BY OLAMIDE BABATUNDE
With this year’s reading coinciding with Valentine’s Day and the birthday of the acclaimed prolific writer, Professor Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Lagos, decided to celebrate the NLNG award-winner and also hold an intellectual discourse on the love life of writers, drawing from the well of her experiences and other guests.
The event was graced by Dr Tolu Ajayi, Tunji Shotimirin, Ifeoma Enahoro, Olalekan Adewusi, art critics and writers, who spoke at length about their various experiences in writing and its challenges on marriage.
According to Professor Ezeigbo, “Love is not only for our spouses, but for God, our children and neighbours, and for us to know love is what makes the world go round. If you have someone who loves you, it makes it easy to bear the hard times. We should learn to live in peace with one another, even our neighbours –as the Bible says, seek peace and pursue it.”
She also spoke about love for the country reflecting on the general elections that was postponed. She opined that it was in the best interest of the country, because it would help INEC get their act together properly and ensure people get their PVCs. The professor noted how politicians seemed too desperate with their propaganda, a sort of thing typical of the Nigerian politics.
Having been married for over 30 years, she threw light on how female writers could make their marriage successful, despite their busy schedules. She advised female writers to marry someone who understands and is sympathetic to them.
She said: “Women need to carry their spouses along, and men should not see writing as a terrible thing. I had and still have a very supportive husband, and he reads anything I write without objection, except for once when I wrote a very expressive piece about lovemaking, after reading it, he said, “No, this is pornography.” But I know of women, who have talked about their husbands burning their scripts”.
While relating her experience as a writer and journalist, Mrs Ifeoma Enahoro, another guest, said: “A writer is a crazy person, and that’s what makes it easy to write above the norm. I must say it’s not easy sharing a home with a writer, because you have a deadline you need to wake up early, and this means your husband wakes up and discovers you are not by his side. The thing is to talk to yourself and tell yourself when to draw the lines, because you still need to preserve your marriage unless you are not ready to keep it”.
For Dr Tolu Ajayi, love is a temporary thing, and what really matters is compatibility, which makes a writer’s marriage endure. He said: “Success is also imperative; when a writer is successful, the wife will be happy. Every writer should have some other source of income because of the economic reality of our society.” He recalled his school days when he was a science student yet had a flair for writing: “Many times I was told that I could be a writer and a doctor and so it turned out. The attitude of writers matters a lot and, when success comes, they need to know how to handle it.”
After a poem, “Condom Boom” was read from the collection, Dancing Masks, the discourse shifted from love to writing for children. Professor Ezeigbo had more to share with the guests. According to her, the age and language use are factors to be considered. Writing for children between the ages of 7-9 would require illustrations and use of dialogue with the aim of teaching them something. “Some people write adult books, and they say it’s for children. This should not be so, because children want to read about someone like them –someone they can look up to,” she stressed. This, she said, can be achieved if the writer uses a child as the protagonist in the work.
She enlightened young writers who might want to publish abroad in order to get royalties that many readers abroad do not buy books, because they can borrow from the library; so, for writers abroad, it’s not always the royalties, but the readings organized by the publishing companies. Okey Ndibe, for instance, went to so many places because of his book for readings. This is where Nigerian publishers are defaulting, because they just publish the books and that’s all.
“I believe in marketing my books, because, when you leave it to the publishers, they will not tell you how many books sold. Here, in Nigeria, they may not edit your work –that’s why there are grammatical errors, unlike abroad where you can have up to 7 copy editors go over your work. It’s not all the time companies pay royalties; writers make money from readings, as well,” Professor Ezeigbo’s voice trailed off, impacted on many listeners.
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