ISSUE 5:
WRITING THE DELTA STORY
First a caveat: the story of the delta is tricky. One fraught with a rigmarole of details and bilious emotions, but must still be told nonetheless. We owe it to ourselves, to literature and, most of all, to humanity.
And what is the best way to dispel this ambiguity: to begin by saying that the tale is rather a simple one. The details are numerous, disorganised, recurring. The Delta is the nexus of the Nigerian economy and the fulcrum of our existence. The Niger Delta is a gift as well as a curse, our plague as much as our pride.
The game of Niger Delta is an unfair one to which a whistle should have been blown long ago. Yet, the game continues in all unfairness and savagery; it has indeed become a first-come-first-swerve agendum. There’s no gainsaying that the whistle should be blown; but where is the whistle? And who is the Umpire?
Definitely not Saraba. By creating a collage of art forms behind an evocative front cover, we have neither changed the outlook of the Delta nor influenced it. What we have done is to give back. Words in return for crude oil, rich heritage, guns, bad international publicity, political incorrectness, farcical outlook etcetera. We give you an Issue of questions, longing and memory. We give you an Issue, may we say, of hope.
We are no heroes. The heroes of the Niger Delta are slain martyrs, their blood spilled in dark waters. The masses, their livelihood frittered into oily creeks. Ours is to reproduce their echoes and let it resonate through cyberspace. We are giving them back their voices and lending ours too. We are creating unending voices.
E.I & D.A.
Ile-Ife,
March 2010
*Click the image of the magazine above or here to download the current issue (Niger Delta, March 2010) of the magazine.
VOICES ON THE 4 WINDS:
Saraba's third poetry chapbook
Download (pdf)
Read the introduction by Jumoke Verissimo
POETRY CONVERSATION
As part of the Anniversary Celebration, EMMANUEL IDUMA conversed with BIYI OLUSOLAPE (Saraba's Poetry Editor) and DAMILOLA AJAYI on contemporary Nigerian poetry.
Download the conversation in two parts (MP3 files):
Part ONE (49 MB)
Part TWO (25 MB)
NEW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
From April 2010, Saraba would no longer accept entries for the online magazine. Entries would be received only for the e-magazine and chapbooks. The site would be improved continually to represent and reflect the best of emerging writing from Nigeria, Africa and the world.
Interested contributors should read the following guidelines carefully. Saraba’s staff is a small number of committed and enthusiastic but busy professionals. As such, entries that do not conform to these guidelines would not be considered. Our goal is to give emerging writers a voice and confidence, to give them the opportunity of having their works published.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Intro
Writing the Niger, a publishers’ note
The people
Yellow Yellow, an excerpt
The Various Persecuted, long poetry and prose
Yet Another Funeral, a poem
Matters Not, a poem
Delta Dialysis, a poem
Secular History, Contayning the Actes and Monuments of
Things Passed in Every Kynges Tyme, a shorter poem
On Saro-Wiwa & another
Defenderemos, a poem
The Voice, a poem
The Death of a Town Crier, a review
For the land
Dirge for the Agonizing Land, a poem
Rampage Song, a poem
Idiogbon kuro wariri – Our spirit is strong, a revised myth
Bloody Beats, a poem
Reviewing the Ogoni, an essay
Supposing, a poem
A Lesson in Fishing, flash fiction
The militants
Descendant of a Missionary, a short story
Warriors of the South, an essay
Post Faces
Betty, a story of a gun in the Niger Delta
Bare enre/once upon a time…ke nako/its time, for Haiti
Fear – The Greatest Enemy of Gender Equality, a winning essay
Contributors, Announcements, etc.
On Writing God, a call for submission