Thursday 14 June, 2001
Writer's City Of Asylum
Writers from around the world, who are under threat of persecution, may soon be able to find sanctuary in Nigeria.
According to The International Parliament of Writers, who run the City of Asylum programme, writers who have been persecuted for expressing unpopular views, will soon be able to seek asylum in Lagos. Arts In Action reports.
Recovery Time
The Paris-based International Parliament of Writers has announced that Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, is to be it's next “City of Asylum”.
The writers given asylum will enter the country on a visitor's visa and will receive a home and a living allowance to enable them to work there in safety.
The parliament's former President, the Nobel prize-winning playwright, Wole Soyinka, has inspired the move. He has explained how the exhiled writer could use the time to 'recover, reclaim their lives and write if they can.'
Soyinka's Satisfaction
A Nigerian himself, Soyinka, was arrested in 1967 following the publication of an article that he had written calling for a ceasefire in the country's Civil War. He was accused of conspiring with the Biafra Rebels and was held as a political prisoner until 1969.
Given his onetime imprisonment at the hands of Nigeria's former military leaders he inevitably feels some satisfaction at the news of Nigeria's participation in the programme. He comments:
'There's a kind of delicious poetic justice, a sense of vengeance. Not just I, but many writers have suffered in Nigeria.'
| 'To have a City of Asylum in Nigeria gives me a sweet sense of vengeance and satisfaction.' |
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Parliament Of Writers
The International Parliament of Writers was set up in 1993 in part as a response to the fatwa issued against the novelist Salman Rushdie.
The threat to Rushdie's life was issued by Islamic Fundamentalists who believed that the author had defamed Islam in his 1989 work, The Satanic Verses. The incident highlighted the perceived need to protect writers freedom of speech.
Explaining the work of the group, Wole Soyinka comments:
'It goes out to identify writers who are in danger and it has even taken part in extraditing them out of danger…It works side-by-side with PEN International and Amnesty International, straddling creative and human rights.'
From Las Vegas to Lagos
Lagos joins a growing number of cities, including Berlin, Barcelona, Venice and Strasbourg, who are already participating in the programme.
Last year Las Vegas was named the first US City of Asylum - a decision, which delighted Soyinka who, claimed:
'The writer is rare who's never written purple prose. Las Vegas is purple prose writ large.'
Speaking on the future of the project, Soyinka expresses his hopes that one-day places such as Robben Island will also participate.
South Africa's Robben Island became an international symbol of the fight for human rights when former president, Nelson Mandela was jailed there for 18 of his 27 years in apartheid prisons.
Of his plans for the City of Asylum project, Soyinka comments:
'We are still running for Senegal and Dacca where we have had a positive response. My dream was to establish the very first [City of Asylum] on Robben Island and I met with the council and we toured the facilities there. We are still hoping… just look at the symbolism of that.'
|  |  | | | National Theatre Sell Off |  |
| | The Nigerian City of Asylum announcement was made amidst speculation that the government controversially plans to sell off the country's National Theatre.
A decision which spells bad news for the Nigerian arts fraternity.
Built in 1977 to host the World Festival of Arts and Culture, the national monument is designed in the shape of an army general's cap.
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