Monday, November 22, 2010

Building Bridges

So J William Fulbright had a vision
Friendship of nations shall be based on knowledge
Bright students and scholars of other nations to America come
Bright American students and scholars to other nations go
Move freely to share your knowledge and ideals
Share the fruits of human learning over the centuries


Thus we found ourselves here in the US
From all nations, cultures, races and creeds
Sharing the Fulbright badge, sharing humanity
We came to Houston and housed friendship
We discussed, listened to one another and learnt
At Rodeo we even produced Cowboys


Knowledge and ideas exchanged
Friendships evolved and matured within hours
New bridges of understanding constructed
Strong pillars of friendship and trusts erected
We are diverse yet united for common good


This Fulbright microcosm epitomized friendship
Symbolizes the best humanity could offer
God bless Fulbright for his visions
God bless Fulbrighters for implementing the vision
God bless us all

Houston
March 2 2002
This poem was read by six Fulbrghters at the Houston conference of March 2002,
each from the six inhabited continents, it was a memorable experience I still cherish.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Writer’s block? I had it the day my computer crashed

This interview was published in Nigeria's newspaper THE SUN on Tuesday, April 3, 2007
It was conducted by SEGUN AJAYI

 Dr. Yusuf Adamu is a geographer cum writer. According to the immediate past Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Writers (ANA), Kano State Chapter, there exists a strong link between Literature and Geography that cannot be wished away.

The university lecturer is also a culture activist having kick-started his writing career in Hausa language before returning to English. Although the poet realises that it is more lucrative to write in Hausa than English, in Kano, Adamu believes it is time writers of northern extraction are exposed to modern ways of writing.



In his candid assessment of the standard of literature in Kano particularly, the writer reveals that women are having an upper hand because they write in vernacular and in the process turn out larger volumes than their male counterparts. He speaks on the challenges of creative writing in northern Nigeria, his works, publishing and how he once lied that he had writer’s block the day his computer crashed.



Background

I have two identities. My father hails from Zamfara State, while my mother is from Katsina. I was born in Katsina but grew up in Kano. Officially, I claim Zamfara State.

I had my first degree in Geography, in 1990 from Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto. In 1994, I bagged a Masters degree from the University of Ibadan and a PhD from Bayero University, Kano in 2003. I am a medical geographer and I wrote my PhD desertation on maternal mortality. I have been teaching in the Department of Geography at the Bayero University since 1995.



Between Geography and Literature

On account of my interest in writing, I have introduced a course in my department called Cultural Geography which addresses the issue of literature, popular culture, and how they relate to Geography. There are connections between the two subjects. In literature, you write about people, yet the people do not exist in vaccum. There are people in places and in Literature, we write about places.

But, most of the information we gather about places are not even contained in the atlas or regional geography textbooks. Rather they are contained in novels. So that’s how Geography is closely related to Literature.


Writing career

I had my first contact with Literature when I was in the secondary school. I started writing short stories even when I was in the primary school. Actually, I started serious writing in 1983 when I wrote my first Hausa novel. The book is yet to be published because when I read it over, I realised that I needed to re-write it. Later, I wrote a number of novels like Dukan Ruwa which won the northern Nigerian Literary Prize in 1990. It is the story of a family which endured the normal family and economic problems. Essentially, the story teaches patience and perseverance.

After that, I wrote another novel in Hausa in 1989. It was after that experience that I ventured into writing in English. I’ve written two collection of poems for children. The first one is entitled Butterfly and Other Poems, and My First Book of Rhymes. After that, I published another collection of poems after which I returned to writing in Hausa. I published Ummul Khairi. The book is about the challenges of education. I realised that whether we like it or not, the Hausa muslims have to be educated in the modern way.

However, the book is a kind of compromise between tradition and modernity. The next book I published was an anthology of poems. I ensured that I covered the entire country in my choice of poets. I hope to release another collection which I wrote in 1997 entitled Landscape of Reality, and a collection of political poems. These are the works I hope to release soon. I’m also working on another collection which will be a link between my literary interest and my training as a geographer. It is expected to be a collection of poems about places, towns and cities in Nigeria and other areas of the world. The book will be entitled Places and would be accompanied with photographs and maps.



Why I write in Hausa

I started writing in Hausa because the books that inspired me to write were written in Hausa. A lot of people in the Northern part of the country read Hausa. So it was a good medium to put my messages across.


Inspiration

Normally, I write when something happens. Each poem I wrote has a story behind it.


Messages

The most important of my messages is the accessibility of my poems. Considering the fact that poetry is not a popular genre, I have tried to make it accessible. For instance, I have written about happiness, mathematics, globalsation, politics and so on.


When I write

I don’t have a particular time for writing. Even if I am going to write an examination and the inspiration comes, I will write. But when the inspiration is not forthcoming, I will not be able to do it.


Process of writing

It begins with an idea; then the presentation of the idea in the best way. Whenever an idea comes, I’ll put it down on paper.


Challenges of writing

The first challenge is that Nigerians hardly read. When I started writing for children, I was so excited because I was contributing something new. In Northern Nigeria, there are few poets that write in English. So, I told myself that I wanted to write something that will be relevant to the environment. But when I took the books to the education ministry, there ensued a long drama. When I took the works to schools, they would either tell me that the books are too expensive or give me the excuse that the schools were on mid-term break. Eventually, I gave copies of the book free-of-charge to the schools and that gave me some satisfaction.


Publishing

The solution to the problem is involving members of our generation in publishing. I run a small publishing outfit and I published my works through that medium.


Writer’s block

I suffer from it. In fact, I wrote a poem on that. In ANA, Kano chapter, we hold our monthly readings. On one of such days, my computer crashed and I had all my materials stocked in the system. I then told my fellow writers at the reading that I could not remember any of the poems that I had to present at the reading off-hand. But because I had to present something, I came up with the excuse that I had writer’s block. There is a book that I have almost completed work on, but I am no longer interested in the work. That is another manifestation of writer’s block.



Advice to upcoming writers

As most people advise, upcoming writers should be patient and be willing to get their works criticised by others before rushing to the press. For example, when I write, the first people that will read them are my younger brothers and sisters. After that, I’ll give it to others. Secondly, they should write stories that are relevant to the society. I don’t subscribe to writing-for-writing-sake. People should treat topical issues that will be relevant to the development of the society.


Feedback

I have published a few poems on the internet and I received responses from people. One of my poems was published in Germany. There is also a book titled Cultures which is a high school English textbook. I posted it on a website called globalisation. Later the book was published and the publisher contacted me and sent me one hundred euros. Unfortunately, the money got stocked in a distressed bank.


Reward for writing

There is no financial reward for writing in this part of the world. For instance, most of my works have been broadcast on radio and I know that they have made great impact. My books in Hausa have sold up to 20,000 copies, but for the English books, I have not sold up to 100 copies.


Self-publishing

This can be good if there are good editors. If you take your works to a printer, the printer will reproduce them the way you gave them to him. Whoever must do self-publishing must have good editors. Manuscripts can’t wait for ever at Heineman, Longman, Spectrum and others but the books must be well edited.


Literature in Kano

To do that, you have to consider literature at two levels; Hausa and English. Literature in Hausa has gone far in Kano because of the dominance of writers who write in Hausa. In Kano for instance, there are more literary works being published by women. And it has become a phenomenon. The significance of this is that, women buy more books than men in Kano.


The only problem is that the quality is not as good as we expect it to be. But because we have a monthly writers’ forum in Hausa, and workshops, the quality is improving and the volumes are increasing. People come from far and near to buy Hausa books. But as for English texts, people write more of poetry. However, the major problem we face here is that people are not able to publish their works.


Source: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/how/2007/apr/how-03-04-2007-001.htm