CONFLATING YORUBA AND SESOTHO LITERATURE

By Omoseye Bolaji

Is it not a wonderful thing when we devour (read) a gripping, superb book written in our African languages, the mother tongue in particular? Such books read at a very young age often transport us into another world entirely, especially if the pertinent author is a fluent wordsmith.

Hence millions of Yoruba speaking people around the world (including myself) realise only too well the debt we owe to D.O Fagunwa, a more than proficient and dexterous writer in the Yoruba language. What an imagination! What florid captivating descriptions! Reading Fagunwa’s books enriched our childhood prodigiously, especially as we were so lucky to read him as kids.

It is rather zany that as regards writing in the mother tongue, our African languages, there is often complete ignorance among readers from other linguistic groupings about superb writers strutting their stuff in other African languages. That is the burden such great writers often necessarily carry. For example we Yorubas know all about the one and only D.O Fagunwa, but how many Yorubas know about Thomas Mofolo or KPD Maphalla? Or vice versa?

Okay, Thomas Mofolo (pix, above) and Maphalla are regarded as all-time greats of Sesotho (a South African ‘African language’) literature. Since there have been many translations (into European languages) of Mofolo’s books - especially Chaka – we can assume that from the international point of view Thomas Mofolo would be more celebrated than Maphalla.

Yet KPD Maphalla arguably is the greatest writer ever in the Sesotho language. Here is a living legend indeed! (He is still very much alive unlike Fagunwa and Mofolo who died many decades ago) Maphalla has published well over 35 books in Sesotho, a man whose books have been read by successive generations of (Sesotho language) readers in schools and Colleges in the pertinent regions. Just like D.O Fagunwa in the Yoruba niche.

Years ago, Fagunwa’s books were recommended reading in proliferating schools in Yorubaland, as it were, (mainly western Nigeria) And we all relish those good old days! Reading any work of Fagunwa then – like Ireke Onibudo, Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale, Igbo Olodumare, Aditu Olodumare etc - was being transported into a fantastical, exhilarating world where human beings, evanescent spirits, animals, ancestral African legends are intertwined inextricably.

As scholar Bayo Adebowale has put it: “Whoever among them can ever forget Fagunwa’s powerful character portrait of his major characters like Esu Kekereode, Anjonnu Iberu, Olowoaye, Ojola Ibinu, Kako, Akaraoogun, Imodoye, Olohun Iyo, Aramanda Okunrin, Egbin, Ibembe Olokunrun, Ifepade, Arogidigba, Baba Onirugbon Yeuke, Ajediran, Iragbeje, Ajantala, Ogongo Baba Eye, Edidare people and Omugodimeji their Royal Father, Ireke Onibudo, itanforiti, Ologbo Ijakadi, Iyunade and Ahondiwura!”

Not that Fagunwa is the only superb writer in the Yoruba language. There have been a number of others over the decades like the revered Adebayo Faleti, Akinwunmi Isola, and Afolabi Olabimtan (who I once interviewed for a Nigerian weekly in the past). Prof Faleti’s Yoruba classics (books) include O leku and Efunsetan Aniiwura – which we read long ago.

Yet there is no doubt about it that D.O Fagunwa will always be considered the greatest creative writer ever in the Yoruba language; the same way Thomas Mofolo and KPD Maphalla are regarded as all-time greats (or ‘greatests’) in the Sesotho language. Mofolo, being a pioneer (first novelist in the Sesotho language) will always be given pride of place by scholars and pundits. Ditto D.O Fagunwa in the Yoruba language.

It is a crying shame that these days, most African youth seem to consider it a burden, an imposition, even “infra dig” to read books written in their mother tongues across the continent. They do not know that this is sheer folly on their part. The ideal thing is to master both our mother tongues plus “international language” – bask in them all!

In this wise we all remember that one of Africa’s greatest ever writers, Ngugi wa Thiong’o (from Kenya) made his name as a brilliant writer in English, and then suddenly announced that he would be focusing on his mother tongue (Kikuyu) in his writings. Many scholars have regarded this as “extreme”, but the point is that there is great joy in the literature of our copious African languages…suke…