Dike Chukwumerije is the author of eight
books. A spoken word and performance poetry artist and prose writer, his
novel, Urichindere won the 2013 edition of the ANA Prize for Prose
Fiction......
He runs a poetry theatre production, Made in Nigeria, which has toured many cities in the country. He
hosts the Abuja Literary Society’s Book Jam and Poetry Slam. He has won
several poetry grand slams in Nigeria, including the maiden edition of
the African Poet (Nigeria) Grand Slam competition and, has, since 2013,
hosted and directed the annual Night of the Spoken Word (NSW)
performance poetry event. He also hosts weekly Open Mic performances
which include a mix of acts from readings of short stories by their
authors to musical performances, poetry and spoken word acts.
Chukwumerije is regarded as one of Nigeria’s most prolific Performance
Poet with the release of three Performance Poetry videos. In this
interview with HENRY AKUBUIRO, he spoke on his fascination with literature, which has eclipsed his childhood ambition to be a medical doctor.
Growing up in the home of the famous
politician, late Senator Uche Chukwumerije, I guess it was not easy
deciding to be a writer. What was your ambition as a child? Was writing
your first love, or it later came to you?
Writing was an early love of mine,
inspired by my father (who was a journalist), my mother (who was a
teacher), my elder brother Che (who was and still is a writer), and his
friend Onesi (a fantastic poet). I didn’t consider it a career though,
just a way of self-expression. So, as a child my ambition was to become a
medical doctor. Imagine that?
At what point did it occur to you that
you were better off as a performance poet than the conventional bard
given to showcasing magical tropes and images?
I was invited to a show once to read some
of my poems. This must have been some 12 years ago. And I saw other
poets reciting their poems from memory, and it was immediately obvious
to me that this was a more effective way of communicating poetry,
because you can maintain eye contact, and simulate this conversational
atmosphere that makes understanding easier. Reading is still something I
prioritize though.
What was it like the first time you went on stage as a performance poet?
I felt a bit nervous, having to remember
my lines with so many people looking at me. But, at some point, I lost
that sense of self-consciousness, and just began to enjoy myself. There
is this sense of freedom that one can sometimes stumble upon on stage.
It’s a very beautiful feeling.
When you are on stage, do you get energy from the audience to get involved the more?
Yes, audience participation is always
energising. When an audience is cold, it can become distracting for you,
as you begin to wonder if you’re communicating at all. Obviously, the
more nervous you become, the more likely you are to forget your lines.
Do you ever forget lines and improvise sometimes?
Regularly! It’s one of the first things a
performance poet must learn, how to recover from forgetting his or her
lines! The important thing is not to freeze, to take it in your stride,
because the audience watching you often does not know what line or lines
should come next. So, if you act like nothing happened, they will
believe you.
You also write prose fiction and, in
fact, your novel, Urichindere, won the 2013 ANA Prose Prize. What was
the inspiration for the novel?
Novels like Chukwuemeka Ike’s Bottled
Leopard tell the story of the secondary school experience of that
generation. I wanted to do the same for mine. So, Urichindere documents
what it felt like to be a boarder in a Federal Government College in the
early 1990s. I also wanted to tell the story of the political turmoil
of the time, as seen through the eyes of young boy. These were my
inspiration.
You are a writer but also involved in assisting fellow writers and writers’ organisations. How do that add to your role as a writer and community builder?
It adds immensely! Sometimes, as a
writer, one is unable to appreciate the amount of work it takes to bring
your work to an audience. But, working as an organiser of
literary/creative events, you gain an appreciation of the entire value
chain. This helps you as a writer in many ways. For one, you learn
better how to write in ways that are accessible to your target audience.
Also, as you rightly pointed out, one gains a better appreciation of
the power of literature as a tool, not just for making the writer rich
or famous, but for sparking important conversations and bringing people
together over shared perspectives. In a space that is deeply divided
other issues of tribe and religion, this is a very important function.
Sometimes you codemix Igbo in your
works. Do you think a performance poet like you isn’t African enough
until he fulfils certain cultural functions in his art?
No, I don’t think so, because the answer
to the question, “What does it mean to be African?” is not a
straightforward one. In that sense, “trying to be African” can lead to
the production of very shallow and clearly superficial works of art. I
tend to focuse more on being honest to whatever emotion or sentiment or
value I am trying to express. And, if speaking in Igbo, or tapping into
whatever cultural reservoir I have within me, is what I need to achieve
honesty, then so be it.
It has been argued that the spoken
word scene is getting saturated with artists who repeat the same
performance on stage over and over, especially ones liked by the
audience, barely offering new things. What do you think accounts for
these oft-talked repetitions?
I have no problem with repetitions. After
all, we have been reading Things Fall Apart since its publication in
1958. If a creative expression has long-lasting value, why should we
artificially shorten its life-time just so we can be seen to be “fresh”
all the time? Also, sometimes an artist may produce his/her masterpiece
very early in his/her career. That’s just the way it is. So, those who
have the capacity to be “fresh” all the time, should do so. And those
who feel they have said everything they came to say in that one creative
expression should feel free to stay on it for as long as they want.
So far, you have three performance poetry videos to your credit, making you one of the most prolific Nigerian performance poets. How far do you intend to go with these videos?
As far as Fate will allow. It is the
desire of every artist to be heard or watched or read or seen by
everyone. That’s why we make art, to touch the lives of our fellow human
beings. So, I hope the poetry videos I’ve put out there on Youtube will
continue to attract views and reviews. I also hope that it inspires
other poets to think of even more creative ways of expressing and
communicating their poetry.
“The Wall and The Bridge” easily resonates with Nigerians from different walks of life. Do you think that’s your Midas touch as far as performance poetry goes?
There’s a lot more where it came from. But the factors that determine what goes viral and what does not are beyond my control.
The Made in Nigeria Poetry Show has been staged several times since last year. How has the experience being like?
It has actually been staged 11 times in 5
cities with a cast of between 15 and 24, depending on scale and
location. So, you can imagine, it’s been quite an experience. First of
all, to create a proper spoken word theatre production with a cast,
costumes, props, lights and everything, and then to go on a proper road
tour, that is, getting into a bus with your cast and equipment and
hitting the road; to enter into cities, you’ve not been to before and
successfully gather audiences from scratch around your production; to do
all this without sponsorship, totally dependent on ticket sales and the
ability of your content to move those who see it to recommend it to
others, and to do this in the middle of a recession as well! You can
imagine that it’s been quite an interesting experience. And it has not
ended. Because the show is still touring 13 months after its debut.
That, for me, is simply amazing! 
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