If devotion means great love, care, support and enthusiasm about something, then Ogochukwu Promise can be said to have a strong devotion to books. Determined to squelch the solitude that comes with being an only child, the young Ogochukwu found solace in books early in life. After many years that action would snowball into an incurable appetite for books, culminating in a Ph.D dissertation in Publishing. Practically, Ogochukwu has done well to animate her love for literature. In 1999, she received the Cadbury Prize for poetry with her collection of poems: My Mother’s Eyes Speak Volumes, while her novel, Surveyor Of Dreams got the 1999 Spectrum Prize for prose. In 2000, she was awarded the Okigbo Prize for Poetry in Africa for her collection: Canals In Paradox. She was honoured with the Spectrum Prize for prose also in 2000 for her novel, Deep Blue Woman. In 2002, she earned the maiden ANA/NDDC Prize with her widely-acclaimed novel, Hall Of Memories, as well as The Matatu Prize for Children’s Literature with her children’s book, The Street Beggars. In November 2003, she also bagged the Flora Nwapa Prize for prose with her novel entitled Fumes and Cymbals. The following year, she became a nominee of the British Council Leadership Award in Communication. Her fourth novel, In the Middle of the Night won the first Pat Utomi Book Prize in 2005, while her fifth novel, Swollen and Rotten Spaces won the 2005 Flora Nwapa Prize for Literature. In the same year, her poetry collection, Naked Among These Hills was selected as one of the three best poetry books in Nigeria for the Nigeria LNG Prize. The founder of the Lumina Foundation, promoters of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature, tells her story in this interview with MICHAEL MUKWUZI
Q: How did the ‘book thing’ begin for Promise Ogochukwu?
A: I think I have always tried my hands on writing as far as I can remember. In fact, when I was as young as 10 years old, my parents encouraged me a great deal to do my scribbling then and they encouraged me to go all the way to pursue my educational ambition. I am sure if anybody had put a hitch between me and my writings maybe my dreams could have been punctuated but I had encouragement all through and it was fun writing, having people read my works, and listening to feedback from readers even at that stage and that encouraged me a great deal to grow myself .
Q: Growing up, what was the biggest challenge for you in trying to animate your dreams?
A: You know, as an only child being alone was an issue. But over time it became fun for me as I found company in myself and in the books I read. Loneliness offered me opportunity to lean towards reading, looking through the library to find out what people have written to aid me in my life and to help me develop myself. I think the biggest challenge was having to be alone and your mates would be asking you: ‘where are your brothers and sisters?’ At that young age you had to find ways to deal with such questions.
But good enough, my parents encouraged me by telling me that it was a good time for me to have all of these books as sisters, brothers and friends.
Q: How did it feel when you were first published?
A: I was elated. It was Craft Books, they delivered the book to me at Enugu and I was with my parents. That was around 1994; we all looked forward to it, we dreamt it and I couldn’t believe it when it was delivered into my hands. I was used to reading people but having people read me was quite an experience. It was a collection of short stories titled Cold Journey into the Mind. I have always been tied with the mind right from my younger years. I have always wondered how to grow the mind, what the mind does, how the mind influences the body and things around it. It is the journey of the mind towards self-actualisation and towards reaching out to assist others and helping little babies.
Q: From the first day you got published till date what has changed about Promise Ogochukwu in terms of your experience and worldview?
A: When you read, you grow a certain perspective about people around you and about life generally; you nurture the mind, you build it. I think over the years I have learnt a lot through reading, through meeting people and through meeting the characters that I read in the books. And I also see these characters in the streets and I see them as my friends. I think I have learnt a great deal and much of what I have learnt have gone into my writing, from which I believe people are benefiting as well.
Q: So in what ways has Lumina Foundation helped to achieve these objectives?
A: When you set up a foundation, no matter how you try you discover that a lot of you goes into what you are doing. As I said, I always believe in reading. I have always believed in generating and disseminating knowledge. So we’ve tried to input that into the Lumina Foundation. We’ve set up the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, which edifies man and talks about the growth of the mind and all the beauty around it. Soyinka as you know is the first African Nobel Laureate in Literature. Through that we try to encourage those who are writing not just to scribble but to really put themselves in what they are writing, to really develop the art of writing so that they become successful in it and affect people positively.
In addition to that, we have started what we call the Mobile Library Scheme. We have about four buses via which we take books to indigent children in places like Ajegunle and Ijora. We have two buses dedicated to each zone. We are trying to get people to assist us. The first time I went there I cried. You had children on queue to collect these books. The fear we had then was that they were going to mess up these books and all that. We gave them book markers and we asked them to be very responsible and taught them how to read, how to mark wherever you have stopped so that next time you continue from there; and how to finish a short book of about 60-80 pages in a week. And the next week when we took the buses back there they were all lined up to return the books and collect new ones, you could see them, some in rags and all that, but they were reading. It touched me that they liked reading and had that zeal for knowledge. For me it was a beautiful thing and I was ready to give everything I had to buy more books and fill up the library. We also have what we call the African Easy To Read Books, where we generate books across Africa. We write to many publishers and writers–those who can write short stories–because we realised that people keep saying we don’t have the time to read long stories and all that; we’d rather use our meagre resources to buy garri and some food. But we are saying these top executives, while you are on the car and going home in intense traffic you can finish a novel. We’ve worked it out that each novel can be read under maximum of 40 minutes, so no complain about time, and in any case we should be managers of time, time shouldn’t manage us.
So we are trying to inculcate these reading habits in as many people as possible, including the professors, because you find out that someone is a professor yet he has become an illiterate because he can’t remember the last time he opened a book to read. We also have a lot of novels which we have encouraged African writers to write and we have published them. The next thing is, now I am going round as many schools as possible, in fact we have about 160 private schools where I travelled around to do motivational talks. Before now I went outside Nigeria to give motivational talks… So I said to myself, why don’t I get the money they pay me and come here to give motivational talks free of charge. So I just go round, talk to them, boys and girls, on how to grow themselves and get accomplished in life. We keep talking about government and all that, but I think if individuals beginning something on their own, something that can add a little to the improvement of the collective unit, I don’t see why we shouldn’t do it. I have started that and have done three motivational books and the results have been positive in terms of acceptance. It is good and makes me happy, it shows that people are hungry for knowledge and they want to get as much as possible. I think if I can reach out to my people, then I am fulfilled.
Q: Considering your love for books, do think your foray into the banking industry was an error?
A: No, it wasn’t. For me you have to start somewhere. When I was at Liberty Bank I knew I wasn’t going to end up a banker. But I wanted to have the experience, just like when I went to work abroad. I wanted to know how to set up structures, how to be able manage people, manage my superiors and my subordinates. I needed that and I needed an office setting to be able to grow in that regard. So I did a stint abroad in communication and came back to do banking as well and I needed to do a few things. I think I was there for four years and said that I had enough. They didn’t like it that I was leaving, but I had to leave because I had to start this foundation and I had gained considerable knowledge that I knew I could keep working on.
Q: You have been able to achieve gainful enterprise from your strong passion for books. How did you do it?
A: The secret is that people must be made to have value for books. For those who are reading I will ask them to read and digest it properly. If they are beautiful things that they found in the book that would aid the growth of their lives, they should put that into action. And for those who are writing, I would advise that when you write your books, do not just give it out. Let people have value for books. Let people know that you are supposed to make a living from your writing. It was actually an elderly writer that told me that when I used to give out my books. I gave him my book for gratis but he insisted that he must pay for it. And I realised that it was actually good because it helps you to have a solid base; it helps not just to believe in your capabilities but to see that your capabilities can actually enhance your livelihood and you can actually make a living out of what you write. You can actually earn money, earn financial well being and every other good thing from what you do. You should be able to let what you do make you self-sufficient. For those who write, I would say do not give out your books, let your friends pay to have a bit of what you are offering. For instance if an architect designs a house for you, you must pay for it. And it even helps you to value that thing more. You find out that when you pay for something, you tend to value it more.
Q: What would you consider the biggest headache to reading culture in Nigeria?
A: I think it is attitudinal and also misplaced priority. I have had to witness a society lady who was asked to get a N400 book for a child and another person was there selling jewellery worth about N45,000. She refused to buy the book but went ahead to buy all the jewellery. So you can’t tell me that such a person doesn’t have money? It is a problem of misplaced priority. Also I don’t see why a child would be celebrating a birthday and all you can get for him is a Teddy bear or things that are ephemeral. Why don’t you get things that would ennoble the child and make him grow and get ahead with life. If you want a Teddy bear you can have it but have books first, then every other thing can follow. That’s how it works.
Q: At Lumina Foundation you have set out huge objectives. How do you tackle funding?
A: Funding is always a challenge because the scope of what I want to do is so much, but at the same time I must contain it within affordable limit. But I have well meaning individuals who support what is good. When people see what is good, forget about the fact that Nigeria is what we say it is, we still have a number of people who want to do good, who want to support good projects, especially knowledge-based projects. I have companies who know the authenticity of what we are doing, who come to see and appreciate and they want to be part of this growth system in which we are trying to bring a lot of people up. It is not just talking about it, but you talk the talk and walk the walk. In fact, the walk is more important for me than the talk. I also have a couple of my trustees that are supportive.
Q: How do you intend to benchmark the impact of your work on the society?
A: For now I think I am only just beginning. I keep appraising and re-appraising because I believe that an examined life is a decent one. Maybe in the next 10 years I’ll have a vision of where I want to be in the next decade.
Q: What has been the lowest and highest point for you so far?
A: The lowest point was when I started. It is always difficult for you to sell a dream that only you can interpret and sometimes even difficult for you to interpret because it is just a dream and you haven’t even started doing anything. And that is why basically I had to start with my own funds. I had to save every kobo that they paid me in the bank to start up . Sometimes you realise that no matter how beautiful your dreams are, you have to drive the dreams. In doing that, you drive it with your own resources. The argument is that if you really believe in it, you must be ready to invest so much in it, so I gave everything. Atimes I had to look for money to eat, but it helped me a lot. The highest point was when I published five kids; the youngest one was seven and the oldest one was 12. I published them and they had to meet other young ones to read their works and I could see the excitement in their faces and it was fulfilling for me that I could get these kids to concentrate and be able to write meaningfully. Now we have started a TV programme on NTA in which people will phone in from home to talk about the books they have read and we respond to that.
Did you Enjoy this story? you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Random Post
- February 23, 2009 -- Chasing Category One (0)
- April 15, 2008 -- LAGOS/Female Child Kidnapper (0)
- June 30, 2008 -- ABUJA/ Return Of The Leader (0)
- February 5, 2009 -- Quotes; 9 February, 2009 (0)
- December 14, 2009 -- The Way Forward (0)
- December 9, 2009 -- Hello world! (1)
- April 7, 2008 -- Merchants Of Death (1)
- September 29, 2008 -- ILORIN/Making Kwara Malaria-Free (0)
- July 28, 2008 -- Energy (1)
- February 5, 2010 -- A Cry For Justice (5)
No tags for this post.
Related posts
Comment