Inside Track...Abuja Writers Forum and Chimamanda Adichie

Tunji Ajibade
with Chimamanda Adichie.
Photo by Inside Track

A Day With Chimamanda Adichie
 - By Tunji Ajibade

It appeared it wouldn’t come. Her email. Then it did. A surprise. I had resigned myself to the fact that it wouldn’t be this year again. Her proposed special reading and book signing in Abuja, that is. “Uncle Tunji, our class prefect,” her mail began. Imagine, she didn’t forget the title ‘Uncle’ she gave me when I attended her (Farafina Trust) writing workshop in September, 2009. She had continued with her message. She would come to Abuja, she informed me. That was all that mattered. I left the rest for latter reading. “Chimamanda says she will come,” I said in a text message to Dr Emman Usman Shehu, president Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF). That marked the beginning of a frenzy of activities weeks before her arrival. Frenzy? No, more than.

Chimamanda Adichie
with Dr. Emman Shehu,
Head of the
Abuja Writers Forum.
Photo by Inside Track

The whole place was on its head. Guess it has to be that way when a Queen comes visiting. The correspondence too was unprecedented – from AWF Abuja office, to the Embassy of the United States which collaborated with AWF to host Chimamanda, to Lagos where Okey, her indefatigable PA takes care of things, and across the Atlantic to the U.S. from where her email originated. As the load of activities was heavy, so was the Guest Writer’s proposed itinerary. She would do a writing workshop first thing in the day (May 15). She would read and sign books for her audience later. And the Counsellor for Public Affairs at the American Embassy, Peter Claussen, would host her and other literary figures to a dinner, same day in his residence, by 7pm. This looked good on paper. Getting things into shape was another matter.

Eugenia Abu, Chimamanda Adichie,
and Ken Ike-Okere of the
Abuja Literary Society.
Photo by Inside Track

By the time I arrived the Cyprian Ekwensi Centre for Arts and Culture (CEAC), Mohammed of the CEAC, and Ben Okpogor of the Embassy were on ground. Mohammed worked on the sitting arrangement; Ben was the technical man, and his “hello, testing, testing,” on the microphones was a constant reminder that a technical man was around. I joined in getting the venue of the writing workshop ready. ‘Chimamanda Adichie’s (Special) Creative Writing Workshop, Abuja ,’ I wrote on a board, and placed it outside the hall for easy identification by workshop participants. They soon began to walk in; Peace Ugochukwu was the first. She was full of energy, and she was on a mission too. She had been in touch with me days earlier, wanting to get in touch with Chimamanda from her American University , Yola. Her selection as a participant at the workshop was the clincher. “I want to get her to come to Yola, and do a reading for us,” she told me with all eagerness, as soon as she took a seat. She had the instruction to get Chimamanda to talk on phone to her professor back in Yola who sponsored her flight to Abuja . She later gave Chimamanda close follow-up until the author spoke with the American female professor on phone for more about fifteen minutes. What they agreed on would become public one of these days. Read more here