Fiction, poetry and history from an extraordinary country of great wealth and deep poverty, of huge promise and extremes of despair
Nigeria is an extraordinary country. On the one hand, it is a microcosm of Africa, but also an exemplification of the ills that historically have plagued the continent. Located strategically on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and harbouring two of Africa’s major rivers, the Niger and the Benue, while also straddling the breadth of the Sahara desert, Nigeria is a “wealthy” country in the richest sense of the word. But as with every society, the people are its greatest wealth. Nigeria bursts at the seams, home to just under 200 million people in a land mass one and half times the size of the state of Texas. Among this population is an educated elite whose impact is felt internationally in the arts, medicine, science, sport and more. Yet about half its population lives in extreme poverty. In 2018 Nigeria overtook India, a country more than six times its population size, as the country with the highest number of people living on less than $1.90 a day. A country of enigmatic dualities: in its wealth, is writ great poverty; in its great promise, extreme despair. How then can one understand this enigma?
This question is at the heart of the anthology, Of This Our Countryedited by Ore Agbaje-Williams and Nancy Adimora. Here is a gathering of some of the nation’s most celebrated contemporary writers – from Ayobami Adebayo to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I contribute a piece to the collection, and I think that collectively, we describe much of the country’s history and analyse its current situation through writing that is witty, intelligent, and even angry.
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