There is a raging showdown between two literary amazons, both of whom have played crucial roles in shaping contemporary African literature and helped in expanding its global appeal.
I am losing quite a bit of sleep. My initial approach was to let time sort things out, as prior experiences confirm. On second thought, however, I decided that it is better to summon the two erring sisters to a court where chiefs with red caps festooned with feathers wield the big stick. At least, this should serve as a cautionary tale, while also offering a teachable moment to those who would rather wash our dirty linen in the full glare of the public and dare Amadioha in his face.
Tufiakwa!
You know that you are inching closer to the twilight zone when all of a sudden you start feeling like the moral arch of the universe rests upon your shoulders. It comes with that feeling of a weighty responsibility to wade into every crisis and intervene even between those who have zero ideas of your existence. May God help.
Akwaeke Emezi. Gosh! How I love that soul. Even her name alone is awe-inspiring and in Igbo anthroponymy, it translates to a Unicorn. I know! Funny enough, before now I had only chanced upon some of her writings, mostly as short stories in the Brittle Papers, an African literature platform. It’s just recently that I learnt of the body of work that clearly defines her as a multi-talented video artist and accomplished writer, who has been nominated in many literary categories and had gone on to win multiple awards.
Emezi currently signed a two-book deal with Riverhead Books. The first of the two, a New York Times bestseller called, The Death of Vivek Oji was released in August 2020 and the second one is titled, Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir.
Her debut novel, Freshwater, which explores the Igbo concept of gender and spirituality vis-a-vis Western culture, was named a New Yorker Best Book of the Year and received glowing reviews from reputable organisations like the New York Times, Los Angeles Time and even The Guardian. In 2019, Freshwater was nominated for the Women’s Prize for fiction which was historic in the sense of being the first of its kind by a transgender author.
Talking about gender, Emezi identifies as non-binary. She is a strong advocate of the LGBTQ community, championing transgender rights and drawing inspiration from the late Binyavanga Wainaina. It’s not totally surprising, therefore, that gender identity and the politics of it are at the front and centre of her public spat with a former mentor and world-famous author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
With the serendipitous discovery of Emezi’s treasure trove of literary work, I arrived at two conclusions. First is that the feud comes with its own silver lining for those of us late to Emezi’s party. The second is that if her wish as the underdog in this fight is to gain more visibility and claim a greater market share in the literary space, she may have achieved that beyond her wildest dreams. But truth be told, there is a different dimension to this issue that is beyond the literati, which is why the New York Times, Guardian, NPR and even the Daily Mail picked up the story and ran with it.
The problem started when Chimamanda granted an interview to UK’s Channel 4TV in March 2017, in which she stated that a trans woman is a trans woman. By that, she was attempting to distinguish between the experience of women born female, as opposed to those of trans women. Chikena.
Following that interview, she was excoriated and roundly condemned by a section of the LGBTQ community as being transphobic. Even the series of subsequent media statements and Facebook posts, in an attempt to douse the fire and showcase her long track record of support for LGBTQ rights, were not enough to stop her trolls. Emezi was particularly disappointed and deeply incensed, feeling that such a statement was emblematic of the culture of transphobia that exists in the larger society. She called Adichie’s statement not just a serious betrayal by a friend, mentor and role model but also a denial of her existence as a transwoman. And she made that known publicly. Oh, dear!
Of course, we may never know all that transpired in a long-term relationship between two friends gone awry but certain inferences could be made, sorting through their correspondence. It appears that Emezi later realised her mistake of lashing out in public, wrote an apology letter and hoped to worm her way back into Chimamanda’s world. The latter, very angry and feeling betrayed by someone she went out of her way to help, played the defence and rebuffed all the subsequent overtures. Having tried repeatedly without success, Emezi got frustrated, called Chimamanda’s bluff and went full scale on the offensive. She called her a ”murderer” and from what we heard, launched a scorched-earth social media campaign to discredit Chimamanda. Not only that, she went on a mission to permanently damage her brand. Mba nu!
People often say that all is fair in love and war but that is not necessarily true. Or why do we have the International Court sitting in Hague, which tries war criminals? Believe it or not, it is expected that even in war situations, rules of engagement still need to be upheld. It’s human nature to be angry and act out but the response should also be commensurate to the perceived wrong. In this fight, Ms Emezi took no prisoners.
To describe someone as transphobic and call her a murderer for simply refusing to commingle feminism with transgender activism is to miss the whole premise of the LGBTQ campaign, which is about respecting individual choices and differences, even when they don’t align with yours. Cyberbullying and reverse discrimination are also not behaviours to be encouraged.
Hopefully, this one issue may offer a window of opportunity into discussing the relationship between the transgender and cisgender, heterosexual and LGBTQ in general, in order to define expectations on each side. As the campaign to educate more and more heterosexual people about LGBTQ rights and the push for increased sensitivity to gender fluidity is being ramped up, it’s important to educate the other side as well. The crucial need to support LGBTQ rights and interact with the community in a respectful and non-threatening way is something that a whole lot of people are still struggling with and it remains a work in progress.
Though it’s not yet uhuru and a lot more needs to be done to protect such a vulnerable population, we should also acknowledge that tremendous progress has been made in these past few years. With increasing public enlightenment and awareness, many are now evolving from an initial hardline position to that of showing a willingness to listen and learn. More effort should be channelled, however, in that direction. Even though one can sense the impatience in opting for such a slow and time-consuming process, the alternative is to adopt a fire brigade approach meant to blackmail or beat every questioning voice to shape. Such a method is unlikely to help in the long run and would only amount to conversion without conviction.
Like all art aficionados, one is deeply burdened by the ugly ramifications of this fight, given its tendency to polarise people and force the family of African writers to take sides. But this is not the first time it will happen. There is a long history of feuds between writers and I’m convinced that the two will settle scores, knock themselves over a couple of times, but in the end, each will get up and be just fine. What is more worrisome, however, is the unintended consequences when two elephants fight. The problem is the grass being trampled upon in this case takes the form of all forgone alternatives. Not in the least is the squandered opportunity to beam a searchlight on the human carnage that has since become an everyday Nigerian story.
Agbo, a public affairs analyst is the coordinator of the African Center for Transparency and Convener of Save Nigeria Project. He can be reached via email: eagleosmund@yahoo.com
