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HARUNA PENNI IN THE THROES OF LITERARY EXCELLENCE: AN INTERVIEW OF CREATIVE MATTERS

Dr. HARUNA PENNI was Founder of the Association of Nigerian Authors in FCT on the June 10th June 1996 and later became its Chairman during which time he planned, executed and attended literary programs of foreign  bodies and Nigerian MDAs, NGOs and IGOs. He gathered, edited and published poetry anthology titled Abuja Acolytes in 2002 and also promoted literary outreach programs in FCT Schools and donated 500 literature books.

He led Nigerian authors to interface with UBE, NERDC, NCAC, NCC to fulfill their regulatory requirements. On account of this, he was appointed Secretary General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission’s Central Working Committee which handles its copyright enlightenment programs in higher institutions of learning in Nigeria. He has a sizeable number of published works cutting across genre.

Below is a full-blast interview he granted me. Enjoy the fireworks and don’t forget to drop your comment.

GOTNAME: WHAT ARE THE DEBILITATING FACTORS YOU ENCOUNTERED IN THE COURSE OF YOUR WRITING CAREER AS A NIGERIAN?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: Some of the difficulties encountered by the authors in the incubation process may come from internal sources and the external environment. Some of the impediments are controllable while others are not, come what may. The author must have the tenacity and discipline to sit down long into the night to offload that story bugging him in the head. It is not a matter of being gifted as it has to translate into core hardware.

When the still-born ideas are finally delivered, the author no matter how good in English and conversant with the fact of the matter should still subject his work to critical review, content analysis, proof-reading, sub-editing and the consequent legalism. In this regard, it is said that the freedom to impart ideas not only come with responsibility of self-censorship but with having to face the temerity of the consequences of the communication from an aggrieved party.

On the other hand, the difficulties in the external environment of the author is the debilitating effect of having to engage primarily in other salaried occupation and still squeeze out the remaining time for writing which might not be enough for immediate impact. Generally speaking, creative writing may not bring daily food on the table. In this perhaps, is the proverbial low reading culture which contribute to this malady.

It is in the public domain that all our iconoclastic authors eked out a living outside authorship as some of them have professional training outside creative writing which fetched them primary employment – Chinua Achebe, Cyprian  Nkwensi, Elechi Amadi, Wole Soyinka, Denja Abdullahi and All ANA Presidents and myself. In fact, I did a profiling of poetry contributors of FCT ANA anthology of poems published in 2002 and I discovered that a reading of the resume of contributors reveals about 20% as journalism practitioners, 20% journalism educators, 20% literary dons, 20% literary graduates and 10% others.

A breakdown of the contributor’s educational background on the profile page shows about 20% with doctorate degrees in literature, 20% master’s degrees in literature, 30% masters/post graduate qualifications in mass communication, 20% with other degrees/graduate awards and 10% with gifted abilities. Equally, 90% of the contributors are in the senior service appointments with experience spanning several years of post-graduate qualification at management positions in Abuja.

In addition, there is no longer a thriving publishing culture in the country. It is now publishing for cash under subsidy or vanity conditions. And such works especially vanity publishing suffers from capacity for secondary opinion as it is a one man riot act. The so called subsidy publishing where both parties contribute to get the work printed is a big scam as the author’s financial contribution alone would handle the printing cost. So as there are no publishers only printers, authors resort to vanity and subsidy publishing at the risk of quality control indicators.

However, there is a different attitude by these publishers to works recommended as prescribed text for use in schools. Our publishers literarily begged such authors to publish their works free of any financial charge with a paltry royalty later credited to the author’s bank account, while they cart away the biggest portion. As there are limited ways for the author to control the volume of printing and sales, he is often at the receiving end of the subsidy printing arrangement. That’s why I think it’s a scam.

During a literary out-reach programme I undertook in four secondary schools after winning the German Heinrich Boll Foundation grant, literature teachers told me students, schools and parental prefer selecting WASC subjects outside literature in order to become medical doctors, and engineers to avoid the Achibe’s depiction of Okonkwo’s father artist Nnoka as an Efulefu. Thus there is a growing misgiving for the literary arts as it is not yet regarded a profession other than teaching which parents encourage their wards to shun.

Another debilitating factor is the advent of the information superhighway which promote online reading of texts thereby replacing the book printing and reading. It is an interesting development as its about convergences of technologies to the homes and mobile handsets which can be carried about. As the ‘crazy man in town’ it is becoming increasingly difficult for the book to match its capability and effectiveness in appeal for the happy-go-luck youths.

Finally, as an arts administrator, I have commentated severally on the adverse policies and roles of governmental and inter-governmental regulatory bodies purportedly established to oversee and promote literary endeavors and the performers. I discovered that instead of strictly doing that, the bodies are feasting on authors, playwright, artistes and ensemble. I had wondered at a situation where even vanity published authors would be required to pay and donate his or her books free to these government bodies in the course of overseeing their roles in this regard.

This is when the authors just require their almighty interface inform of review and recommendation by bodies such as  NERDC, MOE, NLB, NCC, ERC, NCAC etc. In case of NCAC instead of bankrolling the existing authors’ bodies, at a time it went ahead to create its own poetry society to utilize the budget meant to promote exiting literary bodies and their practitioners, likewise the copyright bodies charging authors to pay and donate several mandatory copies for copyright registration which is also over-priced to the chagrin and liability of the authors.

It is the same cup of bitter tea served by the National Library Board requiring authors to pay for ISBN and handover several free copies. This also included Ministry of Education and the NTA that blackmail authors to freely ‘donate’ up to thirty copies to ostensibly distribute to even their shop floor operatives to avoid their television coverage blackout.

GOTNAME: WHAT IS THE ATTITUDE OF YOUR PARENTS, SIBLINGS, SPOUSE AND CHILDREN TO YOUR WRITING CAREER?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: I believe writing activities is beyond the family. It is for independent minded person with an immutable message to delivery. I am not writing the minds of my either father, mother or spouse. I write what I perceive and take personal responsibility. So writing to me is beyond family sufferance, it is my life and they have theirs. Everybody has his own targeted aspects. We don’t interfere except to encourage creativity and inventively in my family.

However, when I was much younger my fiancée was always baffled why I should go for the books, pointing out that after all books  doesn’t bring food on the table.  And when I was memorizing aloud and acting out a script line for a drama presentation in NTA Port Harcourt in 1977 aloud my parents thought I had gone nuts. However, with a good story need conflict that could lead to death, an author once told me that his mother was against all such dramatic highpoints but the oddities of news elements are the factors controlling the characters, plots, dialogues etc. which according to her was to avert the reverberating consequences on the negative creations on the creators’ actual life.

I think that writers from affluent and literate family background display more freedom and understanding from their parents who encourage them to actualize their potential than otherwise. Those poor parents normally show preference for their children to concentrate on the professions to bring money into the family in order to uplift them. That was the reasons they encourage them to dump literature in preference for science subjects in school certificate and choice of university courses.  When this is done, their latent creative potentials are kept in abeyance until he or she matures to start afresh honing such skills. I am not however undermining the capability of the pure sciences to leapfrog our development strides as every alphabet and letter has its different noggins.

Like earlier said, the advent of the Internet in our homes has also tended to kill the love for the old printed matters, so that even  print journalism has been relegated to the background as an old school stuff as it is termed analogue era. This is further heightened by its daily intrusion which brought about a unidirectional flow of news and materials from the Nollywood, Bollywood, Dollywood and Kanowood soap operas and films that took the shine off literature making every school pupils to want to be part of the revolution. So we are gradually witnessing the death blow of concepts like arts for arts in favor of arts for survival or no arts at all.

GOTNAME: AS A CHILD DID YOU PLANNED TO BE A WRITER AND BECOME A BETTER AS AN ADULT, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY OUTSIDE WRITING?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI:If I had to re-order my plans as writer given second chance to be a successful writer I will choose mentoring myself by identifying with writes, writers bodies, reading diverse literary works and study creative writing in the university if that will primarily give me food to eat. The last point is crucial to me because I now write and study writing diction, dialogue, forms, styles and literary devices. I discovered that one can do better and easily if he is trained in the field rather than the sitting-next-to-nelly approach. I am also not saying here that those who studied literature without having the talent to engage in the nitty-gritty will automatically find themselves producing great works.

You need to become a conscious man with presence of mind which had eluded me from the beginning. I learnt something later when I represented the Sokoto State in a National Youth Leadership Program at the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre Shere Hills, Jos in 1981. And this was that from the onset I needed to have developed a philosophy in anything I wanted to engage myself into. To me that mean if I had wanted to come up top, I had to plan to be the best. So when I opted for journalism thence public relations and later Administration and M&E, I attended all the Institutes of the professions, participated in conferences, obtained all the academic and professional qualifications and fellowship of the bodies. But with creative writing it came by a matter of serendipity. However, I did my utmost best in its administration and in retooling myself to novel writing which also incidentally culminated in accolades.

If I had also known I would be a creative writer, I would have enmeshed myself in the environment I would later write about. I would have meet old village people for stories, ensnared myself in the story location and participate in their activities since I write cultural novels. You know I am writing a kind of Things Fall Apart of my people. Like I said earlier I would have studied literature in the English in university. I would have effortlessly used my writing for advocacy rather than for mere art communication to entertain even though I am doing just that at this twilight of my life.

GOTNAME: WHAT TIMELINES DO YOU SET TO COMPLETE A BOOK AND WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO ACHIEVE SUCH OBJECTIVES?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: Like I said earlier if you had to work and write it becomes more difficult to concentrate. So if I am writing a sponsored work, I am motivated to set aside time for the money, but when I write on my own volition it has no urgency to me. It is my life and interest. It comes from within and first based on inspiration. I write anytime and anywhere so that when I am inspired with an idea I jot it down to develop later. This inspiration can at best be termed serendipity as I was later to learn from renowned authors such as with Romesh Gunesekera, Jackie kay, Biyi Bandele, Ismail Reed during various writing workshops I attended which were organized by the British Council and the USIS in the early 2000s.

I also observed, listened attentively to stories I am told and also got inspired by the books I read mostly African Writers series. I also developed sheer will power to imitate others and be like them. I tried out practical writing exercises and put-up some sentences or paragraphs. A new trend in writing which, though I do not subscribe, is the funding of syndicated commissioned data gathering research and drafting by the well-to-do. It is very tempting to resist their mouth-watering offers and accompanied niceties.

GOTNAME: CAN WE HAVE INSIGHT INTO YOUR COLLECTIONS INCLUDING ONGOING WORKS?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: I have contributed to two ANA poetry anthologies, published over fifteen articles, more than thirty five general interest features, presented fourteen conference papers/lectures. I have also reviewed, edited, and written for forewords over fifteen novels, poetry, textbooks, journals pamphlets. Some of my works cut across poetry, novels, short stories, textbooks on mass communications, and motivational books as follows:

Applied Public Relations is a 600600-textbook/essay anthology that explores the subjects of public affairs and issues management, appraises applied public relations, and delves into arts journalism practices, while the last part centers on information strategies.

 Mass Media Policies & Practices is a 550550-textbook partly designed to fill the need for a compact treatment of mass media policies and their implementation strategies based on the country’s various national communications sub-sectors policies especially relevant to the ongoing substrate of mass communications.

Effective Family Relations is a 150150-pageok written to foster effective family communication and overcome obstacles to their mutual relationship and their children, neighbors, in-laws, servants, work colleagues, and animal pets by opening channels of communication and action programs mes like celebrating marital anniversaries, wedding/nikah, walima, birthdays, house warming, children graduation ceremonies, etc. It also fulfills the need for a text on public relations in non-governmental publicc relations course of the NIPR. It as well in general aims at abridging the gaps of misunderstanding of the nature and nurture of the human society.

No Going Back is a 250 page  novel  set in Zuru land in Northern Nigeria where the natives gallantly distinguished themselves in martial arts during the rampant pre-independence invasions, world wars and civil crises.  The work recreates this rugged identity of the K’lela in post-modern times despite the foraging influence of diverse alien heritage. As such, the work seeks to reconstruct the canon of indigenous Northern Nigeria Literatures by using the motif of life in Zuru land in present and post-colonial times with its attendant cultural conflicts.

The Rapprochement & other Stories is a 250 page prose anthology                                                                                                                                                                                               housing 22 short proses written over a period of time from different settings in and around the country. It is a distillation of the author’s finest artistry in story form beginning from the first title to the last. The unique proposition of the entire collection rests with its uncanny drift towards achieving a cliff-hanger. This denouement has a melodramatic twist and turns embedded in each story.

ABUJA ACOLYTES is a 150 page poetry anthology awash with 100 scintillating poems composed by 100 members of the Association of Nigerian Authors Abuja Branch and which I edited as secretary /registrar before my ascension as chairman of the chapter in 2002. The work is a confirmation of the ability of man to attain literary heaven-stead.

GOTNAME: WHAT ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE BOOK MARKETING OUTLETS APART FROM THE TRADTIONAL BOOKSHOP?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: There are various methods now available to market books and these include online bookshop,  press release, authors website,  author literary biography,  literary outreaches, seminars, book tours, book fair, outdoor book stand, hotel /airport bookshops, hawking,  missionary bookshops, schools, libraries, social media include Whaps App, FB  etc. The online e-sales platforms include Amazon, Word Press, Kindle, Konga, Jumia, Jiji, etc.

However, my specialty and preference are the launching/presentation as special book events in the communications component of the promotional mix which not only pay off by swelling the pockets of the copy and neighboring right holders but also deepening the reading and writing culture in general. These integrated marketing communicative platforms are innovative approaches that sometimes pick cues from below-the-line advertising to put the book to the reading public at a price. Nevertheless, the above-the-line advertising media is still there to compliment.

It is to fill the gap of the publisher’s irresponsibility that the authors resort to self-publishing and self-promotion and fall back to the communicative element of the marketing strategy to inform the target readers and neighboring right holders to achieve planned and sustainable sales. The book launch draws a cross-section of society to assemble at the venue to access the new work, interact with the author, flipped through the book and engage in general review of the work. This elicits interest in the book and enable the audience go for the copies on the spot.

Unfortunately, the money culture of book launching is lionizing bad writers and valorizing silly romantic, political diaries, collection of speeches and ghosted biographical books at the expense of more serious literature. This tendency brings to question series of complaints whether the books launched with fatter cheques will necessarily steal the wave of enduring readership from the “Greater” works of art and intellect.

However, what a book launching does is merely to announce the birth of the book. I believe it is necessary that those who have money to throw around on mundane things should buy the books during such launches  for libraries, schools and other institutions instead of showing off that the launchers have the have lots of money to throw around. During book launches, the book is revered as it is picked above the cover price, which entitles the purchaser with the Author’s autograph and also a number of events takes place around the theme of the book which adds to its understanding and appeal.

GOTNAME: WHAT DOES FEMINISM, MASCULINISM AND  WOMANISM MEANT TO YOU?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI:I take it you are referring to womanism which is the politics of gender struggles, perception and roles in literature by avant-garde female intellectuals and other middle class members. This paradigm shift is created and accentuated by feminist literary theories and politics of female participation in complex leadership role as well as the feminist psychology and psychoanalysis.

The traditional role of women as baby factory, house help, farm hand, hawker and mere sexual companion is fast undergoing a redefinition.  This is brought about by the advent of radical women organizations acting as pressure groups and the emergence of educated and working females which imposes a redefinition of the duties, rights, privileges and obligations of the married women.  In marriage, she has to be accepted as the deputy chief executive guide of the family, enabling her to be a privy to the formulation and execution of policies and programs of the family like parenthood, house-keeping, family budget planning etc.

However, some men have queried the modern woman by their women liberation, feminism and equality advocacy since they continue to control and manipulate the men to achieve their aims.  But the economic background of a husband is a strong factor in forestalling whether a marriage can hold or not since the wife loses her material security.  This is even aggravated  by the fact that most married women sooner or later assume the role of full-time housewives whose financial position tended to be comparatively weaker.

Conversely, men’s liberation is introduced as well though it is not machismo as feminism is women’s liberation and matriarchies, but it is a masculinists world view. Chinweizu in Anatomy of Female Power defended that men’s liberation flows from women’s liberation meaning already women have power over men. He then called for equality, in hardships and privileges.  He also believed that men may rule the world but women rule the men who rule the world.

Chinweizu further argues that whereas male power tends to be crude, confrontational and direct, female power is subtle, manipulative and indirect, pointing-out that male’s is marked by aggressiveness, female by manoeuvre. He justified that if it is alright for women to be feminist, it is alright for men to therefore defend and protect their own interests too.  What is good for the goose is also good for the gander.

Esther Villar’s in her book entitled “The Manipulated Man” believed women have been manipulating men to the extent of turning them into slaves while pretending to be weak pointing out that women are the real oppressors. She said they pretend and let men work for them, think for them and take on their responsibilities, that in fact, they exploit men noting that matriarchy exist but it is faceless. She believed that women are far from being powerless because they do always get their ways, the methods being different from men.  And that women control power centres which Chienwezu identified as the three pillars of domination which are mother-power, bride-power and or wife-power.

Similar views are captured by Will Farrel in her work christened “The Predatory Female” who also believed like Villar that the societies are matriarchal and not patriarchal and that there is a rivalry between women to own a man for herself who would do her slavish work until he dies and leaves her to take over his estate, and recommended polygamous marriage to free the man from a manipulating wife.

GOTNAME: WHAT IS YOUR ATTITUDE TO BOOK REVEWS ESPECIALLY YOUR WORKS?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: I have written and published quite a sizeable book reviews myself so I don’t begrudge and dictate how a reviewer sees my work. There are processes and procedures in reviewing a general interest book quite different from the review of work published in academic journals or delivered in a seminar except if such works are passed as general reading material. Flowing from that, it becomes necessary to make this distinction as some of these guided researched works in fulfillment of ‘something’ are advertently not stated as such by their authors when later published as books.

Literary book review in the context I will be discussing here is review designed to generate potential readers sufferance directed at the market, unlike the academic ones aimed at meeting the standard of peer reviewers to accept and publish the author for academic excellence. Tired of this years-old repressive convention, a junior professor had once warned that he would start publishing his works on the social media where he has about 3000 quality followers, fans, critics and friends.

Having achieved the disparity I had earlier alluded to, it is necessary to now leapfrog the treatise to the open market of book reviews and literary reviewers. The objectives of this presentation are to spotlight and showcase some of these elements for the good of a review. In the beginning, the review should highlight the book author, title, price, publishers, publishing year, pagination, genre, and reviewer’s name and bottom-line of the book involving the storyline or main theme.

Going forward, the critique should overview the dedication, blurb, imprint or indent the page identifying the commentaries, copyright, publishers, publishing year, ISBN and analyze the foreword, preface, acknowledgement and contents outlines. The reviewer should also situate the context of the work for his readers. It should be viewed within contemporary setting of the times and issues raised by policy-makers, implementers, general public and experts on the theme. This should be done by identifying the central theses of the work.

The reviewer should not stopped at criticizing the work without  inputting his own views on the subject by commenting and arriving at the strength and weakness of the work in main character, central theme, (presentation, tone, form, style etc) message effectiveness etc.

Pursuant to that, he should also provide other valuable information on the book that will assist potential readers to buy-in. The reviewer’s evaluation is critical but not expected to release the denouement, hate or like the book without adducing reasons as he should allow readers to decide. Needless, there is need to also advised that the review should be balanced and not be overly courtesies or critical and to remind that the work is not about the Author or Reviewer.

The reviewer should endeavor to read through the book and not merely view it with a bird’s eye to enable him highlights some aspects of the book chapter by chapter or part by part. This review side may well be what the potential readers need to make up their minds. Lastly, the profile of the author should be provided to enable potential buyers evaluate his standing on the subject of the work. Critical information should be known about the author such as his age, date of birth, location, academic and work qualifications, involvement in the field written, other works written etc.

GOTNAME: DO YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR POEM THAT HAS INFLUENCED YOU TREMEDOUSLY?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: I read the poem “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats in junior secondary school and it touched me to the core. The implication then to my young mind was that as humans were given birth, crawl, mature to play roles in life and later die, so it was with entities like government, schools and colonial administration. I had observed all this happening around me and from that knowledge I gathered from the poem I was no longer surprise what life offers anybody.

The poem goes thus:

The Centre Cannot Hold/Mere Anarchy is Loosed Upon the World/The Blood-Dimmed Tide is Loosed, and Everywhere/The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned/ The Best lack all Conviction/ While the Worst/Are Full of Passionate Intensity.

It is so prophetic and descriptive that over fifteen writers and statesmen have used them as epigraph, introduction, dictum, motto and citations. For Nigeria, Prof Chinua Achebe borrowed a stanza of the Yeats’s poem ‘Things for Apart’ to make prognosis of the collapse of African tribal system threatened by imperialism and the imminent disintegration of the colonialism itself as well as the contraption of a nation they would amalgamate without the peoples’  consent.

But actually W. B. Yeats had meant the poem to capture situation that was occurring in Europe during his time. These included the complexities of colonialism run by European countries against African, Asian and American natives and its eventual collapse. He also projected the division of Europe and the German aggression that would ultimately lead to world wars.

GOTNAME: WHAT IS THE MOST COMPLEX POEM TO WRITE AND SHARE WITH US ONE OF YOUR POEMS?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: The hardest scene of a poem to write depends on the type of poetry that one is writing. Poetry has lots of rules but there is free verse without rules which is more often patronized by naturalists’ poets. To them poetry is just a means of conveying their innermost longings. But technically speaking, a poem is designed to have a number of stanzas and meters’ pattern which could be long or short and which sounds as rhyme. Thus a couplet has 2 line stanza, a tercet 3 line stanza, quatrain 4 line stanza, cinquain 5 line stanza and a sestet meter 6 line stanza.

So we have different types of poems from the libertine with no rules to those regulated such as haiku, a tercet, sonnet-love song of 14 lines, acrostic-spells out word in rhythmic way, villanelle- based on 19 lines rules, limerick- rude poems has rules of line and rhyme, ode-tribute poem in honor, elegy no rules but have subject – death, sad event, and ballad  tells emotional or dramatic story.

*           *           *          

This poem ‘NEW SONG’ was published in Abuja Acolytes: An Anthology of Poems,  in 2000 and the Voices from the Fringe; An ANA Anthology of New Nigerian Poetry edited by  Professor Harry Garuba which was published by Malthus House 2002 for ANA National HQRS.

‘A Step Into My Heart’

In the face of a song, so much desired/You came to stir my thirst and/Despite all quarrel with the voices/I recoil only to rekindle the fire/In  my longing heart now void/I attune my heart only to you/In slow awakening and manifest/I saw your vision to the feat/Of a loving scourge of my heart/Goddess of a roving libertine/You awaken the muse in me/Please send me half the songs/You sing when Hestia is struck /Smear me with those enthralling tunes /Of sweet melodies and reveries.

GOTNAME: YOU HAVE SEVERAL BOOKS CAN YOU SHARE  ONE OF THEM?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: I will choose ‘No Going Back’ which I consider my Magnus-opus. In the novel, Kangu the protagonist had his future foretold by a traditional priest even before moving on later in life to attain the age of marriage. And as he is paying his bridal price through farming for his in-laws, he joins the commercial farming group to travel to Yoruba land.

As at the period of his birth and anointment, Paniland is mired by imperial invasions, slave raids, internecine wars, and European colonization which brought changes in world economic outlook affecting many ancient African kingdoms. However, as he moved outside Paniland, it is to be wondered the extent this development will influence him to kowtow in fulfillment the village prophecy in the midst of tempting interactions with other cultures and civilizations. Can he beat the new life or should he accept it if he cannot effectively confront it?

His respond to this development is to join the colonial army which took him to foreign lands and secession warfare. This made him involve in the attempt at regime change which could catapult him to the headship of the army or else face the consequences of his temerity. Kangu had undergone social-economic orientation in his youthful age; with expositions in folklores, archery, drumming, communal farming, age grade initiation, golmo martial training, wrestling, hunting and mining. He was inducted into the senior men’s cult.

The stories in this novel runs into two parts, with the first narrating Kangu in the family and cultural milieu majorly on the culture and the marriage system, while the second covers his journey into the world of contract farming and military. His marriage is eventful and his friendship engaging to the extent of interrogating the troubles with Nigeria tribalism, ethnic satires, jokes and pun.

The story of Kangu is actually very typical of Zuru man and (middle-Belters) life and times outside their enclave as it can be seen through their voyages. The beginning part of the story shows how Kangu’s devine pact with his people.  The work also delves into Kangu’s miscegenation marriage with, as he entered into it without ‘shining his eyes’. The evil of wars is also highlighted to the extent of good peoples’ involvement without knowing and believing in the cause. And as every mortal will taste death but once, the burial ground it is said is the richest place as the deceased goes to the grave leaving all his acquisitions and possessions. It became necessary to also note that home is home the prodigal son or daughter will one day come back home.

In the novel, I revealed how the Lelna ethnic group develops their Spartan prowess in pre-colonial era to becoming the African hero warriors that they are despite coming from an agrarian background. This is also in spite of the modern times clashing with their civilizational march to Iron Age which they were about to attain. Thus the Lelnas’ contribution to traditional legacies and image in the militarization of the African natives is to say the least not only superlative but worth a hell of study. There are few materials in this direction so this work compliments the corpus of Zuru literature in particular and Africa in general.

The work undertakes a voyage around scenes in Alela where his protagonist christened Kangu, the Golmo village showcases the warrior character of his people as he travels outside his enclave for farm service and got enmeshed in actual military warfare and new socio-economic disorders. This opens his eye to the rustic life his people were living and refused to come back until he ‘made it’ in the cities in pursuit of the Nigerian Dream.

It brings a bizarre adventure where fantasy and reality are mixed as Kangu, the village prodigy chronicles some aspects of Alela peoples’ cultural heritage. He therefore sells the vast tourist attractions dotting every Alela clans, Kangu brings to fore the Zuen War Gorge, Isgogo Slave Market, Girmache Crocodile Shrine, Gago Tree Shrine, Tadud Wawanta Sacred Stone Monument, Golmo Bridal Service, D’biti Maiden Dance, Uhola Harvest Festival. He also highlighted Alela cultural endeavours including hunting, wrestling, music, archery, cuisine, architecture etc.

However, in crafting the novel recognize the intellectual argument of its shortcomings in utilizing its literary approach to analyzing issues of historicity as some regard it a product of civilization which can only be more popularly situated in its immediate generic home abroad where it emanates. Nonetheless, the novel has overtimes lend itself to indigenization factor.

Over time in the course of civilization, the material social precepts and practices of the people is gleaned through the novel in a manner that it can be factored into the totality of the peoples historical reality unlike commissioned history work which can be tainted with prejudice of the writers and their sponsors.  Moreover, the novel has now become a veritable traditional or cultural document of a people with its archetypical figure to their cosmos especially in its content analysis from a sociological standpoints. The significance of its historical materialism therefore goes beyond stand point on rhetoric and ideological aphorism.                                        

GO, therefore, WHAT WAYS CAN A WRITING INSPIRE CHANGE IN NIGERIA? a

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: In a foreword to the poetry book I edited for FCT ANA, Dr. Sule Bello who wrote the foreword reaffirmed that ‘when all things are passed. away only poetry will remain as even the passage of life and its essence will be recorded in poetic verse.” He said it was the beginning of all things religious, and humanize science interpreted from its obscurantism. Poetry for instance is the oracular speech of the initiated, as it takes it back to the public domain.

An entity could easily resort to literary approach to policy formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in its choice of communication channels where it reaches its target publics utilizing the novels, novella, poems and plays. In fact, playwrights like Professor Iorwuese Hagher  and Malam Yahaya Dangana have produced and staged Community Theater propagating government causes to the grassroots dwellers. Writings can inspire the people to respond to stimulis identified in a work.

No wonder Professor Wole Soyinka says writers are humane and being that, it is the first condition to be a leader. Our creative works have discussed our evolutionary developments even when history is banned, while authors have attempted to translate their ideas into actionable experiences and at the same time tell their own story to change the course or inspire the direction they want.

Nationalists have used poetry and novels as tools for their revolutionary messages and attracted traction. Writings mirror the society and enables the governors and the governed to know the limits and limitations of their actions and inactions. Their writings provide voice for the voiceless of the society. But writing principally is for information and entertainment which activist may utilize for their operations.

GOTNAME: ARE THERE ETHICS TO BE OBSERVED WHEN WRITING ON HISTORICAL FIGURES?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI:In biography, the author could be authorized or not but it is better authorized to obtain factual information to avoid controversy and defamation. It is worthy of note that the law of defamation is applicable to published matters be they poems, novel and play. However, if the author is  writing his own experience, permission may not be required by law. But if the writer is quoting another person’s work on a historical person there is need to acknowledge or obtain permission for using the already published work.

When writing about a historical event or person the writer is obliged to state facts that are verifiable since the writer cannot claim being the only privy to the situation. He could, however, decide to rove a fictional character around the historical figure or event thereby interspersing history with fiction and everybody knows it is a gist or faction and not a history textbook.

The writer also has the power of self-restraint to leave out when in doubt or sub-edit by cutting-off prejudicial and not factual materials. Writing on a person who is alive is most likely to be actionable than when dead, but there is still need to liaise with the estate for those dead. Again if information is in the public domain, as well as works whose copyright expired the writer is free to cite them with due acknowledgement.

Law of defamation, as I pointed-out earlier, it is designed  to protect the individuals from indignity, ridicule, disrepute and other social embarrassments which the victims suffers through malicious publication. And if they work is of commercial value, the culprit is required to pay remedies from the proceeds of the work. Copy and intellectual rights are mostly about economic benefits to avoid the brain thief taking away the spoils of his plundering.

Defamation  consist of Libel  which is a written and permanent matter that lowers the person’s reputation while Slander is a verbal and temporary matter of utterances that lower reputation of a person. This law tries to protect invasion of privacy of people.

 GOTNAME: IS WRITING SPIRITUAL OR NOT?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: It has been pointed-out that writing whether creative or not is 90% perspiration with only 10% as accruing from talent. What this means is that even talent needs to be honed through perspiration. You need the discipline to sit for countless hours to articulate the story in your head.

There is a story in every man meaning everybody has a story to tell as no one experience is the same. It is sheer laziness and excuse to attribute the creative force or the lack of it to the muse. Assuming one is a gratuitous beneficiary of the  muse does it translate into a book?

Let us not descend into the abyss of our local musicians like it is being bandied about that the late Shata especially his Bakandamiya had its chorus from the jinns and the Victor Victor Uwaifo getting the helping hands of other worldly beings. But even then it is not everybody that attracts such benevolence and you have to have display a modicum of productivity.

Shakespeare says that our inability to rise to stardom is not in our star but in us to choose to succeed or fail? For instance, if you have a gift in spirit nobody will see it, not until it is translated into the physicality in black and white. Perhaps, I have heard that autism imbues one with artistic creative powers but who wants to be one to be a Nobel Laureate? However, if one decides to tap into the triple helix consciousness that is a choice for him or her as in everything thing in life.

GOTNAME: DOES FICTION WRITING AFFECT THE AUTHOR NEGATIVELY?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: The re-play of characters and scenes in the writers’ life is feared so much that revealed religion does not even encourage its adherent to develop and imbue a living character where the creator cannot breathe life into its creations. Somebody even told me that award plaques and certificates hung in offices and sitting rooms are also objectectionable as the holders and admirers venerated them to a pride of place leading to fetishness.

One writer told me that in the course of his novel writing, his mother would insist he does not develop critical conflicts that would end in tragedy leading to death and ghastly accidents. And for those writers who claim a helping hand of the spirits in their creativity and inventively and display weird nuances leading to maladjustment they need to visit their medical doctors for compulsive disorder evaluation.

In general, writers suffer sometimes unnecessary demonization resulting from the thematic thrusts of their works and consequent activism which does not appeal to a section of the public. We have seen this happen to Salman Rushdie, Prof. Wole  Soyinka, Ken Saro Wiwa, Gen. Mamman Vatsa, Bagauda Kaltho, Khalifa Daniel, Dele Giwa. Perhaps, the occupational risk and safety concerns in the writing business is enormous that needed a special assurance and insurance policy undertaking. In this regard, it is high time the Association of Nigeria Authors transforms to both a professional institute, industrial union and regulatory body for creative writing with unfettered powers to protect the interest of members, the written word and self-regulate its membership.

Also I read in an online social platform that foreign intelligence target writers with inducement of international literary prizes to spread their imperialism under the guise of promoting cultural defined idea. This part of the media imperialism runs in sync with the proverbial disorder of the international flow of syndicated communications from the North world to the South pole. It is glaring in this nexus that very good African novelists like Prof Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa Thiong’o who decolonize Whitism and imperialism in their works are hardly awarded the Nobel Prize and accorded any significant recognition by way of internationally recognized awards. It can be seen therefore that talented prized authors can easily slid into negative agenda setters or hero, role models, and the voice of the voiceless.

Writing could impact positively or negatively as conversations and interrogations flow around the novel. For example, Ngozi Chimamanda invited speeches which are reflective of her writing thrusts re-set positively blackism agenda globally while other novelists write to denigrade the cultures of other clime which is received with disdain and negative fatwa as seen in the case of Salman Rushdie’s controversial novels. This is because the novel unveils the antecedent and precepts of the peoples through the identity of the characters ostensibly to a broad framework within which to explore their socio-historical development.

  GOTNAME: HOW MANY HOURS DO YOU WRITE IN A DAY?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: I write day and night as there is no allotted time for me except if outside my house, but even then I carry a jotter to pencil down serendipitous creative sparks. But I write more into the serene night.

GOTNAME: WHO ARE THE TRAUMATISED IN YOUR VIEW?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: It depends on real victims who are affected by man-made and natural disasters which occur everywhere in the physical world. But victims of trauma personified in the novel may come from the authors creations developed still from his or her experience from the home, politics, economics, hate speech, discrimination and the environmental situations. The theory of trauma in literature is developed to theories tragedy, comedy, tragi-comedy, meta-fiction and happy ending. In general, the traumatized are unfortunately victim of circumstances which could also come from gender or race relations which are vividly captured by Chimamada’s works.

GOTNAME: APART FROM WRITING, IS THERE ANY WORK OR VOCATION YOU COULD HAVE DONE?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: I have always been a journalist, information officer and chartered public relations practitioner by calling and training.  And as a highflyer, I could also have turned to high level teaching as a professor. As a footballer too, I could also have been a coach or in the football technical committee or association.

GOTNAME: DO YOU CONSIDER THE BOOK AS A PLATFORM TO HIDE ANY SECRET THAT ONLY A FEW PEOPLE WILL FIND?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: I write in a highly imaginative style and form, it will not be surprising some readers may find it tending towards obscurantism where it will be complex to decipher. All the same, as a trained communicator I am aware the goal of communication is to impart and receive messages so I don’t really have anything to hide sine I am not a mystic.

 GOTNAME:  WHAT IS YOUR VIEW OF LITERARY AWARDS AND HONORABLE MENTIONS?

Dr. HARUNA PENNI: Some writers believe you don’t write for an award as it is conferred on you by entities that cherish your thematic predilection and not necessarily the quality of the work otherwise Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chiamamadi Adichie would have gotten the Nobel a long time ago.

But awards are not my cup of tea as I also don’t write because of it. I believe in target setting and like I send earlier it is good philosophy to determine to be the best, even if I am not accorded political award like other good writers, but you will still be known.

LITERARY PROFILE

He was born with the sun on a New Year in 1960 in Minna Railways Quarters and started his primary school in Minna and finished both the elementary and secondary schools in Abakaliki and Port Harcourt. Having bagged his first and second degrees in Mass Communications and Public Administration from the Universities of Maiduguri and Enugu, he eventually earned the Doctor of Philosophy in Communications Policy from Western Denver, Colorado in  USA. Penni has also attended The Polytechnic of Sokoto State, Birnin Kebbi and the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos in the early 80s. He holds varieties of Post Graduate Diplomas obtained in the 90s from Nigeria Institute of Journalism, Ogba-Lagos, National Institute of Public Information, International Institute of Journalism, Abuja, Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, Badagry-Lagos, Public Service Institute of Nigeria, Dutse-Abuja, Centre for Management Development, Shangisha-Lagos and Labour Training Centre, Yaba-Lagos. He has attended several creative writing programmes of the British Council, USIS and ANA.

He has written and reviewed several books, ideas and literary personalities whose thematic thrusts are aimed at promoting global unanimity. In this regard, he has several unpublished works namely three (3) works namely Abuja Acolytes; The Rapprochement and No Going Back as well as three (3) textbooks which are Mass Media Policies & Practices; ‘New Song’ in ’ Voices from the Fringe; An ANA Anthology of New Nigerian Poetry edited by  Prof Harry Garuba, published by Malthus House 2002; ‘Denja and His Circle of Friends’ in Emenayou ed “Of Foot-Soldiers and Hybrid Vision: Festschrift in Honour of Denja Abdullahi” published in Lagos and Government-Media Adversarial Relationship: Analytical & Conceptual Framework in “Reputation Management,” NIPR FCT Journal.

His other works have appeared in the NIPR Journal, of the FCT Chapter 2003; Applied Public Relations and Effective Family Relations. Penny, has been deeply involved in stupendous editorial works cutting across MDAs, community tabloids and popular organizations as both editorial consultant and communications specialist. He has a sizeable number of scholarly and topical articles, features and essays published by national, international press and on-line media. He has also edited and penned the first words for large collection of works of budding authors.

He had a stint with several Government bodies including as an information Officer in Zuru Local Government and NIPOST Hrqs Lagos before transferring to the OSGF in Lagos where he was later posted to the  Federal Budget Office to serve as the Focal Person of the FGN/ EU SUFFEGOR Mission on Abandoned Capital Projects/Programs in Nigeria before retiring in 2020. He functioned in these offices as corporate communications and M&E specialist. Dr. Penni was one-time secretary of OSGF ASCN and Chairman/Founder of CT ANA from 1996 to 2006 during which times he planned, executed, and attended programs of the British Council, United States Information Service, German Heinrich Boll Foundation, Korean Culture Centre, French Cultural Centre, Nigerian MDAs and NGOs as well as IGOs.

He Is a humble recipient several fellowships’ awards, prizes, recognitions, appreciations, and commendations from both FGN, MDAs, and NGOs including the Institute of Public Administration of Nigeria, Institute of Management Consultants, Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, Institute of Corporate and Public Administrators of Nigeria, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Association of Nigerian Authors FCT for his conceptual depth and functional effectiveness. He is presently the Director-General of the Institute of Authors, Abuja, Lead Consultants Haruna Penni Consulting Ltd, and the Registrar of the Institute of Corporate and Public Administrators of Nigeria.