It is often said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. This is an apt subject to reflect on in October, the month in which Kenyans celebrate their heroes through Mashujaa Day.
October this year has also been marked by tributes to the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, whose political life embodied the clamour for justice, democracy and freedom.
At the 27th Nairobi International Book Fair, held at Sarit Expo Centre, Westlands, from September 23 to 27, the Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) paid tribute to Raila, including through a newsletter whose lead stories captured him not only as a political leader but also as someone whose influence extended from newsroom planning to the world of books.
In African literature, heroism is not confined to the deeds of individuals, however pivotal their contributions may be. In many works, it is also associated with the small, often uncelebrated contributions of ordinary people whose collective actions help bring about social change.
This is evident in works such as Sembène Ousmane’s God’s Bits of Wood, which depicts the solidarity and resistance of railway workers and their communities during a colonial-era strike. Such works remind us that history is not made by celebrated figures alone. It is also shaped by the daily choices, sacrifices and acts of courage of ordinary people.
This is the premise of Chinonso Elom N’s Echoes of Resistance, a novel about the struggles of two Nigerians, Obidika and Nnameka. Obidika is a brilliant but financially struggling teacher, while his friend Nnameka is a hustler who divides his time between eking out a living in the local market and engaging in social activism.
The novel opens when the two are university students. To make ends meet, Obidika divides his time between his studies and teaching at a local secondary school. Despite their different circumstances, the two share an unwavering vision of a better Nigeria. Their struggle takes various forms, including university student strikes against runaway corruption and other grievances that have plagued not only the Nigeria depicted in the novel but also many other African countries.
These protests bring to the fore such themes as police brutality, abuse of office and the excessive use of force by state authorities to suppress what are often legitimate public grievances. The novel thus locates the struggle for freedom not merely in grand political pronouncements but also in the everyday encounters between ordinary citizens and institutions that ought to serve them.
The book is, mercifully, undergoing revision, which one hopes will help address some developmental editing issues. Among the issues requiring attention is the use of explanatory subtitles in literary works, as well as interpretive descriptions.
Although subtitles can serve legitimate artistic purposes, they become problematic when they attempt to interpret a work for the reader, prescribing how a novel, play or short story should be understood before the reader has had an opportunity to engage with it.
Literature should, as far as possible, be allowed to speak for itself. The reader's task is not simply to receive an author's interpretation but to discover meanings through an encounter with the work.
Those familiar with literary semantics will appreciate that what a reader takes away from a work of art may represent only a fraction of what the author intended. An author brings to a work not merely the craft of writing but also personal experiences, hopes, aspirations, fears and, where relevant, the burden of historical trauma.
Conversely, the reader approaches the work from a different background, bringing their own experiences, hopes, fears, aspirations and traumas. The resulting interpretation may therefore differ considerably from the author's intentions.
Ten people reading the same book may come away with ten different understandings of what it means, much like the familiar story of the blindfolded people who, having each touched a different part of an elephant, offer conflicting descriptions of the same animal.
This is why authors, especially those publishing independently, should be careful not to explain too much. They should use words to paint the world of their literary works, trusting readers to explore that world and make their own discoveries. A work that leaves room for interpretation invites the reader into a more meaningful relationship with it.
These editorial reservations notwithstanding, Echoes of Resistance is a worthwhile addition to the body of African literature exploring what Chinua Achebe famously called The Trouble with Nigeria. Achebe's critique of Nigeria's political and social failures also speaks to challenges elsewhere on the continent, where abundant natural resources have failed to translate into widespread prosperity for citizens.
Many postcolonial African states remain caught in a cycle of corruption, poor governance and mismanagement of public resources. In some instances, their leaders appear more inclined to seek solutions from former colonial powers than to confront the failures of governance at home. One might describe this dependence as a kind of postcolonial Stockholm syndrome, although the metaphor should not obscure the political and economic structures that sustain it.
In Echoes of Resistance, the recurring artistic commentary appears to be that corruption and the misuse of public resources help explain why many Africans remain poor despite their countries' considerable natural wealth.
The novel's concerns therefore extend beyond Nigeria, inviting readers across the continent to consider the relationship between political leadership, public accountability and the promise of independence.
The novel is dedicated, among others, to Achebe, one of Africa's most celebrated writers. Its use of Umuofia as part of its setting also invites comparisons with Achebe's Things Fall Apart, in which Umuofia is the community at the centre of the narrative. This association places Echoes of Resistance in conversation with a significant tradition of African writing, although a shared setting alone does not establish deliberate intertextual borrowing.
Ultimately, Echoes of Resistance is an artistic exploration of how ordinary people, going about their daily lives, contribute to the cumulative struggle for a better, more just and freer society. Its central proposition is that freedom is secured by the persistence of countless individuals who refuse to accept injustice as inevitable.
The struggle may be slow, its victories uncertain and its participants largely uncelebrated. Yet every act of resistance, however small, can contribute to a larger transformation. As Martin Luther King Jr – echoing the words of abolitionist minister Theodore Parker – famously put it, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.
