SprinNG
  • Publications
    • Anthologies
    • Book Reviews
    • Interviews
  • Submit to Us
    • An Afro-Eros Anthology
  • Fellowship
  • Contests
    • Monthly Bookstore Gift-card
    • Annual Poetry Contest
    • SWAP >
      • SWAP 2020 Winner
  • SprinNG Lit
  • Nigerian Writers Database
  • About
    • Annual Report
    • Donate
    • Quicklinks

WHY I WRITE BY THEOPHILUS SOKUMA

1/6/2020

2 Comments

 
Click Here to Get The SprinNG Anthology
Picture
​I grew up with a body, without language to form and exist in. As a child, I was timid and feeble, my bones were too fragile to engage in manly activities, and my soul was osteoporised. I hid in books for shelter, took their spine, and attached them to my back, slowly building a persona. In books, I felt seen. In words, I formed and existed.
​Mahmoud Darwish, in one of his poems, said I am my language. In that same way, I say I am my language, and I write to preserve myself. No land on earth bears me. Only my words bear me. When lumps gather in my throat, I open my mouth to write, and language gathers onto the page.
Writing is my way of acting; of being; of existing outside of this body that doesn't make me feel at home – this body that I haven't claimed as mine in a way that language has owned me.
 
“Give me proof of the existence of God.” A male classmate pronounced in an argument, and my tongue locked with words in my mouth. Days after, hidden behind a phone’s keypad, I breathed and spoke, saying – “Hey God exists, and I’ll give you proof.” There was safety for me to live through words. To break part of myself, my flesh became a word, and the word became light, and the darkness could not comprehend it.
 
The first poem I wrote was about the existence of God, more so for me than for anyone; to speak to my bones and tell them that God exists, and he loves me even though I don't feel it. I write to empty the stream of questions in my mind that always trickled down to God, why did you make me this way? I write to stop existence and query – to ask if this. is. what. God. wanted. to. happen.
 
We are bodies of stories, and I write to tell tales stuck in our bodies. To tell the tales that raises the hair on my body. I write to make sense of the world. To undress the world with language and dissect it with words. To stitch it back and sometimes to leave it as dead if it deserved to die.

 
2 Comments
aquariuspoet link
24/6/2020 02:30:26 am

if Sokuma's words aren't poetic godliness, I don't know what else is. the clearness of this article is what is past as good creative nonfiction. well done!

Reply
Peter Esther
29/6/2020 01:02:33 pm

Hmmm, so explicit just as the theme. I so much love the way you use poetic devices5 as if it's a poem. It's so creative.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    The SprinNG 2021 Brochure
    Picture
    Get SprinNG's 2020 Anthology!
    Picture
    Get SprinNG's 2019 Anthology!

    SprinNG Quicklinks
    About SprinNG
    Anthologies
    Book Reviews
    Contests
    Interviews
    Nigerian Writers Database
    Recommended Literary Sites
    Writers Fellowship

      Subscribe to SprinNG Newsletters
    Subscribe

    For inquiries regarding publications email: 
    contact@SprinNG.org 
    ​and we will respond to you within 48hrs.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE SPRINNG 2021 BROCHURE

Copyright @SprinNG 2021
​

  • Publications
    • Anthologies
    • Book Reviews
    • Interviews
  • Submit to Us
    • An Afro-Eros Anthology
  • Fellowship
  • Contests
    • Monthly Bookstore Gift-card
    • Annual Poetry Contest
    • SWAP >
      • SWAP 2020 Winner
  • SprinNG Lit
  • Nigerian Writers Database
  • About
    • Annual Report
    • Donate
    • Quicklinks