Böcker av Chin Ce

Igbo Mind Music and Memory is the second of the Riddles and Bash performance intelligence treatise by novelist, poet and critic, Chin Ce containing eleven talks and book reviews published in journals of African writing in the last decade. In this second collection, Ce takes a hard, honest evaluation of modern Igbo mind music and memory showing how Western Christian materialism contributed to the corruption and befuddled thinking of Africans toward their traditional and indigenous thought. He also reviews oral traditions using the riddles and bash performances of his community for case studies. The subsequent parts contain a look at new literatures and emerging tendencies in African writing, plus a chat on new Nigerian poetry and literary criticism. Ce argues that the continent is one in spite of different experiences in colonialism, nationalism and postindependent identities. And 'as we join the twenty-first century with the world becoming a global village, writers from Africa will need to preserve the heritage of their people and ensure that the healthy traditions and cultures of Africa are not lost in the march of civilisation.'

The Oracle is alive...In this intriguing plot evil takes on human form as Babul to reveal its methodologyof operation on Earth humans. This primordial antagonist is cast in the mythof Barw, a two- faced Baphomet character who personifies politics and religionafflicting modern society. The tale as told by Onku to the younger Sunu and Komasquickly assumes an initiatory rite where multiple identities of the characters emergeand play their roles in physical and metaphysical dimensions of existence...The second story, The Dreamer, is a mournful remembrance of lost love. Itssymmetry with the Oracle is in unmasking of the deceit with which human beings holdone another in thrall.A highly imaginative work of profound indigenous authenticity, The Dreamer and the Oracle might also prove to be the most experimental of Ce's stylistic projection ofour new galactic humanity.

Dissident Bards African Tyrants is a compendium of essays on contemporary fiction, poetry and drama, the first of a triad of the cultural appraisal of African heritage by Nigerian author Chin Ce. This second edition is somewhat stretched enough to conflate the arguments for wider audience participation with the works of Chin Ce which continue to hold the Nigerian state and its leadership under the radar of dissident exposure and censurous investigation.Ce argues that no serious evaluation of Africa's history or of sustainable progress in the region should ignore the contributions of the creative literatures of her people to the general debate. African novelists, poets and dramatists whose works have had honoured mention in this collection include Camara Laye, LS Senghor, Dennis Brutus, Dennis Osadebey, Chinua Achebe, Okot p' Bitek, Christopher Okigbo, Flora Nwapa, Ayi Kwei Armah, Wole Soyinka, Chinweizu, to mention but a few.

Third of the published triadic collection, Millennial is a travelogue through the West African lands of Nigeria, Togo and Ghana with records of encounter with the beautiful people, landscape and flora of the land. It tells of intimate relationships with humans, nature and society and is haunted throughout by echoes of failed leadership and human suffering central to the themes of Ce's poetic universe. Here in the words of the author are records of an endless quest to sublimate reality within the temporal or subliminal perspectives we imbue the work of imagination in its vibrational frequency reflective of time cherished values such as freedom, duty, friendships or love.

The third of the trilogic series, Chin Ce makes a deeply philosophical and enlightening read in this multidimensional adventure. The Visitor spans three- level frequencies of experience intertwined in a past, present and future involving Mensa, Erie and Deego same- soul entities, just as his companion Sena is Zeta and also Sarah in the various time loops. Spinning with flash backs and flash forwards, the adventure, seemingly complex, so well captures the nuances and imaginations of indigenous life as much as the inexorable growth that attends human choices, pushing the frontiers of awareness beyond the ken of mundane physical existence.

Bequeathing an enduring tenet for the creative enterprise, African Short Stories vol 2 boldly seeks to upturn the status quo by the art of narration. Whether they are stories of the whistle blower estranged and yet sounding the warning for heaven and earth to hear, or a ragtag army fleeing in the wake of a monstrous reptilian onslaught upon her peace, there pervades a sense of ultimate victory in this collection. We can feel the gentle kick of a baby in the womb of a maiden in desperation, or we can muse at the two adolescent genii on the trail of their dreams from the sunset of mutual deceit into the daylight of true becoming. Victory is laid out in that awesome kindness of a total stranger which affirms the divinity latent in even our most harrowing existence. With thirty five stories in two parts these literary experiments compel attention to the courageous hearts and minds that brighten the African universe of narration. Their vibrant notes coming from all corners of north, west, east and south fill us with encouragement and optimism for the contemporary short fiction in Africa.

In The Oracle the author explores individual flagellations within a far wider dimension of cosmic interdependency. It also evokes Gamji motifs as the religious and political mindlessness which impoverish the African landscape. Dedicated to Chinua Achebe The Oracle honours a shamanistic teacher and story teller who, with his spiritual double helps to liberate the protagonist from an insidious mind control programme by and evil intelligence that bestrides humanity through several ages of chaos.

Riddles and Bash by novelist, poet and critic, Chin Ce, contains ten volumes of essays and book reviews published in journals of African writing in the last decade. In this second collection Ce reviews African oral traditions using the riddles and bash performances of his community as a hard, honest evaluation of modern Igbo music and culture showing how Western Christian materialism appears to have also corrupted African traditional and philosophical thoughts. The subsequent parts contain a look at new literatures and emerging tendencies in African writing, plus a chat on new Nigerian poetry and literary criticism. Ce argues that the continent is one in spite of different experiences in colonialism, nationalism and post-independent identities. And 'as we join the twenty-first century with the world becoming a global village, writers from Africa will need to preserve the heritage of their people and ensure that the healthy traditions and cultures of Africa are not lost in the march of civilisation.'

Chin Ce, one of the important voices of contemporary African writing, is author of three published works of fiction: Children of Koloko, Gamji College and The Visitor which appear together here for the first time. Children of Koloko is Chin Ce's first novel told through the eyes of young Yoyo and his friends, Buff and Dickie. The story spans the life and habits of a semi urban Nigerian town (Koloko) and her people. In the short story collection Children of Koloko Chin Ce displays his admirable craft in dialogue in his portraiture of characters who only reflect the modern sensitivities of Africa's dying values. Gamji College is Chin Ce's second published prose fiction dealing on the character of the new nation states of Africa under the various civilian and military regimes that govern them in the twenty-first century. The Visitor is a story set in the future (2040 AD) where Deego views a movie and triggers off series of experiences which draw from a history of crime and death. It features Mensa as villain and victim in a 1994 Third World country (Nigeria).

Bards and Tyrants is a collection of essays and book review presentations in literary journals and publisher forums within and outside Nigeria in the last decade by Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic, Chin Ce. In his preface to the volume Ce admits of the inscription of Africa "in two opposing and irremediable directions by her bards and petty tyrants." While one involves "a visionary literati that seek to elevate the potentials of their educational and cultural inheritance" the other embraces "the politics of tyrannosaurs" who hasten to drag the continent to "a state of complete and total degeneracy." For him it is the frightening prospect of this latter possibility that all partakers in contemporary African writing should and must confront. Thus from the journalistic criticism of the Nigerian state to more scholarly essays which evaluate some critical aspects and visions of African writers and critics like Achebe, Ngugi, Soyinka, Nwoga, Chinweizu, Emenyonu, Nnolim and several new poetry, prose and critical voices from around the continent, Chin Ce's arguments for new critical directions in modern African writing reveal some bold, and often sardonic, insights which press us to discern the truth of the argument and the familiarity of his proposition.