{"id":5899,"date":"2018-11-06T13:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/akefestival.org\/archive\/?p=5899"},"modified":"2020-07-11T15:15:40","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T15:15:40","slug":"book-chat-michael-donkors-hold-and-chibundu-onuzos-welcome-to-lagos-by-tireni-odubiyi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akefestival.org\/archive\/book-chat-michael-donkors-hold-and-chibundu-onuzos-welcome-to-lagos-by-tireni-odubiyi\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Chat: Michael Donkor\u2019s Hold and Chibundu Onuzo\u2019s Welcome to Lagos by Tireni Odubiyi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThese two books are journeys. The more you read, the more complex they get and the more you get entwined in them,\u201d says Arit Okpo, hosting the book chat with Michael Donkor and Chibundu Onuzo, authors of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hold<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Welcome to Lagos<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, respectively. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Author Michael Donkor explains how in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hold<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he wanted to reflect his experience of Twi, the predominant language spoken in Ghana. \u201cMy relatives often move between Twi and English very fluidly without explaining when they are jumping from one to the other. I wanted to try and replicate that,\u201d says Donkor on his choice to explain some Twi words and leave some unexplained for readers to figure out in context. Arit Okpo comments on how this idea feeds into the wider ongoing debate amongst writers across Africa on whether to use glossaries to explain terms written in our indigenous languages or leave the audience to use contextual knowledge of the text to try to understand passages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other hand, Chibundu Onuzo\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Welcome to Lagos<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> takes the reader on a different kind of journey relating to belonging and community. The protagonist of the novel returns to Lagos from abroad with what she describes as a \u2018naive arrogance\u2019. \u201cHe thinks, yes I am going to come back and shine a light on corruption; everybody is going to rally around me and we are going to change Nigeria.\u201d Chibundu explains that though this optimism is needed, you need local knowledge as well. \u201cYou need people that know how to navigate the space or else you will make the same mistakes your predecessors made,\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking on why she felt the need to write the novel, she comments that she wanted to highlight the sense of community and diversity found in places like Lagos where everyone comes together to survive. \u2018\u2018You have so much side by side, so much melding, so many different communities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These two books defy any form of simplicity in their construction and narratives. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThese two books are journeys. The more you read, the more complex they get and the more you get entwined in them,\u201d says Arit Okpo, hosting the book chat with&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-style\" href=\"https:\/\/akefestival.org\/archive\/book-chat-michael-donkors-hold-and-chibundu-onuzos-welcome-to-lagos-by-tireni-odubiyi\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-34"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Book Chat: Michael Donkor\u2019s Hold and Chibundu Onuzo\u2019s Welcome to Lagos by Tireni Odubiyi - Ake Arts &amp; Book Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/akefestival.org\/archive\/book-chat-michael-donkors-hold-and-chibundu-onuzos-welcome-to-lagos-by-tireni-odubiyi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Chat: Michael Donkor\u2019s Hold and Chibundu Onuzo\u2019s Welcome to Lagos by Tireni Odubiyi - Ake Arts &amp; Book Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cThese two books are journeys. 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