Uzodinma Iweala on Kojo Laing

Or, rather, on the entire question of “African” literature, in celebration of McSweeney’s re-release of Laing’s Search Sweet Country.

Can literature be both overtly political and also great?

It seems an absurd question when considering many prominent works of the English canon. What is Coriolanus if not a commentary on the life cycles of autocrats? What is Great Expectations if not an extended criticism of class distinction in 19th-century Britain? And yet, with writings by African authors the question persists: Is it high art delivering timeless and universal commentary on the human condition, or is it little more than a guide to the culture and politics of a specific continent (with occasional literary flourishes)? The question will not die because of the Western tendency to view life in Africa as so profoundly alien that nearly everything written from the continent becomes not literature, but a manual — and we all know how we feel about manuals.

Iweala’s own first novel, which he mentions briefly in this essay for being Typically Political, is much better than he lets on.