“I Am Fine and in Excellent Spirits”: The Literary World Rallies Around Okey Ndibe After DSS Detention at Lagos Airport
Three hours inside a detention room at Murtala Muhammed International Airport. That is what Professor Okey Ndibe, the celebrated Nigerian novelist and academic, faced when the Department of State Services held him there earlier this month. After his release, Ndibe took to Facebook with a message that was calm, almost disarming in its brevity: "I am fine and in excellent spirits."
The literary world did not stay quiet. Writers, readers, and advocates rallied around Ndibe, a figure whose fiction and commentary have long made him a voice of conscience in Nigerian public life. For many, the detention of a scholar and storyteller of his standing raised urgent questions about the climate for intellectual freedom in the country.
Ndibe has not said much beyond that Facebook post, but the words he chose carry their own kind of weight. "Excellent spirits" from a man who had just spent hours in state custody is either reassurance or resolve. Knowing his body of work, it is probably both. The conversation his detention has sparked is far from over.
Originally published by Brittle Paper.