‘In oral cultures, literature is code for living’

Bookshelf: Your work, ‘Iredi War’, launched recently, won the coveted 2014 LNG Nigeria Prize for literature. Did you see that coming?Sam Ukala: I wrote it specifically for the competition and prayed and hoped it would win. My entries for competitions had won in the past. For example, ‘Akpakaland’, which won the ANA/British Council Prize for […]

Bookshelf: Your work, ‘Iredi War’, launched recently, won the coveted 2014 LNG Nigeria Prize for literature. Did you see that coming?
Sam Ukala: I wrote it specifically for the competition and prayed and hoped it would win. My entries for competitions had won in the past. For example, ‘Akpakaland’, which won the ANA/British Council Prize for Drama in 1989, and ‘Skeletons’, which won the ANA/Ken Saro-Wiwa Prize for Prose in 2000. Yet I knew that the stakes for the Nigeria Prize for Literature were higher and the competition would be keener. It was my very first time entering for it hence, I prayed and hoped on God to make this possible.
Bookshelf: What is ‘Iredi War’ all about?
Ukala: It’s about the 1906 uprising of the people of Owa Kingdom, currently in Ika North-East
Local Government Area of Delta State of Nigeria, against British oppressive colonial rule, as championed by the Assistant District Commissioner O.S. Crewe-Read, whom the Owa called Iredi.
Bookshelf: What prompted such a theme?
Ukala: The subject matter suggested itself to me because it deals with the central idea  of leadership, which I have explored in a number of my earlier plays, and which has become more demanding of re-exploration because of the growing indices of poor leadership in Nigeria at this time.
Bookshelf: Why did you choose to write it as a play?
Ukala: In oral cultures, literature, especially verbal/performed art, is the law, the code for living, and the tool for socialization. It’s also the relaxer, entertainer and re-activator of tired bodies and minds after the day’s work. Creative literature has or will have similar significance in a conducive environment. In our times, drama in performance is surer to have the kind of impact that performed art has in oral cultures. This is because of its immediacy – capacity to appeal directly to the head and to the heart at once – and the mode of its presentation through living bodies, voices, sounds and spectacle. Performed poetry, if not obscure, is next to drama in this. In the literary history of the world, especially the Third World, plays and performances have been more frequently banned than the other creative genres because of their greater communicative potential, which tyrannical governments consider subversive or inciting. Hubert Ogunde’s ‘Yoruba Ronu’ and ‘Ngaahika Ndenda’ (I Will Marry When I Want), 1977, by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ngugi wa Mirii, which caused the detention of Ngugi in Kenya for a year without trial, are quick examples. The difference between drama and prose fiction as far as impact on the public is concerned can be exemplified thus: Eddie Ugbomah’s motion picture, “The Great Attempt”, was banned in Nigeria in 1989, soon after its release, but an adaptation of it into a novel with the same title by Hyginus Ekwuazi, published the same year, was and is still distributed and read without hindrance. That demonstrates that drama has the capacity to prick consciences in a manner that cannot be ignored, like a needle in a sore, hence my choice to represent this work in a play.
Bookshelf: What is your preferred type of writing and why?
Ukala: I do four main types of writing: scholarly – critical, exegetical, theoretical – writing; religious writing – mainly sermons; creative writing – stage plays, film scripts, prose fiction and poetry; and general writing, especially public lectures on various subjects. Which do I prefer among these? That depends on the context, the need at the time. I do general writing for community service, scholarly writing in order to earn a living as well as make necessary impact as a university teacher, critic and theorist. I write sermons in order to preach the Gospel and, if it pleases God, contribute my little quota towards the edification of minds and the salvation of souls. I do creative writing because I feel a compulsion to express my thoughts, through entertainment – thoughts on the history, concerns and aspirations of my people, the Nigerian and the African people. If you restrict me to my preferred type of creative writing, I would say it’s drama because of its immediacy, which I earlier explained, and the fact that I’m a trained dramatist, a professor of Theatre Arts and Drama. If I don’t do drama, who would?
Bookshelf: What hurdles did you encounter piecing the work together?
Ukala: The usual hurdles encountered by anyone writing a historical play – research, adaptation, and fleshing out a short piece of history into a full length play. For example, the two documented historical accounts that I saw were 6 pages each, but I fleshed the account into a 90-page play. In doing so, which is the adaptation that I aforementioned, I needed to create many more characters than were named in the historical accounts, to give each character a speech whenever he or she appeared, to devise means of differentiating one from another, and so on.  
Bookshelf: How did you start-off writing, in general?
Ukala: I started writing while a student of Ika Grammar School, Agbor, Delta State. I gained the  recognition of staff and students as a poet before my fourth year. In fact, my Principal, Mr. Eyo Ita (now popularly known as Eskor Toyo) after he read one of my poems, created ‘Poet’s Corner’ on the school’s notice board and encouraged me to post a poem there every Monday and instructed everyone to visit the Poet’s Corner immediately after morning assembly before going to the staff room or classrooms. I wrote my first published work, ‘The Slave Wife’, a play some now describe as a ‘classic’, in my first undergraduate year at the Department of English, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and it was published by the then Oxford University Press. Now University Press Plc, Ibadan.
Bookshelf: What challenges did you encounter in your development as a writer?
Ukala:  None that was daunting. God, in His mercies, endowed me with the talent. I didn’t really  have an opportunity to do Creative Writing as a course in my undergraduate days at UNN. At the Master’s level at UI, I registered for Play Writing taught by the then Dr. Mrs. Zulu Sofola. But, at that time, I already had a play published by University Press Limited, which was ‘The Slave Wife’. In the first Play Writing class we had in Zulu Sofola’s office, she asked us to introduce ourselves. As soon as I mentioned my name, she went to her bookshelf and extracted a copy of The Slave Wife. “Are you the same Sam Ukala, who wrote this play?” Very shyly, I answered, “Yes, ma.” The class further embarrassed me by applauding. Then Zulu Sofola capped it all by saying, “Ah! I can’t teach you-o. I read the manuscript of this play for UPL and told them it was a great play, which they should publish immediately. I’m not even sure my own published plays are as good as this. How can you now come and sit in front of me, expecting me to teach you Play Writing? You should leave my class-o.” Fortunately, she noticed I was beginning to sweat profusely and my legs were about to give way. Then she added, “Well, you may stay on. But better come and sit with me behind this table and let’s teach this class together!” Yet, it wasn’t just my talent that did it all. I read avidly and acted in plays of Wole Soyinka and J.C de Graft. I also read avidly plays of Ola Rotimi, Efua Sutherland and others. Each time I read or acted, I paid keen attention to writing technique – plotting, the use of language, characterization, conflict development, the difference between the form of drama and that of prose fiction, etc. That was indeed my initial training. It combined with my talent to make my development less challenging.     
Bookshelf: Where lays the strength of any play?
Ukala: In its matter and manner, content and style of expression, thematic and aesthetic values. In other words, the strength of a play does not lie only in one of its elements, but in a good and effective combination of all.  
Bookshelf: What rules or guidelines followed, do you think, may make for a successful play?
Ukala: Seek or create an interesting story that would be relevant to your society, by which you can communicate your thoughts, and narrate it the best way you can, deploying suitable dramatic techniques.
Bookshelf: What do you think about the growth of play writing in Nigeria?
Ukala: I think it’s tremendous, possibly because of the impact of Nollywood and prizes such as the Nigeria Prize for Literature, ANA Drama Prize, Wole Soyinka Prize, which frequently challenge people to hone their skills. As judges of drama have found, there’s a lot that’s not worth their salt, but there’s a great general improvement on standards. As one who has been a judge in a number of drama competitions, I know that there were times when not a single entry deserved the prize. But now, we are at the stage where judges have many good entries and have to meticulously study to select the winner.
Bookshelf: What fresh stories are bubbling up, both in your mind and on paper at the moment?
Ukala: There are many titles of plays and novels in my head, but my priority now is the adaptation of Iredi War into a film.  
Bookshelf: What advice would you give to a struggling playwright?
Ukala:   If one is struggling too hard and making no progress at all, it might be time to realize that the talent to write plays isn’t there. He or she could try writing prose fiction, poetry, biography, criticism, or even quit writing entirely, and go back within to identify that talent. People bash their heads against the wall when there’s no door there for them.