Honouring Bukola Oriola

I have heard, with much delight, that President Barack Obama has appointed Bukola Oriola to the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. Bukola is a Nigerian-born woman living in Minnesota. I have known her from 2009 when I first met her. Before then, I knew only her name from an African community newspaper published in Minnesota.

One day, I read a statement she made that she had written a book manuscript but didn't know how to get it published. Having self published two books, I felt the urge to help her. I called her, even though we did not know each other, and I told her I had read her statement and wanted to help her publish her book.

Bukola came to St. Olaf College, and I showed her how to publish online. Soon thereafter, she published  Imprisoned: The Travails of a Trafficked Victim. We kept in touch, and I invited her to the Twin Cities Book Festival which was held on October 10, 2009, so she could see the kind of work writers do after publishing a book. The photo on the left shows the two of us at my table.

The book facilitated Bukola's work of conveying to the public her message about human trafficking. In addition to giving talks to various audiences, she started a television program as well as a non profit organization, The Enitan Story.

Bukola is a passionate advocate for the victims of human trafficking, while fostering people's awareness of this global problem. I am impressed and inspired by her work. I recall how I first contacted her, how we met, and what she wrote in the acknowledgement section of her book:

     I would also like to thank those who worked with me to get this book published. My profound gratitude goes to Prof. Joseph Mbele of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, who showed me how to get my book published, otherwise it would have been another Word Document on my computer. It would have not been able to give the message of hope to the hopeless. God bless you sir.

President Obama's selection of Bukola is a great honour to her. I have witnessed the excitement it has generated in Minnesota, around the USA, and, in a special way, in Nigeria. Bukola sees in all this the workings of destiny. She believes that the suffering she underwent as a victim of human trafficking was part of God's plan to prepare her for her mission. You can hear her in this interview:

Teaching "Americanah" This Semester

This week, in my Post-colonial Literature class, we have been discussing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, among other awards. Since then, she has continued to write and to win award after award.

In September 2006, she attended the Twin Cities Book Festival in Minneapolis, as one of the invited authors, to launch Half of a Yellow Sun. I attended her book reading and signing, and had the opportunity to have my copy signed, chat with her, and take a photo.

Having taught Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, I decided to include Americanah in my Post-colonial Literature course this semester.

Although we are not yet half-way into this novel, we can see that it is a moving tale of the lives of Nigerian characters at home and abroad, mainly in the USA. With a keen insight and enjoyable writing style, Adichie explores themes such as relationships between men and women and between races, cultural differences, and the mystique of America.

Africans who have lived in America can relate to the situations and experiences described in Americanah. I can guarantee this, having written Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences.

My e-book on "Things Fall Apart"

Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, continues to fascinate and touch people around the world in ways that no other African literary work has managed to do. I have taught this novel from the time I was doing teaching practice as an undergraduate student.

In 1988, I published some study notes on this novel, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I revised these notes and produced an online guide which was popular among students and teachers around the world. I revised it still, expanding and publishing it. I have now published it as an e-book. Click here.