Othuke Ominiabohs is a Nigerian novelist, poet and dramatist. A graduate of Computer Science from the University of Benin, Nigeria, his writings are influenced by experiences from the land of his birth. His published books include Chapters, a collection of poetry; Odufa, a play that was shortlisted for the 2014 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature; Odufa: A Lover’s Tale, his first novel, which was shortlisted for both the 2016 Association of Nigerian Author’s Prize for Prose Fiction and the 2016 Grand Prix of Literary Associations in Cameroun; the acclaimed novel, A Conspiracy of Ravens; and his third and latest novel, Aviara: Who Will Remember You. He is also the Executive Director of the Nigerian publishing firm, Masobe Books. He talks about books, writing and publishing in this interview with CỌ́N-SCÌÒ MAGAZINE’s features editor Ehi-kowochio Ogwiji.
You come across as an eclectic writer in terms of preferred themes and genres. Though you do not yet have a full-length poetry collection, you authored a highly successful play, Odufa, and three successful prose works. Thematically, you have explored diverse themes of family, love, friendship, patriotism, militancy, corruption, betrayal, science, spirituality/metaphysical, fate, etc. All of these point to a rich mind. How did you evolve into this writer who writes across genres and themes? Which came to you first?
OTHUKE: I actually have a published collection of poetry titled CHAPTERS. For me, writing started with poetry. There was a time in my life where everything around me seemed to be unfolding or happening in stanzas. Poetry consumed me completely and I churned out poem after poem. I currently have 3 poetry anthologies that contain a total of about 400 poems. Maybe someday, I’d get to publish them and share this side of me with the world. Prose came next and Drama happened as a result of my desire to explore other forms of literary expression.
Currently, I enjoy prose the most because it gives me a lot of room to express my ideas better, even though you can still find my poetry in every sentence I write.
What led you to the crime fiction/thriller genre? It is common knowledge that this is not a genre many Nigerian writers currently write but you showed mastery of this genre in A Conspiracy of Ravens, and Aviara to some extent. What were your influences – any Nigerian writer/books among them?
OTHUKE: Writing for me has always been about three things: entertainment, the burning desire to express a profound thought, and a need to seek answers to one or more of the many questions that I have struggled to comprehend, like questions about life, death, fate and ancestry. And these ideas screaming to be let out, do not come in labelled boxes. They come simply as they are – stories ready to be told.
So when I wrote A CONSPIRACY OF RAVENS, I simply told a story I had always wanted to share, and didn’t care much if it was crime fiction, thriller or Literary fiction. The story decides its form, as can also be seen in the trajectory of AVIARA, my latest novel. And my greatest influence, outside the James Hadley Chase, Robert Ludlum and Sydney Sheldon books I binged on as a teenager, is my environment. If you live in Lagos for instance, writing ‘thrillers’ will almost come second nature to you, because an average Lagosian’s day in itself is a thriller.
Your highly acclaimed novel A Conspiracy of Ravens mainly explores Nigeria’s tricky socio-political landscape and the resource control agitations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. Being a Niger-Deltan yourself, how personal are these themes to you? Did the novel achieve what hoped to achieve, especially given the fact that the situation in the region remains largely the same?
OTHUKE: I grew up in the heart of the Niger Delta. I have lived through terrible roads, lack of infrastructure, insecurity and all the ills that could possibly bedevil a people. In fact, my community, a beautiful town called Aviara in Isoko South LGA, hasn’t had electricity in almost 15 years. So yes, the themes captured in my book are quite close to home. As a writer, I owe it to the past and the future to document this time period in the history of our people. I also owe it to the present to shine the light on our circumstances.
My tools however are pen and paper. Is it not said of the former to be mightier than the sword?