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Promoting publishing in indigenous language
(The PUNCH, Friday, M) |
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The focus of this year’s Nigerian Book Fair is on publishing in indigenous language. And between May 10 and 14 when it holds at the University of Lagos, everything that makes a book fair interesting has been lined up.
The celebrated Kenyan author and a leading advocate of writing in indigenous language, Professor Ngugi Wa Thiong’O, has been invited to deliver the keynote address.
However, the highlight of this year’s fair is the awards that will be given for the first time. According to the Chairman, Nigerian Book Fair Trust Fund Awards Committee, Mr. Bodunde Bankole, there will be a Victor Nwankwo Book of the Year Award and Lantern Books Award for Children’s Literature.
“The two awards are being given this year to seek to reward originality, innovation and good book production,” he said.
He explained that for any book to win the Book of the Year award, it must be written by a Nigerian, printed and published in Nigeria. And for the children’s literature, he said the book must tell a story within the cultural context of the Nigerian child. “The story must be morally uplifting and appropriately illustrated for the age of the target reader.”
The winners have however emerged. For the children’s literature, Egbuna Ekpa’s Homeless Child, by New generation Books, Enugu, defeated 18 other entries, while Kunle Ajibade’s Jailed for life: A reporter’s prison notes, published by Heinemann Educational Books Nigeria Plc, Ibadan, beat other 25 books to emerge the Victor Nwankwo Book of the Year. Both authors will be honoured at an awards ceremony on Thursday May 12.
Interestingly, both authors, Ajibade and Ekpa, are print and broadcast journalists respectively.
The principal objective of the Trust, Bankole said, was to promote reading and readership through book fairs, trade exhibitions, book clubs and readership groupings. “Giving awards for excellence in writing and book production falls within this object clause,” he said.
Last year, the Trust gave awards for Lifetime Achievements to two authors – Cyprian Ekwensi and Amos Tutuola. A similar award, he stated, would also be given out this year posthumously to a pioneer in writing and publishing in Igbo indigenous language, Dr. Ogbalu.
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