‘I strive to entertain and moralize in my books’
A native doctor was approached to use his expertise to kill a very wicked king in the course of curing him. But the fact remains that nobody has the right to take life! When you are writing for children, you are not just writing to keep them away from mischief through reading, you are also writing to tell them what is right and what is wrong while entertaining them with your tale. Put differently, a good children’s story must be didactic. Beyond entertaining the children, the writer should use the opportunity to make them live right. The Bible enjoins us to train a child in the right way and he will not leave that right path when he grows up. Moralising is very important in children’s literature. That is one of the ways of catching them young. Our world is sick. Changing our world is not easy. I am therefore on a course of changing our world through quality children’s literature. I cannot go to the street to protest. I cannot engage in politics. I am a civil servant. Yet I am suffering from the impact of a sick Nigeria. Part of my reaction to our national problem is my books for children. I tried to tackle these myriads of problems such as fake drugs, kidnappings, religious fraud, unethical medicinal practices and so on through children’s books.
Yet, some of the most popular children literatures in the world such as Pippi Longstocking are not overly concerned with moralising and have somehow remained classics in children literature. How do you think this came about?
Children’s literature must not necessarily moralize for it to be good. Yet, one of the qualities of good children’s literature is that it should be didactic. Yes, some of the best children’s books ever written were not moralistic. These books were good because they are very entertaining and educating. Many of today’s musicians produce lyrics that do not moralize but they still gain fame because they are danceable. But it is for the writer to decide for himself whether to just entertain. In my own case, I chose to use writing for children to have a better world tomorrow. So I had to be didactic and entertaining. My experience is that you may lose the readers’ interest if you are just didactic without being entertaining. So I try to mix both. The success of The Secret Place, in my view, was that it was a thriller. Or so I was told by the readers and teachers who used the book. Yet my primary purpose for writing the book was to call the attention of the world to the dangers posed by the manufacturing and distribution of fake drugs.
How difficult would you say it is for Nigerian writers to find publishers for children literature considering how expensive it is to produce these books and the amount of finesse required?
Writers have been having things rough practising their arts in Nigeria today. The economy as it is today does not favour the publishing industry. The cost of paper has gone up as well as other factors of production. Many of the publishing houses have packed up. Those in the industry are only looking for big names. The result is that many have resorted to vanity and self-publishing. Then there are distribution problems. There is editing problem and so on. These are the challenges the Nigerian writer is facing today. The fact that we have been weathering the storm shows the resilient spirit of the Nigerian writer. Publishing children’s literature in Nigeria is not easy. For the upcoming writers getting a publisher is not easy. If he decides to go for self-publishing, it is not easy either. For as you know, children’s literature is a specialized field. Graphic artists and illustrators are required. Then you need a good children’s literature editor. So production cost is high. These are some of the reasons people are keeping away from writing for children. Getting these four new works out was no mean task. But Mazariyya Books Limited the firm that brought out my books is committed to promoting good quality children’s literature and it is not surprising that it has invested millions of naira into the venture.
Beyond workshops and talks how do you think the challenges in the children literature genre can be handled?
Workshops are some of the means of handling the challenges of writing for children. But beyond workshop talks, reading is yet another means. I encourage upcoming writers of children’s literature to read very good children’s literature. And there are many of them out there.