Africa may seem like a long way away, but a Wednesday night reading by a former Creighton student and ordained priest brought the continent a little closer to campus.
The Rev. Uwem Akpan,S.J., is a former Creighton student from Nigeria. His fiction has appeared in the New Yorker and he is the author of a collection of short stories told from the perspectives of African children entitled “Say You’re One of Them.”
“It’s always very emotional for me to come back to Creighton University,” Akpan said.
Akpan studied English and philosophy at Creighton and Gonzaga before studying theology at the Catholic University of East Africa. He was ordained a Jesuit in 2003 and received his MFA from the University of Michigan in 2006.
Akpan’s stories are set in a number of different African countries and cover a wide-range of issues important to African countries.
“Some years ago I wrote down a list of things that worry me in my continent,” Akpan said. “I listed things like child trafficking, genocide, children caught up in inter-religious conflict, so I had a long list. And then I said to myself I would attempt to write stories dramatizing these events.
“When I started writing, I looked from adults’ perspective, but then it occurred to me there was no book out there — from the perspectives of children.”
Akpan said it was a challenge to write from the perspectives of children, especially some who were from a culture different from his own and from countries he has yet to visit. He also said it was a challenge to write in the native dialects of the main characters, but he would write the stories and then try to visit the countries.
“I write my stories first before I research,” Akpan said. “The story is about people relating with each other and their environments, so I get the human story down. Then I go and do research.”
Akpan said he isn’t currently working on a new book, but he is very proud of “Say You’re One of Them” and hopes to see it published in Africa soon, where he hopes it will do some good.
“I don’t feel yet I’m in the mood to get back to writing. I think ‘m just happy coming to Creighton,” he said with a laugh. “I — say to God: ‘Look, thank you very much. If I’m not able to write another book, I’ll be OK.'”