Early last year, Isang Awah had her debut in Nollywood, with a well acclaimed movie titled Bent Arrows. The star studded movie which paraded the likes of Stella Damasus, Omoni Oboli, Desmond Elliot, Olu Jacobs, Joke Silva, Ngozi Ezeonu and late Enebeli Enebuwa was premiered at Silverbird Cinema in Lagos and also at a similar venue in Abuja. For Isang, that was a major accomplishment, as her movie received great reviews. But Isang Awah is more popular as a writer than any other thing. Harvard-trained Isang said she has been writing since her early years, and today remains a trail blazer in the area of publishing customised books for children in Nigeria. Isang sees writing as her lifestyle. It dominates all that she is presently doing and dictated to her the strategic location of her office in high brow ‘urban shelter estate’ in Katampe, Abuja, few minutes’ walk from her home. So involved is she with children that her four children too play significant roles in her writing and publishing world. She spoke to PAUL UKPABIO, who was in Abuja recently.
AS a child, did you have a dream that you would one day be fulfilled earning a living as an accomplished writer?
To tell you the honest truth, yes, I did at some point. I have always had this vivid memory of when I was about seven years old playing in a garden, reading a book about a little girl who grew up to become a writer. And in that moment, something connected in my spirit and I wanted to grow up to be a writer. But somehow as I grew up, I developed other interests because when I was in secondary school, I was good in both arts and science subjects. Everybody encouraged me to go into the study of the sciences.
Way back then too, writing wasn’t really seen as a profession. So it wasn’t there as an option like something you had to go to school and do. That sort of left out for me the dream of becoming a writer. I therefore pursued other interests until a few years ago when I re-considered and decided to go back to school and do a Masters in Literature and Creative Writing. But the truth is even though I went on to pursue other things like going into the university for a degree in Bio-Chemistry, I was always writing through the years. I have always been into writing of poems, songs, stories and scripts. Writing never left me. I have always been writing one thing or another.
Tell us, what kind of childhood did you have?
I had a regular childhood; I grew up in a normal home with father, mother and siblings. I am a middle child. We had a lot of fun; we lived in different places, Calabar and Cameroun before returning to Nigeria. My father had a job that took him to Cameroun. I will say I was more attached to my mother. She was a teacher, which gave her more time to be with us at home. She was also a maternal person in nature. She spent time with us. She was very creative; during holidays, we had drama plays at home and we did all kinds of fun things. She was a creative person, baked, cooked and organised all sorts of fun activities for us.
Naturally, I was more drawn to her. I remember that she taught me how to be myself and why I ought to love the things that I love doing. From both my parents, I learnt that hard work is very important, also discipline, focusing to do what you choose and desire to do and honesty. These were values that they passed unto us.
I would say that my parents gave me the most wonderful gift any child could have. They made me have and believe that I should be confident. They made me to see that I could achieve anything that I set my eyes to do. I grew up believing that there is nothing that I cannot do. Knowing that gave me the confidence to pursue the dreams that I have been having through the years.
When you look back, what memories of childhood come readily to your mind?
We used to do lot of drama sketches from popular books then, most especially when we children were on school holidays, it was fun. Incidentally, none of us was interested in taking up career acting in front of the camera. On my part, I developed the creative aspect of me and love creativity. But at the same time, I love to be behind the scene. Even when I was actively involved in film production, I wanted to be behind the camera and not in front of the camera. You have to believe me, I am a very shy person though people don’t believe me when I say so.
How about your educational background?
I have a first degree in Bio-Chemistry and a Master Degree in Literature/Creative Writing. The two are far apart. I got a degree in science because I was good in the sciences; I worked in a savings and loan bank for a while before moving to a community bank in Akwa Ibom State. But when I got married, I decided along with my husband, that I should be a stay-at-home mom to personally raise the children. Through those years, I kept on writing because I cannot think of anytime in my life that I was not writing.
Much later, I found out that it was not just enough to have a talent. So it dawned on me that I ought to also get training in it. Though I did attend one or two courses along the line on writing, but it got to a point where I decided that I should have a professional training. Initially, I was in a dilemma about which school to go to. There was the option of a film school. But then again, I thought that would limit me to writing scripts. I consider myself to be a broad-based writer; I wanted to be able to write different kinds of thing. I had always had that freedom to write anything, so I finally settled for Literature and Creative Writing. I got accepted at Harvard University to study Literature and Creative Arts. The beautiful thing about that was that I was able to take courses in advanced writing, advanced script writing, shorts stories and writing novels. That met with my needs because I didn’t just want to know how to write scripts alone, I wanted to get training in doing every part of writing. So that was what Harvard did for me.
Tell us about your stay at Harvard.
First of all, it is a great, fantastic place to study; a place where you get not just the ideal facilities but also a fantastic place in terms of gathering so many fantastic people to be your professors that is lecturers, the best of them teaches you there. I remember my first semester, I did a course in advanced fiction and I was taught by a man who few months after we finished that course won the Pulitzer Prize. So that is what Harvard is about, the people that teach you are the people winning awards in one field or the other. So it is a great place to be. I didn’t see myself there particularly as just an African, though for most of the courses that I took there, I was the only black, the only African. But then, I didn’t think much of it like that because I was there just like any other person. The truth is I felt privileged to attend those classes because I did learn so much there.
What did you take out of Harvard?
I don’t know if this was limited to my field or not, but what I loved about Harvard was, we were taught how to write, for instance, scripts by developing them yourself. The same thing went for novels. At the novel class, I had to work on my own novel. The same thing went for short stories. It wasn’t a theoretical thing; it was very much a practical one, after which we critiqued each other’s works. For me, my first degree was far apart from what I went to Harvard to do, so I didn’t have that background in Nigeria and I wouldn’t know because I didn’t study that here. As a person, I think it is a fantastic way to teach people through practical, instead of just reading and reading. So it was a great experience for me being there, I think going to a place like that to study broadened my view and taught me how to dream big and know that there is nothing you cannot do once you set your mind on it.
You are married, how did you meet your spouse?
(Laughs) The first time we met was at a fellowship but I didn’t think much about it. I don’t think we talked at our first meeting. It was much later that he came to my office. I was working at the bank then; he asked to take me out for lunch. We ended up postponing the lunch till a much later time. I later got to visit him in his office, though I was initially reluctant about doing that. Incidentally, where he was working was not far from my home. When I got to visit him, I found out that he is a very interesting person to be with. We ended up talking about a lot of things. We spent about two, three hours just gisting. And that was different for me because I had stereotyped Christian guys as being boring people.
I used to think one could not have a regular conversation with them except to talk about religious things. Though I am a Christian too, but I had always been a fun person who likes to be myself. Since I met him at a fellowship, I had boxed him into that kind of person. Surprisingly, what I saw when I met him was different. I was surprised because we didn’t talk about church or any of such things. We talked about other things and it was even difficult to remember what we were talking about! I enjoyed talking to him. The friendship developed from there.
There were many things that influenced my choice of a marriage partner: he is a very fantastic person, wonderful, I honestly do not know anybody like him. He is a great person to be with. He wants the best about me, sweet and loving. Of course, he is very good looking too: Though the most important part was that I prayed about it before I got married to him. I was convinced that this is the person that God wanted me to be with. We enjoy a good friendship. We gisted a lot and I’m shy about the telephone bill that I must have been piling for my father way back then because I was still at home. We gisted into the nights, went out on date and amazingly, it is still that way now, though we have now been married for over 18 years. We still enjoy talking to each other; we enjoy each other’s company tremendously.
How about your family life?
We are blessed with four fabulous, wonderful children. They are fun kids, two boys and two girls. They take part in what I am doing, I believe so much in team work. The books that I am writing now for My Rainbow Books are all about children. So when I get a story idea, I know that my first audience is the children. So I tell the story to my children first. I then watch to see their reactions. Not just what they say, but also their facial reactions too. That way I get their feedback. When I do not get the right feedback from them, I drop such story idea. That is because as children, they know what appeals to them. They are in position to know what works for them.
Not just the story alone, even with the illustrations, I call them together to ask what they think of it. For instance, when I was doing ‘the super hero story,’ I called my son and asked him for his idea and illustration of a super hero. From there, I made adjustments. They are greatly involved in my work. And they love what I am doing.
What is My Rainbow Books about?
It is an educational publications company that is committed to endearing a reading culture in Nigeria through the publication of well written and properly illustrated story books. We are not a regular publishing house. For instance, you cannot find our books at bookshops because we make customised books. It has to be ordered for weddings, graduation parties, birthday and other celebrations. We do not make books and keep for people to order. Instead, we make books that you order and use immediately. From your order, which comes with details about the child, his or her friends and the pictures, we make personalised books. The book stands out the child as the main character, a hero or heroine as the case may be, while the child’s friends are support characters. The books are also to instill the right values in children. It is also a way of making children to read more and be interested inside of them. It also builds the self-esteem of the child as a hero or heroine. All stories teach values such as team work, honesty, courage and so on. Princess Me, for instance, teaches girls what makes a princess; that being a princess is not just about looking good like the fairy tale princess, but that you have to be kind and have a good heart. Another book The Race is a motivational story and so on.
Let’s talk about your work environment
Oh that (laughs cheerfully)? When we were setting up the office at first, we got the regular furniture and furnishing, but I remembered that I am working for children, so it need not be just an office. I wanted it to also be a place that children could come in to read. I therefore had to give out some of the furniture that we had already ordered and got these colourful chairs and table and decided to fix shelves where we could keep different kinds of book for children and where children could walk in and read too.
At some point, we were running a weekend literary club for children here. But we had to suspend that few months ago because we were so overwhelmed with work. Then we also had the summer camp on our hands. We started a summer camp in 2012 and had another this year. It is not camp for study; it is basically a fun camp for children. We do all kinds of creative activities, the children are taught and given opportunity to make puppets and other creative things like colorful visors, it is a fun camp for art and craft and lasts five weeks. The children always have amazing periods here.
Obviously, you now have a handful load of things to do with children. What about film production that you have started doing?
Definitely, I will go back on set sometime in the future. What I am doing right now is very demanding, and I am the type of person that likes giving my best concentration to whatever project that I am handling. I knew that to be able to berth this vision properly, I needed to put a pause on films and other things. But it’s a pause, so sooner or later; I’ll un-pause that button and get back to making films. But this is a very intense project. I do not just write the stories, I also run the company. You know the process of getting a book ready is quite tedious and demanding. When I am through with the story, I have to send to the editor in New York and when that is through, I get in touch with the illustrators and that takes a lot of time. We go back and forth with adjustments until we get it all right. It takes time administering the staff too. So there is no way I could be doing this and making films at the same time. I have to grow this business, have enough hands to run it before I can afford to step back and return to films. I really do love film making though.
A career as a writer, is it working out for you?
I will say so far so good, yes it is working out.
Do you have any memorable holiday?
I have many memorable holidays. I think my most memorable I can readily think of right now should be the 2008 vacation in the USA. What made it memorable is that we went on a cruise to the Bahamas, and then when we got there, we took another cruise back to the US. It was interesting because that was the first time I was on a cruise and I was there with my husband and children.
Every vacation has been memorable but I really remember that one. I also remember it because while on the return journey, my second son turned nine and we had a surprise birthday party for him on the cruise. He was very happy, amazed because he didn’t know anything about it. We were all on the dinner table when the cake was brought to him and then everyone was singing happy birthday to him. He was shocked; he didn’t know what to say.
Your fashion sense…?
Oh, I’m pretty laid back. I do not think I have much of fashion sense; I am always in jeans. For me, my number one fashion thing is comfort but that doesn’t mean that I do not wear some other things. I love things that fit me and once in a while, I have my real moments when I really dress up for an evening party! My fashion actually depends on my mood. Perhaps I wear more of jeans because I work more with children these days. So I do not feel I have to be in heels or in stilettos and skirt suits. Ha that! I really can’t remember when last I was in something like that.
Again, right now, my husband and I are involved in a youth church; that encourages much of casual dressing. So I do not feel that I have to be decked up like that.
Just like my fashion sense, my colour depends on my mood. I love olive green; I think it is a lovely colour. It is everywhere here. For leisure, we go out a lot, sometimes with our children. It depends on what activity we have. I am involved in other things apart from my regular work. For instance, my husband pastors a youth church. Right now, we have a programme called ‘from my closet to your closet.’ Basically it is about people bringing out things that they do not need or have grown out of to give to others. We dry-clean these things and make them available to other people in real need of them.
I love to spend time with my family, with my husband; we create a lot of fun moment when we are together and we crack jokes and the like. I have a niece staying with us presently, she is a fabulous person. We are all friends, we laugh and clown, and we tease each other a lot. You just have to have a good sense of humour with us. We watch home movies a lot too. We go to the cinema, hang out and do different kinds of stuff. And because the church is a youth church, we are always having all kinds of programme that bring about fun. Sometimes it’s a football match and at other times, we show Christian films. Sometimes too, it’s a dinner.
What inspires you? Where do you get your motivation from?
Absolutely, it comes from God. When I get an inspiration, I know it’s Him directing me and showing me what to do. For instance, I had this desire to use writing to influence lives, a desire to get trained on how to write, and at the end of the programme, I had this idea about personalised books. So it’s God that did all that. Interestingly, I used to tell my children bed time stories when they were very young. So it has always been there, but the time was not just right then to birth the dream. God speaks to us in different ways; even when you think that you can’t, God makes a way where there is no way. Once you hold on to God, He gives you a dream.
I recently had a dream of having a creative competition for children that will lead them to getting published. For a period, I didn’t know how to go about it, but now, I have such tremendous support concerning it. The competition is annually organised by My Rainbow Books Limited to help develop children’s creative thinking and writing skills. It is opened to children aged five to 16 years. Individuals could make an entry or a school could send a group entry. It runs between October and December 31. We would be putting together a compilation of the best entries and publish them. I know it’s God’s favour. I will like to urge everyone to live their lives to the fullest. Everyone is created for a high calling and for a purpose. There’s something you were created to do, when you discover it, it will give meaning to your life. And once you begin to live your life according to the purpose, then you will find fulfillment. To discover purpose, one has to be in line with God.
Abuja as a place, how does it work for you?
Though I know I have a bigger market for me in Lagos, which I intend to explore, but what is fantastic about Abuja is that it is central; we can reach to people in the North and other parts of the country easily.
