Acclaimed Nigerian author Uwem Akpan, celebrated for his searing short story collection Say You’re One of Them, is set to captivate audiences in Nigeria with his latest war novel, New York, My Village. The highly anticipated events will take place in Lagos on Saturday, June 28 at RovingHeights, Landmark Event Centre, Oniru, Victoria Island, and in Ibadan on Saturday, July 5 at Prime Mall, 33 Awolowo Avenue, Bodija. Both readings are scheduled from 2pm to 4pm, offering a unique opportunity for Nigerian readers to engage with the globally recognised writer.
In Lagos, the conversation with Akpan will be moderated by the insightful Ijeoma Ucheibe, while Tope-EniObanke Adegoke will steer the discussion at the Ibadan event. These interactions promise to delve deep into the themes and narratives woven throughout Akpan’s work.
Uwem Akpan first burst onto the international literary scene with his 2008 debut, Say You’re One of Them. This powerful collection of five short stories, each set in a different African country, was published by Little, Brown & Company and swiftly garnered critical acclaim. It secured prestigious awards including the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region), the PEN Open Book Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Its profound impact led to its selection for the Oprah Winfrey Book Club and cemented its status as a New York Times and Wall Street Journal No. 1 bestseller, subsequently being translated into 12 languages.
His second book and debut novel, New York, My Village, published in 2021 by W. W. Norton in the US and Parresia Publishing in Nigeria, has continued to cement his literary prowess. The novel was notably picked by Strand Bookstore as their Pick of the Month for November 2021, a testament to its compelling narrative.
Akpan, who also teaches Creative Writing at the University of Florida, US, undertook extensive research to craft New York, My Village. The novel courageously tackles multiple “warfronts,” ranging from the brutality of the Biafran army in minority areas of the Niger Delta to the complexities of the white publishing landscape in America, and the pervasive issue of terrorism in Nigeria.
Perhaps the most intense and resonant aspect of the book lies in its unearthing of Biafran behaviour as an army of occupation and its atrocities committed among minority areas. This narrative boldly challenges the dominant, often singular, war narrative that has long been presented by other writers about the Nigerian Civil War.
New York, My Village meticulously explores the devastating impact of the Nigerian Civil War on the minority communities of the Niger Delta. These regions bore the brutal brunt of the conflict, as their territory frequently changed hands between the warring Nigerian and Biafran armies. This volatile situation forced locals to switch allegiances repeatedly, with dire consequences for their daily survival in a brutal war fought over their resource-rich lands.
While prominent writers of Igbo extraction, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Half of a Yellow Sun) and Chigozie Obioma (The Road to the Country), have garnered significant recognition and shaped the victimhood narrative surrounding the war, writers from the Niger Delta minority groups, like Akpan, are now emerging to shed new light on the full scope of events through their creative works. The war may have ended in January 1970 with a clear winner and loser, but the Niger Delta has remained under siege ever since.
Akpan’s New York, My Village directly takes on the “single story narrative” challenge, a concept famously posed by the venerable Chinua Achebe and amplified by his literary protégé Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. By doing so, Akpan provides a vital narrative voice to the largely ignored and brutalized minorities of the Nigeria Delta, enriching the collective understanding of this pivotal period in Nigerian history.
