“Please let me shape my fate”: Interrogating the contemporary in contemporary imaginative writing

Abstract

Writers in Africa have a social responsibility to the peoples of their countries. Often they are very enlightened and empowered and in a position to speak up on matters that concern the destiny of the suffering people. This self-chosen role became particularly necessary in the years of military dictatorships. Writers such as Wole Soyinka, Mongo Beti, Chinua Achebe, Athol Fugard, Christopher Okigbo, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Tanure Ojaide and Ayi Kwei Armah have confronted these issues in different degrees. These concerns are often socio-political, with a tinge of the economic. The cultural aspects of the concerns have been subsumed within new struggles. These writers are concerned with the fate of their countries, and so we can argue that the purpose of writing is the desire to shape the fate of the society. This is what we have termed “let me know my fate”. Another concern in this paper is how effectively and successfully can a contemporary writer interrogate a contemporary experience? In other words, can the imagination thrive only when it contends the historical? What are the problems associated with interrogating the contemporary, while the action as it were is still on? Can the African writer afford to wait for history in order to write?.

Lwati: A Journal of Contemporary Research Vol. 4 () 2007: pp.173-183