Akachi Obijiaku: “I lived in Nigeria for sixteen years, and then moved to the United Kingdom—where I’ve been for almost six years. What’s quite interesting, and only people who are in my position tend to understand, is how different the various cultures are across the world. Anytime I return to Nigeria, I feel like my time spent abroad was a dream. Everything is so different in Africa. The people, the attitudes, the way of living. Some good, some bad. So, when I write, it’s sort of like telling tales. There’s so much rich material from just watching life happen around you, and most times the stories sound like fiction, but you can’t make some stuff up—it really is surreal.”
Labeja Kodua: “I grew up in Koforidua, Ghana, and what I loved is the life in the language, how everything is imbued with personality, you walk around an angry road, with a joyful breeze, holding back a talkative coconut. The surreal qualities of the city are so characteristic of what Africa is to me. I would like to convey this in the poetry I write.”
Temidayo Jacob: “I am a Nigerian student, writer, and photographer. I grew up in Lagos. I’m pseudonymously known as Mayor Jake. Poetry is sounds louder than thunder. My poems are based on real life experiences and societal happenings. I write poetry to bring light out of darkness and to show the darkness in light.” (web)
Pamilerin Jacob: “I am a Nigerian poet and mental health enthusiast. My idea of fun is a bowl of chocolate ice cream and Khalil Gibran’s poetry. I hope to be a lecturer someday. I write poetry because it is the only place where the past can be stilled, looked in the eye, and torn into. A cat person, I enjoy listening to Thich Nhat Hanh’s talks on mindfulness.” (web)
Rasaq Malik Gbolahan: “To me, writing poetry is an act of healing. I find myself returning to it whenever I feel broken by the tragedies of the world. In the process of writing, I learn new things about the world and the people who inhabit it. I try to weigh the occurrences that happen and how writing is deployed to react to it. Through the active presence of poetry, I try to document the lives of the unheard, the victims and survivors of war. In Nigeria and countries where there is perpetual war, poetry acts and reacts through careful documentation of these heart-wrenching events.” (web)
Zaid Gamieldien: “Can an African poet write about napping with the TV on? Can I entertain the lull of the afternoon drive home, or must my words reach the ends of a sunlit plain, where wild beasts roar into a golden sky? The truth is, I am a poet and I am African, and so I write as I am. I see haiku as ‘photographs of the senses.’ As an African haiku poet, I look for fleeting moments of beauty in ordinary life and try to relate nature to human nature as best I can. It is my hope to show commonality through these human experiences, or to simply express ordinary moments in new and interesting ways.” (web)
Jonathan Endurance: “I am a Nigerian poet and student of English literature in the University of Benin, Nigeria. For me, poetry has been a way of escaping emotional trauma. I write to set my soul free from the cage of bitter thoughts and sad experiences.” (web)
