"I Like Happy Endings" - Nats Onoja Agbo
He is something of an adept juggler. However his juggling skills are not for a circus show, rather he deploys them in the area of writing being at ease as a journalist, creative writer and now a biographer. Nats Onoja Agbo is involved with a couple of news magazines, has two novel manuscripts up for publication and has just completed a biography on Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki. On the eve of Agbo’s appearance at the November 28 Guest Writer Session, an initiative of the Abuja Writers Forum (AWF), Emman Usman Shehu and Kabura Zakama got him to do an e-interview. Here are excerpts:

Give us an insight into your background?
I was born at Odega Onyagede village in the present Ohimini Local Government Area of Benue State. My father died early so I didn’t have the opportunity of knowing him. He has however appeared to me in real life and in dreams. I had my Secondary school education at St Murumba College, Jos and GSS Borokiri, Port Harcourt . I was among the first set of students at the School of Basic Studies , Ugbokolo just before proceeding to the University of Nigeria , Nsukka. I have been in journalism since leaving the University.

How did the writing bug catch you?
I was in primary two when an old woman approached me to help write a letter for her. She had approached many other young men in higher classes but they refused to assist her. I wrote the letter for her and it was an intriguing experience for me because it was the first time I would be testing my ability to write. At St. Murumba, a Canadian, Miss Ida who taught Literature in our Form One, sharpened my interest in writing. I was reviewing at least two books every month. While in Port Harcourt , I started work on the history of the Idoma while Ugbokolo gave me the first opportunity to publish The Mouthpiece, a weekly campus journal, as well as Voices from SBSU, a compilation of poems that were contributed by some of the students. I began serious writing after joining the Nigerian Voice. My first book would have been The Last General, in which I predicted an end to Military rule but it got lost on the shelves of one of the big publishing houses in the country.

What was it like working with Newswatch?
It was wonderful. Newswatch was like a family and another school. Raw reporters would come out of that place as polished men and women. The directors had the patience to take reporters through the mills. I remember one reporter who rewrote her story fourteen times. We were always ahead of others. I recall with nostalgia, the Ejigbo plane crash which was my first cover story for the magazine; one of the Directors described the story as a thriller. At the site of the crash, I saw some reporters rolling on the ground; they had come there with notepads asking questions. The military boys didn’t like that so when I arrived, I joined in recovering the first six corpses from the aircraft. So Newswatch was ahead of its competitors. Newswatch took me round the world and I am still sipping from the good will of the Newswatch era. If I have to go back to journalism in full force, I will certainly go back to Newswatch.

What inspires your writing? Have you had any formal training?
At a personal level, I am inspired by events and characters around me. Enewa, for instance, was based on a true-life story of a young lady who married an American-based man but couldn’t travel with him because of visa problems. Her search for a solution, as was reflected in the story, led her to a false prophet who eventually married her. I have just commenced registration for a postgraduate degree in creative writing.

You are a history major. How does that influence your perception especially in journalism, creative writing and biography writing?
If you read a book like Things Fall Apart, it is full of history. History prepares the mind for a better understanding of the cultures of the society. At the postgraduate school, Professor Afigbo complained that journalism had infested my history. Over the years, however, I discovered that creative writing gives the historian or biographer the necessary tools to write with simplicity. If you read the unpublished biography of Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki, for instance, you don’t need extra consultations to understand the Islamic terms and the rich history that has been the life of that great Nigerian.

How did you get to write the Dasuki story?
When Sultan Dasuki was deposed in 1996, I was sent to cover the story for Newswatch. Upon reaching Sokoto, I came across documents that showed that he was unjustly removed. It was then I decided to investigate the matter. It took me ten years to finish the story and I am anxious to get it published. It is a story that would certainly interest objective readers because the subject of my story has been a major agent of change in this country.

Enewa, your debut novel, portrayed important highlights of Idoma culture, what is your motivation?
Since I lost my father early, I grew up with Omojo, my grandmother. It was through her that I learnt about the traditions of the Idoma. We are losing some of them that I witnessed as a young man. My prayer is that some of those cultures that appear in my works would be preserved for generations yet unborn.

Enewa is a tragedy. What is your take on happy endings?
I like happy endings. In fact my forthcoming stories, The Colour of Love and The Day the Termites Came to Our House, though full of tragedies, have happy endings. In any case, Enewa had to end tragically because there is a follow-up story, The Return of Enewa which is almost ready. I would have done some injustice to the character that inspired this story if I ended it on a happy note.

Is Enewa purely fictional or did an actual event like this inspire it?
The story was inspired by the experience of a young girl who suffered Enewa’s fate and she too died.

What was your experience like in getting Enewa published?
After losing The Last General to the big publishing firm, I had to be careful with Enewa. The two publishing houses I approached gave me bills that no sane person would ever want to settle. So I settled for Dr. Ada Ugah’s recipe: self-publishing.

Do the Idoma people still perform the rituals mentioned in this story?
Yes. Traditional Idoma society has remained undiluted by emerging cultures from other lands. Even among communities with strong Christian presence, ancestral worship, belief in witchcraft and consulting oracles are still prevalent.

What is the moral of your novel and what is your take on art for artsake?
There are three main issues in the story. The first one is the attitude of men towards women. Traditional Idoma society treats the woman with disdain. When I was growing up at Ukpobi, my guardian would bring his girlfriend to his matrimonial home; his grumbling wife always had the unsavory task of cooking for her rival. It is unfair. It is wrong to prefer a male child because as Omojo noted in the story, “a child is a child, whether male or female”. Secondly, religion which should be a source of emancipation is being used by some men of God to cheat fellow human beings. Finally, Prophet Chris’ death is in tandem with the Holy Books which say that death is the punishment for sin.

What do you think are the challenges facing Nigerian writers?
The first one is funding. It does appear that most people in this country have stopped reading books and because of that the big publishing houses are interested in publishing that would fetch immediate money. Nobody wants to invest in books and writing.

What is your attitude to literary contests?
They promote creativity. I am a little bit shy about submitting my works for such contests but I believe that literary contests would promote writing and reading in the country.

Who are your favourite writers?
Chinua Achebe is still my favourite writer.

Why are they your favourites?
Each time I read Things Fall Apart, I have the feeling that the author is discussing Idoma society. The story is always fresh. The language is simple; you don’t need a dictionary by your side to understand Things Fall Apart. He should have won the Nobel Prize with that book.

What have you been reading recently?
Peter Arnett’s Live From the Battlefield. I lost the copy I bought from the US in 1994 so when I saw a copy with a friend, I picked it up. I am still battling with his school days.

"Poetry is my engagement with the world" - Patricia Keeney
Canadian University professor and writer, Patricia Keeney, visited Nigeria recently and featured in the June 27 edition of the Guest Writer Session, an initiative of the Abuja Writers Forum which has been daubed as curently the most consistent literary event in Nigeria. In this interview with TUNJI AJIBADE, a consultant writer, she shared her views about her writing, travels and literature in general.

Let’s meet you
I am Patricia Keeney, a professor of Humanities and Creative Writing at York University for many years. I am published both in Canada and abroad. As an editor and critic, I have written extensively in Canadian journals such as The Canadian Forum, Canadian Literature and MacLean's Magazine. I have authored seven books of poetry and a picaresque novel entitled The Incredible Shrinking Wife (Black Moss Press). A volume of my Selected Poems (Oberon Press) was published in 1996 with an introduction by the distinguished Russia poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. My poetry has also been translated into French (winning the Prix Jean Paris in 2003), Spanish, Bulgarian, Chinese and Hindi. My experiment in poetry and theatre called Vocal Braiding with sound poet and playwright Penn Kemp was published by Pendas Productions (autumn 2001). I have completed a series of conversations and poems on national and personal culture, entitled You Bring Me Wings, with the Mexican poet Ethel Krauze forthcoming f rom Antares Press. I have two new French translations out with Les Poémier de Plein Vent series under the Les Amis de la Poésie imprint in Bergerac and has just had a long poem on South Africa published in the journal New Contrast (University of Cape Town).

In 1988, you published your first book of poetry, Swimming Alone. Tell us about it.
The book is full of poems about transforming passion and how brave and even desperate one must be to follow it. Here is a sample poem:

On Feeling Nearly Extinct
I know I will never
come this way again, come to this
hanging point of time
one flame shot through fog
circle seen in water
to these roads crossed
before my staring skull.
The world's forces have dropped me
a magnet on a blank field
where I can begin
to gather and hold.
Full and still, I am a vessel
becalmed before the running tide
quiet as geometry, surface tense
before pouring.

Interrupting the careful step between bath and bed
I plunged my pampered body into cold ocean
and found you, treading water.

How long have we been waiting for each other?
Two last creatures locked away on opposite sides of existence
morosely resigned to the zoo.
I love you so much it terrifies me.
Blithely putting out to sea in a paper boat.
Strolling a desert set at blazing noon .
On the coldest darkest night of the year
Aiming directly for the storm's white eye.
Surely this has happened before
And we must find ourselves the names to call it home.

You are well-traveled as a writer, how much impact does this have on your writing?
Travel has a great deal of impact on my writing. I get scenes and people and patterns of speech. Travel shakes me out of my regular habits of mind and I see things in a new way. For poetry, travel gives me metaphors for states of feeling, metaphors I haven’t discovered before. So, the effect on my poetry can be invigorating.

Many of your work have been translated into several other languages such as the Selected Poetry that won the prestigious Jean Paris prize for Best Volume of Poetry in French translation in 2003, how did the journey for these translations begin?
In my work, also, as a theatre critic, I have attended many theatre conferences around the world. Theatre and poetry have always been close cousins and so the connections and the interest have been there for me to pursue. I love the process of poetry translation, even thought it is a difficult one. Through it, I get deeper into both my own language and the language in which my poetry will find new life. The process gives me some very special cultural insight.

You recently completed your second novel called One Man Dancing and you are working on a third novel that dwells on spiritual search and feminist satire called Emptiness and Angels. Please, tell us about them.
One Man Dancing has African content. It is based on the quite incredible but true story of a young Ugandan actor-dancer growing into artistic maturity during the murderous regime of dictator Idi Amin. It follows Charles from his youth in Uganda 's colonial villages, through his work with artistic guru Robert Serumaga which takes him on an eye-opening whirlwind world tour. Bounced from Africa to Europe to Canada and back again, Charles experiences bizarre and dangerous encounters with assassination, natural disaster, Idi Amin and even the CIA which, it turns out, had been funding this African company. One Man Dancing is ultimately a political mystery, a story of risk and freedom, a harrowing but inspiring tale of personal integrity, theatre and belief. I call this book a docu-mythography because it is based on the real life experience of one man with whom I talked for about two years (I met him through work on the World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre) before attempting the manuscript. His life inspired both the drama and mythology that I think drive in the novel. Emptiness and Angels is entirely different. When I first visited Turkey , I was struck in Ephesus by the contrast between the figure of Artemis in her splendid outdoor shrine and the figure of Mary, the mother of Jesus in her shadowed little chapel. I was raised Catholic but left the church in anger many years ago. The experience in Ephesus first produced the poem Letter From Ephesus, which I think you know well. It then began my thinking on the figure of Mary as an individual woman and what her real life might have been like, what she thought and felt and desired and needed throughout the extraordinary times in which she lived. The novel also uses a contemporary female researcher based in Provence who is both spiritually hungry and rather conflicted by the feminist constraints she feels on her scholarly work. She finds manuscripts and documents that lead her back to the Biblical Holy Land and forward to nineteenth century Germany and the visions of a very unusual nun. It’s a big complicated book. The genre here is probably bio-mythography, the life story of an almost mythological figure.

You were in Nigeria recently on one of your several trips around the world. Please, share your experiences with us.
Too many. I have pages of notes that may turn into poems, get into other manuscripts etc. But here are the over-riding impressions. Warmth and enthusiasm from everyone I met; a high level of discussion, interest and energy regarding all things pertaining to literature, theatre, language and culture generally. I loved my sessions with writers, students and profs, both the seriousness and humour that characterized all our talk. I have enjoyed continuing interaction with a number of these wonderful people. I found the Nigerians I met to be direct and generous in sharing ideas with me. From a practical and physical point of view, our experience was not always easy. Roads, electricity, water - things we take for granted in our world - proved very difficult but we were always cheered by the people around, tireless in their efforts to make us feel comfortable. In terms of poetry, I was particularly struck in by the influences of the Bible and nineteenth century poetics on a number of the writers I met and by their reaction to my style in poetry which can be simple on the surface but go deep. It seems there is a sense on the part of Nigerian literary criticism that the language of poetry must be ornate. In my world of contemporary poetry that is not the case. We had many interesting discussions about these matters.

I recollect the smoothness and that feminine touch to a couple of the poems you read at the AWF’s Guest Writer Session in Abuja , Nigeria . What is your recipe?
Poetry is my natural way of speaking, my real engagement with the world. If it is smooth feminine, as you say, it is because I feel at one with it. It is my language.

Would you say there is any link between culture, literature and diplomacy?
Absolutely. The world’s most inspired leaders have been people of culture, many of them practicing artist, including such figures as Vaclav Havel (whom I met last week in the Czech Republic), our last pope, Senghor … so many others. We must use the arts in all of these areas to persuade and convince, to influence and transform. I am not speaking of political propaganda but genuine artistic expression. It has power.

Do you have plans for Africa and writers in Africa in your subsequent trips and personal programmes?
Always. Senegal, Cameroon, South Africa where I have spent time have all given me poems and continuing liaisons with artists and various cultural initiatives. I continue to follow and support African theatre and poetry in Canada and at my university where there is fertile ground for exchange and interaction, with certain steps already being made.

"I SEE THE WORLD IN PICTURES" - Alkali
Fatima Ba'aram Alkali,a law lecturer at the University of Abuja recently published her debut novel Personal Angle. She has an interesting background, starting with her parentage. Her father is the historian, Professor Nura Alkali, while her mother and literature teacher and writer of ‘The Stillborn’, Professor Zaynab Alkali, Deputy Vice Chancellor Nasarawa State University.. Ahead of her appearance at the September 26 edition of Abuja Writer’s Forum’s Guest Writer Session, she took time off her busy schedule for an interview with TUNJI AJIBADE

Congratulations on the recent launch of your book titled Personal Angle which is a full length novel. Is it your first book?
Thank you. Personal Angle is my first published novel.

What motivated you to write Personal Angle?
The desire to translate the pictures in my head into words; I see the world in pictures, and the desire to propagate my moral beliefs and principles.

The book has two heroines. Why did you choose to centre the story around the two women?
The lives of the ‘two heroines’ you are referring to, Basheika and Zaria, reflect the core moral messages I am seeking to express to the world. Zaria, a divorced professional lawyer represents my ideal of a woman who maintains her dignity and integrity in a morally bankrupt world. Basheika’s life helps me to express the belief I have always held about the power struggles between men and women; that marriage should not be a battle ground where women ‘fight ‘for their rights. It should rather be a loving union where women freely ‘claim’ their rights. Like I always say, the word ‘fight’ represents hostility.

Judging from the focus and the theme of this book, would you call yourself a feminist?
A feminist is a person who believes in securing rights and opportunities for women equal to those of men and to that extent I may be one, but then I will be limiting the description of myself with that label. I believe in securing the rights of women as much as I believe in securing the rights of men and children.

I recall that during the launch of the book, the Dean of the Law Faculty, University of Abuja where you lecture said he thought you wrote a book on law when you first told him that you were working on a book. Why did you publish a book of literary nature rather that one on law?
It may surprise you to know that I was writing short stories long before I even thought of being a lawyer or a law lecturer. However there’s some stuff on law in Personal Angle as my principal female character is a lawyer who owns her own firm. So I am certain that lawyers too will enjoy reading the book.

You are a lecturer and you are doing a doctoral programme in law at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, how do you find the time to write a book such as this?
Well I wrote the book before I registered for my Ph.D. And as for being a law lecturer, I work hard in the office and of course, the classroom, and then I go home to do a variety of things and one of them is writing.

Getting a publisher to accept a manuscript is always a problem for writers in this country, what's your experience like getting a publisher for this book?
It was not difficult. I got my publisher, Ababa Press, through the agent who sells books to us in the university. The book had already been edited by a brilliant Editor. Thanks to technology, we did not even have to meet and the transaction was concluded and the book published in four months.

You are a scion of academic giants. Talking about Professor Nura Alkali, a former Vice-Chancellor and Professor Zaynab Alkali who is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Nasarawa State University and the writer of The Stillborn. How much of this informed your taking to the teaching profession?
I feel very much at home in the academic environment. I am proud to say that my parents have been positive role models for me. Certainly their success in this field was a significant motivator in my decision to be a lecturer, and my mother’s success as a published writer definitely demonstrated to me that I could be successful as well.

After this book, what do you intend to do next?
I intend to keep writing. I am working on my Ph.D thesis but I also do some writing of short stories on the side. I just concluded a short story on the differences between men and women and how these manifest in human relationships. I hope to publish it along with some other short stories someday, insha Allah. Thank you.

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