Media

Nearly a half a century ago in Vietnam, a photograph taken on a Saigon street shocked people around the world. At the center of the photo was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk sitting uptight in a lotus position; his entire body was engulfed by flames. This image reportedly prompted then President John F. Kennedy to reconsider his Vietnam policy.

I will argue for a new Nigerian literary order.

Suppose we call this ‘neo-literariness’, for want of a better word, and because in hyphenation a word acquires two identities. So, neo-literariness is the word to use for a generation of writers and enthusiasts who function despite institutional lapses, and whose artistic engagement thrives of new ways of being, especially web-technology.

I will explain with a few examples.

Letter to an Aspiring Correspondent

PRAGUE – Foreign correspondence is dead. Long live foreign correspondence!

Feng Jianmei, a 23-year-old frail woman was lying in hospital bed in a shabby hospital in western China’s Shaanxi province, her black long hair covering her face. Lying next to her was the body of her unborn baby that was aborted. The fetus was bloody and showed signs of struggling before her short life was ended by ruthless officials using a poisonous injection.

MASERU, Lesotho – My Hungarian in-laws didn’t take the news well.