A Brewing Flame in the City of Smoke: Conversation With Mujahid Ameen Lilo
Uchenna Emelife
Mujahid Ameen Lilo is a Nigerian writer who studies English and Literary Studies at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He is the author of the "City of Smoke" a collection of short stories published in 2020. Other of his works have been published in _The Lagos Review_, _The Nigeria Review_, _The Arts Muse Fair_, _Praxis_,_Tuck_, Daily Trust, Blueprint_ and others. In 2019, he won the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange Essay Contest and the BUK Creative Writers Poetry Competition. In 2020, he was shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Teen Authors. He has also participated in the UI Poetry Masterclass and has served as the Arts Editor of Daily Chronicle. He was Artist of the Month of Yasmin Elrufai Foundation, September 2019. He is a member of ANA Kano, Creative Writers' Club ABU, and the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation. He is working on a novel.
In this conversation, Mujahid discusses “City of Smoke” and shares with Uchenna his writing influences, genre preference, wins and much more.
Whose work would you say inspired you to pick up the pen?
Well, I can say the works of my ancestors. Those folktales passed on to us, you know. Then the works of Abubakar Imam, Cryprian Ekwensi, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda and VC Andrews were a great influence. Especially the last two in my list. They made me take my writing seriously.
How old were you when you read these authors who spurred you to write?
I read Ekwensi and Abubakar when I was in Primary school, maybe seven or eight. I can’t remember. I read Adichie, Achebe and Andrews in Junior Secondary School, 12 or 13.
And you started writing immediately?
“I picked up a pen and started writing a novel which I dumped later of course and continued reading a lot.”
Yes, kind of. Actually, soon after reading Purple Hibiscus, I picked up a pen and started writing a novel which I dumped later of course and continued reading a lot.
But before then, I've been writing poems and short stories but never seriously. But those works were rubbish. I shouldn't even be counting them.
They made up your formative years. They might be substandard but give them the deserved credit. (laughs)
LOL, yes. That's true.
Are you from a literary background? If no, then how did you develop love for literature?
“I was an Oliver Twister, I wanted more and more.”
Well, not really.
I developed the love for books from my love for folktales, and then developed the love for Literature, as you put it. I was an Oliver Twister, I wanted more and more.
Interesting.
People write for different reasons. Some to simply communicate. Some to protest against an ill.
Some as well to express a previously repressed feeling. In few lines, tell me why you write.
“writing gives me joy, a feeling nothing else gives me.”
Because writing gives me joy, a feeling nothing else gives me. That and the fun in writing and also communicating, is why I write.
You dive in all genres of literature ranging from poetry to fiction to essays, which particular genre resonates more with you and why?
“I love to be immersed in a fictional world with wonderful characters.”
Well, fiction. My first love. I love reading and writing fiction. I love to be immersed in a fictional world with wonderful characters. I love to travel without moving my feet which is what books do as Jhumpa Lahiri said. Fiction does that better. It takes you to India and you can see and hear the flapping of saris, visualize those shrines and all. These and more happens in fiction by a good writer.
I agree. A good story can give you enough information about a place you have never visited and just by reading it, you feel you have.
You have a published collection of short stories, "City of Smoke" what are the stories about?
About unrequited love, toxic marriages, a family breaking apart as they learned about their son joining Boko Haram, about forced marriages, arranged marriages...
Nice themes. What informed these stories?
Newspaper headlines, gossips, everyday happenings in the society.
After winning the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange Essay Contest you met and chatted with the legendary Wole Soyinka, did that meeting have any impact on you?
“I saw a god.”
Yes, it did and still does.
I saw a god. It was almost unbelievable like a dream, me standing before the first African Nobel Laureate in Literature, before his comely white hairs. It’s difficult to describe this feeling.
I was in his forested residence in his hometown and he mentored us. It was an honor really. His words were very encouraging.
How do you reconcile the fame you now enjoy with the need to put in more work?
I've always felt the need to put in more work, little fame or not. I want to keep getting better.
Who is your favorite Nigerian writer and why are they your favourite?
“Her characters don’t sound created…It feels like Adichie invites them and plays a great host.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She writes wonderfully. She’s a great thinker. Her characters don’t sound created, as Yiyun Li pointed out, rather it feels like Adichie invites them and plays a great host.
Has your been a teenage writer cheated you out of any opportunity so far?
I don't think so.
You’re working on a novel, when should we expect it? And are there other project (s) we should look out for?
Yeah.
In the next two years perhaps, the novel. It really depends anyways.
And yes, look out for my full-length collection in print.
Great. Anticipating.
Thanks for this session, Mujahid and the best of wishes in your career.
It’s my pleasure. Thanks for the honor.
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Uchenna Emelife is a journalist, creative writer, content creator, and a literary enthusiast. He has written for Nigeria’s Nation Newspaper, the ICIR, Opinion Nigeria, Minority Africa and Punocracy. A third year student of Literature In English, Uchenna was awarded “Rookie Journalist Of The Year” by the National Union of Campus Journalists (NUCJ) in 2019 and “Essayist of the year” by the local chapter of the NUCJ and “Campus Reporter of the year” by Pen Press UDUS.
In 2020, he co-pioneered a book club in his school, Book O'Clock UDUS where he reports and writes about books and currently serves as the deputy editor-in-chief of Pen Press UDUS and the Programs Director of Minority Africa.
