Ethnocentric Literature : My Dear African

Ive seen quite a number of posts on here, about what classify’s as literature. Some people think they have some certification or social grounds to speak on this, based on the amount of Nabokov’s , Caroll Oates, Gaiman, e.t.c book pictures or quotes they put up on here, and you know what , I honestly don’t care. I really don’t give a fuck. Don’t tell me ” Paolo Coelho isn’t a good writer” because you’ve been accustomed to feel that some writers or writing styles must secure prevalence over others( this is to you oh ” To Kill a Mockingbird ” reader, yes to the lot of you), because I still do not fucking care. Sometimes I get it, people want to stand apart, we want to look “cool” in a sea of tumblr where everyone is seriously starting to look alike.. no guys I’m fucking serious.. lets start doing less, at least in that respect. But for me, these ideal ” American Classics” have no place of ambitious importance in my personal library. My life was not shaped in any form or manner by Herman Melville , J.D Salinger or Ernest Hemingway, or the likes , and doubtedly many would argue that their works presented amazing values and elements and *yawn*. I don’t see why I have to hold these books to any standard , when people my age who are caucasian et all don’t take the time to read African novelists .. with the exception of Chinua Achebe’s ” Things Fall Apart”, which I hate to break to the lot of you.. is not the ONLY or BEST literary piece that has come out of the sweat, toil and biro of a Nigerian writer.

See ehn

To make this long story short, I am tired of people shoving their opinions of literary works, where people like me ( Black, African , Woman) has no space created for. I understand that many of these classics , where written in times where people like me did not thrive , or did thrive, but still a space was not created for. But I no longer care much for these lists of novels, half of which I have read and been bored to the shallowest of tears. Sometimes what makes a great book isn’t these lists , or pretentious shadows that have floated around some texts for years. its the connection that matters the most. Someone out there thinks Paulo Coelho is a terrible writer, but for me, at a point in my life, I was struggling to find meaning, away from the conventional bible, and I found it in a different form. People have accused his works on being Cliche or repetitive, but no matter how you look at a lot of texts the messages are still the same, just channeld differently.

This rant isn’t about Paolo Coelho, but I brought him up, because lately he has been quite the victim of nightmarish pretentious hipster commentary. Read what feels good, read what includes you, so you can build a narrative, read what excludes you so you can be an outsider and understand things from that telescope,  read what emotes you, cause thats all that really fucking counts, and don’t read Moby Dick, just because someone said its a must read in ” American Literature”. In many ways these works are not so bad, but Ive stopped feeling bad, about rendering some of them boring, harshly exclusive and just… fucked

- MangoIslandFugitive