Abuja Writers Forum Launches Journal - By Cecilia Agrinya
Literature lovers gathered for the launch of the Abuja writers Forum’s annual anthology on Thursday, September 2 in Abuja, lamented the poor reading culture in the country. The journal, ‘Dugwe’, is a collection of short stories and poems by the group’s members. The Minister of State for Information and Communication, Laraban Maku, who spoke at the event, commended the AWF for its efforts in using literature to educate and entertain audiences. He noted that those who aspire to be writers must be avide readers of other people’s works. “The best form of writing is also to read, read and read, because if you don’t read, you can’t write,” he said.

Many challenges
The minister acknowledged that Nigerian writers face many challenges, not least plagiarism and poor copyright protection – all of which rob writers and artists of their benefits. However, he encouraged them not to allow these challenges deter them from continuing to produce good works. “If you have a creative mind please do not allow the light to dim”, he said.

AWF President, Emman Usman Shehu, said poorly-produced books and the neglect of creative writers also contributed to the degenerating reading culture in Nigeria.

“The growing dominance of literature on the global stage by Indians and South Africans, for instance, is not an accident,” he said. “It is the outcome of a sustained plan in incorporating creative workshops, creative writing programmes in educational institutions, writing residencies, literary contests, publishing outlets and a variety of grants for writers, publication and publishers.” He concluded by saying, “The journal in my mind is a valuable addition to Nigerian writing and literature.”

An encouragement
The launch event featured readings by writers who contributed to the anthology: a poem recitation, music performances and a review by Halima Sekula of the English Department at Nasarawa State University.

Guests and participants described the ‘Dugwe’ as a positive effort in developing creative writing and promoting a reading culture in Nigeria. David Olusegun Agbaje, Assistant Comptroller-General of the Customs, said the event worked to dispel negative stereotypes of Africans.

“The AWF in their activities, have shown that Africans have come of age and they know and appreciate the importance of knowledge,” he said. “Critics of Africans used to say that if you want to hide anything from an African, put it inside a book.” Emmanuel Ahiaba, another participant, admitted he stopped reading after his diploma course because he was more interested in making money to meet his needs.

“I would say we the young men and women in Nigeria, do not read books like our fathers did. We are more interested in videos and with the advent of the Internet, we prefer to chat online, Facebook and play games,” he said. “This is a motivation for me, and I’ll cultivate the habit of reading again.”

Originally published in NEXT September 4, 2010 http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/ArtsandCulture/Books/5614762-147/story.csp#

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A Crusader Shows Her Passion - By Tunji Ajibade
It was a day literary high literary drama when Mrs Ngozi Onyioha-Orji took the centre stage at the August 28 edition of the monthly Guest Writer Session organized by the Abuja Writers Forum. At the event, the late Esiaba Irobi, poet, dramatist, and a scholar who passed on in Berlin, Germany in May this year at the age of 49, was remembered when his poem, ‘The Ceramic life’ was performed to an appreciative audience, and his contribution to the art commended. The event was compered by Ms Oluchi Agbayim, a lawyer and NGO resource person and it took off at 4:30 pm at the Pen and Pages Bookstore. On the programme of events were other art-related activities such as live music performed by Princess Jay, an emerging singer and guitarist, as well as poetry performance by the whizkid, DekManakind, and a regular raffle draw that saw participants going home with books.

When the Guest Writer, Orji, took the hot seat, she introduced her audience to the issue of child abuse which was the subject of the three books she had published so far with a brief reading from her debut novel, Girls At War, while her main reading for the day was from her third book, The Knots of Karma. Orji, a notable political activist in her state Abia, did her reading in Abuja on a day when the juggernauts in the ruling party left Abuja to attend the formal decamping of Governor T.A Orji to the PDP in Umuahia. It became obvious why she had to sacrifice the occasion in Umuahia where she resides to come and hang out with writers. “We have all suffered from child abuse in one way or the other,” she said with energy, a manifestation of how she has been carrying out her fight against the phenomenon. “When you read this book,” she said, “we will all see the way our children are abused, and we will not repeat the same when we have our own children.”

There are six main characters in the book, Knots of Karma, and each of them had a story to tell. These six girls had met and they soon discovered there was one thing they shared in common – they had been abused in one way or the other when they were kids. The abuse had come from parents, house-helps and so on. The author would soon show that the child abuse is beyond what it is often taken to be, or the popular notion that people have of it. “Over-pampering a child is an abuse,” she said. She also shows both in her book and in her interaction with her listeners that child abuse has nothing to do with class. “Child abuse is not exclusive to the poor,” she pointed out. “Much of child abuse happen among the middle class.” Even the highly- educated engage in it. An example was the case Orji gave of an educated woman she met, who had complained that her daughter, at ten years of age, had started to develop breasts. This woman was embarrassed at the fact that among her daughters and the children of her friends, only hers had begun to develop breasts. In an attempt to fix this problem, the woman began to tie a cloth on the child’s chest every night, believing it would stop the breasts from further growth. Orji believed this woman had abused her daughter both physically and psychologically, and “this will take years to heal.”

The Knots of Karma had characters whose stories were located among differed ethnic groups and regions of the country, people with different religions, people in the upper class, middle class, as well as the poor. Ronke, for instance, had an Upper Class background. Her mother was a globetrotter. Her father too had no time for her. Each time this child, from the age of four, wanted to complain about one thing or the other, her mother either shushed her or shouted, “don’t you see I am busy? I have a flight to catch. Go and meet Dapo for whatever you need.” Whenever Ronke tried to complain about what Dapo, the house-help, did to her ‘down here’ while he bathed her, her mother never bothered to listen properly and get her message. She was simply told to do whatever Dapo wanted her to do, because he had to ensure that she was cleaned properly. In the end, a four year old emerged as a twelve years old already made to act in porn movies by the same Dapo. There were the stories of Pebori from a poor background, and that of Ibong who was from the middle class, and others.

The question and answer session was both engaging and eye-opening. Participants wanted to know why Orji was so passionate about the issue of child abuse, and did she experience it? What she saw during the civil war was a factor. “I wouldn’t have been able to write about it if I didn’t experience it,” she said. Her personal experience was out of the mainstream though. Her father liked her, but her mother didn’t because she, the daughter even as a child, didn’t like many of the things her mother liked. The treatment she had under that circumstance left a deep impression on her mind. And she had moved around, seen and heard much of what kids go through. “The way child abuse affects a girl child is different from the way it does the boy child,” she added. Karma also uses local pidgin language where it was necessary, and this is understandable because the author caught ‘everyday’ kind of person as her characters. Participants suggested that she could take the messages in her three books to a larger audience by turning them into films. It was a suggestion the author was willing to further explore.

Earlier on, the poem, “The Ceramic Life” (originally written by Esiaba for a late friend of his) and in which the performer, Dekmankind, had substituted the late friend’s name with Esiabas, drew both questions and applause from the audience for the way it was rendered. The performer was also commended for performing so well such a long poem with lines such as “Esiaba, I have given you all I have/a tear, flower, a wreath, and this elegy...”

The day ended on a high note and the president of AWF in his thank you message said the forum is committed to lifting literature through such sessions in which authors interact with writers and the public in general. He also enjoined writers and members of the public to avail themselves of the forum’s monthly creative writing workshops which is free, as well as its weekly and reading and critique session.

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