Helon Habila
Nigerian novelist and poet
Helon Habila Ngalabak (born November 1967) is a Nigerian novelist and poet.
Quotes
editWaiting for an Angel (2002)
edit- A mob wielding cudgels and cutlasses is hot on the heels of a youthwho desperately crosses to the other side of the road, narrowlymissing the fender of a truck. The mob follows growing bigger asit goes. The youth, looking over his shoulder as he runs, crashesinto a light pole and falls senseless to the ground. Before he canregain a second wind the mob is on him. I watch the cudgels riseand fall; I hear his wailing ululating screams finally turn into awhimper. They poured petrol on him and set him ablaze
- Page 35-36
- The students, who should have been busy taking theirbaths and getting set for lectures, sat idly...discussing the boycottof lectures
- Page 39-40
- More than once ourtaxi was forced to hug the kerb as siren blaring military jeepspassed at top speed...”
- Page 43
- There had been an accident. Bola’s family-father, mother, and twosisters had been in a car crash. It was late in the evening...theywere on their way to Ibadan for a visit...The father driving hadfailed to see the truck laying on its side in the middle of the road.It was a military truck carrying the furniture of an officer ontransfer from Lagos to Ibadan. The father and mother, who were in front, had died instantly; Peju, the elder sister, died on the way to the hospital; the other sister, Lola, sustained minor injuries
- Page 45
- Look out there, see the long queue of cars waiting for fuel. Someof them have been there for three days...And we are a majorproducer of oil
- Page 84
- The houses were old and craggy and lichened. The place had theunfinished, abandoned appearance of an under waterscape.Crouching under the bigger or in their own clusters were hastilybuilt wood and zinc structures that housed an incredibly largenumber of families: the fathers were mostly out-of-work drivers,laborers, fugitives convalescing between prison terms
- Page 97
- We don finally reach the end of the road. We don dey together since I was born, but now time don come wey me and you must part. Bye-bye.Goodnight. Ka chi foo. Oda ro. Sai gobe
- Pages 97-98
- Hagar takes to prostitution whenrejection and hunger look her straight in the face
- Page 114
- Look, we are living under siege. Their very presence on our streetsand in the government house instead of the barrack where theybelong is an act of aggression. They hold us cowed with guns sothat they will steal our money—they will continue subjugating uskilling all dissenters one by one, sending them to exile till there isno competitor left to oppose them.
- Page 122-123
- We came to tell you sir, that our clinic is run-down and abandoned.We came to tell you that we don’t have a single borehole onMorgan street... we are here to protest against this neglect--- weare dying from diseases. We are dying from a lack of hope. Andthat is why we are here today to protest. And this is the way wefeel we ought to express our displeasure
- Page 131- 132
Oil on Water (2010)
edit- "You must take a year off, one of these days, before you’re old and tired and weighed down by responsibility. Go away somewhere, and read. Read all the important books. Educate yourself, then you’ll see the world in a different way."
- "Can you continue to love a person regardless of such shortcomings? Maybe because you hope to save them? Or because you can't help it? Isn't that what love is all about?"
- "Our job is to find out the truth, even if it is buried deep in the earth."
- "The further from home you wander, the closer you get to Siberia."
- Nostalgia settled on my shoulders like the arm of a long-lost friend, urging me to look back and listen; it had been years since I heard such morning sounds, such silence.
- I've seen children snatched away from their mothers, never to be reunited. I've seen husbands taken from their wives and kids and sent away to prison. I've seen grown men flogged by soldiers in front of their kids. That's how history is made, and it's our job to witness it.
- Our job is to find out the truth, even if it is buried deep in the earth
- There is no loneliness like the loneliness of a stranger in a strange city.
- Not all of us have that luxury, of a past. My history doesn't offer me much in that respect.
- Our story is over, the ink has dried, each of us must move on now and it will be as if we had never met, never loved, and never dreamt together.
- I didn't love him. He was a good, decent guy, but I wanted more at that time." She shrugged. "I was not so young anymore. Time was passing for me. I wanted more… excitement.
- Sometimes poets have to be imperfect so their poetry can be perfect.
- Happiness is important, but I wouldn't say it is the main purpose of human existence.
