Why I laugh when people analyse my poems – Adewale-Gabriel

Nathaniel Bivan & Uche Eze Bookshelf: You write in German. How did this happen? Toyin Adewale-Gabriel: It’s not that I write in German, it’s just that I had this strange book that was published for the first time in German translation and it was like that for years until another publisher came along to do […]

Nathaniel Bivan & Uche Eze

Bookshelf: You write in German. How did this happen?

Toyin Adewale-Gabriel: It’s not that I write in German, it’s just that I had this strange book that was published for the first time in German translation and it was like that for years until another publisher came along to do an English edition. So, I had this embarrassing thing where I will be on an international reading tour where I would be reading from my English manuscript, while the audience had the published German book. So I actually only write in English but have had a lot of work translated in German. 

Bookshelf: How did you start writing poetry and  fiction?

Adewale-Gabriel: I started writing at age thirteen. I had just finished secondary school and the tension of waiting and not knowing how my WAEC result would be, led me to writing. One night I just felt like putting those feelings on paper and that was how I began to write. Also, I grew up away from home, so I didn’t really have friends at home. Books were my friends. I could finish four story books in one day. 

In the course of rounding off my National Youth Service Corp, a friend took me to see Odia Ofeimun, who was then the Guardian editor for poetry for the Sunday edition and also a very well-known writer and great mentor of young writers. He took me seriously, gave me a lot of books to read and introduced me to writers like Sylvia Plat, the Russian writers Anna Matoba and Morris Pasterlak. I was guest poet one Easter Sunday and that was a huge affirmation. If the Guardian published you in those days you felt like something or somebody. 

Also, around Odia there was this group of young writers which included Afam Ake, Funmi Adewole, and Uche Nduka. We were always arguing, talking, writing and discussing writers, and it was a competition to say who had read what. That kind of environment was fertile. We attended literary gatherings of Association of Nigerian Authors in Lagos that led me to meet Richard Mamman who invested his resources to publish my first book ‘Naked Testimonies’. A couple of years down the line I had the opportunity to go on a writer’s residency where I spent six months at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart and one key outcome of that is a book called ‘Flackernden Kerzenlicht’ meaning, Flickering Candle Lights. I actually got two books out of that German trip, because I met a German publisher that took up my book of short stories and published it in German translation. The same publisher published the first book ‘Osun Stories’, in German translation it’s Shamita Lovelage. I also had another book of poetry that was published by the Akademie Schloss Solitude, because all their writers on a yearly basis would take the best books and publish just to encourage the writers. ‘Flackernden Kerzenlicht’ has actually been a very interesting book because it got a Turkish translation. Somebody called my German publisher and said they wanted a Turkish translation. So it got a Turkish translation before it got published in English. Finally, after some years it was published in the United Kingdom by a publisher who had shown interest in my book of poetry ‘Naked Testimonies’ and wanted to re-print it. 

I was also fortunate in my literary journey to run into the famous American writer, Ishmael Reed and with him I did two book projects ‘25 Nigerian poets’ which I edited and also ‘Short stories by Nigerian women writers’ which I also edited.  In addition to that, I had done some organizing around women writing and that led us to the project that was founded by the Heinrich Boll foundation, the first anthology of female writing in Nigeria which was called ‘Breaking the Silence’. We had a five-city tour, travelling around with women writers to universities, towns and reading from the book. That was also a lot of fun. I have had the opportunity to travel quite a bit. I have been in some of the biggest festivals, such as African festival in Durban, another poetry festival in Venezuela, and a huge festival in Colombia. I have also been in Senegal, representing International Pen Nigeria at a meeting and performed in Amsterdam in a poetry festival. It was quite an honour to have the Nigerian ambassador send somebody to represent the country at one of my readings. I have also been in the United States on the basis of attending poetry festivals and have been invited to conferences in Germany and other countries around the world. 

Bookshelf: You write poetry and short fiction. Any particular reason why you explore those branches of literature?

Adewale-Gabriel: No particular reason really. I started out with poetry because it has always come easily to me. You can actually convey a lot of emotions. It’s very interesting because it can be read in so many ways. Sometimes when people analyse my work I laugh because it’s usually totally off track, but then that’s part of the fun.

Bookshelf: What usually informs the themes you explore?

Adewale-Gabriel: I have a passion for women stories, maybe because I am a woman, but that’s like stating the obvious. I have a passion for the way women think, their experiences and hurdles in a society where it is sometimes hard to be a woman due to cultural limitations. Some of these human stories form major themes in my work.

Bookshelf: Which of your works is your favorite and why? 

Adewale-Gabriel: It’s my first book, ‘Naked Testimonies’. It was an affirmation that I was a writer. To get someone invest his money to publish your book is a very important statement. ‘Naked Testimonies’ opened a lot of doors for me. It provided the opportunity for me to leave the shores of Nigeria for the first time when I got the six-month writer’s residency on the basis of that work. Also, just picking the book is like a chronicle of how far I have come, so it’s a very important book to me.

Bookshelf: What’s your opinion about writer’s block? How do you handle it?

Adewale-Gabriel: Well, it happens to every writer. So, go to the movies. I find the movies very inspiring. Actually, some of my writings have been inspired by movies. I have poems written after a movie. So I’ll say, look for a good movie, travel because it opens your eyes and also read a lot. There are books that are so good they awaken your creativity.

Bookshelf: You have worked as a literary critic for The Guardian, Post Express, and The Daily Times. How do you view the role and impact of literary criticism in Nigerian literature today?

Adewale-Gabriel: I think in terms of the scholarship of Nigerian literature, it’s very important. I remember when I was doing my masters at Ife, studying Literature-in-English, they collected literary criticism from the Guardian newspaper in two volumes. Volumes one and two were compulsory recommended text for us in school. So in terms of the scholarship of Nigerian literature, I think it’s really important. If we don’t have critics reviewing, analyzing, supporting, strengthening the work of a country, then it becomes difficult to compete internationally. It’s important as you produce to also have people who continually challenge you on areas where you have to improve on what you produce and also affirm you on the international stage. For instance, as a writer, you have critics review your work, write an entire essay even if they are insulting you. The fact that you are important enough for somebody to write an easy on is a big affirmation of your writing. But then the important thing is also to have informed critics, because that is something you also find. Some people just want to be notorious and they do not even have the basic understanding of what it means to be a literary critic. They don’t have the training, they the experience and the knowledge. They just go out there, see your book and decide to make a name for themselves and write nonsense. But it’s really about the tone of the writers, how do you help these writers write better? How can you contribute to the entire literary society by the quality of your own criticism? 

Bookshelf: What’s your opinion about today’s literary landscape?

Adewale-Gabriel: I think the literary landscape today is very exciting. Nigerian literature for me is alive and well. And I’m also happy to say that women are taking the lead role. There’s nobody who can say he or she doesn’t know Chimamanda. If you were to ask the average foreigner the Nigerian writer they have read, Chimamanda would be the first to come to mind. And we have a lot of young Nigerian writers doing a lot of excellent work, winning awards, writing good books. Fortunately we also have more publishing opportunities, like Cassava Republic, they are doing a really good job. They just started a genre of romance for young women so that they can read Nigerian romance and not Mills and Boon. Although I have not read one yet, I heard it’s romance with a different twist. We have a lot of young writers out there like Uloma Azuwa and Sefi Atta doing excellent work. We have Richard Ali, El Nathan and so many more. Another good thing is that we have some interesting writers coming from the north of Nigeria. The north of Nigeria used to be unknown in Nigerian literature, except for Abubakar Gimba and Zainab Alkali and very few others. But now you have younger writers delving into real issues. For instance, El Nathan and his book that explores the life of an almajiri. People see those boys, look at them and simply think they are dirty. El Nathan puts a human face to this phenomenon, their dreams, their aspirations and experience. And of course the brilliant book by Abubakar ‘Season of Crimson Blossoms’. Exploring the taboos around women’s sexuality and what it really means to be a woman in northern Nigeria. I think there’s a lot of energy and diversity, from Lagos to the east, to the south west, from all over Nigeria.

Bookshelf: If you are to spend a month at sea, what five books will you travel with?

Adewale-Gabriel: First of all, my Bible. I’ll also go with ‘Doctor Zhivago’ by Boris Pasternak, one of the greatest Russian writers, ‘The Heights of Macchu Picchu’ by Pablo Neruda, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ by Elizabeth Gilbert, which is one of the best examples of travel writing, and ‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy. Finally, one of the newest books by Toni Morrison ‘A Mercy’-I like the poetic writers, writers that like prose like poetry.