By Anote Ajeluorou
Not many see writing as a possible career to go into. Many
less so after they had put several active years of service in their chosen
fields of endeavour. But there are a few exceptions though like Omo Uwaifo,
who, after many years as an engineer with Electricity Company of Nigeria (ECN),
took to creative writing and won a prize in the bargain. Bukar Usman is another
such Nigerian who took to writing after many years as a civil servant and has
produced a prodigious amount of work.
His most recent
effort is My Literary Journey, which
highlights his foray into creative and non-creative writing, the style he has
adopted, his many sources, his early years in his Biu town in Maiduguri, his
encounter with Hausa language, his years as a student of Kings College, Lagos,
his civil service years in Lagos, his writing in Hausa, his foray into folktales
and many more. Usman’s My Literary
Journey offers readers a trip back and forth with the author in his quest
to mine his creative genius which hitherto lay hidden while he worked as a
civil servant.
In Usman’s view, “My
experience, however, supports the notion that whether one is “bowing to
superior force” or simply opting to write without any form of internal or
external pressure, every writer… is the one who “decides” whether or not to be
a writer. This view presupposes that even if… one “became a writer by mistake”,
no one can deny that one consciously or unconsciously chose to be a writer. In
my own case, it must have been an involuntary decision, more like yielding to
the impulse to yawn than choosing to have a walk”.
Like most Nigerians
of his generation, Usman’s interest in writing got a boost from personal
self-help and development in his encounter with African writers and his early
introduction to oral literature or folktales told in moonlit nights by the
fireside, which he enjoyed as a child.
As he puts it, “I
was also introduced, to a lesser degree, to African writers, but it was through
my own supplementary reading that I got better acquainted with them. I think a
greater exposure to creative writing by Nigerian writers would have helped my
generation of students a great deal in understanding the nation’s literary
heritage. A lesson or two on some aspects of the nation’s oral literature would
not have been out of place as most students might never have the opportunity of
understanding that aspects of our culture the moment they veer into their
special areas in tertiary institutions”.
Usman’s
colleagues in civil service, Lamine Odion Ojigbo’s books also spurred him into
writing his own experiences in the civil service and titled Hatching Hopes. Through a friend he was
introduced to a man who later became his publisher, Mr. Duve Nakolisa of Klamidas
Communications Limited. Nakolisa published Hatching
Hopes and then acting as his editorial adviser, directed Usman’s attention
towards the folkloric genre where he has excelled as author and administrator.
He has had Prof. Dandatti Abdulkadir of Bayero University, Kano, who was also
introduced by another of his friends assist him in his Hausa writing.
The collaboration,
he said, later enhanced his proficiency in Hausa language and Usman has written
many books in Hausa that are widely circulated and in use in schools in Nigeria
and across the border.
In Part II ‘Literary
Approach’, chapter 3, Usman dwells extensively on his interest and work in
folktales titled ‘Forays into Infinite Folktales’. He educates the untutored on
folktales, their origins, their significance, and draws parallels with
folktales from other lands and continents in a comparative analysis and
outlines the future for folktales.
As he puts it, “As
miners dig into the ground in search of precious mineral resources, so it could
be argued that similar effort needs to be made in digging into folktales to find
the hidden treasures. The field is unlimited”.
As has also become
evident, Usman is painfully aware that the old folks who used to regal him and
other children with the magic of folktales are no more available and so today’s
children are denied this enriching pastime. The only way to keep such tales
alive and in perpetuity for the future is through the written form. He has done
this admirably with his many collections. he also currently chairs a folkloric
association dedicated to preservation of folktales in the country and beyond.
But creative writing
is not the only kind of writing Usman does. He is also a public commentator,
who writes opinions in newspapers. This aspect he examines in chapter 4 of the same
Part II, especially the style he adopts when addressing the public.
But particularly
enchanting is Part III, which consists of selections from Usman’s non-fiction
and fiction writing. Of the non-fiction, the first two pieces are perhaps most
telling, as they relate a Nigeria of yester-years in all its idyllic glory. ‘My
Home Town’ and ‘Lagos Lifestyle’ capture the past in moving visual narrative
and contrast it with what harm modernity has done to Biu and Lagos. Biu is where
Usman grew up as a child; Lagos is where he schooled as a youth and later
worked as an adult.
The fiction section,
which is on folktales, an area Usman easily holds forte, has three samples from
his collections. They are ‘The War of the Witches’, ‘The Forbidden Fruit’ and
A’ Tale of Two Betrayals’. They are classic folktales that should excite any
reader, old and young alike.
The remaining two
chapters Usman devotes to reviews and comments of his non-fiction and fiction
works and provides excellent information on his career as a writer.
My Literary Journey provides Usman a handle with which to share his
thoughts on writing as his mid-life pastime after his civil service career
years. It’s a fascinating book that gives insight into the minds of a latter-day
man of letters. It’s well worth the reading because of its amalgam of creative
and non-creative writing.
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