Kukogho Iruesiri Samson is the author of two collections of poems ‘What Can Words Do?” and “I Said These Words”. He is a writer, photographer, and media professional with experience in journalism, PR, publishing, multi-platform media management. He is also CEO of WORDS RHYMES & RHYTHM LTD (www.wrr.ng), a publishing and social reorientation poetry organization which owns – WRRPOETRY, Nigeria’s largest poetry sharing platform. For having run several self-funded literary projects to support young Nigerian writers, Kukogho has been widely recognized for his contributions to Nigerian poetry.
His awards include the Orange Crush First Prize for Poetry, awarded in 2012, and Poetry Writer of the Year, awarded by the Nigerian Writers Awards in 2016. In this interview with IBRAHIM RAMALAN, Samson says first generation of writers didn’t give back to their preceding generation, that is why there is a disconnect after the Soyinkas and Osofisans.
You trained as a journalist. How did you start up as a poet?
I can say I have been a poet or rather a writer all my life. You know, everybody ought to be a writer because writing is a form of expression. I think the reason why so many people have difficulties in their lives is because they don’t express themselves out. So as a young kid growing up in a dysfunctional family setting, I withdrew inward. That is when writing came to me as a friend – someone I could express myself to. Largely, writing came to me as a way of escape from the realities I found myself in.
You seem to have a lot of following. How did you rise to this fame as a poet?
Well, before I became a writer, I had a lot of initiatives I was working on. By the time I started writing, I already have a community of audience I am looking for. That is why, if you observe, my books are usually pre-ordered even before I publish them – I write for my fans. You can’t find any of my books in a book shop. If you have an existing audience, you write for them.
What informs the title of your latest book: ‘I Said These Words’, especially looking at your last book before this which reads: ‘What Can Words Do?’. There seems to be resonance of some sort, how could you explain this?
For your information, my third book which is coming out very soon is titled: ‘Words of Errors’. The reason is this, I just play on the word: ‘Word’ because poetry is all about words. However, the inspiration behind ‘I Said These Words’ is, most of the times people say things and don’t mean it. And most of the times we have opinions and we hide them. While others would say things that they don’t really mean it, I am coming out to boldly to say that I actually said these words – I stand to be criticized or quoted anywhere.
The theme of your books cuts across many spheres of life: religion, politics, societal ills and many others issues. How do you achieve this?
Basically, it is a case of me writing about every aspect of life to make sure that everybody who reads my work finds something for him or herself. For example, as a writer I have to be religious to be able to be appreciated by religious readers, so also politics and many others topics.
Being one of the active literary activists and promoters targeting mostly the youth in the country, what has been your driving force, especially having known pretty well the terrain to be hostile towards literary activities?
Like I said earlier, as a young person growing up, I felt I needed a way of escaping some of the boredoms of life and I found writing very handy. The annoying thing however is that many of our youth nowadays are more withdrawn from the art. That is why you hear about depression and all other things. Coming back to your question, promoting literature in this kind of environment where a lot of people are struggling – economically, socially and even academically – is very difficult. However, trying to help people discover themselves the way I was able to discover myself is what keeps me moving.
Your activism is basically online, why?
It is cheaper online. You get to connect with thousands of people online, much more that what you could get offline. With Facebook, for example, one can connect with over fifteen thousand people. I cannot put fifteen thousand people together in Abuja because the cost of it alone is impossible. Imagine how many hotels you would book. So, that is why we do a festival only once in a year, but publish and interact via social media all the time.
How would you advise other writers to tow the line of literary activism?
Well, that has always been my problem with the old generation of writers. If you look at the country’s writing profile, you would see people like Soyinka, Osofisan and others, and there is a gap before you come to the likes of Chimamanda Adechie because most of them didn’t give back to the young writers that were coming after them. But if you check between Adechies’ age downward, there are so many names of successful writers you could call, because people like Chimamanda gave back. That is what I am trying to do, and that is the same thing am calling on all established writers to be doing. After all, you don’t have to do something too big. You can do it in your own way.
Do you have any challenge or challenges along the line?
Yeah. You know that nobody wants to finance writing in Nigeria. I spend my personal money a lot into doing these things. For instance, our festival last year costs upwards of a million naira. Nobody will give that kind amount of money to organize a literary event when they know that no 2face or Olamide is coming there. That is one of the problems we face. The government too is not helping matters. For instance if you want to use Women Centre for a literary event, you will have to duly pay for it like any other events. That is not being fair to an art that is expected to bourgeon to the international standard.
