For Evelyn Osagie, March 3 is beyond International Women’s Day. This year, she is celebrating her 16th year as an arts and culture reporter with Nigeria’s widest Newspaper – The Nation. This year also marks her 30th year as a performer and poet. An arts reporter, with a finger in almost all art forms, Evelyn has over the years taken a new genre of poetry, which she called experiential poetry into a new level and dream of a time her poetic lines will greet her at every door and in every home. She said her greatest joy was rubbing shoulders with literary giants whose works had helped shaped her into what she has become and is becoming. And she has met them all, from mentors like the late Professor JP Clark, and his wife, Prof Ebun Clark, who often regale her with how she was a great story teller, to the Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, whose endorsement of her poetry has continued to open doors and break ceilings for her. She speaks so dearly of Professors Festus Iyayi, Odia Ofeimu, Kunle Ajibade, Prof. Niyi Osundare and Professors GG Darah and Femi Osofisan. She has a huge space for Mr Lanre Idowu and his wife, Association of Nigerian Authors, and other platforms that has grown her. Ditto several notable organisations that has provided the wings for herto fly. Everyone, she said had nurture her craft as a writer and a performing poet. After 30 years of experimenting, Evelyn Osagie said she is ready to take the stage and take her space. She sees a huge spot in the poetry space just waiting for a woman poet to fill and she said she is ready to step up and fill the vacuum. Like everyone else, Evelyn says usually scared of stepping out of her comfort zone, but insisted when the time is ripe, as it does seem now, she may have no choice. She spoke exclusively with Sunrise News Crew.
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Evelyn Osagie is several things to so many people, a brand, an artist, a poet, a performer, photographer, arts and culture enthusiast and a journalist. Third of March is going to be your 16th anniversary as a journalist, which one came first, a poet, a performer or journalism?
I will say that poetry came first. Performance came when I was trying to reinvent the genre in my own small corner, to make it accessible, to be able to communicate my poems to people around me to communicate poetry in simple, everyday language to those who were my audience at that time, my medium was through writing and verbalizing it to people around me. I realise that when I give people around me the lines to recite, sometimes they can’t make any sense out of it, but when I verbalise it, it tend to make better sense, whether they are versed, schooled or illiterates that’s where performance came in, but poetry seem to be giving birth to every other aspects of the art for humanity that I’ve been involved in, whether it is performance, or what we now call spoken words, or journalism, I got into journalism through poetry too, sending my published poetry collection to The Guardian which got published, then doing ad-hoc internship with The Guardian Edo State Office, then coming and doing freelance at Lagos.
I started performance 30 years ago. I remember I was in my teens and I was one of those who participated in a poetry competition in the church. It was the first time my parents got so very happy with me because of the honour that came with it that they saw firsthand the viability of what I had been disturbing that it could become something of honour.
As a journalist and a performer, how will you describe your experience as a poet and a culture and arts reporter in the last 16 years?
It has been an amazing journey, amazing because I started first by reading other amazing writers works and being inspired by the mastery of their works and I was imagining when I would begin to write the way they write and touch other people’s hearts the way they touched mine, so it was amazing that I eventually started covering that same sector and seeing these same people I read their works and from whom I drew inspiration. It was the greatest gift one can even get, and then to be paid doing what you love doing. I keep telling people that I have spent the last 16 years enjoying myself, where I am doing what I love doing and being paid for it. So I’ve not worked in the last 16 years Ive just been enjoying myself. I love travelling, they paid me to travel, I loved writing, they are paying me to write, I like meeting people, especially people in the arts, and they paid me to do that. So its been a huge journey, a journey that has brought me immense joy and fulfilment. Some people would say, what have she achieved? But the fact is that everything I have been doing is to give God thanks for sparing my life. I was not supposed to live, I have near death experience several times in my life’s journey. I have had the cause to realise that when God gives me the opportunity to return, I realise that I come back with some experience. When you come back you realise that your orientation changes, when everyone is running forward, you will be moving backwards. You are always with a fresh perspective and that’s what, with God’s help, I’ve been doing.
One of the things you have also done through your writings is advocacy. You are committed to lifting others and helping them. How did you get into that and how has that part of your journey been?
A: It has also been a very interesting journey. In all the years I’ve covered arts. I think the second year of my working in The Nation that I won the ANA Literary Journalist of the Year, which I won jointly with the person who is now the Weekend Editor of Daily Independent Newspaper, Pastor Yemi Adebisi, and apart from that, any other workshops and conferences I have attended had come through my advocacy. I think it wasn’t deliberate, but was divinely planned. When I had my last near death experience, it gave me a food for thought and began to make every minute or second or hour I have to count. Beyond reporting literary and visual arts and other forms of culture and arts, I wanted my life to touch others and I think that is how it all started. And I started with different stories around children. For me my younger days were days I cannot forget and were my most memorable moments and I say of I can’t relive that I can make sure children around me are able to enjoy same too. I wanted to be part pf those who are lending their voice to the plight of children and that is how it started and I started by writing stories of children, I also ensured I document the children in pictorial stories, and I am so grateful that it caught the attention of UNICEF in Nigeria and other NGOs and CSOs and several organisations that were leading causes, setting agenda, and I realised that I was setting agenda for children or the girl child, or people living with disability or HIV/AIDS and even down syndromes and different other aspects through my writings, and conscientising policy makers to making policies around these people with vulnerabilities and I have been fortunate to be part of and be part of people who drafted policies around some of these themes and groups, so its been a fulfilling thing, looking back to the lives that God let me touched, I am grateful that its not just an individual it is collective and being recognised for that, I recalled that there was one of those years I was part of eight journalists from Nigeria who Switzerland and United Nations selected whose works had affected the lives of women and children and policies around them and we went to Geneva. Its been a very interesting journey and I was happy for the recognitions and the people I have met on the journey. One of them is the girl with the mentally challenged mum and herself and today the kid has grown into a full woman. There was a particular story I did on some community where children were orphaned by HIV/AIDS losing their parents to AIDS. My interpreter then, I remember, giving him money to buy his WAEC form and telling him that people are going to come for him and sponsor him and like a prophet it happened. People from that community who were made who read the story, because I made sure I wrote about him and all the efforts he made and all his assistance he rendered to me doing the interpretation of everything. He went on to read Law and the day he was graduating from Law School, the whole community called me to come for the event and were calling me his mother, that I was among those that sent him to school. Some have even gone to join Law enforcement agencies. One of those girls I wrote about is doing her NYSC now. I hope someday, I would be sponsored to revisit those stories and report on those kids where they are now and what they are doing. My desire is to go back and follow those stories and seak with those children to see what they are doing now, each and everyone of those children, what has become of them and especially those who has received one form of help or the other through my stories. I was told when I was invited by the former governor of Nasarawa State that there some Arewa Groups wrote to him that they followed up on the story I did on the community where kids were orphaned by HIV/AIDS that over 100 kids received scholarships. I don’t know them but I was told people rose from different areas to ensure that those kids got education. If that alone is all I achieved like the Muslims would say Alhamudulillah. This is what my works has produced, am fulfilled, am happy, but I know there is so much more. There are scores of children I learnt got sponsorship to do corrective heart surgery through my writings. This is not trying to brag or boast as if I had a bragging right, but to use this medium as a way to encourage those who are coming to ensure that they see advocacy as a huge area they can still make great impact in journalism. To let those who are aspiring, those who are coming and those who are already in to know that their pen is their voice and it counts in changing humanity chaning the way people view things. Setting agenda and standing in for the downtrodden, becoming a voice for the voiceless. It pays. People had mocked me, do you have a car, do you have a house, you’ve probably may not have been promoted in how many years but for me, it is beyond all of that. Though all those are good but been able go to sleep at night with a smile on your face. This things warm your heart when people see you outside and say you wrote about so and so thing and it touched them in profound ways. It gives me so much joy that am touching lives.
You are made of more, you have your hands in so many pies. The only aspect of culture you’ve not done is modeling. You are into batik making, you are into fashion designing, you are into photography, so how do you find time doing so many things, being in so many places and yet remaining Evelyn Osagie?
The typical African woman is a specialist in multi tasking. She is able to juggle so many things at the same time. Look at our mothers, they are in the kitchen, they are cooking yet their eyes is watching their children playing, they are watching the one doing their home work and the ones fighting. The kids may be saying mummy is busy in the kitchen, yet, the woman has her eyes everywhere. She’s saying am seeing you o, you what are you doing there? I think women generally have their gift and ability and I the African woman is specially gifted. As a girl, growing on the streets you are given different tasks, though we gave the boy child tasks too, but we have a special place for the girl child because of her roles as the matriarch of families. The ability to manage things from the very beginning grows on the girl child. The family expects them to look after their brothers and keep the home safe and clean at all times. In the midst of all that you don’t lose who you are, so for me being able to do several bits of arts stems from this background, Is it photography, of course, this is linked with journalism, because ive always had that passion for photography even before I came intpo journalism, but the peak moment that brought me into photography was that moment I thought I was going to die and I started documenting, so, as I document what I write, I document it in pictures as well, I didn’t know God was giving me treasures that would one day enrich humanity. In that course of reporting arts and sharing arts with other enthusiasts, it took me into fashion. I became one who had to school in it and graduate. Someone just swa what I made and said you’ll be good in this and that was how my journey into fashion started. Where your treasures are so will your heart be. For me, my treasure is in the arts and culture and in that space, as things are coming everyone is giving birth to the next, it just merely needed me to be focused to be able to know how to share your time, be who you are and when you are called to serve in any of those spaces you are able to do so. Fashion is intertwined with art, as you grow in one you are growing in the other. It is not brilliance because it wasn’t planned but I was fortunate enough to grow all of them as I grow in the profession because they are all intertwined and I am finding the connection and moving with it.
As a performing artiste and a writer, you must have met on your journey these past 16 years notable Nigerians who have impacted your life, and your craft can you share with us some of your experiences?
There are so many people and organisations that have impacted my life and so many of them I may not even remember to accord their rightful place right now. First and foremost for my craft as a writer and a journalist I am very grateful to Association of Nigerian Authors. Back then in school when I was in Benin, I was made the Creative Writers Coordinator and that made me an automatic student member of ANA. Back then at school, people like Prof Nkechine, who encouraged us and gave us freedom to write and Prof Festus Iyayi’s role can never be under-emphasised. He mentored me and connected me to people like Kunle Ajibade and Odia Ofeimu. Especially when I showed him my first finished poetry collection manuscript, he was so impressed people were asking for it to be published. I remember the lessons he taught me to wait going further to introduce me to Odia Ofeimu and Kunle Ajibade, started it for me, then becoming a journalist and writing about these people and meeting with the names that we read about, people like Dr Wale Okediran, Denja Abdullahi, and the Late Hycinth. These are men who held me close. I remember this woman, I cannot forget the first Vice President of ANA Prof May Ifeoma Nwoye, she was a woman who held my hand, mentored me, and took me under her wings, despite being the Bursar of University of Benin then. She took me to her home where we would sit dead into the night reviewing literature, looking at her works and mine and comparing notes. It is such an honour to be with her. To meet with people Gabriel Okara, and the lies of the late John Pepper Clark who saw me and encouraged me and saw my gift and told me this is what we have been teaching our students in literature class. That made my day. I am grateful to the great environmentalist Pa Nnimo Bassey, who mentored me from afar, and invited me just last week, to perform a poem at his latest book laumch. My wow moment was to be selected along with celebrated poets like Akeem Lasisi and Efe to perform on stage adding our voices to the cause for the environment, put together by Prof Wole Soyinka. That to me was an Ah ah moment as the last woman standing at that moment aside the younger ones brought in belonging to different poetry organisations. That for me was an Ah ah moment. For 30 years I experimented with poetry in that experiential poetry and I came to a decision that poetry is a genre that is not duly appreciated or given its rightful place, because of the elevated language that would be difficult to understand. I didn’t just want my books on shelves, I wanted my works, my lines in hearts and tablets of peoples soul. I wanted my lines to greet me at every door. I want all of my lines to welcome me at every door. I remember the late JP Clark telling me Evelyn, Nigeria is not ready for what you are doing, and I said I will do it and will keep doing it and here I am it means my experiment worked. When great minds like Prof. Niyi Osundare, Prof GG Darah, who conscripted me to be part of the Nigeria Association of Oral Literature, it showed that one has come of age and right now I have shifted the narrative and my experiment at experiential poetry worked and has gotten a certain result and perhaps it is time to move on to the next phase of my poetry.
Q: Looking at experiential poetry, looking at yourself and journalism which one will you say has brought you the greatest joy?
A: I think poetry and journalism both have part of me and are areas I expressed my creativity and both speaks of me. People have not really met me as a poet in terms of my real person. Ive always written poems to get attention. I’ve always written poems based on needs Just like anyone doing a feasibility study and asking what is the unique thing that draws people in any particular product, asking why would people buy this product and try to rebrand the product along with what was brought up in their research, to be able to win that market. That is what I have been doing all this time to see how to break their stiffness to poetry. When I started my poetry on the street, which was community theater I called Words Meets Images. I write my poets and give my lines to market women and community people to be part of the cast. Just give them my lines and they perform it and I perform my own poetry. Talking about unity, because that is what I passionately believed and peace and not allow politicians to lure them into violence or to do what they do not want to do. That tells you a little of what I believe, but people have not really met me as a poet to know my thinking to be able to say oh she is this or that, whether I am an environmental poet, you could only see part of that perhaps when Prof Wole Soyinka organised the Movement for the Environment where one of my poems titled Natures irates screams. Generally, I do performances to draw attention to things or sell or speak to the target audience am looking at. The next phase of my experiment would begin to introduce myself to the people because it seems right now, I’ve caught certain attention and people are asking me how to get my works and wants to buy my works my CDs, that’s where people can now see who Evelyn is, the kind of things that interest me. I can still share a lot of what could interest other people because I am a human being who is going through what they are going through, and whatever interests me should interest you and the next thing is basically my interest, I must be able to bring you in, so that we can enjoy these lines together.
Q: With 30 years on stage and 16 as a writer and culture journalist, what are you doing to grow succession of young women?
A: There are so many that my art as poet has affected and in my own small world I’ve been touching lives, but as one who is experimenting so to speak before now, a lot of the time a lot of people don’t even understand even the young ones, when you engage them and try to make them understand they don’t seem to. They ask me for my books, they say Aunty Evelyn with what you’ve been doing you should be able to have your works on paper and that short period when you begin to explain to them that this is an experiment, and sometimes when you say it, people would not be able to understand and until now that I’ve come of age so to speak and I can begin to speak with some boldness and begin to engage the minds of the younger ones more going forward. That is when one can be able to say this is where I am coming from and this is what I was trying to do. It is just like like a prophet who comes and tells everybody it is going to rain heavily in the next one hour despite the fact that it is scorching hot. Nobody would be able to understand until the rain come, so the rain has come.
Q: So the rain has come, what is the rain bringing your way?
A: It is bringing a lot of good things, it is bringing albums, it is bringing books, it is bringing artworks and photography, biopics. It is also bringing auctioning, it is bringing artworks and heritages of building institutions around some of these crafts and sectors one has been fortunate to be. It is going to bring heritages for posterity. It is going to bring mentoring of the young people hold their hands. What I’ve been trying to tell the young ones is that ou don’t need to have publishers crowding you to publish your works, for your voice to be heard. If your father is there, your mother is there, your brothers or sisters, those are your audience, they will one day sell your story to the next person and one day, things would change. This generation is blessed by all these social media platforms to get their voices heard. When we were growing up the only people we used were people around us, I forced people around me to to listen to my poems or read or be part of my cast, including my parents, I draft them into my poetry performance and people looked forward to that and this opened many doors in its own little ways. People recommending me to others and people offering me privileges simply because they have seen me perform in the past. So don’t just keep to yourself and that is what my art on the street out to achieve. Bringing parents to understand that their children had a bundle of talents around and should not kill them. They should encourage them. If my parents did not encourage me, I might have been tired on the journey, art is not a very lucrative thing and even covering art is also like that. Most time, artists would want you to buy their brochure. You can’t blame them. They also needs money, they also needs money to do a lot of things. Writers most times want you to buy their books even though you are covering them. Just like art is not lucrative, even writing it is not lucrative. It is just that you are part of somebody’s progress. I have been part of several people’s growth and progress.
Q: Thirty years on stage and 16 years in journalism on March 3, was this day deliberate, or planned being the International Women’s Day?
A: That question is very interesting, Someone had asked me Evelyn, you are always planning things, you planned it? Funny enough it is not planned, it just happened. When they were celebrating 50 years of Umecheta as an artist, I remember when I am covering all the events that accompanied that I realised we both shared the same birthday, July 21 and I was so happy and impressed amd that endeared me to one of her first son and everybody was asking, even though it wasn’t documented, it was so interesting that I shared a date of birth with such very interesting personalities who I respect her works and whose work inspired me as a young lady, to know the plight young girls and how she was able to handle her home during her hey days. It wasn’t planned. Interestingly it is 16 years of me working in The Nation Newspaper as a journalist but I don’t know why I chose that day to pick my employment letter, maybe I had read somewhere that the day is International Women’s day and they just asked me so when are you starting work and I said March 3 and we just agreed and it was written as my day of employment. But that showed also my passion for women and I tell people, I remember telling a colleague Olukorede Yishau, who had told me, you are not supposed to be here, you supposed to be out there writing books, performing poems full time amd I tell him I am on disguise like a spy in the newsroom. Im in the Nation speaking silently for women and for writers, the first time that they gave writers under the auspices of ANA full page colour page without being paid was when I started writing on them and that was deliberate. I wanted to change the narrative of the perception of the celebrities. I wanted people to see artists and writers as the real celebrities and for me it was the writers because they contribute a lot to the development of education in this country. They are the silent voices behind the growth of education and promoting the reading culture. There are writers that people thought they are dead or people do not even know how they looked like. I was meeting them at events and taking their pictures. I was thinking that time was running out and was meeting with all these writers and taking their pictures and I went to see the then Editor, Mr Gbenga Omotoso who is now the Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State. I just told him sir I went for this event, do you know David Okara, he said I know him now, and Elechi Amadi, and he was surprised he is seeing these people in pictures and that was how it started. For years it went on like that and it went beyond ANA members but to all writers associations began to have more assess to the media and other media houses copied it and ANA review was usually like a scholarly document, but they started doing interesting things that connects to the people. They started picking interest in my pictures as well. These are areas journalists can also make other streams of income especially photo journalists, people were buying pictures from me especially groups, they wanted some rare pictures of everybody. I started bringing writers to the people and gave writers greater accessibility and that camaraderie that people had with writers of the book that they read and that for me was instructive.
Q: Your specialty as a mouth to ear poet must have brought you close to some notable poets can you share with us some of the people you’ve met on your journey and what they have left with you?
A: I have met several persons, I would still go back to the people I have earlier mentioned, Odia Ofeimu, I choose to call him Odia Ofeimu, I should call him Pa Odia Ofeimu, for he is a very down to earth person he is my daddy any day. He has inspired me, he has held my hands and saw me grow. There was a time that people were accusing him of granting only me interviews even if he won’t grant any other person and he tells them it was because Evelyn will not misinterpret me. Prof Niyi Osundare, Kunle Ajibade, Prof Festus Iyayi, these are men who saw the gift in the days I was still a small girl. They saw today yesterday and kept urging me in and followed up on me, Prof G.G. Darah, I can’t forget him. I can’t forget the place of Mama May Ifeoma Nwoye in my life. I was coming to cut my teeth in Lagos as a green horn she wrote recommendation letters to editors of all media houses in Lagos, which I didn’t deliver. I remember telling a very notable person that this woman want to put me in trouble, the editors would have been expecting so much from me and would just push me to one corner and if I couldn’t measure up. I was clearheaded that I wanted to learn the ropes. I wanted to learn on my own terms. To learn and grow on merit. It’s crazy but am happy and lucky I kept those recommendations and fought my way up. People like Prof Tessy Iyase Odozi, wife of the former Deputy Governor CBN who sponsored my first book exhibition. She is the one who discovered me as an artist. These are legacies. People like Prof Peju Olayiwola, she is the one who discovered me as an Adire and Batik maker who held my hands and trained me. I can’t forget Prof JP Clark of blessed memory, he is someone who believed me to a point he handed me treasures, legacies. I can’t forget Prof Wole Soyinka, from afar, he has inspires me. There is a particular picture which he particularly drew my attention and say troublesome girl come and snap this one you will sell it with millions of Naira tomorrow. I was shocked that he knew I was always troubling everyone with my camera. He recognised me and drew me close. I am sure he probably didn’t remember me as that troublesome girl always troubling you with my lens. I remember he picking me out of the lot for his event. I remember one of his prodigies telling someone that Prof chooses those who invited and picked to perform in his event by himself and to receive that type of endorsement from no lesser a personality than Prof Soyinka is a very great honour on my poetry. I cannot forget what it has done for me and to me. I won’t forget the place of Prof Ebun Clark the wife of the late Prof JP Clark. Her role in my life, holding my hand, encouraging me, even up till now with me handling the women page of The Nation, she reads me, when she didn’t see the section these past weeks she calls saying what again, I was looking forward to reading you, telling me that Evelyn you are a good story teller. Those words encourage me. In The Nation Newspaper I cannot but mention Prof Olatunji Dare, and his mentorship and the way his words have encouraged me. All my editors, especially those on the Editorial Board have been my inspiration. Mr Sam Omatseye was the one who pointed me in a different direction and opened my eyes to the greatness of my advocacy and encouraged me not to drop it. This is because at that time, people felt I was always following bust stories and taunting me that am always going to the bush to look for stories and saying I can’t make it from there, but he encouraged me to keep at it. My current editor was another, even before he became the editor, he has been the one encouraging me. Even all the EDFAs that have ever been in The Nation Newspaper they have always been at the backend encouraging me. They are my greatest critics and fans. How would I not talk about Prof Femi Osofisan, the one I love I say it with all boldness, Mr Lanre Idowu, he is my friend. He is someone I respect and cherished. He and his wife has held me, watched me from afar and watched me grow. They nurtured me from afar. The list is endless if I ended up not mentioning your name please forgive me. I can forget you. I performed at his book launch event recently. He mentored me from afar as a student of literature and seeing that I am a journalist he has always been encouraging me. As a poet advocate. I also want to thank associations like ANA, FIAN, SNA, these AQUAN, these are associations that helped me. I also have organisations that have helped my work over the years. I looked at myself and I say I probably would not be where I am without these persons.
Q: As you look at the future what are you seeing?
A: I probably would love to tweak the question to say what next, where am I going from here? Everyone who knows me especially my colleagues in the office would be quick to say I have been wasting away in the newsroom, they see drama, they see poetry in everything I do, I always say to them, the day I become a writer am not too sure I will remain a journalist but I will try, I will fight it because writing is a different ball game that demands all of you, just like journalism. These are two jealous aspect of the art. I think we should just watch out for how things unfold because it wasn’t me that does all these things, it was God at the background making all these things happen as if I were writing a script or my biography in the last 26 years writing every chapter, making every section fit. It is Him that has brought me this far and the next chapter of my life going forward would be as things unfolds. But people will begin to see more of me. In the last 16 years I’ve been under cover, I have been doing things behind the curtains. I’ve always been scared. I mean it is scary of coming out, coming to the limelight, it scares me a lot for though I can trail you, or I can steal the show, I am also a very private person, a quite person, people will not believe it because I am always doing things, or talking, but those who know me to my roots know that I can be in the same room with you and you will not know I am there especially when the muse comes, so let’s watch and see.