Kidnapping, the worst nightmare in my life -Elechi Amadi

Celebrated author of two critically acclaimed novels – ‘The Concubine’ and ‘The Great Ponds’,  Elechi Amadi, was a special guest at the ‘Meet the Author’ segment of the just concluded 2014 World Book Capital event at Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Fielding questions from a panel of writers, Eghosa Imasuen, Victor Ehikhamenor, Ifeany Ajeigbo, and Kaine Agaryi, Amadi spoke on a number of issues, including his experience while with the Nigerian Army and post war times as a writer.

As anticipated, issues surrounding the writer’s book, Sunset in Biafra – one of the most compelling narratives of the Nigerian Civil War – came up. Amadi revealed that he wrote the novel ‘Sunset in Biafra’ because he could not help it. While the aftermath of the war made his life run in a riot, Amadi disclosed he had nightmares while in the Biafran detention and during the civil war itself.

“I couldn’t sleep at night. Then it occurred to me that if I put down my experiences in writing, it could serve as a catharsis and I would purge myself of the nightmares. Sunset in Biafra is a personal story, unlike Alabi Isama’s account where you have vivid descriptions of the combats and all sorts of things that took place during the war. I didn’t go into all that. I didn’t set out to do a personal story and I said so in the introduction to the book. My intention was to purge myself of the nightmares I was having at the time.”

Interestingly, after publishing the work ‘Sunset in Biafra’, Amadi said he found peace. According to him: “There is no single history of the war. You can write a history of the war. Just like the gospel, people will look at the Nigerian civil war in various perspectives. So you have various aspects of the war being interpreted by those who found themselves, either willingly or unwillingly, involved in the war. I think the more, the merrier.”

Recounting his ordeal in the hands of kidnappers in 2012, the novelist disclosed that the experience remained the worst nightmare he ever had. Though he came close to death several times during the war, he noted that he found himself completely helpless while in the kidnapper’s den.

He sighed and then continued “They (the kidnappers) made me to lie on a wet ground. The dangers were many at the time. A snake bite could have finished me off. I am slightly asthmatic and lying on a wet ground on a cold floor can easily trigger an attack. I had no drug there and that could have been it.

He continued: “The state governor (Governor Chibuike Amaechi) and the soldiers knew where I was and they said they were coming to rescue me. I could have been caught between cross-fires and easily killed. So I was in a very helpless position and that is why I say it was one of the worst nights I have ever spent in my life.

Amadi also commented on late Chinua Achebe’s inability to get the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature. Blaming it on the latter’s emotional commitment to the civil war, Amadi pointed out that when Achebe died, he was traumatised by its outcome that he virtually stopped functioning.

“For 20 years, he wrote nothing that we could call creative writing. He published The Trouble with Nigeria and that was it. Although many people will disagree with me, in my view that vacuum – the 20 years of inactivity – was what cost him the Nobel Prize for Literature. When you are so emotionally involved in a particular cause, your writing may suffer.

“After publishing the three classics – ‘Things Fall Apart’, ‘Arrow of God’ and ‘No longer At Ease’, as well as ‘The Man of the People’ – I felt that Achebe should have written more books. But the outcome of the war prevented him from doing that for 20 years,” Amadi lamented.

The revered writer considered Achebe’s last book,’ There Was A Country: A Personal History’ as well written. “The book is Achebe’s version of the civil war. That was how he saw the war. But he mentioned a few things about Awolowo and people are bound to disagree with him. In my view, Awolowo did no wrong; he was only serving his country. I think the tribal element of the book is what really gave rise to a lot of controversy. “Achebe did not limit himself to just narrating his role in the crisis, but he went into the tribal analysis of the situation. You will agree this is a controversial thing to do in Nigeria. The moment you get into narrating ethnic problems, you are lost as a writer. So the best thing is to be as subjective as you can and then write the best way you can. As a book, ‘There Was A Country’ is a landmark achievement. You cannot ignore it, whether you like it or not. It is part of the civil war literature,” he added.