Lack of access to promotion undermining Nigeria’s creative writing industry ―Kekeghe, 2021 ANA Prize for Poetry joint winner

Stephen Kekeghe is a poet, playwright and literary critic, who teaches African Literature, the Medical Humanities and Creative Writing in the Department of English, Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo. In this interview by IFEDAYO OGUNYEMI, he bares his mind on being the joint winner of the 2021 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Poetry and other issues affecting the Nigerian creative writing industry.

With ‘Rumbling Sky’, you emerged joint winner of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Poetry, 2021. What does this recognition mean to you?

It was a motivation to me because as a writer, what inspires my writing is visibility. I wanted my works to be visible and to be read by a good number of audiences across the world. I was motivated by that prize and it is an attestation that the little imaginative efforts that I’ve been producing over the years are good. As an emerging writer, this kind of recognition makes you established. This prize is an attestation that I am an established writer.

Apart from Rumbling Sky and Pond of Leeches, which other literary works have you done?

I have poems that have been featured in anthologies. In 2012, my work was the only Nigerian entry in Words Without Borders, an international magazine for literature. The magazine was on the theme of oil and they wanted to know how issues of soil and gas are represented in literature the world over. Different Nigerian writers wrote and mine was the best. The title of the poem was ‘When Can We Be Sane?’ I also have other poems on online platforms like Poem Hunters. I started publishing there in 2011. Recently, two of my poems were featured in Sorosoke: An EndSARS Anthology. There is another book on #EndSARS edited by my friends in Canada, two of my poems were also featured in that book. I have been writing, in isolation, and publishing in collections but these are my full-fledge works. I also have one that should be in the press before the end of this year called Charred Remains and Renewals.

Talking about Rumbling Sky, what theme is it based on?

I tried to portray some revolutionary pressures. I believe that as a writer, there is the need to engage some socialist consciousness. The idea of a sky rumbling is a metaphor for revolution. The resultant effect of a rumbling sky is rainfall. Looking at the book, you will see the aridity of the land and the dryness. I used this metaphor to portray the socio-political landscape and realities of the country and the psychophysical realities of trauma depreciation, economic depreciation and recession.

When you look critically, you will see two green plants and that is the image of hope. If the rain pours on this land, it will moisturise the land and more green plants will sprout up. That is the message of hope but that hope will not come easily. The messages are confrontational messages that expose the ills of the society from the domestic to socio-political space.

What would say about the claim that a US author named the agitation against police brutality in Nigeria ‘SoroSoke’, particularly considering that you and some Nigeria authors have written something about SoroSoke?

In a way, that controversy gives this book (done by Nigerians) a market. In the neoclassical stage, attack and rejoinder help to market creative products. We also have it in the music industry. I tried to follow the conversation and I must say that there is this Eurocentric belief we have and we cannot transcend it. Anything that is produced by people from the Global North has a big market. That is why, as a scholar, I want my works to be read in the Global North just like the Global South. I don’t know which of the two works came first because this had an online version before it was printed but that other one seems to be well promoted and it is a good market for this book. We can even study those two words and look at the angles of the different writers.

Would you agree that she coined the word ‘SoroSoke’ as claimed?

No, SoroSoke was a social invention during the #EndSARS protests. It was invented by the protesters in the streets. It is a Yoruba term which means ‘speak up’. That concept couldn’t have been invented by a white person. It is strictly indigenous. I believe she got it from that movement just like our writers here but I do not know who got it first.

Talking about eurocentrism and the disparity between contents from the global south and the western world, what would be your assessment of the Nigerian literary industries?

The industry is a big industry but we seem to privilege the popular culture like singing, filming etc. more than the creative writing industry; it is the same industry. I will attribute that to the low reading culture in the 21st century. You hear comedy and music while doing other things but for books, you have to devote time and attention to it to produce or consume it. That is what I think makes it trail behind other forms in the creative industry in Nigeria.

Apart from the NLNG prize which appears to be the biggest in Nigeria, there is not enough money in terms of the promotion of writers in Nigeria. I have not received any grants to publish my works. That is why I argue that with people who claim the generation of Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe is the best generation in terms of writing. That is a lie. They had access to publishers and promotion strategists but this new generation is struggling with economic recession and then they still create time to imagine situations and write creatively. I know people who have written really good works but don’t have access to publishers. The present crop of publishers will ask you for money to publish for you. Bookcraft is re-running Soyinka’s books but Kekeghe doesn’t have a big name yet and they won’t publish. And yes, Soyinka is a big name, I just bought four of his books. So, it is not that the new crops of writers do not write as good as them or better but they don’t have access to what the Soyinka’s enjoyed back then. But in the Global North, you are a star and you enjoy the stardom.

I have come to realise that most of the good Nigerian writers we have in this generation are in a way attached to the Global North including JP Clarke, Niyi Osundare, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie who is our star now. They enjoy the promotion. But for us, nothing comes from writing, while we hope that people read and teach our works.

You have created a grim situation of the system, but what can be done to remedy this situation?

The very first thing to be done is to have a responsive and responsible leadership that will make the society work. When there is that, you won’t struggle to feed. A society where when you are done, there is a job for and you won’t have the recourse to engage in internet fraud or ritual practices. In that society, you campaign not because of how much you have and decent people will takeover. The power will return to the people and people will see reason to it.

In what ways does your recognition help you to motivate your students in the classroom?

I have been doing that over time from all sectors that I have taught. And I believe that my students are proud that a celebrated writer teaches them. Some of them have come to tell me. And we benefit from the kind on interactions that we have in the classroom that do not bother on conventional knowledge but realities so that they can be able to surmount challenges out there. My recognition inspires them to do more for themselves. Some of them have sent their manuscripts to me for editing. I have also set up a Creative Writers Club in the department. I intend to publish a journal for students for their short stories, poem, plays, playlets. We are harvesting great works from them.