The Book O’Clock Chat with the NSPP 2020 Winner: Okwubi Godwin Adah

Okwubi Godwin Adah is the 2020 winner of the Nigerians Students Poetry Prize (NSPP). A few days ago, our Creative Director, Uchenna Emelife engaged him in a WhatsApp conversation and they talk about his winning poem, The House That Built Me, the Nigerian society and the boy-child, the influence the prize has had on his craft and much more.

Here is a transcript of their chat:

First of all, congratulations on your win, Godwin. How does it feel knowing this is what you wanted and got exactly it?

Thank you. I am happy and grateful. Happy that I won and grateful for such an opportunity.

Was this your first time applying for the NSPP?

Yes. It was my first time applying for the competition.

Wow! Did you think you would win? How confident were you in your entry?

“I had total belief in my ability.”

Haha. I hoped I would win.
I had total belief in my ability. When I was shortlisted in the top 10, I was very sure that at least I would make the top 3.

Let's talk about your winning poem. "The House That Built Me" is a stunner. What I like most about it is the soft tone of the persona. Reading it I could feel his heaviness in talking about the loss of his father and how that ushered him into a stage of his life no one warned him of, not even the 'house that built him'. I also like how you bridged the ideas of home, loss and responsibility. Can you give me a back story?

“We as humans beings are made up of pieces of our environments.”

First of, the title is a paradox. I think because technically a house cannot build someone. But on closer introspection, I summized that we as humans beings are made up of pieces of our environments. Our "house" builds us, house could be metaphors for our fathers, mothers, and so on.
The poem also talks about loss and responsibility, as the death of the unnamed character’s father shifts certain duties to him.
Also I feel the poem can apply to our country, Nigeria. Nigeria as our house builds us as children, and it is our responsibility as adults or leaders to effect positive change in our nation(house).

Interesting. Especially the Nigerian referencing part. I didn't see that, but that's the beauty of poetry. Its ambiguity.
So what inspired it?

My Dad. He always tells me stories about his own father. So it was nostalgic for me writing it.

Was there also a similar transfer of responsibilities between your father and his?

Yes. My Grandfather was polygamous and my Dad was the only child from his mother. So he had to take care of himself. He was quite young when my Grandfather died.

So would it be right to say that your poetic persona is your father?

Yes. It's not him outright, but it's inspired by him.

What was the writing process like? Did you have a complete picture of how the poem would start/end before writing it? Or you simply went with the flow?

I went with the flow. I started by free writing; putting down anything that comes to mind. Then I edited. Sent it out to friends to read. Then I re-edited based on the feedback they gave me. Then I did a final proofread by checking the grammar, spelling, sentence structure and so on.

We look at a finished poem and we never know all of the work put in to get it to that shape.
This process spanned how many hours, days, weeks?

LOL. It took me like a week to give birth to the finished poem.

Wow!

“You are the man of the house now," Mama had said to me,
I remember thinking: “I am now the man of this house that built me”

These were the ironic finishing lines of your poem and for me, the highlight. Becoming the man of the house in the African parlance is shouldering all of the responsibility in a family. Your persona sounds like a young boy and unfair that at such age, he isn’t allowed to process grief and is immediately told to pick up that mantle of responsibility. This is the same sad narrative in the real world. The pressure on the boy-child can be overwhelming. What do you make of this?

Yes. The pressure is overwhelming.

For the boy-child who looks up to his father and probably wants to be like him. Or the pressure on a young man to succeed and take care of his family.

I think it's because society demands males to be strong, and male strength is deeply rooted in African culture.

So rooted. Personally, I think that system needs an overhauling. Boys are not stones and should be allowed to feel, to aspire for success without trying to meet anybody's expectation or standard.

Keeping up that somewhat patriarchal system, would only further increase the number of emotionless men in our society which benefits no one.

I agree.
Success now in Nigeria for example, is defined as having 15 cars and taking pictures with wads of money. And many boys aspire to this.

How much our society has degenerated.

Let's come back to your poem.

You extol the concept of a house as being the crux of a family in your poem. It was there when it was just Papa and Mama, was there after your persona joined them, remained after Papa left and would most likely witness all of the others leaving too. In your earlier response, you said 'house' could be a metaphor for a father or a mother. Can it not also be just a house? Sometimes we get so used to to our inanimate surrounding that they begin to look like they have life and become part of our own lives.

Yes. There is a part of the poem where I write "the walls and ceiling repeated her words/their eyes hard with reproach". Personification. Our surroundings or environment can become a part of us just as much as the hair on your head.

They can. Especially when they have witnessed our growth. They become sentimental. Do you have a house like this?

Yes. I have lived in our family house for many years now. I know the house like I know my palm.

You admitted there was some sense of nostalgia in writing this poem, are your writings always like that? Drawn from personal experience?

“There are pieces of me in my writing”

Yes. Most times. I always try to personalise my writings — poems and short stories alike. So I can say there are pieces of me in my writing.

'There are pieces of me in my writing.' This!
How has winning the NSPP affected your craft?

Winning this NSPP has linked me up with several like minded people. It's very nice.

Yes it is. There is nothing that feels better than having a network of like-minded persons.

Well said.

Who are your favorite Nigerian writers and what about them distinguishes them from others?

I really like Chimamanda. I read her "Purple Hibiscus" when I was in secondary school. It really got me interested in Nigerian literature. I like Chimamanda because she writes about things I see everyday; religious fanatiscm, love, hate, purpose.

I also really like Nnedi Okorafor, author of Binti, Zahrah the Windseeker, Who Fears Death, others. I like how she writes about Africa in a futuristic way. How she blends SciFi into her African set novels.

These two you mentioned are my absolute faves too.
Are you working on any thing at the moment? Something exciting that we should all be on the look out for?

I am presently working on a short story collection as well as a poetry collection.

Amazing. Anticipating.
That's all from me, Gowdin.
Thanks so much for this session. And best wishes in your writing.

It's my pleasure.
Thank you so much.

_______________________________

Uchenna Emelife is a reader, a journalist and a creative writer. His works have been featured / forthcoming in ICIR Nigeria, The Nation, Minority Africa, Punocracy and elsewhere. He is the Creative Director and the Press Lead of Book O’Clock Review.