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Introduction
Maik Nwosu was editor of The Source news magazine in Lagos and now Assistant Professor of African literature in University of Colorado in Denver, USA. He is also a fellow of the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. His first poetry collection, Suns of Kush, won the Association of Nigerian Authors/(ANA) Cadbury Poetry Prize in 1995. His first novel, Invisible Chapters, was awarded the ANA Prose Prize in 1999. In his review, Odia Ofeimun, former president of the ANA underscored its presentation of "a nuanced picture" that unveils "the unchanging ways of power as they have not been so studiously presented since Wole Soyinka's Season of Anomy." Obi Nwakanma, arts editor of Sunday Vanguard at the time, had earlier noted: "No novel, not since Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah, has created, and with such power, the mood of our post-colonial society. Maik Nwosu's novel has finally declared the arrival of the new generation, and the inexorable passing of the old." Nwosu has also published a collection of short stories, Return to Algadez, and a second novel, Alpha Song. As a journalist, he has received both the Nigeria Media Merit Award for Arts Reporter of the Year and the Nigeria Media Merit Award for Journalist of the Year.
Plot Summary
“Maroko is the great Nigerian novel writing itself "says Prinzi, principal character in Invisible Chapters. The novel focuses not so much on the redefinition of the so-called great Nigerian novel, nor the writing of it (as the author would want to make the reader believe), as it does on the unearthing of a particularly significant past event. There are two Marokos in the novel: the old and new. Beyond these, there is an historical Maroko, now a mere speck in the sands of time, which Nwosu has appropriated as paradigm for his reconstruction of the Nigerian socio-political experience. Once upon a time, Maroko was a bristling settlement of the poor and less privileged, a slum, a shantytown on the fringe of the Lagos lagoon. In spite of attendant vices and squalor, it was home to thousands of Nigeria's down-trodden who had drifted there in search of succour from a system that was increasingly riddled with vast inequalities and life-threatening contradictions. Nonetheless, wrapped in the warmth of their exciting but lowly world, the residents of Maroko were oblivious of the anguish their existence caused their rich and influential neighbours living in nearby highbrow Ikoyi.
In writing about the city, they write about themselves, ourselves, our lives, our fears, and the politics of our land. Inasmuch as their effort is worth the trouble, it served the needs of the latter. They were at once the craftsmen, factory-hands, labourers, cooks, who the affluent exploited to beep their progress unhindered. Yet, looking down upon Maroko from the balconies of their enchanting mansions, with tell-tale frowns and wrinkled nostrils, these high and mighty could not help but wish Maroko's instant disappearance from the face of the earth. Their wish was soon granted through a military fiat. One morning, the residents of Maroko woke up to find impatient government bulldozers growling at their doors, a detachment of soldiers had been assigned with the express task of enforcing the quit order previously issued the residents by the Governor of Lagos State. His Excellency's excuse, shallow and controversial as it seemed, appeared hinged on the fact that Maroko was dangerously sinking below sea level and as a result, could no longer be regarded as habitable. But no sooner had the bulldozers reduced the shantytown to rubble than the apportioning of choice parcels of the same land to the rich began in earnest. The dispossessed were thus left to their own devices, at the mercy of chance.
The foregoing analogy applies to Maik Nwosu's fictive Maroko. Here, hope is temporarily rekindled in the dispossessed with the promise of resettlement in a better and healthier environment. Subsequently, the government hurriedly sets up a Resettlement Board to oversee the fulfillment of this promise. But when the masses eventually arrive New Maroko, they discover, to their consternation, a wasteland of sorts spotting a huge incinerator belching toxic fumes, as the dominant feature of the landscape. Maroko's story is in a very significant way, the story of Nigeria. The people involved in the tale are stereotypes drawn from real life. The wretched, dispossessed residents are representative of the wretched and misruled masses of Nigeria. The under-currents of lies, intrigues and conspiracies that act to annul Maroko's existence are similar to the factors which threaten the corporate existence of the country. In this novel, the masses are pitted in a vicious and continuous struggle for survival, while the ruling class, through its fawning agencies, employs mythmaking as a tool to plough through to the heart of new Maroko. When this fails, it quickly resorts to victimization and repression of their (the masses') will.
Invisible Chapters in part seeks to trace out the psychological trauma suffered by resilient masses in their quests for a better deal from the ruling class. The plot unfolds in four segments or books. The first book concentrates on a significant event in the life of New Maroko serving as link between the past and the present. The second book, in typical flashback tradition, affords the reader a glimpse into the immediate circumstances preceding the eviction and resultant exodus of people from old Maroko. The third and middle part of the story begins where the first part ends and progresses on to the fourth and conclusive segment. The story is told in a compelling manner, with appropriate symbols and signs which vary as the plot progresses. The author's pre- occupation with symbols is evident from on-set of the narrative. The Rastafarian record shop owner in New Maroko, Haile's unusual switch from playing protest music to the music of 'pure white Christmas' signifies an invocation of the neo-colonialist spirit at a period when residents are still reminded of the sad events of their immediate past. Also, Prinzi's pre-occupation with the theory of opposites (pp5-8) sets the tone for the progress of events in New Maroko by hinting at the complementary nature of good and evil, with good enhancing evil and destruction existing possibly for the sake of reconstruction.
The story of Elo, Ka and Minitimma, which underlines the relationship between materialism and discord, is also a fable that describes a progressive condition of being. The sudden deaths of Ignatius, Madam Bonus and Goomsu evoke a mystique that ultimately results, first, in the March to old Maroko and, second, an all-night vigil on the eve of Christmas, which are both held in commemoration of the destruction and reconstruction of the settlement to appease "whatever spirits remain to be appeased". Kaabiyesi, the faceless patriarch of Crocodile Island and apostle of "authority stealing", symbolically prefigures the enthronement of a ruling hegemony, while the Resettlement Board also symbolizes ineptitude in high places. The communion of the long tide and Kaita's bazaar, signify a battle for the soul of the masses between art, morality and materialism. Even, the Prinzi-led Maroko left-wing find expression in dances and rituals which are symbols depicting prevailing moods, and also acknowledging the transitory periods in the life of the settlement.
Thematically, Invisible Chapters is in more ways than one an indictment of the military and military governments. Thus, the military is cast in the image of a monster, an accomplice in the grand plot to beep masses of people perpetually subjugated. Soldiers thrive both on corrupt practices and outright intimidation of the defenseless masses they are supposed to protect. Military training, it seems, vests the average soldier with the license to unleash violence at will, with or without provocation. In as much as freedom becomes an impossible song under the Military, open dialogue is constantly discouraged among the people and dissenting voices are bridled with brutal force. Governor Raji Omo-ale's visit to Maroko in the days before the destruction of the settlement reveals the penchant of Nigerian military rulers for double-speak and insincerity in the discharge of their duties. Omo-ale does not only tell blatant lies and may be false promises; he goes on to polish the same through the government-owned media.
Perhaps one of the engaging features of this novel is the endless discourse it spawns on the future of the Nigerian novel and its enduring place in literary culture. Aside his concern for justice and fairness regarding Maroko, Prinzi appears to be absorbed in the task of charting a course for his art from a seeming void. In the process of brainstorming with Ashibodi and Razabi, issues are raised and discarded while questions are as bad. The "latitude to be" becomes a fundamental principle upon which all art and, of course, the great Nigerian novel must be anchored; it is the kernel of all human activity, the spiritual responsibility of everyman to the next person, irrespective of class, tribe or creed. Thus, when this principle upturns or is disregarded, society loses its essence. Life its value, and art its substance. In the resurrection of Maroko from the ruins of the old to the new, lies a glimmer of hope. But this is hope soon transformed, in the light of fresh and incisive manipulations, into gloom. It is a recurrent and vicious cycle of gloom in which every misfortune becomes an opportunity to be amply exploited (even the name of God is exploited for gain). And as soon as this happens, those affected are forced to recoil into their shells, stunned and full of questions.
Invisible Chapters has a mission to fulfill, which is to open readers up to some hard truths about the conditions of human life on the African side of the globe. It is illustrative of the 'insignificance' of life against the backdrop of constant devious schemes and man's inhumanity to fellow man. Coming therefore in the nick of time, as the cliché goes. Maik Nwosu could not have chosen a more auspicious moment than the present to impress a bold statement upon the cultural/political landscape of Nigeria. History cannot be merely obliterated; hence Maroko will forever remain an epochal landmark in the convoluting history of Nigeria. There cannot be a better explanation for Nwosu's commitment to his tale which aims to unveil African social realism.
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