Adumbrating Literary Criticism

By Omoseye Bolaji

We talked briefly, in an interesting if unspectacular office. There was a painting to the left, depicting an animal that might have been a rottweiler (I am no great shakes as regards fauna!) Yet it was the fresco on the other side that largely attracted interest as a prodigious amount of creativity and talent had apparently gone into it. The fresco merged almost seamlessly with the wall. There was a computer on one of the tables here; and it was a sign of our times that a young gentleman trying to use it referred to it as a “fossil”. There were fragments of annihilated pieces of paper on the floor in another corner of the room, no thanks to a “rat” I was told. So, nature and modernity continue to co-mingle!

Hmm, the young lady I was chatting with was voluptuous, charming, well spoken, very intelligent; focused. And a published poet to boot.

We spoke about the world of writing in general; she explained how she had come to love writing; how she was a great “debater’ from her early time in school, and the like. She explained how her debut book had come into fruition. I was quite impressed with her single-mindedness, savvy, and determination to make her mark.

And how is she savouring the fact of being a published writer? She told me that it was a wonderful feeling “My book launch was a remarkable occasion graced by many people who have made it in the world of letters. Though I am still young I think I have made a positive step forward” she vouchsafed.

Then we touched about “local literary figures” who had inspired her, or the writers she knew about. She mentioned a few figures explaining what she liked about them. Smiling, I remarked: “What about Pule Lechesa (pictured above)? Do you know him? Have you ever met him?”

The lady flinched, fear suddenly etched on her face. “Pule Lechesa?” she repeated. “The dreaded literary critic?”

“The very same one,” I commented, enjoying her sudden discomfiture.

It was clear that mentioning this name had unnerved this young female writer. Her whole mien seemed to be transformed; fancifully I imagined the horrifying fear of the days of yore when an “apostate’ heard anything about the “Inquisition”

I grinned. “You are reacting as if Mr Lechesa (a South African literary pundit) is the devil himself!”

“Yho! People are scared of him…writers are really afraid of that man,” the young poet said, as she physically shook. “From all the stories I have heard about him and his reviews, criticisms…he’s some sort of bugbear!” she laughed.

I smiled, thinking briefly of other writers who were not too enamoured with Mr Lechesa, the “critic”. As far as many of these writers are concerned, here is a fearsome, dreaded figure always ready to pull them down as it were. Yet he continues to be respected nationally and internationally by people who know what literary criticism is all about. Indeed a number of Eurocentric literary observers have told me a number of times that it is “a pleasure and honour to be reviewed by Mr Lechesa” But how many writers on the ground believe this?!

I told the young female poet now that it seemed to be the norm that writers were scared of critics anyway. I gave her some examples drawn from around the world. “it seems the critics are doing great jobs introducing books, analyzing them but the pertinent writers are reluctant to have any ‘weaknesses’ in their works pointed out. Seriously it is a long-standing practice in the western world. Literary criticism. Countless thousands of books have been published on diverse writers and their works. But as Lechesa himself would say, most of our African writers would just like to be praised instead of having their books evaluated properly,”

“But why is he (ie Lechesa) so ‘tough’ on writers?” the lady asked. “We can’t bring those high white standards here…”

“Then we might as well give up on proper, widely respected literature here,” I said. “If we want to be taken seriously even at the most rudimentary level, we cannot turn our backs on literary criticism,”

“But Ntate,” she said after a while. “Come to think of it, you are also an internationally recognized critic too. I have read a lot about you. But how come writers are NOT scared of you?”

I grinned. “If I was such a good critic, people would be scared of me too,” I said. “but alas, the opposite is the case…so let’s agree that I’m just not up to scratch!”

·         NOTE: This columnist got the permission of Mr Pule Lechesa to publish his name whilst recalling this real-life encounter with the lady poet