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KWENU! Our culture, our future |
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People of the pen
M. O. Ené (New Jersey, USA)
Friday, February 14, 2003
Sincere salutations!
I doff off my hat to all the good writers who have kept us glued to the Cyberspace. I am not going to mention any names because it will be unfair to miss anyone’s name. But we know who is who on these circuits. The engineers surely take the lead, probably before some equally hardworking professional journalists. And we are many. Oh yes; great writers all of them! Of course, there are the reverend gentlemen. What can I say; they dazzle you with the depth of their work. The lawyers had their turn with the Bakassi brouhaha; those who know their stuff spoke up. Then there are the medicos. Others are from all walks of life: poets, civil servants, businessmen, students, and all other long-suffering scribers. I am still trying to figure out what drives these people to take time off their busy schedules, lose sleep, and come up with the masterpieces we read. It must be stronger than love for literary activities; it must be a force from the gods….
Daalu nu! [Thank you all!]
Since the explosion of literary, second-shift scribbling on these superhighways, there has never been a paucity of powerful people of the pen, as I now call my fellow writers who have stayed true to the under-appreciated and unpaid undertaking of edutainment. However, there are people of the pen and there are people of the pencil -- those of us whose writings could do with not only more of an editor’s eraser or backspace key, which we all need occasionally, but with literary intensive care mostly because we are not bound by basic rules. It’s not that there are rigid rules to abide by; it’s simply that somewhere along the path of pen-pushing, for no obvious fault of ours, the line between e-forum communication and web-publishing becomes rather too thin and moves to the edge of evaporation.
In my studies of webpublishing, it is a thing of joy that Nigerians rank tops in providing content. Many of the sites are professionally done and regularly updated. Although the level of in-house news generation is still very low, these sites continue to attract people of the pen from all over the world. This is laudable. It is also very encouraging that webmasters, or rather webpublishers, persist in a venture that is not money-spinning but beneficial to us. They deserve awards and support from our various communities. Imagine waking up one morning and these Nigerian sites have folded! I don’t know about you but I worry when websites shut down, fail to connect, or are not updated in days! I worry because, instead of fewer sites to visit, I want to see many more African sites. So it is not surprising that I often ping the affected webpublisher and holler: “Everything okay?”
More is better, but more of the same thing is not necessary good. The practice of publishing a particular piece on four or more websites is no longer kosher. Imagine buying four Nigerian newspapers and they have… say M. O. Ené offering the same stuff! Seeing the same work all over the place would be boring even to my religious readers. If that were the case, the more-is-better mantra would be untenable. Many people visit some sites to read particular writers. It’s not that they owe anyone any allegiance; it is the content, cyber-cowboy! If these writers could be found everywhere you turn, why would anyone want to surf the Internet for variety? Thus we would miss discovering new and upcoming writers with fresh and refreshing take on issues old and new.
There is enough news out there to collect and or to analyze. Everyone should not target the same issue on all websites. I have written before that there is a paucity of information coming out from Nigerian communities abroad. Yet, to date, no one is harnessing the news, not even in the monthly printed media, many of which are free photo-op publications. Everyone is busy copying from the same Internet news sources. So, while there is definitely an obvious increase in the fraternity (little sorority here, sorry) of people of the pen… and of the pencil, it is necessary that publishers do a little housekeeping. Things cannot continue as they are without producing a decline in the writer-reader, Internet-based interaction.
Writers are wanted, but there should be a wall separating a website from chat forum. Otherwise, many readers could simple glance at the not-always-representative sample texts served by the webpublisher/editor and miss the meat of the matter. I have shown that chat-forum formats produce mostly noise and occasional flashes of brilliance that are soon corrupted and extinguished. This has driven many mature men and women out of active forum participation. No one steps into a pigsty and steps out smelling like a rose. The Igbo would say: S/he who plays with the fowl will have chicken crap on her/his hands. [“Onye ya na okuko na-egwu egwu, akpana na-adi ya n’aka.”] Websites, especially reputable Nigerian websites, must not step into a world that has failed. Websites were an escape for those who wouldn’t do forums. If we drive them away, they will simple retire… maybe write pamphlets and books, which our people rarely buy… let alone read.
This piece is not designed to be Cyberology 2003, but I will give simple suggestions to help in keeping web-publishing thriving beyond 2003:
I look forward to seeing a tightening of things to propel web-publishing into reversing permanently the recent downward dip in late 2002. Web-publishing must continue to reinvent itself to avoid losing its audience. In the long run and as I have pointed out, dependence on Nigerian newspapers on the Internet is fraught with dangers. The Guardian has introduced subscription for day-old stories, as in The New York Times; and Vanguard is set to follow Newswatch in subscription for “premium” stories. The day ThisDay follows, we would have to wait for BBC and CNN to wake up on the wrong side of bed. We would have nothing from states in Nigeria and, even more curious, nothing from our communities abroad. Two sites recently piped in exclusive firsthand news from London and the other from Kaduna. These are unfortunately drying up and everyone is back to the usual sources, complete with the same titles and typos!
The webmasters have done a marvelous job, and the writers have been doing an extremely good job educating and entertaining us. Readers should sometimes salute the great e-art we have all enjoyed these past years. If we feel that things are going downstream, we should feel free to forward such sentiments with suggestions for improvement to the webmasters. Don’t walk way; if possible, put pen to paper and become a part of people of the pen. More writers are wanted, but we need to bring in some buzz, something fresh and refreshing and new and different.
For the good deeds of these brethren, I wish them more ink in their pens. To the webmasters, may your sites know no NEPA and, for your perseverance in promoting excellence in web-publishing, I wish for you all mucho dollar bonanzas in 2003 to couch the cost of sleepless nights and musculoskeletal ache from many moons of mouse management -- a condition which, believe it or not, prompts the progression of carpal tunnel syndrome.
And that’s why on this day, you are every reader’s Valentine. |
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