By Damiete Braide
F.F. Ifowodo studied English and Literature at the University of Benin, and has been writing textbooks for secondary schools. Some of the textbooks include Functional English, Comtemporary English, Advanced Course in Essay and Letter Writing, a handbook for study skills. But, feeling very strongly about certain national issues, he dived into fiction to reach out to more people in the society. He is the author of the fiction, Farewell to Eldorado.
“Eldorado is not my first work of fiction, but it is the first published work,” he said in an interview. Ifowodo encountered some lull along the line in his literary career before returning to his first love.
He explained, “It’s just like the the proverbial man of God who refused to do the work of God but later found out that, except he followed the path of destiny, he would amount to nothing, I retraced my steps. For me, the circumstances were not encouraging: difficulty in getting published, poor patronage because of the read ing culture. And the question was: can one earn a liv ing from writing? All contributed to my late outing as a writer. But, now, I know better.”
What prompted him to write Farewell to Eldorado? He admitted he was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “Eldorado”, Golding’s Lord of Flies to write Farewell to Eldorado. He explained, “The novel is about activities in a refugee camp that was later elevated to a refugee settlement, and the people that constituted the refugee camp are human traffickers, drug barons, fugitives, seekers of greener pastures, cartel of prostitutes, refugees from poor countries who are trapped in a refugee camp be cause they are unable to cross to Europe.
“Now, these refugees have constituted a menace to Europe and the world at large. The victims of human trafficking were deceived, having been promised jobs in Europe, the human traffickers also produced fake documents to get people across but they cannot cross to Eu rope. The human traffickers and the bad governments paved way for the illegal migration. It necessitated the creation of refugee settlement. So the United Nations created a refugee settlement where everybody is given a fresh start.
“Ironically, they fail to govern themselves; they replicated what has been going on in their various countries. Failure of leadership of the youth. Failure of governance. In addition, the happiness they were seeking, they could not find even in the land flowing with milk and honey.”
The author hinted that what the youth were accusing the leaders of was also inherent in them: “failure of Leadership. I believe you can’t solve the issue of refugee crisis by building refugee settlements. That there is no Eldorado anywhere. The failure of the world at solving the crisis of refugees, solving economic and political is sues.”
The author isn’t profering any solution, for it’s not for writers to give solution to societal problems. He is only writing to “generate discussion on the issue of human trafficking and refugee crisis while pointing out some contradictions, irony and futile attempts at solving is sues. We write to present the scenario, to paint the picture the way we see it.”
Apart from the inspiration he got from Edgar Allen Poe, what are the circumstances that provided the material for the story? He replied, “Of course, the exodus of youth embarking on illegal migration, going through dangerous routes to reach Europe.The lies that the human traffickers are spewing to the uninformed minds. The political and economic crises across African countries. All prompted me to write and alert the youth that Europe is not an Eldorado, and to expose the crisis of refugees to the appropriate quarters.”
His other works include The Writer’s Cross, The Grip of the Cartel, The Evil Merchants, Waiting for the Emperor, Out of the Fortress, and Echoes from the Park. His favourite authors include James Baldwin, Charles Dicken, Wole Soyinka, Ayi Kwei Amah, J.P Clark, William Shakepeare, William Golding, Ben Okri, George Orwell, Bernard Shaw, among others.
“Writers should be encouraged with special grants, he suggested, “and books should be subsidisied to make them affordable. It is almost impossible to sustain your self economically as a writer in Nigeria. Reading culture should be boosted to encourage writers. Reading apathy is quite discouraging.”
“The benefit of writing,” he said, “is that it has therapeutic effect on the writer. You experience some relief after completing your work. Because work of art is historical documentation of the times. As writers, they are contributing greatly to the society. For, instance, you can learn so much about the Nigeria Civil War by reading work of art that sourced their material from the back ground of the war.” Ifowodo loves writing in a quiet environment either at night or day.
As a writer, does he believe he can change society or persuade certain persons to alter their behaviour or their opinions?
He said, “We as writers, we paint or write to reflect the society or we write to sensitise, we draw attention to certain unusual or abnormalities. When you write a story of a bully who takes on little boys and torment them with punches, it is left for the reader to enjoy the bullying or to abhor it. But the writer would have done his or her part by bringing the scenario to the attention of the public.”