How do you feel when Songs for Myself: Quartet made the shortlist, considering that this is about the only literary prize you haven’t won yet in Africa?
You must feel elated that the work was acknowledge among the best poetry books published in the past four years. So, I was happy.
Songs of Myself: Quartet explores paradoxes in contemporary times. How did the socio-political trajectory in Nigeria influence this volume?
First of all, I have to explain that the idea of Songs of Myself is based on the oral tradition in which the singer or minstrel sings about himself or criticises himself before criticising the rest of the society. And that’s what I set out to do here. So, really, that sometimes we tend to put all the blames in our lives on our leaders, but we ourselves are also responsible. So, I created a persona, which is marginally myself, not fully myself. But myself is like everybody and then I went to criticise the society and the humanity. In fact, part of it is Niger Delta itself. We often criticise the multinational oil companies, the federal government, but we are partly responsible for the environmental degradation. Also, the money we get from the oil, the 13 percent, what have we done with it. So, this is a little different from some of my earlier works.
I was about to come to that, because your earlier works were more of a mytho-poetic orientation. So, how different is this from your previous works?
This is different in many ways –you know I have been evolving over the years. There was a time I was interested in socio-political issues –the fate of vulture type of poetry. But, as you get older, you begin to look at humanity and life. So, much as I talk about myself in this volume, I am talking about humanity in general. I talk about the Niger Delta society and Nigerian politics; I also talk about human nature. So, it’s different. This is not just about environmental degradation or socio-political issues in Nigeria; but this is about human nature, so to say. But the fact that sometimes before we criticise others, we have to also purge ourselves of our own weaknesses. We can’t just be blaming others for our own weaknesses when sometimes we are part of the problem.
You seem to have de-emphasised the Udje poetic tradition, which have become your trademark, in this volume…
The model I am looking at is Udje in a way, even though the poems are not Udje-like. The formula is this idea that before you criticise others, first criticise or ridicule yourself. It is still part of Udje, and it is part of self-exultation which I talk about myself and so forth. But, basically, anything which has to do with satire, the exploration of human nature can be tied to Udje in a way, this is a modern way, unlike in the traditional sense of it.
I noticed the poems are rendered in couplets, but you subtitled your book as quartet. Can you explain more on this?
I used quartet here to qualify the four sections of the book. The book is written in rhyming couplets. The four major are “Pulling the Threads of the Loom” (in which I created the persona of a sage, where an old person is talking), “Songs of Myself” (in which I created a persona to laugh at myself) and “Songs of the Homeland Warrior” (where I am question myself; you know I have been defending the Niger Delta) and “Secret Love and Other Poems”. In style, the poems are really written in couplets. There is a sense of unity, so to say, because everything is written in couplets.
The minstrel features once again in this poetry volume. What is it about the minstrel that lends itself to extravagance in your bardic projects?
The minstrel is the persona of the poet. So, when I use minstrel, I mean everybody. I am the writer. When I use “I”, it doesn’t necessarily mean me. That’s why I created the persona of the minstrel, because there are certain things I will say and people will ascribe them to me. So, I could take the character of as drunkard and different types of characters prevalent in the society. I am trying to reveal something about the society by criticising these people, so the minstrel is a useful persona to embody myself and everybody in the society, so to say.
I noticed the melding of Pidgin English with English language in some of the poems. Aren’t you afraid it might not get across well to a typical foreign audience because a work travels?
You will be surprised that PhD works have been done on my poetry of all places like Baghdad, Iraq; Cairo, Egypt; Italy, even from Argentina, and of, course, the US. I don’t think the pidgin obstructs comprehension at all. In fact, when I read Derek Walcott, I come across patois poems, but you don’t need to understand fully –the meaning comes up. For instance, you will know the idea in We dey chop akara dey go if moimoi no dey// Shell dey build boreholes… By the way, poems like this have worked well when I read in Nigerian and abroad. For some reasons, they understand it. So, I don’t think pidgin constitutes a problem. And I use pidgin sparingly. By the way, the word “pickin” originates from the Caribbean. If you read Caribbean literature, you will that “pickin” also means “child”. Also, Brazilians, Cubans and Jamaicans also know akara.
What are your plans if you win the $100,000 prize money?
I will continue to live my simple life. Besides, I am always thinking of two things. One could have a small foundation, and one of the objectives will be to promote arts. As a more elderly writer, I know what younger writers are going through now –we didn’t go through those things during our time. So, we could do more to make them know more the value of paying attention to their works considering the distractions of social media. I am mentoring so many already from Nigeria to Ghana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. We can make that more formal with a small foundation. What I can do more effectively is to assist brilliant, indigent undergraduates, irrespective of where they come.