Daily Independent (Lagos)
24 November 2008
Poetry, they say, is a language of the wise. Not many people have all the patience to decode or understand what a poet, like a talking drummer, conjure. But in this interview, Greg Mbajiorgu, a.k.a. Wota Na Wota, ex-officio member of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and author of 'Water Testaments: Anthology of Poems on Water and water-related Issues,' use poetry and drama to resolve conflict in one of the suburbs around Enugu, Enugu State. He told the media his vision about the new innovation and how great poets like Gabriel Okara accepted to submit entries for his book. Correspondent Yemi Adebisi was at the session. Excerpts:
You claimed to have assisted a community to resolve their clash through drama and poetry. How did it happen?
There was a serious problem in the community with regards to water installation. They tried many means of solving the clashes until they got a white man who was an architectural consultant. He had been into literature advocacy. He came up with the idea that doing a drama on the significance of water as an instrument of conflict. And water as a strategist for maintenance of peace and order would help to resolve that conflict. We did the drama and the poetry on the importance of water, looking at water as central to all the problems of the community. The community needed water in the first place. Because of lack of water, people were migrating to other places where they could farm and do other businesses. They had no water to drink. They were drinking mud and pond water. So, as a result, the people were suffering from one ailment of water borne diseases or the other. When I was brought in, we did a drama that connected water to all the crisis of the villages with regards to even the conflict they have among themselves. They saw water as a means of solving their problems and they were united on the water project. The celebration of water became the beginning of a new life for the community. We did that drama and it was very successful. OEPJDP was able to use that drama to celebrate the successful installation of that water for the rural community. After that, it dawn on me that there should be a water driven literature. And after I read some books, I have not come across so many literatures that are water centre or rather water driven. I taught that water is so central to every aspect of human life and to everything we do on earth but may be we take it for granted. We have not devoted a literary attention to it.
After I came out with Wota Na Wota, which took over my name at convention, it done on me that people were really embracing the whole idea of water, as a mean of motive and subject matter for literature. I manage to raise some funds and through our friends in the press, got published in newspapers. I got entries from Gabriel Okara, Niyi Osundare, Elechi Amadi, Chimalu Nwankwo among others. These were people who normally would not respond to calls for entries. This shows the seriousness of what I have started. Instead of just going on to compile the poems and publish, I started looking for all water journals I can found everywhere to get myself thoroughly acquitted with knowledge on issues about water. So, if you read the three and a half page introduction, which I wrote myself, you'll see that I consulted a lot of water research journals and I got myself abased with what people have written and said about water to guide me. Poetry on water therefore represents the socio-cultural dimension. It's a good mix-up old and young when you have Gabriel Okara with very young ones like Uche Peter and the rest of them in the same anthology.
Apart from the poets, who submitted their entries to you, what are the responses of the literati to the new dimension of literature?
The response has been tremendous. We have 17 professors of English and Theatre Arts in that collection. Many of them are showing concern to use it not as general text for literature but they want to use it as a specialised anthology. Beyond the academia, the water aid in Enugu has asked me to write a proposal on how we can bring this to their advocacy. Another water forum is coming up in March 2009. We are already feeling the arts and culture form for this. We want to see whether this anthology can package a Nigeria contingent which will not just include the poets but also the water journalists like we have sports journalists. They will lead the Nigeria contingent to the world water forum in 2009. We will be making a statement that Nigeria is showing leadership as far as the socio-cultural dimension of water is concerned, Nigeria is on the lead. I have not seen any part of the world where there is such an organised collection of works of authors on this kind of subject matter.
How long did it take you to package this work and what is your vision for this new innovation?
It took me two years; the whole idea is something I expect to grow beyond me. I am making contact with people like J.P. Clark and Wole Soyinka, who can lead us to organise what we can call an international entries for poetries on water. We will specifically make this a Nigeria collection. We can bring the great Nigerian literary icons together. We can look at what the whole world is saying about water with regards to their different cultural background. We have no apology making this volume a Nigeria volume. There is so much bad image about Nigeria. We don't seem to be projected as strong leadership in a lot of areas. So, where we have the opportunity to show that the international press dimension on us is strong we have no apology at all. This just shows that it is not only in negative area that we excel. We also have a lot of people who are thinking positively.
How does creativity comes in this matter?
Water is central to life. You can approach water from multifaceted dimension: water as sacred thing, water and war, water and politics, water and scarcity, water and water borne diseases. There are one million and one dimensions. That is why the poetry is not just about water. It's on water and water related issues. With that, it is not restrictive. To think of the fact that 95 percent of a brand new baby is water and the baby grows to become 70 percent water. Gabriel Okara was the first person to submit his entry. It was part of what gave me the impetus to drive on. If he can write for me, who is that person that will say no. It got to a point that if you send me three poems I take only one. No space to take all. This makes me happy. It breaks the jinx that when young people initiate idea, the older ones don't fall in line. It is not true. It depends, if the idea is vibrant, you'll be amazed. Femi Osofisan asked me how I came up with the idea; I say 'it was like that.' He was amazed that I thought in that direction. It was same day I got a poem from Olu Obafemi and others. Two great authors who couldn't send me a poem were Odia Ofeimun and J. P. Clark. But do you know that Odia Ofeimun was the first to pick a copy and asked me how much.
You were known as playwright, what informed your diving into this project through poetry?
When I started reading and researching water, the first thing I did was a drama on water. And I discovered that drama, as a medium, is so restrictive for the subject of water. If you look at Wota Na Wota, as drama, you can go beyond the conflict resolution. You try to look at the plot line and the structure of the play. It's so amazing how poetry can accommodate diverse issues. You have freedom in the use of language in poetry. From my research on water, the best way I could accommodate most of the facts about water was in creating poetry on water.
Were all the entries personally submitted or extracted from anthology?
95 percent of the poems were specifically written and sent to me for this anthology, why few of them would tell me to take from already published collections.
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This is a pretty old interview but I only came across it today after I learnt about my former classmate Greg Mbajiorgu's book Wota na Wota or is it "Water Testaments: Anthology of Poems on Water and water-related Issues"?
I must say that the only reason I read the entire interview was because of my own interests in poetry and publishing. But as interviews go, I have never in my life read a more poorly transcribed interview. The publishers should have paid more attention to it.