
fact,
and it is
significant
hat
the
struggling
artist
who
figured
n
an
early
novel
like The
Landscapes
Withinhas been
replaced
n
The
Famished Road
by
the
figure
of a
photographer.
Like
that
photojournalist,
whose
eye
fixes
reality
n
the civic
memory
who,
in
effect,
does a "freeze-frame"n
life's
ongoing
film),
Okri
says
that one of the
things
he himself
wantedto do
was
'just
to
make
visible one
of
the
stories of
the
river,
that's all.
Just one...."
(qtd.
in
Wilkinson
88;
emphasis
added).
It
is,
admittedly,
more
static
han
he
flowing
aural
account rom a
griot,
but
an
abiku
spokesperson
s
as
close as
a writer
can
get
to the
semblanceof
images
passing away
and
coming
into view.
Critics ike
Niven lament hat
"Okri
andhis
generation
will
be
more
ntrospec-
tive,
more
personal,
ess
historically
ambitious,
ess
radical,
han
Achebe and
his
peers" 282). Okri, n turn, s concerned hattherelative"quietude" tnovel's end
8/10/2019 Ben Okris Spirit-child- Abiku Migration and Postmodernity
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38 Researchn
African iteratures
might
be mistakenfor an
easy optimism.
The abiku's fatheradvises his son
that
"God s hungry orus togrow....We are reer hanwe think....Themanwhoselight
has come
on in
his
head,
in
his dormant
un,
can never be
kept
down or
defeated"
(Fam 498).
If
his words
strike
other
African
novelists as
naively optimistic,
Okri
wishes
to demonstrate hat he knows what he is
doing.
"One
should be
very,
very
seriouswhenone is
going
to talkabout
hope,"
he
writes. One
has
to
know
about he
very
hard acts of
the
worldandone has to
know how
deadly
and
powerful hey
are
beforeone can
begin
to thinkor dreamoneself into
positions
out of which
hope
and
then
possibilities
can come. It's one of the
steps
I
try
to take
in this book"
(qtd.
in
Wilkinson
88).
Inthe sequel,theoptimisticfatherof The FamishedRoad becomes blind and
spends
his
days
shoveling
manure.But
his
life-affirmingphilosophy
becomes,
if
anything,
tronger.
n
the earlier
book,
the abikuconcluded hat"adreamcan be
the
highest
point
of a life"
(Fam500).
Here
n
the
increasingpoverty
of his
earthly
ami-
ly's
life,
he
puts
it
differently:"Maybe
one
day
we will
see that
beyond
our chaos
therecould
always
be a new
sunlight,
and
serenity"
Song
297).
If this
"manifestsa
Utopian
desire
grounded
in
reference"
that
is
typical
of
post-colonial writing
(Slemon
10),
the
abiku,
n
his tenuous
earthlypresence,
irstchooses
the
chaos.
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