‘Why I love to write about social issues’
Can you tell us how you discovered poetry? Was it first poetry or spoken word that came to you?
I discovered poetry in my teenage years, although I don’t know if I can refer to my writings back then as something worthy of the name poetry. I just knew that I was writing down my thoughts, experiences and fantasies in a special book I kept. I took it a little more seriously after the nudge from an older friend who was already a writer at the time. I think for every spoken word poet it was first poetry before spoken word, so yes poetry came before I perfected the art of performing my poems.
In evolving from a poet to a performance poet, how did you train yourself as a spoken word poet? What was the routine like for you?
I was really thrilled the first time I realised that people could actually perform their poems and not just read them out. I remember downloading many spoken word videos from the internet to watch and know how it is done. One poet that stood out for me from the onset was Bassey Ikpi. I usually would stand before a mirror and try to mimic her. Initially, it was both difficult and frustrating because I kept forgetting my lines. After a while though, I got better and almost became another Ikpi, then I found my voice, my own style. From then on, the routine has always been get inspired, write, rewrite, memorise and put it out on a performance stage.
As the daughter of a single mom, was it harder for your mother to accept your career choice?
My mum is my number one fan, she has always been an ardent supporter of everything I’m passionate about. She has never talked me down in my pursuit of poetry or my love for radio broadcasting and anything else for that matter.
Talking about your poetry now, I see that most of it is driven by social causes. Why is it important that your poetry talks to society?
I believe that to fix the world, there is a need for an awakening in the collective consciousness of all humans, and this awakening can only come by the continuous exposure of our minds to truth. I also believe that spoken word poetry is irrevocably one of the tools to bring about such an awakening. As humans we are all connected and affected by every good or bad action we let out. I am quite passionate about raising the consciousness of humans to a place where only love thrives. This is seen in most of my works, be they angry, sad or love poems. The undertone of each work resonates this drive and desire for the elevation of human consciousness. I love to write about social issues because I believe that writers too are shapers of society and poetry is one of the tools to bring about this, simply because it pierces through our emotions, reasoning and philosophy thereby revealing truth.
Speaking about anger and other emotions, in one of your poems, ‘Africa’s Rape’ there is so much rage. How do you channel that anger into creative works and do you ever worry about being branded an “angry poet?”
Emotions are propellers of creative and ingenious works. I know because I often experience this. My best pieces come from somewhere deep and emotional. “Africa’s Rape” for one, is a poem I have always desired to write, not to blame Africa’s decadence on colonialism alone but also on Africans themselves. As a graduate of History and International Studies, I must say history has influenced my poetry and I’ve come to see the different sides of our history as a people and as a continent, with so much, yet so little results to show. I’m a revolutionary, anger is synonymous to people who love change that irrevocably births a better society. I am not bothered about being called an angry poet, As a matter of fact, I have a friend who has termed the initials of my name AP ‘Angry Piece.’
How very apt. In the same poem, you addressed the thematic focus of Walter Rodney’s book ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’. What grouse do you have with the way his argument was couched?
I really do not have any objection to Walter Rodney’s argument in his book. Factually speaking, I agree completely with his evaluation of the contemporary history of Africa, centring on its rape and underdevelopment. I only projected the continuation of the facts of underdevelopment. He equally called for an extensive investigation of neo-colonialism to bring about Africa’s development. So, his book did not only present me with the basis needed to share my thoughts through my poem but to also reveal the continuation of Africa’s underdevelopment as made available in his analysis of our history. Dambisa Moyo’s book ‘Dead Aid’ was also a good resource to further buttress my facts, argument and anger on the continuous exploitation of Africa by the so called world powers.
Most of your poems have serious concerns at their heart, apart from ‘Never Date a Poet’. What is the story of that poem?
As writers, we don’t always write from our experiences, sometimes we write just to poke fun, probably to create an impression that is completely fictitious as well. So, ‘Never date a Poet’, like I often tell people, is one of my unserious works considering that I just wanted to play around with the idea of dating or marrying a poet and to also express the complexities sometimes associated with dating or marrying same. But like they say, in fiction are found bits of truths as well. So, yes a bit of the poem also comes from an experience, just a bit.
One of your trending poems, ‘Tomorrow Never Came’ focuses on the plight of street hawkers and their dreams. What prompted you to write and perform that poem? What is the background story?
Hmmmm! ‘Tomorrow Never Came’ is not just a poem, it was an experience for me. I was travelling to Abuja from Jos sometime in April 2015 and was stopped at a military checkpoint. Usually hawkers sell more around such places. There was this teenage girl, one of the hawkers who tried crossing to the other lane of the road to sell but got hit by a moving car. She kept shouting and as I watched her groan in pains, I could not help being both sad and angry at the same time. Pensively, I brought out my phone and started typing the poem today known as ‘Tomorrow Never Came.’ Beyond my pain and anger I also wanted it to serve as an advocacy poem to stop child labour, reiterate the importance of child education, prevention of teenage sex and the dangers involved in street hawking especially for teenagers.
That is very touching. Do you think performance poetry is redefining how poetry is consumed? Do you see this as a
threat to conventional poetry?
Yes it is redefining the consumption of poetry but it can’t and will never be a threat to conventional poetry because there is no performance poetry without conventional poetry. I write conventional poetry and I also write Spoken word poetry. In fact, for some, conventional poetry becomes performance poetry simply because it is performed on a stage before an audience. Performance poetry has its foundation on conventional poetry.
How instrumental is place to you, as a poet? How important would you say growing up in Jos has been to your development as a poet?
I didn’t grow up in Jos, I only came to Jos for my university studies and fell in love with the cold and peaceful clime of the environment. I’ve been there ever since. Although I didn’t start writing poetry in Jos, it functioned in redefining my poetry as it gave me the opportunity of meeting great poets, thinkers and also various platforms for both my poetic and media expressions. I’m grateful to Jos because I was not only welcomed but also loved and appreciated by many, this has been a boost to most of my poetry inclined projects.
You run COAL in Jos. What inspired the setting up of this organisation?
Custodians of African Literature (COAL) is a literary organization I founded with the conscious intention of creating expressive platforms for writers and poets both online and offline. And as well encourage the active participation of more women in literature and spoken word poetry. It isn’t an all female organization, it just has a preference for female writers in Nigeria and Africa at large.