ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Chris Abani - Novelist, poet
Imprisoned three times by the Nigerian government, Chris Abani turned his experience into poems that Harold Pinter called "the most naked, harrowing expression of prison life and political torture imaginable." His novels include GraceLand (2004) and The Virgin of Flames (2007).

Why you should listen

Chris Abani's first novel, published when he was 16, was Masters of the Board, a political thriller about a foiled Nigerian coup. The story was convincing enough that the Nigerian government threw him in jail for inciting a coincidentally timed real-life coup. Imprisoned and tortured twice more, he channeled the experience into searing poetry.

Abani's best-selling 2004 novel GraceLand is a searing and funny tale of a young Nigerian boy, an Elvis impersonator who moves through the wide, wild world of Lagos, slipping between pop and traditional cultures, art and crime. It's a perennial book-club pick, a story that brings the postcolonial African experience to vivid life.

Now based in Los Angeles, Abani published The Virgin of Flames in 2007. He is also a publisher, running the poetry imprint Black Goat Press.

More profile about the speaker
Chris Abani | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2007

Chris Abani: Telling stories from Africa

Filmed:
718,823 views

In this deeply personal talk, Nigerian writer Chris Abani says that "what we know about how to be who we are" comes from stories. He searches for the heart of Africa through its poems and narrative, including his own.
- Novelist, poet
Imprisoned three times by the Nigerian government, Chris Abani turned his experience into poems that Harold Pinter called "the most naked, harrowing expression of prison life and political torture imaginable." His novels include GraceLand (2004) and The Virgin of Flames (2007). Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:25
I just heard the best joke about Bond Emeruwa.
0
0
3000
00:28
I was having lunch with him just a few minutes ago,
1
3000
3000
00:31
and a Nigerian journalist comes -- and this will only make sense
2
6000
2000
00:33
if you've ever watched a James Bond movie --
3
8000
3000
00:36
and a Nigerian journalist comes up to him and goes,
4
11000
2000
00:38
"Aha, we meet again, Mr. Bond!"
5
13000
3000
00:41
(Laughter)
6
16000
2000
00:43
It was great.
7
18000
1000
00:44
So, I've got a little sheet of paper here,
8
19000
4000
00:48
mostly because I'm Nigerian and if you leave me alone,
9
23000
2000
00:50
I'll talk for like two hours.
10
25000
2000
00:52
I just want to say good afternoon, good evening.
11
27000
6000
00:58
It's been an incredible few days.
12
33000
2000
01:00
It's downhill from now on. I wanted to thank Emeka and Chris.
13
35000
3000
01:03
But also, most importantly, all the invisible people behind TED
14
38000
4000
01:07
that you just see flitting around the whole place
15
42000
3000
01:10
that have made sort of this space for such a diverse and robust conversation.
16
45000
6000
01:16
It's really amazing.
17
51000
3000
01:19
I've been in the audience.
18
54000
2000
01:21
I'm a writer, and I've been watching people with the slide shows
19
56000
4000
01:25
and scientists and bankers, and I've been feeling a bit
20
60000
4000
01:29
like a gangsta rapper at a bar mitzvah.
21
64000
3000
01:32
(Laughter)
22
67000
2000
01:34
Like, what have I got to say about all this?
23
69000
4000
01:38
And I was watching Jane [Goodall] yesterday,
24
73000
2000
01:40
and I thought it was really great, and I was watching
25
75000
2000
01:42
those incredible slides of the chimpanzees, and I thought,
26
77000
4000
01:46
"Wow. What if a chimpanzee could talk, you know? What would it say?"
27
81000
5000
01:51
My first thought was, "Well, you know, there's George Bush."
28
86000
2000
01:53
But then I thought, "Why be rude to chimpanzees?"
29
88000
6000
01:59
I guess there goes my green card.
30
94000
2000
02:01
(Laughter)
31
96000
2000
02:03
There's been a lot of talk about narrative in Africa.
32
98000
3000
02:06
And what's become increasingly clear to me is that
33
101000
4000
02:10
we're talking about news stories about Africa;
34
105000
3000
02:13
we're not really talking about African narratives.
35
108000
2000
02:15
And it's important to make a distinction, because if the news is anything to go by,
36
110000
4000
02:19
40 percent of Americans can't -- either can't afford health insurance
37
114000
6000
02:25
or have the most inadequate health insurance,
38
120000
3000
02:28
and have a president who, despite the protest
39
123000
3000
02:31
of millions of his citizens -- even his own Congress --
40
126000
3000
02:34
continues to prosecute a senseless war.
41
129000
3000
02:37
So if news is anything to go by,
42
132000
2000
02:39
the U.S. is right there with Zimbabwe, right?
43
134000
3000
02:42
Which it isn't really, is it?
44
137000
4000
02:46
And talking about war, my girlfriend has this great t-shirt
45
141000
2000
02:48
that says, "Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity."
46
143000
5000
02:53
It's amazing, isn't it?
47
148000
3000
02:56
The truth is, everything we know about America,
48
151000
9000
03:05
everything Americans come to know about being American,
49
160000
2000
03:07
isn't from the news.
50
162000
2000
03:09
I live there.
51
164000
2000
03:11
We don't go home at the end of the day and think,
52
166000
2000
03:13
"Well, I really know who I am now
53
168000
1000
03:14
because the Wall Street Journal says that the Stock Exchange
54
169000
4000
03:18
closed at this many points."
55
173000
2000
03:20
What we know about how to be who we are comes from stories.
56
175000
3000
03:23
It comes from the novels, the movies, the fashion magazines.
57
178000
3000
03:26
It comes from popular culture.
58
181000
2000
03:28
In other words, it's the agents of our imagination
59
183000
2000
03:30
who really shape who we are. And this is important to remember,
60
185000
4000
03:34
because in Africa
61
189000
3000
03:37
the complicated questions we want to ask about
62
192000
4000
03:41
what all of this means has been asked
63
196000
2000
03:43
from the rock paintings of the San people,
64
198000
4000
03:47
through the Sundiata epics of Mali, to modern contemporary literature.
65
202000
4000
03:51
If you want to know about Africa, read our literature --
66
206000
3000
03:54
and not just "Things Fall Apart," because that would be like saying,
67
209000
4000
03:58
"I've read 'Gone with the Wind' and so I know everything about America."
68
213000
4000
04:02
That's very important.
69
217000
2000
04:04
There's a poem by Jack Gilbert called "The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart."
70
219000
4000
04:08
He says, "When the Sumerian tablets were first translated,
71
223000
5000
04:13
they were thought to be business records.
72
228000
3000
04:16
But what if they were poems and psalms?
73
231000
2000
04:18
My love is like twelve Ethiopian goats
74
233000
4000
04:22
standing still in the morning light.
75
237000
4000
04:26
Shiploads of thuja are what my body wants to say to your body.
76
241000
5000
04:31
Giraffes are this desire in the dark."
77
246000
4000
04:35
This is important.
78
250000
1000
04:36
It's important because misreading is really the chance
79
251000
3000
04:39
for complication and opportunity.
80
254000
2000
04:41
The first Igbo Bible was translated from English
81
256000
4000
04:45
in about the 1800s by Bishop Crowther,
82
260000
2000
04:47
who was a Yoruba.
83
262000
1000
04:48
And it's important to know Igbo is a tonal language,
84
263000
3000
04:51
and so they'll say the word "igwe" and "igwe":
85
266000
4000
04:55
same spelling, one means "sky" or "heaven,"
86
270000
4000
04:59
and one means "bicycle" or "iron."
87
274000
3000
05:02
So "God is in heaven surrounded by His angels"
88
277000
4000
05:06
was translated as --
89
281000
2000
05:08
[Igbo].
90
283000
4000
05:12
And for some reason, in Cameroon, when they tried
91
287000
2000
05:14
to translate the Bible into Cameroonian patois,
92
289000
2000
05:16
they chose the Igbo version.
93
291000
2000
05:18
And I'm not going to give you the patois translation;
94
293000
2000
05:20
I'm going to make it standard English.
95
295000
1000
05:21
Basically, it ends up as "God is on a bicycle with his angels."
96
296000
7000
05:28
This is good, because language complicates things.
97
303000
5000
05:33
You know, we often think that language mirrors
98
308000
2000
05:35
the world in which we live, and I find that's not true.
99
310000
4000
05:39
The language actually makes the world in which we live.
100
314000
5000
05:44
Language is not -- I mean, things don't have
101
319000
2000
05:46
any mutable value by themselves; we ascribe them a value.
102
321000
3000
05:49
And language can't be understood in its abstraction.
103
324000
3000
05:52
It can only be understood in the context of story,
104
327000
2000
05:54
and everything, all of this is story.
105
329000
4000
05:58
And it's important to remember that,
106
333000
2000
06:00
because if we don't, then we become ahistorical.
107
335000
4000
06:04
We've had a lot of -- a parade of amazing ideas here.
108
339000
3000
06:07
But these are not new to Africa.
109
342000
2000
06:09
Nigeria got its independence in 1960.
110
344000
3000
06:12
The first time the possibility for independence was discussed
111
347000
4000
06:16
was in 1922, following the Aba women's market riots.
112
351000
4000
06:20
In 1967, in the middle of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War,
113
355000
4000
06:24
Dr. Njoku-Obi invented the Cholera vaccine.
114
359000
4000
06:28
So, you know, the thing is to remember that
115
363000
2000
06:30
because otherwise, 10 years from now,
116
365000
2000
06:32
we'll be back here trying to tell this story again.
117
367000
4000
06:36
So, what it says to me then is that it's not really --
118
371000
5000
06:41
the problem isn't really the stories that are being told
119
376000
2000
06:43
or which stories are being told,
120
378000
2000
06:45
the problem really is the terms of humanity
121
380000
3000
06:48
that we're willing to bring to complicate every story,
122
383000
3000
06:51
and that's really what it's all about.
123
386000
3000
06:54
Let me tell you a Nigerian joke.
124
389000
2000
06:56
Well, it's just a joke, anyway.
125
391000
2000
06:58
So there's Tom, Dick and Harry and they're working construction.
126
393000
4000
07:02
And Tom opens up his lunch box and there's rice in it,
127
397000
3000
07:05
and he goes on this rant about, "Twenty years,
128
400000
2000
07:07
my wife has been packing rice for lunch.
129
402000
2000
07:09
If she does it again tomorrow, I'm going to throw myself
130
404000
2000
07:11
off this building and kill myself."
131
406000
2000
07:13
And Dick and Harry repeat this.
132
408000
2000
07:15
The next day, Tom opens his lunchbox, there's rice,
133
410000
2000
07:17
so he throws himself off and kills himself,
134
412000
2000
07:19
and Tom, Dick and Harry follow.
135
414000
2000
07:21
And now the inquest -- you know, Tom's wife
136
416000
2000
07:23
and Dick's wife are distraught.
137
418000
1000
07:24
They wished they'd not packed rice.
138
419000
2000
07:26
But Harry's wife is confused, because she said, "You know,
139
421000
3000
07:29
Harry had been packing his own lunch for 20 years."
140
424000
3000
07:32
(Laughter)
141
427000
4000
07:36
This seemingly innocent joke, when I heard it as a child in Nigeria,
142
431000
5000
07:41
was told about Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa,
143
436000
2000
07:43
with the Hausa being Harry.
144
438000
2000
07:45
So what seems like an eccentric if tragic joke about Harry
145
440000
4000
07:49
becomes a way to spread ethnic hatred.
146
444000
4000
07:53
My father was educated in Cork, in the University of Cork, in the '50s.
147
448000
4000
07:57
In fact, every time I read in Ireland,
148
452000
2000
07:59
people get me all mistaken and they say,
149
454000
2000
08:01
"Oh, this is Chris O'Barney from Cork."
150
456000
2000
08:03
But he was also in Oxford in the '50s,
151
458000
4000
08:07
and yet growing up as a child in Nigeria,
152
462000
2000
08:09
my father used to say to me, "You must never eat or drink
153
464000
3000
08:12
in a Yoruba person's house because they will poison you."
154
467000
5000
08:17
It makes sense now when I think about it,
155
472000
2000
08:19
because if you'd known my father,
156
474000
1000
08:20
you would've wanted to poison him too.
157
475000
3000
08:23
(Laughter)
158
478000
5000
08:28
So I was born in 1966, at the beginning
159
483000
4000
08:32
of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War, and the war ended after three years.
160
487000
6000
08:38
And I was growing up in school and the federal government
161
493000
3000
08:41
didn't want us taught about the history of the war,
162
496000
3000
08:44
because they thought it probably would make us
163
499000
3000
08:47
generate a new generation of rebels.
164
502000
2000
08:49
So I had a very inventive teacher, a Pakistani Muslim,
165
504000
3000
08:52
who wanted to teach us about this.
166
507000
2000
08:54
So what he did was to teach us Jewish Holocaust history,
167
509000
4000
08:58
and so huddled around books with photographs of people in Auschwitz,
168
513000
5000
09:03
I learned the melancholic history of my people
169
518000
3000
09:06
through the melancholic history of another people.
170
521000
2000
09:08
I mean, picture this -- really picture this.
171
523000
2000
09:10
A Pakistani Muslim teaching Jewish Holocaust history
172
525000
5000
09:15
to young Igbo children.
173
530000
1000
09:16
Story is powerful.
174
531000
2000
09:18
Story is fluid and it belongs to nobody.
175
533000
2000
09:20
And it should come as no surprise
176
535000
2000
09:22
that my first novel at 16 was about Neo-Nazis
177
537000
3000
09:25
taking over Nigeria to institute the Fourth Reich.
178
540000
3000
09:28
It makes perfect sense.
179
543000
1000
09:29
And they were to blow up strategic targets
180
544000
4000
09:33
and take over the country, and they were foiled
181
548000
2000
09:35
by a Nigerian James Bond called Coyote Williams,
182
550000
4000
09:39
and a Jewish Nazi hunter.
183
554000
3000
09:42
And it happened over four continents.
184
557000
1000
09:43
And when the book came out, I was heralded as Africa's answer
185
558000
3000
09:46
to Frederick Forsyth, which is a dubious honor at best.
186
561000
4000
09:50
But also, the book was launched in time for me to be accused
187
565000
3000
09:53
of constructing the blueprint for a foiled coup attempt.
188
568000
4000
09:57
So at 18, I was bonded off to prison in Nigeria.
189
572000
5000
10:02
I grew up very privileged, and it's important
190
577000
1000
10:03
to talk about privilege, because we don't talk about it here.
191
578000
3000
10:06
A lot of us are very privileged.
192
581000
2000
10:08
I grew up -- servants, cars, televisions, all that stuff.
193
583000
4000
10:12
My story of Nigeria growing up was very different from the story
194
587000
3000
10:15
I encountered in prison, and I had no language for it.
195
590000
4000
10:19
I was completely terrified, completely broken,
196
594000
4000
10:23
and kept trying to find a new language,
197
598000
4000
10:27
a new way to make sense of all of this.
198
602000
3000
10:30
Six months after that, with no explanation,
199
605000
3000
10:33
they let me go.
200
608000
1000
10:34
Now for those of you who have seen me at the buffet tables know
201
609000
2000
10:36
that it was because it was costing them too much to feed me.
202
611000
3000
10:39
(Laughter)
203
614000
9000
10:48
But I mean, I grew up with this incredible privilege,
204
623000
2000
10:50
and not just me -- millions of Nigerians
205
625000
2000
10:52
grew up with books and libraries.
206
627000
2000
10:54
In fact, we were talking last night about how all
207
629000
4000
10:58
of the steamy novels of Harold Robbins
208
633000
2000
11:00
had done more for sex education of horny teenage boys in Africa
209
635000
4000
11:04
than any sex education programs ever had.
210
639000
4000
11:08
All of those are gone.
211
643000
2000
11:10
We are squandering the most valuable resource
212
645000
2000
11:12
we have on this continent: the valuable resource
213
647000
2000
11:14
of the imagination.
214
649000
2000
11:16
In the film, "Sometimes in April" by Raoul Peck,
215
651000
3000
11:19
Idris Elba is poised in a scene with his machete raised,
216
654000
4000
11:23
and he's being forced by a crowd to chop up his best friend --
217
658000
4000
11:27
fellow Rwandan Army officer, albeit a Tutsi --
218
662000
3000
11:30
played by Fraser James.
219
665000
2000
11:32
And Fraser's on his knees, arms tied behind his back,
220
667000
4000
11:36
and he's crying.
221
671000
2000
11:38
He's sniveling.
222
673000
1000
11:39
It's a pitiful sight.
223
674000
1000
11:40
And as we watch it, we are ashamed.
224
675000
5000
11:45
And we want to say to Idris, "Chop him up.
225
680000
3000
11:48
Shut him up."
226
683000
2000
11:50
And as Idris moves, Fraser screams, "Stop!
227
685000
4000
11:54
Please stop!"
228
689000
2000
11:56
Idris pauses, then he moves again,
229
691000
3000
11:59
and Fraser says, "Please!
230
694000
3000
12:02
Please stop!"
231
697000
2000
12:04
And it's not the look of horror and terror on Fraser's face that stops Idris or us;
232
699000
6000
12:10
it's the look in Fraser's eyes.
233
705000
2000
12:12
It's one that says, "Don't do this.
234
707000
4000
12:16
And I'm not saying this to save myself,
235
711000
2000
12:18
although this would be nice. I'm doing it to save you,
236
713000
4000
12:22
because if you do this, you will be lost."
237
717000
4000
12:26
To be so afraid that you're standing in the face
238
721000
3000
12:29
of a death you can't escape and that you're soiling yourself
239
724000
2000
12:31
and crying, but to say in that moment,
240
726000
2000
12:33
as Fraser says to Idris, "Tell my girlfriend I love her."
241
728000
4000
12:37
In that moment, Fraser says,
242
732000
4000
12:41
"I am lost already, but not you ... not you."
243
736000
5000
12:46
This is a redemption we can all aspire to.
244
741000
3000
12:49
African narratives in the West, they proliferate.
245
744000
4000
12:53
I really don't care anymore.
246
748000
1000
12:54
I'm more interested in the stories we tell about ourselves --
247
749000
4000
12:58
how as a writer, I find that African writers
248
753000
5000
13:03
have always been the curators of our humanity on this continent.
249
758000
3000
13:06
The question is, how do I balance narratives that are wonderful
250
761000
6000
13:12
with narratives of wounds and self-loathing?
251
767000
4000
13:16
And this is the difficulty that I face.
252
771000
3000
13:19
I am trying to move beyond political rhetoric
253
774000
2000
13:21
to a place of ethical questioning.
254
776000
2000
13:23
I am asking us to balance the idea
255
778000
3000
13:26
of our complete vulnerability with the complete notion
256
781000
4000
13:30
of transformation of what is possible.
257
785000
2000
13:32
As a young middle-class Nigerian activist,
258
787000
2000
13:34
I launched myself along with a whole generation of us
259
789000
3000
13:37
into the campaign to stop the government.
260
792000
3000
13:40
And I asked millions of people,
261
795000
2000
13:42
without questioning my right to do so,
262
797000
2000
13:44
to go up against the government.
263
799000
2000
13:46
And I watched them being locked up in prison and tear gassed.
264
801000
2000
13:48
I justified it, and I said, "This is the cost of revolution.
265
803000
3000
13:51
Have I not myself been imprisoned?
266
806000
2000
13:53
Have I not myself been beaten?"
267
808000
2000
13:55
It wasn't until later, when I was imprisoned again,
268
810000
3000
13:58
that I understood the real meaning of torture,
269
813000
2000
14:00
and how easy your humanity can be taken from you,
270
815000
3000
14:03
for the time I was engaged in war,
271
818000
3000
14:06
righteous, righteous war.
272
821000
3000
14:09
Excuse me.
273
824000
3000
14:12
Sometimes I can stand before the world --
274
827000
2000
14:14
and when I say this, transformation
275
829000
2000
14:16
is a difficult and slow process --
276
831000
2000
14:18
sometimes I can stand before the world and say,
277
833000
3000
14:21
"My name is Chris Abani.
278
836000
2000
14:23
I have been human six days, but only sometimes."
279
838000
3000
14:26
But this is a good thing.
280
841000
2000
14:28
It's never going to be easy.
281
843000
2000
14:30
There are no answers.
282
845000
2000
14:32
As I was telling Rachel from Google Earth,
283
847000
2000
14:34
that I had challenged my students in America --
284
849000
2000
14:36
I said, "You don't know anything about Africa, you're all idiots."
285
851000
3000
14:39
And so they said, "Tell me about Africa, Professor Abani."
286
854000
3000
14:42
So I went to Google Earth and learned about Africa.
287
857000
3000
14:45
And the truth be told, this is it, isn't it?
288
860000
3000
14:48
There are no essential Africans,
289
863000
1000
14:49
and most of us are as completely ignorant as everyone else
290
864000
2000
14:51
about the continent we come from,
291
866000
2000
14:53
and yet we want to make profound statements about it.
292
868000
3000
14:56
And I think if we can just admit that we're all trying
293
871000
2000
14:58
to approximate the truth of our own communities,
294
873000
3000
15:01
it will make for a much more nuanced
295
876000
2000
15:03
and a much more interesting conversation.
296
878000
3000
15:06
I want to believe that we can be agnostic about this,
297
881000
4000
15:10
that we can rise above all of this.
298
885000
2000
15:12
When I was 10, I read James Baldwin's "Another Country,"
299
887000
4000
15:16
and that book broke me.
300
891000
2000
15:18
Not because I was encountering homosexual sex and love
301
893000
3000
15:21
for the first time, but because the way James wrote about it
302
896000
3000
15:24
made it impossible for me to attach otherness to it.
303
899000
3000
15:27
"Here," Jimmy said.
304
902000
2000
15:29
"Here is love, all of it."
305
904000
2000
15:31
The fact that it happens in "Another Country"
306
906000
2000
15:33
takes you quite by surprise.
307
908000
3000
15:36
My friend Ronald Gottesman says there are three kinds of people in the world:
308
911000
2000
15:38
those who can count, and those who can't.
309
913000
3000
15:41
(Laughter)
310
916000
4000
15:45
He also says that the cause of all our trouble
311
920000
3000
15:48
is the belief in an essential, pure identity:
312
923000
3000
15:51
religious, ethnic, historical, ideological.
313
926000
5000
15:56
I want to leave you with a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa
314
931000
3000
15:59
that speaks to transformation.
315
934000
3000
16:02
It's called "Ode to the Drum," and I'll try and read it
316
937000
3000
16:05
the way Yusef would be proud to hear it read.
317
940000
3000
16:11
"Gazelle, I killed you for your skin's exquisite touch,
318
946000
6000
16:17
for how easy it is to be nailed to a board
319
952000
3000
16:20
weathered raw as white butcher paper.
320
955000
4000
16:24
Last night I heard my daughter praying for the meat here at my feet.
321
959000
5000
16:29
You know it wasn't anger that made me stop my heart till the hammer fell.
322
964000
4000
16:33
Weeks ago, you broke me as a woman
323
968000
3000
16:36
once shattered me into a song beneath her weight,
324
971000
4000
16:40
before you slouched into that grassy hush.
325
975000
3000
16:43
And now I'm tightening lashes, shaped in hide as if around a ribcage,
326
978000
5000
16:48
shaped like five bowstrings.
327
983000
2000
16:50
Ghosts cannot slip back inside the body's drum.
328
985000
3000
16:53
You've been seasoned by wind, dusk and sunlight.
329
988000
4000
16:57
Pressure can make everything whole again.
330
992000
4000
17:01
Brass nails tacked into the ebony wood,
331
996000
2000
17:03
your face has been carved five times.
332
998000
3000
17:06
I have to drive trouble in the hills.
333
1001000
2000
17:08
Trouble in the valley,
334
1003000
2000
17:10
and trouble by the river too.
335
1005000
2000
17:12
There is no palm wine, fish, salt, or calabash.
336
1007000
4000
17:16
Kadoom. Kadoom. Kadoom.
337
1011000
4000
17:20
Ka-doooom.
338
1015000
2000
17:22
Now I have beaten a song back into you.
339
1017000
4000
17:26
Rise and walk away like a panther."
340
1021000
4000
17:30
Thank you.
341
1025000
2000
17:32
(Applause)
342
1027000
13000

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Chris Abani - Novelist, poet
Imprisoned three times by the Nigerian government, Chris Abani turned his experience into poems that Harold Pinter called "the most naked, harrowing expression of prison life and political torture imaginable." His novels include GraceLand (2004) and The Virgin of Flames (2007).

Why you should listen

Chris Abani's first novel, published when he was 16, was Masters of the Board, a political thriller about a foiled Nigerian coup. The story was convincing enough that the Nigerian government threw him in jail for inciting a coincidentally timed real-life coup. Imprisoned and tortured twice more, he channeled the experience into searing poetry.

Abani's best-selling 2004 novel GraceLand is a searing and funny tale of a young Nigerian boy, an Elvis impersonator who moves through the wide, wild world of Lagos, slipping between pop and traditional cultures, art and crime. It's a perennial book-club pick, a story that brings the postcolonial African experience to vivid life.

Now based in Los Angeles, Abani published The Virgin of Flames in 2007. He is also a publisher, running the poetry imprint Black Goat Press.

More profile about the speaker
Chris Abani | Speaker | TED.com