AN INTERVIEW BY DAVISON NJOKU-CHAMPION NEWSPAPER
BY CHAMPION NEWSPAPER
WHY SLUMS OFTEN PRODUCE RARE TALENTS
-Uwadinachi, Nigeria’s priest of poetry
Multi-talented Uche Uwadinachi, one of Nigeria most creative young poets, and author of the book scar in the heart of pain, is regarded in Nigerian’s literary circle as the priest of poetry, due to his penchant for performance poetry and the deep spiritual tone of most of his works. In an exclusive interview with DAVISON NJOKU, this key player in an exciting new generation of hip hop movement and whose poem was recently shortlisted among the best ten Korean-Nigerian Poetry Fiesta 2012, opened up on a variety of interesting issues. Excerpt.
Childhood
My mum played the role of a nurse, and a counselor. She was always there to shape and reshape the idea I had about life then, and kept on pushing to me motivational books. This facilitated my quick recovery and the making of my first publication “SCAR in the HEART of pain”.
Environment
Hmmm, I am privileged to be born and raised in Ajegunle, however, this was the biggest challenge I had to face as a child growing up to learn the reality of life. It was a whole clash of contradictions. Ajegunle, the most popular slum, is a factory of the good, the bad and the ugly. Life there guarantees you what you bargain for without any re- negotiation.
AJ the jungle city is not just characterized with the usual songs of slums as in poverty, illiteracy, juvenile violence, unemployment, child abuse, hooliganism, Indian herm addiction etc, it is a home, a center for unusual skill acquisition , talent discovery and creativity. Thus like you have a tattered child in the street begging for alms, so also you see another child-tailor dressed in self made Ankara attire, helping the mother to sell Akara (bean cake) at bus stop .
I started on the negative side, seeing so many barriers and curse in the menial income of my parents and everybody around. Really, the fees were not there for school, textbooks, and medicals, so like other kids, coupled with the blunt fact that the only things I see were pocket crimes around, mass cases of unemployment, decayed local road projects, contaminated pipe borne water systems, I saw nothing but living in extinction from a normal life.
These to me are scars to the life of the ghetto child- a crux of urban poverty in the new millennium. An innocent child denied of his/her right to basic amenities in the name of structural mismanagements. These were the sad testimonies in my book ‘SCAR in the HEART of pain’ captured in ‘Curse.’ The second and third phase ‘Cure’ and ‘Course’ however, pictures my survival and conquest in the profound statements of every other youth that has defeated these huge societal and psychological predators.
Peers
Peers are no less products of the existing social calamities. They are forms of what they are in the environment where they find themselves born or raised. They only struggle to tear it out one way or the other. My state of mind and health did not help me then in directly associating with peers which equally would not have helped less or worse to my development. Though all I saw in them from the distance I always observed, was the same predicament, however I encountered and discovered my remedy, myself. This thus made me stronger than any peers could have had on me. On my teenage bed, I discovered that the same writing which I secretly used to paint my pains on papers turned out to be the therapy to my long grief. I became a priest to my maladies. Writing poetry peered me all along through those process of healing to the last page of my book.
Motivation
Ajegunle is my story, my motivation. As long as I kept seeing those contradictions, those humiliation and oppression, I get motivated by the fact that a good standard of living is still possible for the ghetto child, only if he/she struggles and for it. To be born in the street is not the fault of any child and should not be justified as his /her responsibility under the excuse of moral obligation.
From the very first day, I discovered a pen could write, and express one’s feeling on a paper, that was the day I discovered my closest and deepest motivation. Writing poetry was a therapy I realized could motivate anybody, any day. The unique thing about this kind of solution is that like any analgesic, it kills that pressure in you and reactivate your brain cells to work actively again.
The poetry book I first encountered, that really influenced me, was ‘Season of Struggle’ by Aj. Dagga Tolar - a collection damning all forms of societal predatorship under the disguise of the people’s leadership. It was a book to learn that no child is guilty of poverty. Later in life, I caught a big fish, I found a deity of my best inspiration, in respect to using poetry to manage life’s best stories. He is Niyi Osundare – the grand priest of poetry. He was my menthol in how to write accessible poetry.
I must confess that the small poetry contest awards here and there, are indispensably encouraging to me, to write more and become a better poet. Starting with the ANA (LAPOFEST)poetry prize for 2006, June PoetryCraze award 2009, 2nd prize Ken Saro-Wiwa contest award USA 2010, June Loudthots prize 2011, Korea-Nigeria Poetry feast top-ten award 2012, then owning the credit as the director of the winning poetry performances of District 5 Educational Board-Jam Feast 2011 and overall winner of the GT-Bank National Art Festival (P.L.A.Y) - Alakoto Senior High School, 2011, I cannot but say that I have been greatly inspired to change my world . So a big thanks to you all who have given me those honours, they may not be large cash but they are costly symbols to me and to every growing child in AJ.
Dreams for the future
My foremost wish is to see my other publications and spoken word Cds out in public shelves, been read, heard, watched and reviewed, and not to be stocked for ages in libraries that now functions like museums. I plan to raise a house of poetry in Ajegunle with two departments- an ultra modern library and a theatre devoted to performance poetry. There the young and old can search and experiment their taste and charms of the genre. I also look forward to carry out vocational trainings in several skills acquisitions with possible access to the equipment to start their own businesses with. I also want to start a campaign for the use of the Pidgin Language as a subject in our schools. Pidgin is the last left breed of our dying indigenous languages. The hybrid of everything Nigerian, that must be respected, preserved and developed. The Nigerian pidgin is a statement of our history, ways, lifestyle, strength, experience and the future. And I believe this it is not just a dream, it is the future.
A FEATURE BY BY VANGUARD NEWSPAPER
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/03/young-nigerians-making-the-difference-9/
Growing up in Ajegunle (AJ) for him has been the cradle of what he regards as “numerous tall ambitions, thus at every point or level of achievement I get to, that beginning and idea conjure my unfalling focus and undeniable reason to be grateful to my home.”
In 2006, he won the ANA Lagos poetry festival (poetry performance) prize and in 2010, he won the June poetry craze contest. Same year in November 2010, he came second place in the Ken Saro-Wiwa Writing Competition for poetry-2011.He also won the June Loudthotz Poetry contest 2011 and directed the overall winning Poetry Performance of district 5 Education Board for the Lagos State Jam Feast Competition 2011, and the overall winning Performance Poem of Alakoto Senior High School, Tolu Complex 2011 at the International Arts Festival – P.L.A.Y by G.T Bank. His poems have been published in the ‘Lime Jewel’ collection-London 2010 amongst other publications.
Uche has worked as a continuity man/ writer for TV commercials, musicals, Reality TV shows currently The Heir Apparent, and presently, he is an independent television presenter/researcher with Konto Music and works towards his latest spoken-word-rap album titled ‘E’FI MI LE’ joo’or’.
By
MYNE WHTEMAN, THE FOUNDER AND MANAGING EDITOR OF NAIJASTORIES, AUTHOR OF 'HEART TO MEND' AND 'LOVE REKINDLED' , A NIGERIAN BLOGGER AND A PUBLISHER.
http://www.mynewhitmanwrites.com
Uche Uwadinachi - Guest Author (Spoken Word Poetry)
I got a complimentary copy of the book and enjoyed most of the poems. In it, there are issues of solitude, absurdity, survival, poverty, and serenity to faith but most of all is the theme of a persisting circle of pain in the life of an individual. "The pain wakes up as an ache of situation but bulge into an entire life of agony and this tradition is seen irresistible in the life of the common man. The hold here strikes at the cells of the mental and physical being of the victim. The common man thus is disfigured with the worries of poverty, unemployment, disease and deaths, thus the continuous struggle against these odds, leaves him drown in despair and desolations with no thoughts of ever surviving."
Enjoy the interview below...
1. Tell us about yourself; a brief autobiography -
My name is Uche Uwadinachi, a priest of poetry. I practice performance poetry and the spoken word as part of my vocation and religion. Am a graduate of the Lagos State University Ojo -2006 with a B.A in English Language. I belong to a two-man music group named Kamazaiah- a culture hip pop movement. Our first compilation album ‘Lifted’ was released in 2007 under the Sound Factory Label and presently we work towards our next album titled ‘Bad Things’. I have featured in several Nigerian movies such as Real love, Love of my life’, Haunted love, Adam and Eve, You broke my heart, Who killed Dele, Veno, Superstory (No pain no gain) among others.
I am the author of the book ‘SCAR in the HEART of pain’ and its spoken word album. The poetry collection was published by BlackArts, while the album was produced by Tuntout Records. In 2006, I won the ANA Lagos poetry festival (poetry performance) prize, by 2010, I won the June Poetry-craze contest, November 2010, I won second place in the Ken Saro-wiwa writing competition for poetry-2010. I have performed my poetry at the 1st Tinapa trade expo, Wordslam 1, 11, 111 and 1V, Bookshelve-LTV8, Poetry-potter, Bristish Council, Samkard Tree-National Library, Pen society, Ayota Art Centre etc.
For a living, I work as a continuity man for TV commercials and reality shows and also as a presenter in Konto Music, a music documentary programme on NTA Channel 10 Lagos, and 9ja TV.
2. When and why did you begin writing?
Since childhood, writing has always been a companion while I was learning to get close to friends. It was my closest pal that understood and could talk to me. I rarely flirt with people because I was so timid then that I wrote so many memos just to express my self or pass message to the next person. This lone nature lead me into singing; though I have a good voice but spent more time in writing songs than singing. I grew up with so much time and romance for my pen that I felt I had to write about something in me, something I felt impeded me from people and rather blanked me out from the outside world. I felt I had a scar as child. And this I began to write about into poetry. Ironically that was how my healing started, and then while writing, I realize that rather than helping me run away from the crowd, it was instead taking me closer to people and giving me more attention. Since then, writing in poetry, music, prose, has ever been my tradition, trade and love. 3. What inspires you to write?
Hmmmm, loneliness has always been my muse. As a person who ‘presently’ is fond of people around him, I find it empty and disturbed to thoughts when am left alone or deserted. Alone, you find me most times talking to myself, like I use to do in my lonely childhood. I would always raise questions about myself and the sad society I live in. I find myself involved in that possible remedy the community can afford. This whole drama of pondering raises my pen to bleed letters in writings. If am not fortunate to find a pen at that moment, I continue arguing with myself without been conscious of those around. This thus, happens to be my best purgative syrup and excursion into spoken word poetry and that why loneliness is anytime, a good exercise for me.
4. What was your publishing journey like?
I don’t know how my girl will take this, but I have to say this, that book is a product of my long secret affair with pens and that’s why I love “tapping” biros in my primary school. I had spent so much time flirting around in poems, romancing my very weird thoughts in the name of an infirmity I believe I was fighting since childhood. I almost died of this idea in my head that I kept the journey writing so as to get to the end of the book and find a solution to that sickness of my heart.
The journey was a Molue- escapade. It was an adventure I never knew I had started until I ended, because that was when I began feeling the backache. I was writing to end a journey of dilemma for years so I was really amazed when I found a book in my hand. I had no money, no publisher, all I had, were those pains in my heart and in the lives of people around me, however I moved to fight these scars. For years, I was querying and trying to meet a remedy and that was how the book was found. In 2006 at the ANA festival, I saw a need to speak with AJ Daga Tolar, the author of ‘Season of Struggle’, ‘This country is not a poem’, ‘Darkwater drunkard’ (all poetry collections) and the chairman of BlackArts, on the need to published my book. However before then, my lecturers in school had been working on it as a collection.
I was so glad when BlackArts in conjunction with Vigillis communication published my book. When I saw the final form, I realized that I had lost so much fluid and pounds and was in pain. The production was quite strenuous and expensive because we took time to make our cover; getting the model and graphic designer to make it all good and also ensuring a good story to tell, however I was smiling real great when I saw the book. It was an end to my journey of pain in the scar of my heart. It was then I realized that no child really is born with a scar except the scary society which leaves in the mind of the growing kid, the fear of ever surviving in a state of discrimination and utmost dehumanization.
5. Why poems, do you plan to write prose?
Interestingly, why poems? Well, I love prose especially, its endurance in holding down attention with cute narrative styles and themes but I faithfully stick to poetry and just poetry for now. I have no plans to write prose. Poem, yes! Because I did not choose it, it chose me through it swift, concise and sexy form. Poetry with its brevity and stylistic construction, delivers its message like a bullet. It saves you a lot of time, words, thoughts and weight, and captures your mind in a precise frame of thoughts in your own words. Uhhhh, it’s like making a charm, so quick and expertise. Whoa! Poetry can take any form, shape, sex and taste, to pass it splendour. Every genre of art, drama or prose employs it. Poems have always been my secret therapy and will remain irreplaceable. As for other medium, my performance poetry is dramatic and its story can prosaic, but it feel, is poetry.
6. Discuss the poem in your books
Me (page 5)
The poem “Me” in page 5 which sights the mind as a mare, exposes a horror encountered by the personae his sub-consciousness. The day occurring as an eye witness ignores the crime scene of “life” to mind its own business. This encounter is a struggle as he kicked “…voiced seized” yet the scar feeds its every part of life “pricking deeply through his skin”. This happens to be so strange that it is only the persona alone that knows the reality and depth of this dilemma because it is “hidden from eyes” however he concludes that this runs through his lineage, thus they are bound to remain in that pain and perhaps until the cure is found.
A world of worries (page9)
In “a world of worries” (Pg9), which portrays the absurdity of life, the world turns a life of eternal worries prevailing against all and sundry. Thus, it’s “Only a man without feet,” that “Feels not the torrid earth/ Or child without nostril,”| that “Breathe not the toxic air”. The war thickens as the battle between the needy and needs makes mockery of any dream of surviving. The world refuses to be comforted by phrases hoping in several dishes of religion that poisons and “forsakes us in a world of famine.”
Cure (Page26) states that we must confront our very selves to overcome our tribulations. The “River” channels our whole struggle and faith into that serene course of resolution. The river mirrors how man drives his fate as he is “washed in the stream” so as to unravel the causing flames of the present. Man is advised to resign wholeheartedly to nature that “cradles the land,” “bore the sea,” and “feed the mammals”. And surely by its water, it can renew the earth and revive the pains in our lives.
7. Do you have a major theme that runs through your book?
In curse, poems like “Heart of pain” (Pg 2) finds the personae in a dawn of a new stitch in pain. “Scar” (Pg3) emphasizes that this misery goes beyond the face of a wound to the “faceless parasitic burden lurking in a locked corner of the living heart.”
“Cure” (Pg26) is a restatement of the chance of overcoming the “…aged scars” only by our “confrontation” rather than going lost path in hopelessness or “in a desert stroll” (Pg50). Course is the solution that comes from the serenity which the “River” (Pg52} as a symbol of natures offers. In the water we find paradise as in the “Heart of ease” (Pg59) and “Such home” (Pg64). So our strength to survive and fight should be resigned to our feet “On water” for they can chase you “through hazy streets of the slum” but they cannot “…dare you/On water!” Only in life can we find the ultimate cure to life’s unending pain of our scars.
8. What books have most influenced your life?
‘Season of struggle’ by AJ Dagga Tolar was one book that best influenced me when I barely had started writing. Though I read across poetry books with a corned interest in the play of the words, but when I encountered that collection, I saw poetry as alive as the very cry in my neighborhood. The poems painted pictures of police brutality in near market locations around me. I got moved by the striking choice of words it employed. I felt involved and initiated not just in the incidents sited but also in those living diction it created and stamped on my lips. The book is so small that I took it every where I went like the wallet-picture of my woman and there my experiment of words started like a bedroom fire and here I am, a published poet and spoken word artist. Unfortunately I’ve lost my copy of that book and every effort to get a copy from the author and publisher seems a sad story.
9. If you have to choose, which writer would you choose as a mentor?
Niyi Osundare is a writer I have always admired and wanted to be like. My reverence for him was payed at my final year in the University when ANA Lagos had its poetry festival in 2006. I had learnt he was a special guest and also one of the judges for the contest, so I had to enter the competition only to be able to see him face to face. Fortunately, on the day of the finals at the National Art Theatre, I emmerged the overall winner of the poetry performance contest and there before me was Niyi Osundare presenting the poetry prize to me. That day lunched me into a poetry height to soar. And after then I have manage to achieve other poetry awards, thanks to him. Niyi Osundare is a grand priest of poetry, an outstanding performance poet.
I remember an event, where he got Dutch audience in Hague to sing along with him while reciting a poem in Yoruba and that was exciting. Osundare always has the premonition of community singers, hearers and composers, when he writes poetry. He made me believe that the audience is the most important element of any artistic performance and composition. As a dramatist of the stage, his poetry fluxes with drama. His poems always go with songs and drums to back him; he goes as far as given a musical direction for some of his poems. Also I revere him for been political in his poems especially tooling it to correct bad governance.
I look forward to achieve a world class audience and fellowship like he has done. Fortunately as a singer and thespian, I want to believe that my poetry will get to that height.
10. What books are you reading now?
Though I have been very busy recently (if not always busy) due to my job in TV /movie productions and music videos as a continuity man and artistic director, however I was able to lay my hand on “Opening Night” by Mark Greene, a collection of performance Christmas poems. It so interesting as it captures poems on times and ordinary people caught in extraordinary moments. Am still reading it, so I believe I would enjoy it and will tell you when I finish. And you cant believe am just reading Dan Brown’s ‘Davinci Code’, hmmmm, it a book I know I will really love because of Brown’s ability to capture history and religion in a bottle. I want to believe there are more things there he must have discovered…well am still reading.
11. Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
Jumoke Verisimo though has been writing for a while but her last published work still recent ‘I am memory’, really excites me. I love the strength of her imaginative description. She‘s always in this cute frenzy reach with words. I like her and I think she is a promising writer for the future. Moreover I never knew her as a romantic person in school then, not until I read her work. Myne Whitman, ‘Heart to mend’ is another work I am reading again and again. I really love it when a woman settles issues of broken relationships and that why I love seeing Myne mend broken hearts. I call her the HEART MENDER.
12. Is there anything you find particular challenging in your writing?
As a performance poet and a voice over artist, writing poetry is somehow challenging. When I write poetry, I play so much with words rather than on vocabulary, so as to picture the act and sound of my poems. My poem turns out so simple (though retains it, puzzle on the readers) as against that of my older scholars (some) who are of weighty vocabularies. I have been told that my poems are more romantic, dramatic than intellectual…opps! Well, every poems I write, is to be performed on stage not in the library, so I have always had in mind an act behind every poem I write. That why my whole poetry has it spoken word version. Now, the question is how do I differentiate my book from my album, yes! They are different most especially in the medium.
13. Who is your favourite author?
Niyi osundare, but permit me to call him with respect Pa Niyi Osundare. That man does not know that I’m his son. Osundare’s writing cradled me when I really wanted to start writing poetry till the time I started excelling in poetry. That has earned me making him my favourite author, I am always looking out for any of his latest work like waiting for the movies. Osundare is a craft, a deity that turns simple common words into strange charms that can hypnotize you till you are lost in the Amos Tutuola’s wonder-forest. Although there are several young authors with interesting writing styles but my choice of him still lies in the fact that his style has been there at the start and has remain relevantly constant.
14. What do you think about the Nigerian publishing industry?
That one na big question…..well I think we somehow need a reformation. They are either still the same intellectual library we use to have or they have refused to believe that the new generation has any thing better to offer. Many books have been published to be forgotten in their heaping shelves in the store-house-libraries. No distribution network, no promotion, no incentive for the author. Am glad we now have publishing houses that are making so much effort on the few works they’ve published, yet we need younger and daring minds to come into this industry. We need people that will publish our works to the hands of the readers. Yes, am not stating that book should be so popular or money wheeling like the entertainment industry here, no! They should rather make efforts in:
Branding the book and the author
Creating distribution networks for the works
Creating online, websites, blog and social networks for awareness and market
Promote these works in Medias (electronic and print).
Make way for interviews, tours, exhibition, shows and features for the authors
Note that this is not about making money, it is about branding, awareness and orientation. However all these, the future is bright, the industry will improve, e go beta.
15. What comments do you have about the reading culture in Nigeria?
First of all, I don’t believe that putting anything in a book for a Blackman can hide it because the average Blackman is naturally smart. For Nigeria, reading culture has not been encouraging at all. But it has not been stagnant. There is an improvement especially with the level of print media (Magazines, Newspapers, nuggets, novellas etc) you find on paper stands these days, new publishing houses for writers are also emerging, internet freedom and popularity is glaring, and there is also a level of consciousness and activism of people on continual political disturbances and hazards. It is improving, but it is still poor compared to meet the kind of reading standard that is demanded. Well I think with individual/group/government support, it can be better; I want to see other cooperate bodies support literature like some other banks are doing now.
And with the kind of experiment, I am attempting with my poetry, I think I can to some extent contribute to readership in Nigeria and even Africa. So also I believe other vibrant youths in arts today are doing, together we can improve it.
16. Do you have any specific thing you want to say to your readers?
Uuuhh! I almost mistake the first letter of readers as ‘L’, well all join. Readers, I want you to see yourself as leaders. Your opinion, your treatment, your faith, your effort to any work of art matters because it goes a long way to affect others. That why I say, please lets support ourselves by tolerance, respecting and been objective of anybody’s point of view or way of expression, because that’s the only way, we can grow and make any sense to ourselves. And, fellow writers in the media, please support the upcoming writers (published or unpublished, young or old, home or abroad) like you. Every one has a story to tell that will sell you today or tomorrow. And do endeavour to read and enjoy my writings online or on any shelves you find them but most especially try to listen and watch my poetry performance.
17. Do you have an online presence, Facebook, Blog, Twitter or a website?
Am on Facebook, and manage a blog titled http://www.flames777.blogspot.com where you can references or links to my other writings and performances. Meanwhile, am still working on my website.
18. Where can we buy we buy the book in stores and online?
Am sorry, I have not officially lunched my book because its spoken word album was not yet ready. But now the book and its album are ready, so I will, by the grace of God, be presenting and launching the book with its spoken word audio album and possibly a single video by March. It will be announced here and other places online/on air and the distributors would also be mentioned. Please bear with me. And finally, I want to tell Myne, the Heart Mender to keep the great work. Time will not forget you and the mended hearts.
http://www.mynewhitmanwrites.com/2011/01/uche-uwadinachi-guest-author-spoken.html
