The girlchild is seen as burden-bearer, escape route from poverty, says Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor

‘Many times, after visiting each school, the children would not want me to go. Some of them wept, and I wept along’

Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor is making her appearance at the Book Party for the second time, the first being 2019 when A Heroes Welcome fetched her the longlist slot also for the children’s category of The Nigeria Prize for Literature. This year she’s vying again for the prestigious USD$100,000 prize money with her recent title, A Father’s Pride. Chiazor-Enenmor spoke to ANOTE AJELUOROU about this second outing at the sought-after Book Party with am offering that has so many talking points how girls should be raised without some unusual, stiffling expectations placed on their tender shoulders

A Father’s Pride is your second time being on the longlist of The Nigeria Prize for Literature, organised by Nigeria LNG Ltd. What has changed from the last time and now about your writing?
IN terms of my focus, nothing has changed. By focus, I mean the things I love to project in my the books that I write for children. I love to project local contents; most of my characters bear Nigerian names. I write about our culture, our languages and most importantly, I focus on topical issues that affect our children. So basically in that regard, nothing has changed. I have always maintained my focus. But in terms of characterisation, plot and narrative structure, a lot has changed. There is a great deal of improvement. One of the things I have improved on is the intensity of the dialogues. As you can see in A Father’s Pride, the dialogues are intense.

Between your last work and this new one, it’s been four years, if we don’t count coronavirus plague year. Are you looking forward to the Saturday, August 17 Book Party being organised by Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) and Nigeria LNG?
I am looking forward to the Book Party. It is an opportunity to meet and mingle with the other writers on the longlist as well as other lovers of literature. My book, A Hero’s Welcome was on the longlist in 2019, but between then and now I have written other books, including a novel, If They Tell the Story, which won the ANA Prose Prize in 2022. I have also written another children’s book, Timi and the Barber, published in 2021. There is also a play, A Harvest of Maggots.

And what’s unique about the Book Party for you or should it be scraped?
The Book Party is unique because it is like an avenue where the 11 books are unveiled, and the authors get to talk about the books and interact with the press. It should not be scrapped because it is an important part of this whole process. The Book Party has become one of the major events in the annual literary calendar in Nigeria. I am happy that there is a lot of improvement in the organisation and there is more synergy between CORA and NLNG. The continuous improvement should be sustained.

What’s A Father’s Pride about and why do you think it made the cut?
A Father’s Pride is a fantastic book exploring three major themes; namely protection of children vis-a-vis the Child’s Rights Act, preservation of the environment, and promoting our cultural heritage. These are issues I am so passionate about. A lot of children are abused in all sorts of ways. Physical and sexual abuse of children are on the rise in Nigeria. Apart from these abuses, the psychological abuse is there. Sometimes, I cringe at the negative words that even parents throw at their children. They don’t know the damage they are doing to the children. When you constantly say things that are hurtful and demeaning to a child, you are setting up that child for a life of low self-esteem. So, the Child’s Rights Act is there to protect children, but the question is, how many people know of its existence, even though it came into force in Nigeria since 2003 and many states have adopted it?

On the issue of environmental preservation, we can’t talk about it enough. The way we discard refuse, our excessive use of plastic, deforestation, and so on; we need to overhaul so many things. We need to relearn and unlearn. The consequences will be catastrophic if we don’t take drastic actions about our environment. These issues are not for the government alone to tackle but every individual has a role to play – parents, children, teachers, journalists – everyone. We should strive to maintain our environment. Many of the negative impacts we are facing right now could have been prevented. Our gutters are filled with all sorts of trash, the drainages are blocked because people just throw trash into the drainages. So in A Father’s Pride, I am lending my voice to this call for environmental preservation. The protagonist Urenna leads other children as they embark on tree planting. The summary of it is that everyone can do something. We can all chip in our little bits.

The other issue that the book focuses on is culture. We understand that changes happen but the good aspects of our culture must be maintained. Our local languages must be preserved by all means.

Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor

What’s in the character of your heroine that resonates with the way girls are brought up these days?
Urenna is the archetype of many Nigerian girls, even African girls. I always say that there is a lot of pressure on women, from the girlchild to the grownup, the wife, the mother, the working-class lady, and the businesswoman. There are a lot of expectations.

Many times, a girlchild is seen as a burden bearer, as an object to be used to achieve something. A mother looks forward to the time her daughter will get married to a rich man who would relieve her of her burdens. The girl now becomes an escape route from poverty.

Even little girl Urenna is used by her aunt (a fellow woman) as a domestic help, enslaving her, starving her, and using her as an object to save up money to become a landlady. Many families depend on their girl-child for financial support. They fail to realise that any child below the age of 18 is not yet an adult and should not indulge in certain kind of work.

How do you joggle writing and publishing, as your core competencies? Isn’t there conflict of interest?
Writing and education consultancy are my core competencies. Apart from writing, I am an education consultant who represents many schools in Canada and the United Kingdom. I help the schools to recruit students to study abroad. I am also a businesswoman.

The truth is that I never set out to be a publisher. All I wanted to do was write. I came into the business of publishing by happenstance and that is because of the attitude of some of our established publishing houses. They don’t want to take chances, if I may put it that way, especially in regards to children’s literature. Well, one may not blame them because of the economy. But if you are a publisher, then be a publisher and be prepared to take risks. There are risks associated with every business. There are a lot of voices that needs to be heard and many stories that should be read. They need to be given expression. The major reason a book should be published is because it is a good story, not because of the person who wrote it. Anyway, I will talk about this issue another time because I have a lot to say on this.

So, juggling writing and publishing is not an easy feat, and that is why I decided to put a hold on publishing.

So, I went hunting for a publisher for A Father’s Pride and, thankfully, I found one. A Father’s Pride was published by Kays House of Publishing, a new and enterprising publishing firm. They took a bold step in believing in me and believing in A Father’s Pride.

I may go back to the business of publishing sooner or later, and then I will give it all it takes.

And do you also invest as much time and resources on other writers? Which writers are you most invested in – young writers or writers for children?
You cannot succeed as an author if you are not an avid reader. I enjoy reading children’s books. I have always enjoyed it. My first degree thesis is on Picture Books, examining their usefulness as a learning tool for children. Writing that project entailed reading loads of children’s books. Professor Virginia Dike was my supervisor. She was then head of the Department of Library Science at University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She is also an author of many children’s books. She was also the Coordinator of the Children’s Centre at UNN. The centre was like a mini children’s library and it was a major resource centre for my project. I visited many schools at Nsukka to interact with the children, and read stories to them and I was amazed at their reception. Many times, after visiting each school, the children would not want me to go. Some of them wept, and I wept along. They wanted me to leave the books behind for them. But I could not because I borrowed them from the Children’s Centre. I can never forget the experience. These were children in public schools with little or no access to books and here comes this young lady who, in the course of her project, was visiting their school and showing them beautiful books, reading the books to them, asking them questions.

Many of the books were written by foreigners, some of the titles are Alexander and Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, Where the Wild Things Are, and so on. But there were a few by Nigerian authors like Ifeoma Okoye’s Only Bread for Eze and No School for Eze.

Of course, there are Enid Blyton’s books which I devoured in my secondary school library and a lot more. Till date, I enjoy reading children’s books and we have quite a lot of outstanding Nigerian authors who have written and still write for children. Mabel Segun’s Readers’ Theatre, Akachi Ezeigbo’s My cousin Sammy, Sola Alamutu’s Cate Saves Ikopi Forest, Mai Nasara’s A Missing Clock, Chinyere Ifediora’s Adventures of Mister Sweet Potato, and so on, are some of the impressive children’s books I have read. There are many more. I cannot forget reading Anote Ajeluorou’s Igho Goes to Farm and my surprise at the similarities of Isoko names and Igbo names. Some of the Isoko terms I encountered in the book have the same meaning in Igbo language. To me, it was a delightful discovery!