‘Where my boy soldier, girl-child stories meet’

Bookshelf: You authored your first novel in 2012 titled ‘The Diary of a Boy Soldier’.  What have you been up to since? Alexander Emmanuel: I have been engaged with writing articles and poems for magazines, and policy papers bothering on gender stereotyping and youth engagements in peace and security. Also, I have been putting finishing […]

Bookshelf: You authored your first novel in 2012 titled ‘The Diary of a Boy Soldier’.  What have you been up to since?

Alexander Emmanuel: I have been engaged with writing articles and poems for magazines, and policy papers bothering on gender stereotyping and youth engagements in peace and security. Also, I have been putting finishing touches to my upcoming book, ‘The Withered Flower’.

Bookshelf: What is ‘The Withered Flower’ all about?

Emmanuel: It is a summation of the contending social realities that permeate our world and the connecting dots that knit humanity. It is a work of fiction that traverses the subjects of war, abuse, terrorism, social justice, hate, chauvinism and so on. It captures the harrowing experience of a budding young woman, Omo, who got entangled in the whims of complex socio-cultural interplays that threatened her dignity and self-esteem.

Set against a time when transnational terrorism ravaged Africa, ‘The Withered Flower’ underscores the hazards of terrorism and the socio-economic costs of war, mostly as it affects the girl-child.

Omo’s story is every woman’s story who has endured and overcome abuse through courage and self-discovery. Forced into marriage at 13, raped, and tortured in the enclaves of terrorists at the fringes of the Nigerian border, and the ensuing misfortune that befell her, her story is  encapsulated in an intricate tapestry of a mother’s undying love for a child as she fought to break the vicious cycle of stigma and abuse in her family.

‘The Withered flower’ further redirects us to the hallowed paths of humanness, whilst provoking a consciousness for social justice and defence of human rights, irrespective of gender, race, tribe, colour or religion.

Bookshelf: What is the research process for the novel like?

Emmanuel: I was motivated by the developments around the world on the issue of empowering the girl-child. I drew facts and ideas first from local and international media news, publications, reports, policies, advocacies, discussions on trends of abuse of women around the world and the intimidation of the woman-spirit. 

My research methodology involved perusing and engaging pundits on the subject of socio-cultural prejudices in Nigeria and how they subjugate women in traditional or contemporary African society. I also conducted a study on the activities of terrorists and transnational crime.

Bookshelf: This is totally different from your first book, ‘The Diary of a Boy Soldier’ which chronicled the experiences of a young boy in the famous Nigerian Military School (NMS), Zaria, a school you also attended. How would you compare working on the latter and this current work-in-progress?

Emmanuel: Considering the setting, they may be different in some ways but they also have some meeting points in terms of theme. ‘The Diary of a Boy Soldier’ captures the experiences of a boy soldier in the Nigerian Military School, and the corresponding influence the school had on his life. It was easier working on this particular book because a part of me was immersed in the story by virtue of being a first-hand testifier of some of the events, unlike in ‘The Withered Flower’ where I am merely a spectator.  Also, the story is focused on women. Now, the first hurdle was to get supplanted into a ‘feminine reality’, see with a woman’s eyes and feel with a woman’s mind. Another was to capture aptly the travails of an abused and bruised woman and the interplays of her mind along these paths. These were just a few of many. But as a fiction writer, I had to do some study and research on patterns and trends of abuses women go through and try to fuse it into the plot in order to amplify these realities. I also asked questions and had interviews with some victims of abuse. 

Thereafter, I was able to pull the strands of my findings together to tell the story from a metaphysical perspective, such that will address the key issues my book attempts to address.

In terms of similarities, both books, irrespective of their conflicting plots and settings, try to address contemporary societal ills that seemingly truncate young children’s will to aspire, mostly through parental negligence, complacency or complicity.

Bookshelf: You are a Flight Lieutenant with the Nigerian Air Force. What’s your typical day like and how do you make time to write, considering the demanding nature of your work as a military officer?

Emmanuel: As you know, the military profession is a tasking one and may take all of your time, depending on where you work and your official engagements. My daily routine currently is typical of any military formation, from parades to other forms of military duties. However, for me writing is a hobby I engage in during my leisure. It is recreation, so I find solace in it and enjoy the warmth it gives. Knowing that I am exploring boundless territories from the comfort of my room is fulfilling. 

What I do is balance my time by giving myself a target and timelines for my literary work. With this, I am able to strike a balance between the two. The time others may use to hangout, rest or watch TV, I use for writing. I use an average of four hours for study on daily basis, two hours from this I dedicate to writing.

Bookshelf: How did you start creative writing?

Emmanuel: I started sporadically in Secondary School, Nigerian Military School to be precise. It was an all-boys military school where we had a motley of young men from different backgrounds and climes. There were so many activities going on, such as drills, tattoos, weapon training, classes and so on. The environment was consistently turbo charged with activities, such that you must have a story to tell every day. I started by taking notes of events and activities around me as a form diary. Thereafter, I collate them and try to tell stories with them. 

I was sometimes paid by my classmates to write ‘love letters’ for my classmates (laughs). Then, one day, I thought that I could develop my skill in writing by exploring my literary capabilities. I started with articles and poems for our school’s Junior Leader Magazine. The accolades I received were encouraging, and since then, there has been no going back.

Bookshelf: You are soon going to have two prose fiction works in your name. What plans do you have for poetry? Or is writing for magazines the only way you wish to go when it comes to that?

Emmanuel: I have not really given a thought about writing poetry as an independent project, aside the occasional ones I send for magazine publications. However, I may consider going that path someday, hopefully.