‘Poetry can prevent a reoccurrence of Boko Haram’
Halima M. Usman is the author of the poetry collections ‘Sunshine and Waterfall’ and ‘Spellbound’. She uses poetry as a tool for social change. He ‘Halimafactor Community Initiative,’ recently organised an arts and literature programme for internally displaced children. The programme was aimed at getting well-meaning Nigerians to sponsor the children back to school. In […]
Halima M. Usman is the author of the poetry collections ‘Sunshine and Waterfall’ and ‘Spellbound’. She uses poetry as a tool for social change. He ‘Halimafactor Community Initiative,’ recently organised an arts and literature programme for internally displaced children. The programme was aimed at getting well-meaning Nigerians to sponsor the children back to school. In this interview, she talked about the motivation behind the initiative and the challenges facing it.
Can you tell us more about your initiative to use arts and literature to help internally displaced children?
As a writer, what we do under the initiative, because most of the members of the initiative are actually writers, is basically to turn our poetry into action. After you have written, what do you do? Don’t just stop there, turn your criticism to action and find practical solutions to issues. That is why we tagged it, ‘Turning poetry to action.’
What I realized is that the ordinary Nigerian has the heart to do something and all he needs is someone to spur him. We can do it. A lot of people go to IDP camps to give gifts but the problem is that the more gifts you give, the more you demoralise someone because he feels he has nothing to give back and he can’t help himself unless you give him. So we decided to turn the tables around and ask them to give us something we can buy, something people will appreciate.
Secondly, we noticed that there was stigmatization because people are afraid because they can’t tell who is Boko Haram and who is not. On this account, the IDPs are being discriminated against. So we decided to create a means of engaging them and having them make presentations to show that they are humans and they have talents and all they need is the opportunity. That was how we came up with this idea of the Children’s Day celebration, although the tag is: ‘Voices from the Camp’ and the aim is to look for people to sponsor their education.
I have said this before, if you don’t engage the minds of people, there is nothing they can’t do. If these children are not engaged now, by the time Boko Haram is finished, we will have a new challenge on our hands because these children’s minds are warped and they have been receiving without doing anything. They will continue to wait to receive, which is why we have Boko Haram in the first place. We want them to start seeing themselves giving. And after the presentations, we gave them awards and plaques so that they will know they have been appreciated and they will go back and work on improving themselves.
How many people or organisations have supported this initiative?
Well, the moral support is more than the concrete support we were expecting. We had UNESCO, Helpline, National Orientation Agency, NTA and Women Centre, who gave us the venue for free and took care of some of the children, who came there and took ill. We also have the Abuja Literary Society,(ALS) Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and Society of Nigerian Artists (SONTA).
Your initial goal was to get people to sponsor the education of the children. Apparently this did not happen. Why?
There is an NGO, Helpline, which has agreed to help some of the children but that will be against the commencement of the 1st term in September. They are interested in getting two or three children enrolled in a public school close to the IDP camp. We are working on the modalities to see that they are enrolled in school. However, we still have challenges, which was why we decided to throw the programme wide open. If someone sponsors three children to school, what will be the impact on the whole camp? We could do it this way: either we enrol them in schools or we get a teacher or teachers to go to the camps and teach the children there. That way, more children can benefit. We are still looking for people to come forward but for now, only Helpline has stepped forward.
Why do you think the response has been slow?
I don’t know. Sometimes people want to know the credibility of what you are doing first. Or people want to be sure they know you before they get involved in your project. But even without anyone making any commitment, we went ahead to do what we had to do because we are committed to the children. We don’t want to take any money. If you want to sponsor any child, we can link you up with the school and you make payments directly to the school, buy uniform and books etc. Most of the people who withdrew their commitment did so in the last minute but we are still calling and hoping people will step forward and do something for these children.
In the art competition, 98 per cent of the art works produced had to do with people being shot, children carrying guns. This is threatening because if the only thing these children can think of are guns, killings, houses on fire, then we are in danger. The earlier we can get them to school to see the better side of life, the better for all of us.
Do you think they are using the arts as a kind of therapy from what they’ve experienced since they haven’t had any sort of counselling?
Yes, I think so because we asked them to be free to express themselves. We didn’t give them a theme to work with, we left it open. Most of the poems that came out were about ‘they killed my mother, they killed my father’. They didn’t have rhyme or structure but that was what we wanted them to let out. I have lived in Maiduguri, I knew how it happened.
When the youths can’t voice out their pain, the next thing is that they explode. So whatever they drew or wrote, it was a good way of letting things out and I am sure a lot of them went back home feeling lighter about their burdens. We also had an interactive session where dignitaries talked one-on-one with the children and we believe if we get more people to partner with us, it will go a long way in helping these children.
Many people have suggested that writers haven’t done enough for themselves and yet here you are trying to do something with the arts for other people. Do you think art has the potency to impact on the children’s lives?
Not only to impact but to change their lives positively. The power of the pen is greater than the power of bullets. In 2014 when the Chibok girls were abducted, we organised a World Poetry Day event and called people to speak about the abduction and people came out to speak.
But if beyond speaking we had gone ahead to do something, I think we would have made a difference in reshaping the whole country. Nowadays we have writers who are lazy, who don’t want to research but once an idea gets into their head, they just want to write it down and the next minute they are going to press. But if once the idea occurs to you, you take time to research; we would produce more meaningful works.
Shall we talk about your writing now? Aside from poetry what other genres of writing have you been delving into?
Lately, I have been carried away by writing for children. I have about four books in the works and if I push myself hard enough, I could come out with a novel. But for now I am focused on writing for children.
Why the emphasis on writing for children?
I have the passion to help children become better people and one of the ways we can do that is through literature. I had set up children’s clubs in Jos and in Maiduguri before I went to the university. I would buy them cardboards and paints so that they can just come and express their creativity, to create a forum where we could discuss about anything.
I was eager to give the children the opportunity to talk and it has helped them a lot. One of them called me recently to inform me that she is awaiting admission into the university. I am always happy to hear that they are doing great things.