"I will give ANA more visibility" - Hyancinth

Hyacinth Obunseh, award-winning writer, publisher and Assistant General Secretary of Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, is preparing to vie for the position of General Secretary of the association in the forthcoming election in November at its Annual International Conference in Minna. Here he speaks to SUMAILA UMAISHA about his ambition and other related matters.

NNW: Your brief biography.
Hyacinth Obunseh: I was born about 43 years ago, in Lagos. I did my primary school there, before leaving for Baptist High School, Ilaro, Ogun State, then Ibru College, Agbara Otor, Delta State and finished in Government College, Ugelli, Delta State. I attended Auchi Polytechnic, Auhi, Edo State. I read Office Management and graduated in 199. I started Hybun publications international in 1998.
How did you become a writer?
I had always liked reading and then writing. Though I was a science student in secondary school, my passion for the arts saw me change after I did not make my WAEC exams the first time. I switched to arts. Attending an old boys meeting, long after we left school, the idea of a class magazine came up, and I submitted about seven articles to the then editor, Richard Mammah (who incidentally introduced me to publishing) and the class immediately made me a member of the editorial board. I have not looked back since then, seeing that I wrote my first book, Valley of Decision, which won the ANA/Matatu Prize in 1998 and shortlisted for the West African Young Writers Prize 1999.
You are also a publisher; how did you get into this business?
I came in contact with publishing through my meeting with an old classmate, Richard Mammah, who then ran Mace Books. I was restless, and felt unfulfilled working in my late father’s firm, until that chance meeting with Richard. He employed me. His publishing company being small, then he couldn’t pay me and the other staff so much, but I felt so much fulfillment and joy from the work that when he decided to move on to other fields of endeavour, I chose to start off my own publishing outfit. Today, there is still not much money in publishing, but I derive my satisfaction from seeing the joy in my authors’ faces and voices as they behold what I had done with the manuscript they give me to make into a book.
How would you describe the publishing climate in Nigeria?
Nmm… The climate here is quite harsh! Here, one man is practically everything, or almost so, if he wants to break even. Besides, there is really not much publishing going on here. It’s the memoirs of retired generals, politicians and academic texts that get published these days, because publishers want the fastest means to recoup their investments. People are not buying books to read in leisure time (assuming they still have that), nobody buys books to give out as seasons’ gifts, and when the few who know the value of books do so, it is thrown back at them. The banks will not lend you money to publish a book, the writers are not well remunerated to write, the government is not interested in the industry, cost of importing paper is so high, it is killing the industry! I could spend a whole day talking about this and we would still not have touched on every aspect of the situation here.
How is your publishing outfit trying to help out in this regard?
Hybun is a very writer-friendly outfit that has continued to encourage writers to keep writing, even in the midst of the seeming gloom. We find time to spend quality time with them, talking about their experiences and their writings, reading their manuscripts for them, introducing them to cheap and good editors, reading and advising on their work, and of course giving them easy payment terms when they are ready to publish.
Your tenure as the Asst. General Secretary of ANA is ending in November. How would you assess your tenure - the challenges and achievements?
Ah! It is two years already! How time flies! It’s been a very wonderful experience working very closely with the General Secretary and president of ANA these past years. I started off my tenure as Assistant General Secretary from Lagos. There, I was far from my supervisors and found it a bit difficult getting across to them and have the needs of the national secretariat, which is still in Lagos, met. In spite of this though, it has been a very pleasant and wonderful experience, full of achievements. I can beat my chest with every sincerity and say, yes, I am proud to have been a part of the Okediran/Denja administration, which has taken ANA closer to the realisation of the dreams of ANA’s founding fathers (Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, JP Clark, Mabel Segun, Labo Yari, etc). Today, it is with pride that writers say they belong to ANA. I am proud to have done something to bring this about.
It is being speculated that you are nursing the ambition to vie for the post of General Secretary in the coming election in November. How true is this?
Nature abhors a vacuum. Come Oct./Nov. 2009, the Okediran/Denja administration will come to an end and a new leadership will continue from where they stopped. I look forward to being a part of that new leadership. I look forward to being elected to the high and esteemed position of ANA National General Secretary.
What are your aims of vying for the position?
Of course, whatever aims I have now at the back of my mind in seeking to lead ANA will have to be fine-tuned in line with the dreams and visions of the president and national executive council I will be working with. Be that as it may, I have a vision to give ANA even more visibility. I will give ANA more visibility, secure a suitable secretariat accommodation for the association, publish more young writers, empower the branches to serve members even better and continue this out-going exco’s programme of manpower development. Depending on what the ANA land situation is when we come on board, it will certainly be worthwhile to have our names as the exco that built the much talked about Writers Village. Yes, we will work in that direction too.
What would be your major focus as the Gen. Sec. in terms of developing ANA?
My major focus? Manpower development. A good and suitable secretariat for ANA!
What is your level of preparation so far in terms of campaigns for the position?
Well, in terms of campaign, I will say I am forty percent ready for the election, just now and keep pushing on. I will continue to push until I am one hundred and twenty percent ready, by October 29th. I have continued to reach out to voters, selling my candidacy to them, on the net, by phone and elsewhere.
Why do you think you are going to win?
I do not see the election in terms of who wins or who loses. I see it rather as an assignment. A national assignment. In the end, whoever gets into the ANA secretariat will be there to serve. On my part, I have served my branch in Lagos, for about four years, in various capacities. It was a bit difficult for them releasing me to go for national assignment at the time I was leaving, but I insisted that it was time to move on to another stage, having served for so long. I served under Prof. Olu Obafemi as Natoinal Public Relations Officer, South and then under Dr. Wale Okediran as National Assistant General Secretary. I run a most viable and writer-friendly publishing outfit in the country today that has been said in several quarters to be the song of the season. I am in very close touch with the literary community which I have continued to serve, to the best of my ability. I have enjoyed a very close and cordial relationship with the General Secretary who is outgoing, at this time. I have not hesitated at any time to present myself for service to the association in all this time. All these are experiences that I will be carrying to my new office, if elected in October.

(c) Interviewed by Sumaila Umaisha & published in the New Nigerian.

Female authors are the masters of literature in Northern Nigeria

Maryam Ali Ali, Financial Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, could be described as a literary activist not just for being a regular face in literary events, but for her views on literature, particularly female writing, as revealed in this interview with Sumaila Umaisha.

NNW:

Tell us about yourself.
Maryam Ali Ali: I am a teacher by profession, a mother, a writer, and currently lecturing with Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso, Kano.
When and how did you start writing?
I started writing very early in life. Maybe because I grew up with the quest to read, I read anything readable, even the newspaper used to wrap akara. From there I started writing. But I once wrote an assignment that so much impressed my teacher then that he gave me a very good mark, that was my motivation, that very big right mark across the page of my exercise book and the comment that followed it, saying excellent; that was what started it all.
What inspired you into writing?
Emotions – happiness, sadness, anger, and so on.
What’s your novel, The Faces of Naira all about?
It’s about being steadfast in doing good, and not hankering madly after material wealth through any dubious means. The novel was originally written in Hausa and published in 1997, then I translated it into the English language and was published in 2006, with the same title in English.
How would you describe the Northern literary scene with particular reference to women writing?
Northern female authors are the masters of literature now in the North, especially in the indigenous language. So I encourage them to keep writing and let them try to improve themselves, both their capacity as authors and the quality of their publication too, since the world has since passed the stage of typographical errors. They should also imbibe the culture of editing, proof reading and criticism of their works before publication, that will certainly enrich them and improve the quality of their works.
You have been very active in writers’ associations and have often spoken out against some societal practices or government policies you perceive as inimical to writers and women generally. What challenges have you been facing as a result of your activism, considering the fact that you are a woman and you are from the North?
Well, everything in life has challenges. One faces a challenge even crossing the street. And being a woman and at the same time being in the north, could be seen as a double challenge. But I think it’s sheer propaganda to say that women in the north are not vocal. To my understanding, northern women have always been speaking out against what they consider or perceive as an act of injustice. It has not been easy though, I have received a couple of threats through text messages, but I pray over it since Allah SWT is the Best Protector, and the Best Refuge.
Kano State Censors Board has been at loggerheads with writers. What is the main bone of contention and how do you think the issue could be resolved?
We are already looking forward to a working relationship with the Kano State Government on this issue. The National President of the Association of Nigerian Authors and some of the national and state Exco members have already met with the deputy governor of Kano State. They met also with the Director General of the Censorship Board, and discussed extensively on the issue of the enforced registration of writers as well as on censoring their works. The deputy governor has already given us his word that the state government, in collaboration with the Censors Board, will organize a workshop for writers. We hope it will materialize.
Do you see the rise of the Hausa film industry in the North as a treat to literary development?
No, I don’t. Readers are still reading more than ever before, and writers are also writing more, so I don’t really see the rise of the film industry as a treat, since film and literature are not on the same pedestal.
There was effort by you and some women writers to found Nigerian women writers’ association. What is the aim behind this move and how far?
Founding Nigerian Women Writers Association was based on giving the Nigerian female writer an edge in a field dominated by men, and to give moral and psychological support to women writers in Nigeria in terms of publication.
What is your advice to fellow women writers?
My advice to them is to keep writing, and wring on issues that will promote the spiritual and educational development of the people.

(c) Interviewed by Sumaila Umaisha & published in the New Nigerian.

Osonye Tess Onwueme: Staging Women, Youth, Globalization, and Eco-literature

An international conference tagged "Osonye Tess Onwueme: Staging Women, Youth, Globalization, and Eco-literature" holds at the University of Abuja, Nigeria, from November 11 – 14, 2009.
The conference focuses centrally on Tess Onwueme as a playwright, scholar, activist, and producer whose works explore a wide range of social, political, historical, cultural and environmental concerns of Nigerians, specifically, women, youth, and people of the Niger Delta, as well as Africans on the continent and in the African diaspora.
Here are some comment about her by some literary critics:
"Tess Onwueme’s drama is a spellbinding theatre work! It is written as if Dr. Onwueme is composing a symphonic work... Along with her other masterwork, What Mama Said and The Missing Face place Tess Onwueme in the ranks of Wole Soyinka, Athol Fugard, and Derek Walcott." — Woodie King, Jr., Producing Director, 2001 international premiere of The Missing Face the New Federal Theatre in New York City.
"Onwueme’s plays not only bring the range and beauty of Nigerian culture to an international audience, they create the artistic bridges crucial to the development of a multicultural educational environment. Her work speaks to the studies of gender, race, class, and cultural difference. . . ." — Prof. K. Kendall, former Chair of Theatre, Smith College, Northampton, MA USA, 1991.
". . . Ibsen of her culture, the playwright who dares to raise new issues." — Daniela Giosefi, American Book Award Winner, 1990.
Osonye Tess Onwueme, distinguished Professor of Cultural Diversity and English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, is currently one of the best known and most prolific women playwrights of African descent . She is a winner of several international awards, including a Ford Foundation research award. She was recently appointed to the US State Department Public Diplomacy Specialist/Speaker Program for North, West, and East India.
Onwueme has been compared to Nigerian dramatist Zulu Sofola, Femi Osofisan, and Wole Soyinka in her use of Nigerian performance structures and commitment to exploring the socio-political issues that affect the lives of the struggling masses, women, and youths in the global community today.
An intellectual of outstanding influence and an advocate for the environment, women and children’s rights on the African continent and in the African Diaspora, Onwueme uses her rich and culturally nuanced dramas to also interrogate the relationship among Africans across the African diaspora, exploring such themes as the impact of slavery and migration on Africans across the Atlantic in the Missing Face and the implications of a Pan-African movement in Riot in Heaven. Her works speak to the impact of globalization and the presence of multi-national corporations on national economies, the rural and urban environments, and the lives of those displaced by such structures. Thus, her plays become the sites for dramatizing the unresolved ecological, historical, and socio-political tensions which plague post-colonial nations in Africa and globally.
In over two decades, Osonye Tess Onwueme has published over fifteen works including such influential plays as What Mama Said (2003), Tell It to Women (1997), The Missing Face (2002) and Riot in Heaven (2006), Shakara (2006) to mention a few that have received international performances. According to Ngugi wa Thiongo, Onwueme is "eminently a political dramatist . . . . Her drama and theatre are a feast of music, dance, mime, proverbs, and story-telling." Tanure Ojaide observes that she is the "most prolific and outstanding female dramatist of the new generation of African writers."
As a writer who defines herself as pan-Africanist, Onwueme often creates plays which challenge her audiences and readers to critically investigate issues often neglected in the dramas of so many of her peers and predecessors. As Nina Adams asserts, "Through the voices of women, in Shakara and her other plays, Onwueme draws out universal themes of conflict––between rich and poor, modern and traditional–– and the conflict of the inner-self is a recurring motif." — BBC On Air, The BBC’s World Service International Magazine, Sept. 2004.
The conference organisers encourage individual paper and panel proposals which address various aspects of Onwueme’s works, including, but not limited to, those delineated above. Below are additional possible suggestions of broad topics: Feminist theories and the drama of Osonye Tess Onwueme, Onwueme in dialogue with the African Diaspora, Onwueme, activism and iconoclasm, Women, nation and the post-nation in Africa and across the Atlantic, Women, gender, and power, Onwueme and the Nigerian Niger Delta, Onwueme, drama and oil politics, Onwueme and eco-politics/literature, Onwueme and performance/production, Postcoloniality and survival, Urbanity and the nation, Politics and the Youth, Mothering and modernity in Onwueme’s drama, Culture, tradition and the nation in Onwueme’s drama, Language and aesthetics in Onwueme’s drama, Onwueme: interrogating globalization, Onwueme’s drama as dance, and Teaching Tess Onwueme’s plays.
Abstracts and panel proposals should be sent to:
Professor Maureen Ngozi Eke (Central Michigan University, USA) eke1mn@cmich.edu; maureen.eke@cmich.edu and Professor Onookome Okome (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) ookome@ualberta.ca
The conference is hosted by the Vice Chancellor University of Abuja, F C T, Nigeria.
Co-conveners:
Professor Oty Agbajoh-Laoye (Monmouth University, USA) olaoye@monmouth.edu, Professor Mabel Evwierhoma (University of Abuja, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria) mabtobrhoma2002@yahoo.com, Professor Irene Salami (University of Jos, Nigeria) irenesalami@yahoo.com, Dr Chinyelu Ojukwu (University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria) chinyeluojukwu@yahoo.com, and Nduka Otiono (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) otiono@ualberta.ca.
International Organizing Committee:
Prof. Kanika Batra (Texas Technological University, USA/New Delhi University) kanika.batra@ttu.edu, Prof. Becky Becker (Columbus State University, USA) becker_becky@colstate.edu, Prof. Sonia Darlington (Beloit College, USA) darling@beloit.edu, and Steve Daniel (Director of Theater, ABU, Zaria, Nigeria) ogastevedaniel@yahoo.com

Picture:

*Prof Tess Onwueme (left) and Prof Maureen Eke, convener of the Abuja conference on Tess' work.