The Caine Prize and Literary Tensions by Sokari Ekine

In her essay for Pambazuka, the Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine starts with these words:

Towards the end of last year, Nigerian writer Ikhide R. Ikheloa published a series of essays in which he accused the Nigerian author Chris Abani of Graceland fame of telling lies and engaging in exaggerations relating to his admitted imprisonment in Nigeria’s most notorious hell hole prison, KiriKiri in 19xx.

“It is one thing for Abani to tell a lie and then move on with his life. It is another thing for him to continue to perpetuate the same lie at the expense of Africa. It is obnoxious and offensive, and if he was white, it would be considered racist. Since the confrontation/intervention in 2003, Abani has gone on to conduct moving interviews and given speeches expanding in graphic detail his alleged experiences. As I said earlier, the details get more fantastic in the re-telling and details and dates change each time. It is comic really.”

In a follow up blog post he repeats his allegations against Abani and further accuses, but does not name [I would like names please--if Abani is to be outed as a liar why not the rest?] “a tiny cabal of African writers” who “seem willing to wheedle, lie and steal their way into stardom on the tortured back of Africa.”

Read on.