Writers in Bayelsa State are rooting for Michael Afenfia to emerge triumphant in this year’s edition of the Nigeria Prize for Literature. His new novel, Leave My Bones In Saskatoon, is among the eleven books on the longlist.
The shortlist of three is expected to be announced soon, while the ultimate winner will be proclaimed in October. This year’s edition of the literary tournament is said to have recorded the highest number of entries so far, with two hundred and fifty-two writers vying for the coveted prize of one hundred thousand US dollars.
Michael Afenfia is a son of Tungbo in Sagbama local government area of Bayelsa State. Born in Port Harcourt on 20 March, Michael is not in a hurry to disclose the year. Even so, he attended Seabed Nursery & Primary School, before proceeding to International Secondary School, UST, Port Harcourt, from 1985 onward.
In 1991, he gained admission to read Law at the Rivers State University of Science & Technology, graduating in 1997. He proceeded to Law School and rounded up the one-year spell of study in 1999. In the course of his NYSC programme in 2000, Michael Afenfia worked with UBA, Lagos. For the next five years counting up to 2005, he acquired useful banking experience at TMC, a subsidiary of the defunct AllStates Trust Bank.
For all of one year after that, Afenfia worked with friends in an NGO, following early warning signs of crisis in the Niger Delta and increasing military presence in the region. It was a body on the look-out for red flags, while still considering how best to mitigate conflict in the volatile region.
Afenfia left that engagement soon enough and secured a place at Intercontinental Bank, now Access Bank, where he resumed long regular hours until 2008 when he joined the Due Process & e-Governance Bureau of the Bayelsa State Government.
He was there for four years, leaving in 2012 as a Director. ‘Our duty was to streamline government processes and procedures electronically. In other words, we set out to infuse IT technology to government business. It was an eye-opening experience, and government is better for it today’.
But even as he moved from one job to the other, and from city to city, Michael Afenfia was sure of one thing that he just had to do. As he put it, ‘I didn’t know I was going to write something. I simply knew I had to write. At a point, I didn’t want to read anybody until I wrote something’.
At the University of Science & Technology, in fact, he had started work on what turned out to be his first novel titled When The Moon Caught Fire. The more he flipped through the pages of his first book, the more he was convinced that he had a talent to cultivate. ‘At first I thought this was a fluke, a flash in the pan. It was an unexpected dream come true. It was a surprise for me altogether to know that this was something I could do’.
Between 2007 and 2010, Afenfia saw clear prospects in a writing career. He began to take his scripts more seriously. In 2011, after one full year of steady writing, he completed work on his second novel, A Street Called Lonely. Encouraged by the reality of two books in hand, Afenfia embarked on a fresh ambition.
Between 2013 and 2014, he wrote his third novel, Don’t Die On Wednesday, evidently the first full-length novel written by a Nigerian with a central thematic focus on football. In its treatment of soccer as a thrilling event with a global following, and a sport that commands the adulation of abiding fans for soccer, this third novel compares in depth and interest with Ali Mazrui’s only novel, The Trial of Christopher Okigbo.
Michael Afenfia was known to be one of the closest allies to Oronto Douglas. He worked hand in hand with the famous environmental rights activist, off and on, from the time Oronto was Information Commissioner to his last days as Special Adviser on Research & Documentation to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
‘Oronto had always been larger than life for me’, said Afenfia. ‘He was in my consciousness from when I was in the university. He was in and out of my life. We actively associated from 2012 when I had direct access to him, and he had come to mean more’.
Michael Afenfia, author of three acclaimed novels, emerged as Chairman of the Bayelsa State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), on Saturday, 22 August 2015. Four months later, on the night of 13 December 2015, Afenfia hosted the literary community in Bayelsa to the Golden Pen Awards.
Plaques of recognition were given to distinguished sons of the state who had made a mark in their writing careers, among them Dr Gabriel Okara, Professor Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa, HH Christian Otobotekere, Professor Steve Azaiki, and Chief Simon Ambakerederemo.
The following day, as if to underscore an obvious omission in the list of honours, Afenfia woke up to his first major challenge as Chairman of the writers’ body in the state when he began a vigorous campaign against the wrongful incarceration of Nengi Josef Ilagha, the pioneer Chairman of ANA Bayelsa.
He rallied writers around the country to the cause of securing the release of the embattled poet who was detained for contempt of court over his controversial book which protested against the obnoxious cultural practice of face-down burials among the Nembe people.
Working in tandem with Camillus Ukah, Vice President of the Association of Nigerian Authors, and Murphy Biriabebe, counsel to the detained poet, Afenfia counted the eventual release of Pope Pen as perhaps the major highlight of his tenure as Chairman. He was subsequently appointed Speech Writer to former Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State.
After a meritorious service in the corridors of power, Afenfia left for Canada with his family, leaving behind a goodbye novel entitled The Mechanics Of Yenagoa. Ensconced in a clime far from the tropics, Afenfia wrote a new novel called Rain Can Never Know. And just when the surprise plot in the new novel was beginning to catch on, Afenfia was out with his sixth novel, Leave My Bones In Saskatoon, currently in the line up to win the Nigeria Prize for Literature.
The prize was sponsored and established in 2004 by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas company (NLNG). The maiden edition saw Bayelsa upfront with Condolences, a novel by Bina Nengi-Ilagha, while Gabriel Okara won the poetry prize in 2005 alongside Ezenwan Ohaeto. The 2009 edition saw three poets from Bayelsa amongst the nine finalists, namely Ebinyo Ogbowei, Lindsay Barrett, and Nengi Josef Ilagha. The prize was not awarded that year.
Last year, Ebidenyefa Tarila Nikade made the shortlist for drama with her play, Ebiama The Glory Land. With the appearance of Michael Afenfia on the 2025 longlist for fiction, hope is high that the novelist from Bayelsa known for his unique titles and his masterful plots will clinch the prize and bring pride to his brethren.
