By Simeon Mpamugoh
Obiorah Momife has written four books, but none of them came from writers’ residencies. Instead, the author derives his inspiration from everywhere and everything he sees, hears or feels: pain, sorrow and joy from within and outside. It could be in the bathroom, restroom or while he walks.
“I have never experienced any,” he admitted in an interview with The Sun Literary Review, “and would love to be a part of it. It seems awesome!” Momife is not alone in this dilemma as there are many established and budding writers who are not aware of writers’ residencies programmes.
Statistics of countries with active writers’ residencies programmes show that, in Africa, we have Cameroon and Morocco. America has Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States. Asia has China, India, Japan, Pakistan and Singapore. In Europe, we have Austria, Belgium, Iceland, Republic of Iceland, Malta, The Netherlands and United Kingdom; while, in the Middle East, we have Qatar, Israel and Lebanon. The rating shows that Nigeria, at the moment, can only boast of one active Ebedi International Writers’ Residency in Isheyin, Oyo State established seven years ago by Dr. Wale Okediran, a trained medical Doctor, though there are others ran by Wole Soyinka in Ogun State and JP Clark Clark in Delta State.
However writers’ residencies are continually expanding in scope and reach in other parts of the world to promote the transformation of the cultural and economic life of the literary community as well as contributing to the development and promotion of literature and the right to free expression worldwide.
However, it’s often a dream of many writers to spend time at a quiet colony or residency where they can focus on their work, but, regrettably, only Ebedi is the most prominent, and attracts both national and international writers.
There are indications that many authors in the stock of Obiorah Momife have never considered a residency, because they wonder if it was something they should be taking a look into. The truth is: there are many wonderful writers’ residencies to choose from across the globe except that not many authors in Africa are aware of it, because the writers rather than participating in online communities or blogging spend their time writing.
The question is: what are the imperatives of writers’ residencies or artist-in-residence programmes? According to Wikipedia, it exists to invite artists, academicians, curators, and all manner of creative people for a time and space away from their usual environment and obligations.
It equally provides a time of reflection, research, presentation and/or production and allows an individual to explore his/her practice within another community through meeting new people, using new materials, and experiencing life in a new location.
Art residencies emphasise the importance of meaningful and multi-layered cultural exchange and immersion into another culture. Study shows that some residencies programmes are incorporated within larger institutions, while other organisations exist solely to support residential exchange programmes.
Profiling on Residency, Wikipedia notes that no “two artist-in-residence programmes are the same. Each programme has its own background and atmosphere.” Indeed, some residency programmes cover all costs for the artist; some offering stipends; others don’t cover any costs at all. It is not unusual that residential art centres cover the costs only partially, which may make it necessary for the artist to find additional funding. In some countries artists can apply for subsidy at state governed bodies.
Residency programme has been part of the international art world for over a century. However, the first wave of artist-in-residence programmes came at the beginning of 19th century when the Corporation of Yaddo, founded the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild established in 1902 in the state of New York.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, a Nigerian journalist and writer who won the 2016 Nigeria Prize for Literature organised organized by NLNG with his work, Season of Crimson Blossom, was at Ebedi Writers’ Residency in Iseyin, Oyo State, at inception seven years ago. He said: “It is the first of its kind and, so far, the only writers’ residency programme in Nigeria. Ibrahim, who visited the place to see how the programme was attempting to change Nigeria’s writing culture, said that it was carving a niche in Nigeria’s literary history.
Dr. Wale Okediran, former president of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), is the brain behind Ebedi Writers’ Residency programme. “I was actually encouraged to think along this line when I went for a weekend to my hometown with my wife and she asked, ‘Why do you allow this place to go to waste? We could make use of the place. And she brought this idea of a resort,” he recalled. The idea went down well with him. Drawing from a personal experience, in the past, after working on a manuscript, he would to spend a few weeks to finish it up, but he couldn’t.
Ebedi is a spacious villa where each writer is provided with a private room with bathroom and suite. There is equally a TV room and a modest library for reference purpose with Internet facilities. “All we want them to do is sleep, wake up, write, sleep, wake up, write,” Okediran said.
While assessing the impact of the programme on the community, Okediran exclaimed: “Ah! In fact, I can say that, judging from the response from the teachers, students and their parents and community leaders too, it seems as if the community is gaining more than the writers. Some of the students have never met a living writer before.
“One of the students said at an event that she had a perception that all writers were dead, because all the books she had read were by Shakespeare and other old English writers. So to them, it is a fascinating experience that they are coming across living writers. And our residents have been able to identify some talents among them; talents that could be nurtured in the future.”
Many writers have benefited from the programme. One of them is Emmanuel Ugokwe, who writes in English and Igbo. Hear him: “Ebedi Writers Residency has given me the opportunity to finish up two manuscripts. I think the originator of this residency is giving life to literature, because this is what we need in Nigeria. Sometimes we browse the net and see writers’ residency in Egypt, UK, Germany and elsewhere, and you come here to Nigeria, a country that has produced a lot of good writers, and you can’t find it,” he lamented.
Igoni Barrett is also a writer and the author of Blackass and Love is Power or Something like That. A recipient of a Chinua Achebe Centre Fellowship, Norman Mailer Centre fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Centre Residency, he has been on several residencies in other countries and shares his first experience of Ebedi Writers’ Residency programmes: “It provided the space to write, which was what I was looking for when I came here. The programmes afford writers a six-week period of stay in a secluded facility so they could focus solely on writing free from worries.”
Barrett, who came to facilitate a creative writing workshop, met children who could barely read, feeling that the community was not taking full advantage of the residency programme. He was quoted as saying at a writing class turned reading class, “Even if we don’t get writers, we will get readers.”
Recently, three female writers from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria arrived Iseyin for the April-May 2017 session of the Ebedi International Writers Residency, while the quartet of four women writers, made up of three Nigerians and one Ugandan, made it for the March-April edition of the programme. They are: Chinyere Obi-Obasi, Yinka Adeboye, Safiya Ismaila Yero and Lillian Akampurira Aujo, a Ugandan lawyer and writer, who, in 2009, won the inaugural Babishai Niwe poetry Award with her poem “Soft Tonight”. Their visit is a signpost that many African authors are beginning to realise the importance of writers’ residencies programmes to classic literary pieces.
Doreen Baigana is the author of the book, Tropical Fish. The Ugandan Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner visited Ebedi residency for the first time and shared her experience: “It has been an exciting experience. I think it is a very conducive environment to concentrate for a while, because, really, your story moved from own life, responsibilities, worries and duties, and there is not much to do in Iseyin to distract you. So, really, from morning to night, it is up to you to create something from your own mind and hand. I like the isolation and the fact that there is everything provided for you, and you just work without friends, relatives and others.”
The law graduate from Makerere University Uganda, who has been part of other residencies in Italy and the US, said, “They can’t be compared to the Ebedi experience, adding, “this is the first time I have been out of Ugandan to any other African country to attend a residency; the Nigerian experiment is unique.”
Don Dul Johnson, a scholar-writer from the University of Jos, who has also been part of the experience of Ebedi programme, said that the residency afforded him the peace to do his creative writing: “It is moving away from the maddening crowd. It has been quite useful, particularly moving out of the university campus where there is much work, and you will never find time to do anything,” he told Journalists, adding, “Even if I want to leave the campus, there are always one or two issues that tend to bring me back, unlike Ebedi where there is little or no distraction.”
Another writer, Nehru Odeh, also a journalist, who described the programme as eventful, said, “Before I went to the residency I have been looking forward to a place like this, a place where I can be far away from Lagos, the maddening crowd, the pressure of work, family and society. I had looked forward to a place where I can write, write and write.
“Ebedi provided the time, space and the right frame of mind to do that. I have never had this kind of unlimited time and space until I came to Ebedi. So far, the place has been very conducive with regular power, which is one of the most important thing every writer needs.”