Literature
Sumaila Umaisha: When and how did you start writing?
Chuma Nwokolo: I started writing seriously as an undergraduate. This was back in the Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria where I had enrolled to study Law. I probably should have studied harder for a better degree, but I finished two manuscripts during my four years there. These were published in the 80s in Macmillan?s Pacesetters series: The Extortionist (published in 1983, in my final year) and Dangerous Inheritance (published in 1988, while I was in legal practice in Lagos).
Your writings are humorous; is it deliberate or it is your natural style?
I suppose it is a blend of both. I usually have a plethora of potential story ideas, so the process of choosing an idea to write involves a sort of virtual audition in which the inspiration is making a case for the time and effort that would go into crafting a tale out of it. And like anyone else, I like a good laugh. I?d far rather spend the next month slaving over a tale that puts a grin on my face while I?m actually working. The richest humour is unexpected, isn?t it? The sort of laughter that can surprise a bereaved on his way to the graveyard... that has got to be the ?Bentley? of humour... so if a story idea has the potential of that killer combination: graveyard-serious subject matter, and relentless humour, chances are, it?s got my vote.
It is not obsessive, of course, this ?humour-hunt?. Nothing is more insufferable than a joker who does not know when to shush. The difference between a clown and a literary humorist is that the clown has to be funny in- and out-of-season. So there are stories that don?t have a funny bone at all, and that is alright too - if I like it, I?ll still write it.
Also, the process of revision ? in appropriate cases ? fine-tunes the timing of the humour. But unless you are writing gags for a soap opera, humour is rarely the sort of thing you can simply add to your material on a read-through. So there is some deliberation there... but as to the question of style, I suppose it is a matter of degree. I think it is the lightness of the satire that makes it funny. Sometimes satire can be so savage that there is blood on the page. At that point, even if the material is technically funny, the first instinct is not laughter. It is like any of the legions of the victims of Fela?s lyrics (which includes all of us really: policemen, users of bleaching creams, zombies, teachers, imams, bishops, soldiers...) what do we do on a dance floor when the relevant satire comes up. Yes, it is technically music, so we are dancing, but we are also conscious that the first and final instinct of the hearer is not to dance. It is to brood on the message.
What would you say is the main importance of humour in creative writing?
I?d say that humour is at the root of creative writing. Entertainment is a fundamental object of creative writing and humour is about entertainment. A creative writer has an interesting perspective on this curious world we live in, and he is keen to share it. Humour is just one potential facet of this perspective he shares.
But humour also serves the function of a sugar coating on the pill of reality. Sometimes when our tales are too grim to swallow they can go down better with a coating of humour. So humour is also a reader-friendly interface for the teller of grim tales.
Some of your writings, e.g., The Ghost of Sani Abacha seems too direct; do you fear cases of defamation of character?
Well, I suppose that when you are in the business of defaming ghosts you must make friends with some good exorcists...
But seriously, every writer must stand in dread of the defamation suit. A professional writer does not have any extra rights to malign, than the general population. And every citizen has a right to the reputation that he has earned. This is why defending a reputation is a little like opening up an interesting cupboard... and why the satirist?s theatre of choice is fiction.
Also around the country I am meeting writers and thinkers, and forging networks and alliances that we need to take us to a place better than where we are.
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Literature
'Humour is at the root of creative writing' - Chuma Nwokolo
Chuma Nwokolo Jr., a lawyer, writer, and publisher of African Writing magazine, was a guest writer at the recent weekly reading of the Kaduna State chapter of Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA. The author of the poetry collection, Memories of Stone, and the novels, Tales by Conversation, Diaries of a Dead African and many others, read from his latest novel, The Ghost of Sani Abacha, a collection of ?tales of life and love in the aftermath of autocracy?. In this interview with Sumaila Umaisha, he speaks about his writings and the place of humour in literary creativity.
Sumaila Umaisha: When and how did you start writing?
Chuma Nwokolo: I started writing seriously as an undergraduate. This was back in the Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria where I had enrolled to study Law. I probably should have studied harder for a better degree, but I finished two manuscripts during my four years there. These were published in the 80s in Macmillan?s Pacesetters series: The Extortionist (published in 1983, in my final year) and Dangerous Inheritance (published in 1988, while I was in legal practice in Lagos).
Your writings are humorous; is it deliberate or it is your natural style?
I suppose it is a blend of both. I usually have a plethora of potential story ideas, so the process of choosing an idea to write involves a sort of virtual audition in which the inspiration is making a case for the time and effort that would go into crafting a tale out of it. And like anyone else, I like a good laugh. I?d far rather spend the next month slaving over a tale that puts a grin on my face while I?m actually working. The richest humour is unexpected, isn?t it? The sort of laughter that can surprise a bereaved on his way to the graveyard... that has got to be the ?Bentley? of humour... so if a story idea has the potential of that killer combination: graveyard-serious subject matter, and relentless humour, chances are, it?s got my vote.
It is not obsessive, of course, this ?humour-hunt?. Nothing is more insufferable than a joker who does not know when to shush. The difference between a clown and a literary humorist is that the clown has to be funny in- and out-of-season. So there are stories that don?t have a funny bone at all, and that is alright too - if I like it, I?ll still write it.
Also, the process of revision ? in appropriate cases ? fine-tunes the timing of the humour. But unless you are writing gags for a soap opera, humour is rarely the sort of thing you can simply add to your material on a read-through. So there is some deliberation there... but as to the question of style, I suppose it is a matter of degree. I think it is the lightness of the satire that makes it funny. Sometimes satire can be so savage that there is blood on the page. At that point, even if the material is technically funny, the first instinct is not laughter. It is like any of the legions of the victims of Fela?s lyrics (which includes all of us really: policemen, users of bleaching creams, zombies, teachers, imams, bishops, soldiers...) what do we do on a dance floor when the relevant satire comes up. Yes, it is technically music, so we are dancing, but we are also conscious that the first and final instinct of the hearer is not to dance. It is to brood on the message.
What would you say is the main importance of humour in creative writing?
I?d say that humour is at the root of creative writing. Entertainment is a fundamental object of creative writing and humour is about entertainment. A creative writer has an interesting perspective on this curious world we live in, and he is keen to share it. Humour is just one potential facet of this perspective he shares.
But humour also serves the function of a sugar coating on the pill of reality. Sometimes when our tales are too grim to swallow they can go down better with a coating of humour. So humour is also a reader-friendly interface for the teller of grim tales.
Some of your writings, e.g., The Ghost of Sani Abacha seems too direct; do you fear cases of defamation of character?
Well, I suppose that when you are in the business of defaming ghosts you must make friends with some good exorcists...
But seriously, every writer must stand in dread of the defamation suit. A professional writer does not have any extra rights to malign, than the general population. And every citizen has a right to the reputation that he has earned. This is why defending a reputation is a little like opening up an interesting cupboard... and why the satirist?s theatre of choice is fiction.
How far do you think a writer can go in terms of poetic licence?
If society requires beauty of her artists, then that society would do well to grant them the artistic licence to perfect that beauty. But the artist?s licence ends where the citizen?s rights begin. We must wield the pen, as with every other instrument of creation and destruction, with responsibility. If I can destroy, should I?
Most of your works could be described as protest writing; why do you engage in such writing?
I suspect you would have to define ?protest writing? very broadly to classify most of my writing under that category. But then, my job is to write, not to classify. But when I am creating a story I do my best to dress every instinct of protest in order to pass. Telling a tale is very like attending a party. You are expected to come in festive uniform. If you turn up in your mechanic?s overalls, you may be the celebrant?s blood brother, but you will receive a frosty welcome. Ditto protest writing. In the party of creative writing your ?protests? have to be dressed in the idiom of entertainment, or they will have to watch the party from the outside.
In my activist writings though, I do not short-change the passions that inspire me. I am passionate about a better Nigeria. I am also passionate about the changes we have to midwife to bring about that new reality.
Must a writer engage in such writing, i.e. criticising socio-political realities, to be described as a committed writer?
Certainly not. Every man, woman, child must determine what race to run, or indeed whether to run a race or not. It is presumption for anyone to stipulate to another what to do with his or her talents. If a writer chooses to drive socio-political change, that is only one face of reality. There are a hundred and one other things that are worthy of effort, of enterprise. Every time you sit down to a meal of ebain okra soup, it is your prayer, isn?t it, that behind that soup is a committed chef. If passion and commitment is in high demand in kitchens, in workshops, in lecture halls, how much more in other theatres of literature. So, to every writer his own purpose. The only obligation a good writer has is to write the best that she can. If she does that, she is a committed writer.
You?ve been reading your works across Nigeria; why did you embark on such project?
Well, having written, I want to be read. So this tour is a fillip to our wheezing book distribution. It is not just a Nigerian tour though. In addition to Asaba, Enugu, Lagos, Ibadan, Makurdi, Abuja, and Kaduna, I have already visited six cities in England: London, Oxford, Manchester, Liverpool, Bournemouth - and Swansea in Wales. In the next few months I plan to visit other Nigerian cities as well as Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, en route to the 26 cities billed for 2012.
Beyond talking to my readers, I am also listening to them. To tell the story of your country you have to know your country. The writerly life is sometimes an arid one, and the hurly-burly of this project brings a little more ferment to the creative process, I think.
Also around the country I am meeting writers and thinkers, and forging networks and alliances that we need to take us to a place better than where we are.
How would you describe the result of the reading exercise so far?
Inspirational. Certainly I have introduced my books to people who would perhaps not have known about them. But beyond that I am also meeting a new generation of Nigerian literary people. I am inspired anew by the breath of the talent that we have. And impressed by the work we need to put in to turn that potential into power.
- Literature Assignment
Forms of Prose FictionNovels: full-length work of fiction.Novellas: a piece of fiction longer than short story but shorter then a novel.Short Stories: piece of fiction that is shorter and usually less complicated in plot than a novel. Elements of Prose...
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- Who Says You Can?t Be A Writer?
This week my discussion is inspired by the experience at a reading session a few months ago when the Kaduna State Library Board hosted me. It was an exciting experience as I read the riot tales from my collection of short stories, Hoodlums, to...
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VINCENT CHUKWUEMEKA IKE, one of the foremost Nigerian writers, has produced more novels than many of his contemporaries. He set out on his literary journey in 1965 with the publication of his novel, Toads for Supper and today he has over a dozen publications...