Literature doesn't have a country. Shakespeare is an African writer. His Falstaff, for example, is very African in his appetite for life, his largeness of spirit. The characters of Turgenev are ghetto dwellers. Dickens characters are Nigerians.
Ben OkriWe have fallen into this very mean description of humanity. Naturalism in fiction is too reductive in its definition of human beings.
Ben OkriWe have not yet arrived, but every point at which we stop requires a re-definition of our destination.
Ben OkriBad things will happen and good things too. Your life will be full of surprises. Miracles happen only where there has been suffering. So taste your grief to the fullest. Donโt try and press it down. Donโt hide from it. Donโt escape. It is life too. It is truth. But it will pass and time will put a strange honey in the bitterness. Thatโs the way life goes.
Ben Okri