It Will Be My Shame

It would be my shame
And yours too

If our children
Still stormed streets
With angry placards
Hearts pounding in sedition
Singing,
“All we are saying….”

If they’d still shout
And leap for joy,
“Up NEPA!”

If they’d still
Loll and recline at home
Because the gates of schools
Remain unopened,

If they’d still wheel a barrow
To buy water from
The next street

If after S S 3
They’d be unable
To spell their names.

It would be my shame
But yours too.

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Dalu's Diary by Ogechi Ezeji : Children's Literature in Nigeria is Coming Back

I felt like a child once again, after reading Ogechi Ezeji’s Dalu’s Diary, a book of fiction for children and adults alike.The feeling I got from reading this work is akin to the one I got from reading Chinua Achebe’s Chike and the River, Onuora Nzekwu’s Eze Goes to School, Cyprian Ekwensi’s The Drummer Boy and all other great children fictions of Nigeria’s literary golden age, so many years ago.
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What was it like having to be taught by the amazing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie? Was it your first time of applying?

CHETACHI IGBOKWE: Thanks to Black Boy Review for affording me this platform. I respect Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and being taught by her was a great deal for me. Having read everything she has published thus far, starting from her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, which was a tour de force, it is evident that every generation must feel blessed to be graced with a writer like her. Originally, I knew about the workshop from close friends. I also knew how very competitive it was but I…

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