A dance between fact and fiction

Preference for either fictional or non-fictional books is perhaps uncommon amongst authors and readers. This verdict is perhaps obvious from the works these authors write. Obsessed with the freedom to imagine, Saddiq Dzukogi believes fiction allows him to imagine the unimaginable. “It gives me the liberty to blend my imagination with my thoughts and experiences,” […]

Preference for either fictional or non-fictional books is perhaps uncommon amongst authors and readers. This verdict is perhaps obvious from the works these authors write. Obsessed with the freedom to imagine, Saddiq Dzukogi believes fiction allows him to imagine the unimaginable. “It gives me the liberty to blend my imagination with my thoughts and experiences,” he says. In his recently released collection of poetry, Sunbeams and Shadows he packs 86 poems which could be tagged as 86 pieces of emotion. Surely, he had the freedom to pour out his heart in 86 places.
For some, the distinction is simply not clear. “There’s no true fact. Most of what we write contains elements of fiction with the understanding that all we read is actually fiction. The conversations we have are contextualized for the reader. And you will not be lying because the reader needs it,” explains Odoh Diego Okenyodo, author of ‘A Poem to its Creator’ shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2009. “The only fact I would trust is a transcript or a written speech. However, reporting these changes it. I have read lots of biographies that end up being fictionalized to make the subject a hero or heroine. For example, I met Dora Akunyili shortly after she was shot at and saw her visibly shaken. Now she is dead and I pray the narrative captures that as a human being who was momentarily shaken but was bold enough to continue.
“In Wole Soyinka’s book about his childhood years, what we end up seeing is an adult trying to make sense of that period for the reader. So, the so-called non-fiction is fiction largely dependent on actual events. Bias and editorial intervention also shape out what comes out as non-fiction. Also, when the writer tries to reproduce conversation, how are we sure he or she reproduces the exact words? In effect, the non-fiction doesn’t exist. No 500-page book can impersonate 30 years of life.” 
In a bid to record happenings in literature where violence becomes the order of the day and a non-fictional work paints the gory details, like Vershima Orvell Dio, author of the collection of poetry ‘Silent Night’, certain people may cringe. “Knowing very well that it actually happened does that to me. But when I know it is fiction, it makes it easier to bear,” Dio sighs.     
Corroborating the words of Okenyodo, Denja Abdullahi, a playwright, points out the ties between fiction and non-fiction. “I prefer a combination of both because nothing is totally factual. My literary drive has always been a mix of the two,” the author of ‘Death and the Kings Grey Hair and other plays’ says. 
While this conversation continues, writers and readers have formed an unofficial alliance that at the end results in one drawing out a bunch of letters and the other feasting ravenously, whether fiction or non-fiction.