Ikeogu Oke is an Abuja-based poet, author, and writer who is not afraid to ask questions in his lyrics. Writing a foreword to his latest work, In the Wings of Waiting, South African Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer noted that Oke is one of the best poets of his generation. In 2010, his work, Salutes Without Guns, won the Times Literary Supplement Book of the year. In this encounter with Edozie Udeze, he recounts how his journey as a writer began and why he finds it much easier writing poetry
When you write, what is the primary motivating factor?
I try, as a matter speaking to empty my heart, my whole self into what I do. Which means that I am a writer driven by passion for sincerity. So, it is a lot more about character and also about the character that I write about. I wish I can always make all my writings crispy and then create a better world than we find ourselves currently.
When you write, what really inspires you?
Emm… Well, I am always open to whatever goes on around me. As a poet, I am close to nature. I love nature and explore nature to my own advantage. I believe that nature helps to inspire and stimulate a poet and then fire his imagination. This helps him to produce quality and engaging poetry. I try also to reflect the society, to point out the ills of the country.
When I also write features or short fiction, I try to put in a lot of imagination into it in order to let the world know what is happening. In all these, you cannot run away from the things you’ve also experienced in life. That too helps to bring out the issues that bother you as a writer.
When the inspiration comes and you are in transit, what do you do?
Yes, I have written quite a few things in transit, especially poetry. There was a time when I used to write a lot while in transit. But when I have a lot of ideas now running in my brain, I try to jot them down. Sometimes too, when I am busy pursuing some projects, I move around with some writing materials. That way it makes it easier for me to note whatever comes into my mind and then develop it later.
At what point in your life did you decide to become a writer?
Well, it was shortly after I left secondary school. There was this period when I taught briefly. It was then it struck me to be a writer, even though my father had wanted me to be a medical doctor. But then I was deeply involved in a lot of poems written by both African and foreign poets. Most of them were my father’s books and professional magazines.
At a point it struck me that I could write my own stories to replicate some of those issues that I’d read. Apparently, I had this natural flair for poetry and I went on to explore that. So I remember writing my first poetry around 1987 and I sent it and it was considered a good one. So I have been writing since then.
Who are your favourite authors?
Hmm, there’re quite a number of them. I enjoy writings by Plato, philosophers who have touched humanity greatly. I love the writings of Professor Wole Soyinka. I have a league of authors who have touched and inspired me tremendously. It is a large number and I will be doing them a lot of discredit if I mentain some and leave some out.
Then, if you met any of them, what will you say to him or her?
Emm…well, I will first ask him what is behind the magic wand? How do you conjure your words? when you write, what are the issues that bother you? When you write what are the things to be done? And much more.
Why did you choose to be a poet?
I didn’t really choose that. I think it was poetry that chose me; that discovered me, so to say! This is so because my first encounter with poetry, well, I was not really a literature student in secondary school. So, when I left secondary school I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself. Therefore, I started reading whatever I could lay my hands on. It was some of those magazines which contained a lot of poems that did the magic. Well, the articles weren’t for literature, but the poems were. Then I realised that I have the right kind of imaginative orientation that could produce poetry.
So my preference for poetry began from that point. I also felt poetry is the heart of literature and much more impressive than all other genres of literature. It has therefore become the most natural thing for me to do as a writer.
What character or characters in all the books you have read that struck you most?
There are many. But one of the most outstanding is Okonkwo. This is for all his weaknesses, all his negative threats. In all these, he is also positive because he laid the background for creating a realistic and more historic situation in Africa. Through the efforts of the author who created him, we could see an icon who stood up for what he believed in; a character who symbolised the African spirit of his time and even for today.
Chinua Achebe created that character to prove the brevity and boldness of the African person when faced with issues that somewhat pose as a dilemma to him.
How do you arrange your library?
I have had some books over the years and I have packed them up some place in my house. But when I buy new ones, I keep them in my bedroom. It is easier to have access to them to read when they are closer to me like that. I can go back to the old ones from time to time if need be.
Are you a re-reader?
Well, I am a kind of a re-reader. But once in a while when I have a poem I so much like, I go back to it. When I am struck with it, I go back to get the full gist one more time.
There’re other things I read and I realised that I didn’t fully get it, then later I go back to get it right. That helps me also to write better and clearer when I am set to do so. But above all, in creative works, the more you read a particular book, the more you understand it. The more you read, the more you appreciate how others have done their own works, how they have been able to chronicle their stories convincingly.
If you have your way again will you still want to be a writer?
Always, yes. That’s what I’ll always want to be, a writer, recreating the world, making people happy, seeing the world as it really is. Writing, to me, is a sanitiser. It is a mirror of some sort. In fact, I don’t know how I could have managed my life without the impact of literature on my life. I have had experiences that possibly could have destroyed my mind. In those instances I found writing as a sort of relief, a sanitiser of sorts. Writing has helped me on many occasions to quell tensions inside of me and with that, I have been able to manage my life very well. Writing is something I wouldn’t like to part with in this life. It is a good tonic for me, often positive, at other times negative. But it is worth it.
