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Scroll down to read the article. IVERYBODY WAS having a lunchrime drink in a bar in Kampala, Uganda one hot afternoon in November 1961. Then a 22-year-old man with a big head and lots of hah- entered, his arms saddled with copies of a new magazine he was trying to sell. As the hawker wended his way to a table, an angry Englishman bolted from the din of the afternoon, dashed in his way, snatched one of the magazines from him and ripped it in shreds. He couldn't have stopped at that. 'That's what I think of your trash!' he spat at the young man. In the Lugogo Retailing a Forgettable

Akin Tale Adesokan Black Orpheus & Transition revisited

Sports Club, another venue in taking his first shot at marketing, this reaction the city where the journal was was enough intimidation. ButRajatNeogy, the being peddled to members of a young man, was not an appretice hawker, not even an accomplished one. The journal he was jazz club, the manager vending, Transition was his brainchild, an threatened to eject the club for idea he had taken so seriously he staked his allowing what someone also personal convenience for it. He had returned called 'nasty left-wing to Uganda a year before, just married, with literature'. a degree in political science, with the intention For a prospective newspaper vendo of introducing his wife, a Swede, to his parents,

African Quarterly on the Arts Vol.11 NO 5 take her round Kampala, then head for wanted from her was straightforward, journal and been impressed by its success. Greece, perhaps for honeymoon. But although to her it was not. 'You go and sell He was determined to try something similar Uganda was giddy, like most of Africa, advertising and when you've sold enough, in East Africa. Black Orpheus was with the euphoria of imminent self- we can go to press', he told her. published until 1982 (though it ceased to government. He had studied politics and be regular from the late 1960s) and even 'But what are we printing?' she practised journalism as a student and with changes in its editorial philosophies, asked. freelancer. He was spoken of as bohemian as in its handlers, it fulfilled the role its and given to the idealism of twenty- 'You don't worry about that, just founders designed for it. Like Neogy, somethingness. Somehow, he saw himself sell the space.' Beier, a 35-year-old expatriate teaching as having a statement to make and extramural students at the University Transition was his show of hand. 'Society who visited Kampala College, Ibadan, had before hip-, the as it is, for what it is, (is) totally unacceptable shortly after the first edition was published example of the Parisian review, Pretence to me for obvious reasons. It cannot be and who succeeded Neogy as editor Africaine published by Alioune Diop. changed, there is no satisfaction in Utopian recalled in his first editorial 1 3 years later: Attending the World Congress of Black- intellect. I do not want to change it. I am 'I... remember well the editorial office Writers in Paris in 1 956, Beier had been an outsider. I accept my inaccessibility situated in Rajat's home, its entire space struck by the literary movement that had to others. I don't make a fetish of being taken up by a smooth slab of wood, grown around the review. 'One could 'outsider'. Sentimentalists of a finer order supported on piles of bricks. All the labour envisage that this could kindle a similar will call my 'condition' the painfulness of originated from this desk'. Two thousand development in the English speaking truth. But pain and joy do not come into copies of the first edition were printed out territories...' he said in a discussion which this. Since I am surrounded by stupidity of which 1,200 were sold, perhaps Andrew Salkey, the Caribbean writer and I am not selfish (because not possessive including the copies torn in the fury of moderated for him and Moore at Dennis or acquisitive materially or spiritually) I offended sensibility. Duerden's Transcription Centre in have a certain duty... I have to add my in 1 966 , the year he left for . (Beier alleges in a contribution, in iron and steel i.e. in Rajat Neogy died in December 1994 interview with Olu Obafemi in permanence'. 1995. TEMPO, a Lagos weekly that Benson did not contact him while researching the A classic of Euromodernist Since handing over the editorship book; but Benson claims he got a letter pessimism? Wait for this, a publisher's to Soyinka in 1974, he had returned to from Beier dated 21 August, 1981 in announcement titled "Culture in San Francisco in the US where he which he discussed how he came to Transition". 'This journal appears when published a newspaper and did some Nigeria in 1950) Beier had hoped to East Africa is undergoing various and writing. Very little of his life for the next 20 stimulate literary activity in West Africa exciting changes. It is a time when idealism years was known. Peter Benson, the with a view to providing 'a vehicle for the and action merge with various degrees of American scholar has written a book, new writers who would emerge'. An article success. It is also a time for testing Black Orpheus, Transition and Modern by Jahn in the first edition reporting on the intellectual and other preconceptions and Cultural Awakening in Africa, (University conference in Paris also struck a link for thoughtful and creative contributions of California Press, 1986) a thoroughly between the congress's resolution and in all our spheres,' it said. researched and well-written study about Black Orpheus's ideology. the history of Transition and its counterpart That journal, so vilified in its premiere in West Africa, Black Orpheus, as they appearance took Neogyand others three inspired the development of creative and Neogy too had intended a vehicle, months to produce. The team included intellectual groups in East and West Africa 'on which the wagon of intellect may Valerie Hume who had canvassed for the for the two decades that they existed. travel for certain distances', yet something advert spaces without any idea what was Neogy reportedly died of inflammation of besides a gallery for new culture. (It is to be published and Signor Pessina, an the pancreas. He is survived by his mother instructive to note that whereas Transition Italian refugee from Zaire who spoke no Sumitra, the seven children (four sons has been revived in the US in the late English but who as printer set several three daughters) from his three marriages, 1980s - thus leaving a gap of 10 years million letters by hand and made as many and a grandchild. In a way, this is a save a three-year interregnum between errors. It came out the day in November tribute to him and others. 1 968 and 1971 - Beier and Moore said when Neogy's first son was born. in 1966 that the period for the kind of To be sure, Transition was not just magazine they founded had passed. 'We What went for planning was a restless youth's dream. According to need several different kinds of magazines anything but that. 'I gathered that he was Benson, one of the pieces published in the now,' remarked Beier whom Benson planning to starta magazine,'wrote Hume first issue was a retrospective tribute by christens 'border operator' for his role as in a reflection published in Transition six Gerald Moore to Black Orpheus, which exporter of African literature. Two kinds in years later. 'An independent, intellectual the German had founded (with fact; one would publish a new writing and magazine about culture and the African Jahnheinzjahn and Moore) in Ibadan in circulate limitedly while the other, 'a really creative scene and all that'. What Neogy 1957. Neogy had heard about this cultural highly critical journal' would supply the

African Quarterly on the Arts VoLllNOi highest standards in evaluating the would now be a vehicle for their aspiration. Jean-Paul Sartre to Leopold Sedar literature). Senghor's edition of poems from French Beier had developed a keen interest Africa, in which the French philosopher In 1957, a rich cultural mine was in traditional Yoruba culture and was (who incidentally also wrote the waiting to be exploited by Beier in West necessarily committed to a more than introduction to Frantz Fanon's The Africa, due in part to the sense of freedom academic study of its potentials. Wretched of the Earth, on important book and confidence that self-rule would bring. Sangodare Akanji, one of the several on the origins of African radicalism) had The was one of the pseudonyms under which he wrote reviews evoked Orpheus's descent into hell to three centres of higher learning in the for Black Orpheus was described in the explain the black poet's search for identity. whole of West Africa. (Fourah Bay in contributors' notes in a 1958 issue as a In the first editorial, Beier wrote: 'While it Sierra Leone and the University of Ghana 'detribalised Yoruba' who having been is the primary purpose of this journal to in Legon were others). Ghana had become born abroad and lived most of his life in encourage and discuss contemporary independent in March and Nigeria was Europe and the Near East, 'recently African writing, we shall not forget the soon to be. Raised in one of the most returned to Nigeria in order to "rediscover great traditions of oral literature of the culturally dynamic regions on earth, writers his lost Yoruba self". (Beier had been African tribes. For it is on the heritage of like Amos Tutuola had made history with born in Gleiwitz (now in ) and had the past . that the literature of the future the publication in 1952 of The Palmwine studied archaeology and lived in Palestine must be based.' Drinkard, and was waiting before being taken prisoner of war during to publish Things Fall Apart the 'first first- the second World War). For the next twenty years (and more] rate novel' in black Africa. Their thematic this journal defined the emergent African and stylistic preoccupations suited the His contacts among expatriates who culture in a way not too surprising in the light of its origins. It published writers and poets from Africa and the diaspora and so obsessive was its interest in the literatures of the black world that one of the poets Black Orpheus helped in exposing, in an interview in 1 963 criticised it for wanting to perpetuate the 'black mystique ' He wondered why Beier would publish black Americans but not white ones, since they really had a cultural affinity Okigbo, one of Beier's important critics also Moforpark in Kampala expressed a view

prevalent taste for literature of discovery, taught in schools ensured that Beier concerning the editor's taste for the works and if, as he was later accused, Beier had gathered material quite rapidly for the of untutored artists but he, like Soyinka, approached the 'new culture' with a hint journal and with the experience of Odu (a Gabriel Okara, Ama Ata Aidoo, Alex La of condescension intending to promote its scholarly journal of Yoruba studies which Guma, Kofi Awonoor, John Pepper Clark, exoticism, there was the objective reality he co-edited) in store, all he needed was Dennis Brutus, Eskia Mphahlele, Jean- that little was known about what writing a printer. He found one in Times Press in Jose Rabearivebo, Tchicaya U Tamsi - was going on in the sub-region. Young Lagos. Moore and Jahn were co-editors artists like Demas Nwoko, Vincent Kofi, writers were scattered in the cities and who also wrote, and the layout, cover Taiwo Olaniyi (Twin Seven Seven), universities in Nigeria, Ghana and even design and headings were done by Beier's Ibrahim el-Salahi - featured (wrote and South Africa, and others like Soyinka, wife, the artist Suzanne Wenger. Texts drew) and were written about on the then studying for a degree in English at were illustrated with the drawings G.M. pages of Black Orpheus. Leeds University in England would soon Hotop had made for the German edition return home to initiate important intellectual of Tutuola's first novel. The name itself was The critics including Beier (and his and cultural movements; Black Orpheus taken from the introduction written by several cognomens), Paul Theroux, an

African Quarterly on the Am Vcill NO 3 American Peace Corper in Africa, Martin painter, he manifested the original critical under a form of compulsion' (Clark), it is Esslin and Oscar Dathorne assessed the sensibility to judge any work of imagination not in doubt that the assessment was literature in a way that underscored the with enthusiasm as well as the commercial made honestly and with consideration. It journal's ideology, convincing people like skills to market what he produced. At one would be important nevertheless to know Clark (who with Abiola Irele succeeded time, he was running Black Orpheus and why Soyinka and Mphahlele left the fold Beier as editors) that European literary Odu, and Mbari so early in 1963 (the former even aesthetics were predominant in African Publications, 's Theatre, and disassociated himself from the journal - literature and likely for the worse. This keeping his primary job as a teacher in six certainly not, as was once rumoured, over tendency became most obvious when different places. Late in 1960, with a the imperialist notion behind the name Esslin, a drama critic at the British Rockefeller Foundation grant of $5,500 'black orpheus'?) and why lr°le and Broadcasting Corporation was he began trips to several African countries, Clark shouted 'Not Again!' when they commissioned to review.the new plays of neeting writers and artistes for involvement learnt Beier was returning to Nigeria. Soyinka and Clark. In 'Two African in Black Orpheus. 'Beier's success in Benson thinks this might have to do with, Playwrights', as the review was titled, educating anglophone Africa to the among other reasons, the remark Beier Esslin confessed his lack of knowledge of intellectual currents of francophone Africa was said to have made in 1 966 that 'all the social conventions of the cultures which and black America and in promoting the the talents had gone east' with the outbreak the playwr ig hts were writi ng from. Theroux works of new anglophone writers both of the Biafran war. He also disbanded also wrote a critique of six poets including within and outside of Africa, is perhaps Mbari Club before leaving Nigeria, Clark, Brutus and Awonoor, and Dathorne perhaps he could have handed it over like the works of Achebe apd Soyinka. Like the journal; afterall, he was only one Beier and Theroux, Esslin was white; in person and the club once had Okigbo, fact of all Black Orpheus's critics, only JLeogy reportedly Dennis Williams, Soyinka, Clark and Beier Dathrone was black, a Caribbean. Their til himself deliberating on the artistic judgements were called to question died of inflammation appropriateness of a publishing deal in essays like 'The Legacy of Caliban' of the pancreas. He with Longmans whose representative in which Clark published in the first edition is survived by his N igeria, Julian Rea, was Soyinka's friend. under his joint editorship with Irele in mother Sumitra, the which they also announced a break with seven children (four Clark and Irele were able to publish the old regime. Beier's preference of the sons three daugh- only seven editions in four years (Black negritudinist sensibility as well as works of ters) from his three Orpheus was meant to come out thrice in art owing their strength to accidental a year). A publishing deal with the metaphors was criticised not only in this marriages, and a University of Ife Press which Hans Zell was essay but in the general character of the grandchild, tn away, going to set up did not work out. And series they edited. However, the pan- this is a tribute to when the editing devolved to Clark and Africanist outlook of the journal was him and others, his wife, Ebun, in 1 974 when both were retained in their choice of essays. teaching at the University of Lagos, they the primary legacy of his editorship of issued three numbers, finally handing Black Orpheus,' writes Benson. The The demands of the new thrust, over in the 70s to the critic Theo Vincent essence was the 'black mystique'; the coupled with the practical difficulties of of the same university. Vincent published identification of borders. But how the civil war and the editors' greater two editions in 1 982 by which time the consistent is this crusading bentwith Beier's concern for editorial than managerial standards had fallen way behind its assertion of being 'blissfully ignorant of matters affected the journal's fortunes. predecessors'. This decline paralleled that borders' when he began publishing the While their resolve to reassess the of the intellectual industriousness in journal, apropos of his encounter with the presumed standards that informed Beier's N igeria. For by the turn of the decade the Brazilian worshippers of Yemoja who editorship was exciting in view of the economic rot had set in: the Eighties miss-understood a Catholic ritual of need to maintain a definite identity even began with austerity measures and ended confrontation as identification with in a continuum, their inability to muster with the Structural Adjustment Programme. Yemoja? Would it be sufficient to merely Beier's entrepreneural acumen betrayed Intellectuals began to flee to other places state that knowledge has one root and a weakness characteristic of most while intellectual work reacquired its several branches? intellectuals. Butwith their different brands original reputation as the lot of those of enterprise-lrele went on to found New blessed with the oath of poverty. Horn Press in Ibadan and Clark to whom As an editor, Beier was strongwilled it fell to edit the journal later became in the enough to publish what his instincts With Neogy the story was different. mid-1980s the proprietor of Pec Repertory adjudged worthy and asa critic intelligent He had negligible editorial background Theatre in Lagos - these men have shown enough to know that his duties included compared with Beier's. Again, East Africa that they are not totally without the promotion of the new artists. Whatever was not as culturally active as West. trading instinct. At all events, it is to Beier's was made of his views on Okigbo and Makerere University in Kampala, though credit that while not a creative writer or Clark as 'gradually chiselling a large chunkof experience' (Okigbo) and 'writing prestigious had not given rise to an artistic

African Quantriy on the Am VoLl/N03 movement around which a literary journal magazine would could flourish. The first writer of note from continue to feature independent East Africa, Ngugi wa contributions from Thiongo (then James Ngugi) was not to these individuals emerge until 1 964 when his Weep Not, either as essays, Child was published. But Neogy's choice reviews, had simplified matters. According to controversial Benson, 'Neogy seems to have been torn exchanges, etc. between providing a more thoughtful alternative to the political, social and Soon, economic reporting of the tabloid press however, teethin9 and providing an outlet for young artists, problems forced poets and writers as Black Orpheus had Transition off the done.' streets (between January and June The first issue of Transition testifies 1962) after the to this. From all accounts, what the region third issue. The lacked in literature it had in politics. project had been Ugandan politics became volatile as begun with the little independence approached. Sir Edward money Hume Mutesa II, the Kabaka of Buganda had raised from been deposed in 1953 by the British advertisement and colonial government when he opposed Neogy's own

the centralization of the country ancj jn money, and effect the subordination of his inherited returns weren't too kingdom. Echoes of the noise generated impressive. An by the face-off could still be heard, and the international issue of Buganda autonomy remained a conference in central one in the country's politics. So Kampala in 1962, much so that an article in the first issue, 'Is 4 7, Ibokun Street, home of the Beiers in Osogbo, reminiscent of the provides a view of the city's rusty corrugated iron roofs. A Party System Possible in Africa?' one in Paris in contributed by Ivor Jennings foreshadowed 1956, where the issues such as the rights of minority be universal and he would tend to favour Okigbo had made his hubristic statement groups that led to Transition's trouble with the traditions from which liberal politics about writing poetry only for poets did the Obote government seven years later. had developed. All these were obvious attract some attention to Transition. But Another controversial article on race from the first edition, but it would be a increasingly, it became valid to fear that relations in East Africa was published in disservice to that premier copy to suggest the magazine was condemned to either that edition and like Jennings' dealt with that it carried only politics. play second fiddle to Black Orpheus or an issue of no mean consequence in the find its place in the very heart of African 7rans/f/on-Obote debacle. Although, there were no new creative intellectual and cultural politics. works, the edition made up for the It would seem that this decision to inadequacy by publishing eight reviews. There had always been some kind go beyond Black Orpheus's preoccupation Later it published a number of poets and of tension between the intellectual and the with the arts had less to do with the fact of writers including Ngugi, Lo Liyong, John political elites in Africa. Since political 'literary barrenness' (Taban Lo Liyong's Nagenda, Okot 'Bitek, Ata Aidoo, David independence was secured by the latter phrase) in East Africa than with Neogy's Rubadiri, Okigbo, Achebe, Awonoor, U who were themselves intellectuals (recall own identity in Uganda. A Ugandan of Tamsi, Soyinka and Brutus. The East the attempts at defining the nationalist Indian descent who had studied political Africans were having their first exposures politics at independence in the writings of science in England and been married to a outside campus literary reviews, but others leaders like , Sekou Swede and living in a country where the like Soyinka and Brutus had appeared in Toure, Senghor, ), the tribe was vital to politics and the race Black Orpheus. Even though U Tamsi first conviction was dominant that this set of question always on the boil - he would appeared in Transition, it was his leaders, coming at the time they did, had later be denied citizenship of Uganda - appearance in the other journal that gave a messianic role, and the direct result of Neogy's description of himself as an him more prominence, perhaps due to this thinking was the deification of most of outsider could not be more correct; only Beier's inclination for the surrealist the men and the despotism which marked that this self-consciousness placed him in aesthetics that remain the defining spirit of their regimes. But the emergent intellectual a position to see the issues with an the Congolese poet's ouevre. The elites had a more or less professional view intellectual's eye. His political values would

African Quarterly on the Arts Vol.11 NO) of their calling; a response which they owed it a duty amounted to to the society to 'recapitulation', debunk the myth Wali, writing that was turning again on related much of the question of how continent into western concepts republics of fear of the isolated and repression. individual in fiction Transition arrived had dominated early to referee in Afri^jn letters, the 'tension- earned the praise soaked' match. of Irele who, reviewing the first Equally 32 issues of important was the Transition in the need for the journal of African intellectuals to Studies in 1967 reassess (and in singled his piece cases debunk or out for drawing defend) the values attention to the that came out of From left, Ulli Beier, Jacob Lawrence (in glasses), Dennis Williams (in striped lopsidedness. gown) and Duro Ladipo (striped cap) during a 1963 art workshop in Osogbo the contact with the Irele's position on West as these had this issue is to do with the direction African literature emerged but the fact of CIA funding of a somewhat enthusiastic, for according to should take. In a manner more journal that apparently innocuously Bension, he had prevailed upon Clark for controversial only in duration than Black criticised the political and economic styles publish the similarly tempered article 'The Orpheus's handling of the validity of of Nkrumah and Nyerere ranked, beside LegacyofCaliban' in BlackOrpheus. Part Euromodernist aesthetics for the arts and the face-off between Transition and the of the excitement of this period was the literatures of recently deoralised societies, government of Milton Obote, among the range of involveemnt of writers from several the pages of Transition became the nemesis of Neogy's career and of course, parts. Isn't it interesting tohave Ama Ata battlefield for such questions as African Transition's. Aidoo review Mokwugo Okoye's African socialism, pan-Africanism, the status of Responses scathingly and with a ethnic and racial minorities, political But before the fall, writers, and poets deprecating laugh, to know that at a point partisanship as against free speech and trashed out the language question, Transition sold 17,000 copies and paid literary 'universalism', the use of following a contribution ('The Dead End of as much as $ 150 per article, that Okigbo indigenous languages versus Western African Literature') by Obi Wali, then was supposed to be the West African languages and the role of Western critics doing graduate studies at Northwestern editor in 1 963? and literary standards. It arrived early University in the United States. He was in enough and after an initial period of essence reacting to the proceedings of the Political controversies became the blundering in the lurch of an overrated Kampala writers conference and his rule with the arrival of and potential, Transition found itself at home. submission was that if African writers wrote Theroux, both to feature later (or sooner) in languages other than indigenous ones on the list of associate editors that also Between 1963 and 1966, the (spoken by their audiences) they would be included Awonoor, John Godblat and magazine became more drawn to political naturblly doing harm to the new literature. Raymond Apthorpe. Mazrui's style of and intellectual controversies of the most 'Until these writers and their western playing on the symbolically paradoxical sophisticated order. This major shift midwives accept the fact that any true suited the magazine's outlook very well. coincided with the arrival of sponsorship African literature must be written in African He seied on a book review to comment on from the Paris-based Congress for Cultural languages,' he argued, 'they would be hero-worship, wrote non-violence as Freedom. (Mphahlele, the congress merely pursuing a dead-end, which can commentary on violence. He became most representative had in 1 963 (?) introduced only lead to sterility, uncreativity, and controversial with the piece of Nkrumah Neogy as he had earlier Beier). The frustration.' politics ('Nkrumah The Leninist Czar') congress was being funded by the Fairfield which came out just after the overthrow of Foundation, in turn funded by the American So touchy was this issue that it drew theOsagyefoin 1 966. Mazrui's argument Central Intelligence Agency. Both Neogy reactions from as many as 13 writers and was that Nkrumah had deliberately and Mphahlele and indeed Fairfield's critics including Soyinka, Achebe, Moore, modelled himself on Lenin, copying every executive director, John Thompson were Williams, Peter Nazareth and continued symbolic gesture of the Russian to be embarassed by this link when it later to rage on for two years. Although he sent revolutionary leader. But he became a

African Quarterly on the Am Vol.11 NO} czar in the opulence of his style, which to by his wife Barbara and Mazrui, Mazrui was a case of double paradox. and the weakness and stupidity Not only Mazrui, but several other of the government's defence in Transition contributors as well, took court, Mayanja would not taste positions that were particularly critical of freedom until August 1 970 when the socialist economies in Africa. Granted released him with other that there were rebuttals of most of those political detainees articles, but to step up a criticism of left- leaning regimes in that decade of intense Suddenly, Transition had western suspicion of communism was to come full circle in Uganda, and make plausible and ironic the revelation by now it was clear it wasn't of CIA sponsorship. wanted Obote's position regarding the magazine was Actually the funding had been quite categorical: During a five- merely coincidental. Neogy needed hour audience with Mazrui money and Mphahlele's recommendation following Neogy's arrest the met no resistance from Thompson. The then president plainly said, Fairfield Foundation, in funding the CCF 'Transition is not Neogy and thought that political stability and Neogy is not Transition', adding economic integrity would keep Africa thatitwouldbea more tolerable non-communist. It assumed that art and product in Mazrui's hands. True literature were necessary foundation for Barbara Neogy spoke of plans Ulli Beier cultural unity, and what Transition 'an to 'bring out a new edition' of excellent literary magazine' stood for the journal, but this was not to perfectly suited the foundation's purposes. damaging. The issue of constitutional be, and it was just as well, for as Neogy 'The decision to support Neogy's reforms in Uganda touched on the later said 'to have continued to publish Transition was taken largely by Thompson independence of the judiciary and Transition in Uganda under these himself on the recommendation of Mayanja who had been education minister circumstances would have been a betrayal Mphahlele simply on the grounds that under the Kabaka until 1964 criticised of the principles that it stands for.' After Neogy was a capable editor who stood one vital aspect of the proposed releasing Neogy, thegovernmentknowing Transition was a weapon, still went ahead for ideals that Thompson (but also Cord constitution: the absolute powers conferred to give it a really negative name: its editor Meyer and others in the CIA hierarchy) on the presidency in the name of was not Ugandan, the campaign wanted to see strengthened in Africa - Emergency Detention laws. It was an contended, and the associate editors were that is multiparty democracy, freedom of exciting controversy that drew in a member not; the CIA funding meant foreign speech; predominance of intellectual over of Obote's cabinet, Picho Ali, and later support and so there was no way it could bureaucratic, political, military and Davis Sebukima, a student of Makerere. project Uganda in a good light. Neogy's traditional tribal elites; and a continued Now Neogy had a distinct style of letting confidence in the political health of his cultural interchange with, and allegiance government officials (especially) know of country became so shaky, his own personal to, the West,' writes Benson. contentious letters he would be publishing (if these had to do with the government) so and intellectual life so disoriented by the there could be response to it. But Ali's experience of his incarceration that he Neogy confessed to a 'helpless defence of the regime's policies did no promptly left the country, travelling to resentment' on learning of the link, and justice to Mayanja's aggressive piece. India, France, England and finally settling Mphahlele shouldered the blame, though in New York. he insisted he was ignorant of the CIA Then on Friday, October 1 8, 1 968, connection. Soyinka who later took up Then followed a period of as the staff set down to parcelling copies the editorship described the agency as a prevarication on the fate of the journal of the freshly printed issue No. 37, some 'subversive organisation whose principal and three solid years lapsed before 'half-dozen men in immaculate black suits' rationale... appears to have been a policy anything was seen of Transition again entered the editorial office and arrested of haphazard infiltration of everything And when it did come out, in September Neogy under the Emergency Powers Act. and anything going, on the general 1971, its new location was Accra, Ghana Mayanja had also been arrested, as had principle that with such indiscriminate where Neogy had moved to. With subsidy been Daniel Nelson, the British editor of fishing, some terrapins may actually be from the International Association for 77ie People, the government-controlled hooked.' The issue was explained away, Cultural Freedom, he set up a more daily, whose arrest was an error. Neither but it did lasting damage to the expansive structure for the magazine Neogy nor Mayanja found this turn of magazine's reputation. Kofi Busia's regime in Ghana, which to events funny, and whereas Neogy's Neogy was the nearest to a government release was secured by March due to The incarceration of Neogy and that is committed to freedom of expression' Abu Mayanja which followed was as international media campaign pursued

Afnctn Quarterly on the Arts Vol.1/ NO 3 wo* soon overthrown, and the Idi Amin movements fighting for liberations in places Soyinka, accused by Mazrui of regime in Uganda which Neogy had like Guinea Bissau where Amilcar Cabral writing a review that perverted the welcomed with enthusiasm became had just declared his country independent message of the latter's television progressively repressive. of Portugal. He even published a report on documentary, The African: A Triple the revolution written by historian, Basil Heritage, wrote, among other Although he was able to stir some Davidson in what appears an aspect of the repudiations, that Mazrui 'persisted in controversy in Ghana and Transition still historian's book, The Liberation ofGuine. attempts to prolong (his) influence over had enough fire to be described as the journal even after (he) ceased being counterrevolutionary and partisan on the This did not mean the magazine on the editorial board,' and confessed to part of the'liberal bourgeois democracy' would lose its independence; indeed, the 'brusque dismissal' ar.yU.ve Mazrui of the West, Neogy grew more and more impulsive need to maintain editorial wanted to raise any question over the demoralised and concluded plans to quit integrity in spite of or even because of, the running of the journal. Mazrui, who wrote the editorship of the magazine. The lingering story of CIA funding made first, contended that 'Wole's old Transition choice was either Soyinka who like Soyinka relinquish the funding by IACF, was once guilty of refusing to publish Neogy had just suffered incarceration in and this ensured that the journal had fewer anything in favour of Idi Amin.' the hand of the military regime of Yakubu source of support. He did even more; after Gowon in Nigeria-and now on voluntary about five issues he changed the name It was during his editorship that exile, and Awonoor, .at a time being from Transition to Ch'indaba (from Zulu Chinweizu and his friends Onwuchekwa considered by Neogy as editor of the and Swahili meaning, 'Let the 'great Jemie and Ihechukwu Madubuike, Ghanaian edition. Soyinka got the job colloquium of the people begin'), the idea published their famous polemic against because according to Neogy 'it was being to identify with and celebrate pan- the Euromodernist tendencies in much of thought in Paris that his was a more African unity. Nor was the magazine African writings, especially those of fundraising name.' It is important in the without its own share of controversy and Soyinka and Okigbo. Their manuscript light of this change to note that Soyinka internal politics. There was no doubt that had been accepted for publication by and Neogy had reacted differently to Soyinka and Mazrui didn't see eye to eye. Nwanife Publishers, Enugu. But it never their imprisonment. While Soyinka saw It was claimed that Mazrui resigned as appeared; after two years only pirate his experience as confirmative of an associate editor, but the politics of that copies were seen. When Soyinka replied historical pattern and was thus generally resignation has become less mysterious them and they still intended to raise issues skeptical of. conventional certitudes (as following an exchange in the relaunched with him, he declined to print them any Season of Anomy, A Shuttle in the Crypt, Transition. more. They finally found an outlet in The Man Died and Madmen and Okike, established by Achebe, in which Specialists, all testify) Neogy they published a three-part was believing enough to critique in numbers 1 2 to 14 of convert to Islam, the religion of the journal. These included 'The Idi Amin. Hopkins Disease', 'The Leeds- Ibadan Connection: The Scandal Soyinka has a nose for of Modern African Literature' and dictators, and his instincts were 'Soyinka's Neo-Tarzanism: A perfect about Amin. Oneofthe Reply.' These they later radical steps he took on incorporated into the book assuming duty, and the most Toward the Decolonisation of politically antagnoistic was his African Literature. resolve to 'contribute Transition' toward the various efforts to The need for an alternative terminate the nightmare of source of funding for Ch'indaba Amin's reign. He rejected a became urgent, lACF's support pro-Amin article by the having been declined. What Ugandan Erisa Kironde and Soyinka did was to transfer the for this was later accused by journal's management to Africa Mazrui of being a tyrant. Magazine since he would soon return to Nigeria and didn't think But there were more far- it helpful to transplant the reaching changes. Soyinka magazine again after barely six made up his mind to years. But while Soyinka went to deemphasise the political pick a job at Ife in 1977, Africa aspect of Neogy's Transition, magazine began to arrange for saying its tone had become his succession by a Ugandan. unduly flippant and fingering But this was not to be; plans had Mazrui for this. Rather he not been completed when in preferred another brand of 1979 Amin's overthrow by politicalness: the need to Tanzanian forces led the Rajat Neogy (died December 1995) identify with the mass successor-designate to return to

African Quarterly on the Am Vol.1/NO 3 Kampala. Thereafter, there was no will on the part of Africa On reflection, one might say this is not 1957; midlife crisis Magazine to revive the plans. 'For an intellectual magazine, begins at 40. One might go ahead and still ask why Transition Transition was actually rather long-lived,' observes Benson. and not Black Orpheus needed reviving, whether the state of 'However much one feels it absence, the tragedy is not that it creative and intellectual productivity in Africa today should not died, but that it left no progeny.' provoke a publication 'where a young poet can see his work Yes,-a valid judgement in 1984/85, when Benson was published in three weeks' as Beier dreamt 30 years ago. Are the writing. By the close of that decade, however, Soyinka had days gone already, or not coming, again, when just as the relaunched Transition (not Ch'indaba) in the US. With him as Mexican critic Han Stavans could write in the new Transition chairman of board and scholars Henry Louis Gates Jnr and about the phenomenon of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian, a certain writer from 'the region between Chad and tre Limpopo Kwame Anthony Appiah as editors the new Transition proclaims river' could assume a stature compelling enough to put an Indian itself as 'where the outspoken speak out', harking back to critic to task? GR Neogy's pioneering work. The announcement carried in every edition is a capsule of the journal's old history. 'In 1961, some of Africa's most provocative thinkers started speaking out in a new magazine Open called Transition. It pulled no punches. The New York Tuesday - Sunday Times called it "Africa's slickest, sprightliest and 10.00 a.m. -8.00 p.m. occasionally sexiest magazine." Editor Rajat Neogy refused to listen when told by government officials that Transition was speaking a little too loudly. He was subsequently sent to jail. After 50 uncensored, unguarded, uninhibited issues, Transition ceased publication because of political and economic pressure.'

The new Transition, having such people as Carlos Fuentes, Aime Cesaire, Nadine Gordimer, Derek Walcott, Toni Morrison, Abiola Irele as editorial board members, promises to carry on with the tradition of'tough-minded, far-reaching criticism.'It is published quarterly as an official publication of W.E.B. Du Bois Institute in the United States. There has been in the new Transition a certain controversiality that is featuring stimulating. The three-part exchange between Soyinka PERIODIC EXHIBITIONS and Mazrui is one instance; another on the politics of OF PAINTINGS power initiated by the scholar Emery Roe received at PHOTOGRAPHS least a dozen replies. SCULPTURES &. The major difference between the new Transition DRUMS and its predecessors is its emphasis is 'on African and African-American concerns'. But the old debate about and EXQUISITE ARTS, the primacy of audience ought to have returned. The CRAFTS, TEXTILES &. language, themes as well as the general intellectual LEATHER GOODS ! inclination of most contributors to Transition, while reflecting the trends in academic circles across the The Gallery will also feature world, appear to be coming from the glands when READINGS, TALK AND applied to the Africa of here and now. The journal DISCUSSIONS ON THE ARTS. does not pretend to be a gallery of new writing. It is basically an academic and cultural journal and nothing ...AND THE STORY TELLER is essentially wrong with its preoccupations. Rather, its seeming distance from the African reality is a reflection of a general state of things that is deplorable Plot 49, Babs Animasaun and utterly meaningless. The people have failed to Extension, climb up to Gogol, as Anton Chekhov once lamented, Surulere, Lagos. but the life that obtains in Africa today is most perfect For Further enquiries, contact: as a photograph of the people pulling Gogol down to The Gallery Manager their abysmal level and seeking to adapt him to their Tel : 01-5850962 grinding poverty. Is this a failure of politics or of imagination?

African Quarterly on the Arts VolllN03