{"id":4383,"date":"2007-06-07T16:29:26","date_gmt":"2007-06-07T16:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.com\/?p=4383"},"modified":"2007-06-07T16:29:26","modified_gmt":"2007-06-07T16:29:26","slug":"newspaper-poetry-in-northern-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383","title":{"rendered":"Newspaper Poetry in Northern Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>I was interviewed by Ismail Bala Garba, a poet and lecturer in the Department of English and European Languages, Bayero University, Kano, on the role I played in spawning literary columns in Nigerian newspapers, with focus on poetry. Ismail was working on an academic paper. He sent similar questionnaire to other &#8220;literary journalists.&#8221; The interview was conducted via email, as follows:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>A) What motivated you to start a poetry column?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong>ANSWER: Mind you, I was the one who created the poetry (or literary) pages in the following newspapers:\u00a0<em>Sunday Tide; The Reporter; Hotline; New Nigerian; Weekly Trust; Leadership; The Companion<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>Public Agenda<\/em>. Except\u00a0<em>The Reporter<\/em>, all the others are still kicking, mostly under the titles I personally created (The Write Stuff, Bookshelf, Bookarts, Books).<br \/>\nBack to your question: I am a bookworm. My interests span a wide array of fields in literature. Poetry happens to be one of them. I have been involved with poetry from my secondary school days when I read the works of great poets from Chaucer to Okara; from Browning to Soyinka, etc. I also read a lot of Hausa poetry. Consequently I experimented with writing poems myself, and I think I have done well. hen when I became a journalist I discovered the power of giving people chance to express themselves in any way they can. Poetry is one of those ways. I realised that many of our people have poetic intuitions, but the lack of space to communicate their poems was hampering their creativity. I have learned, through the efforts of Al-Bishak (who edited a poetry column in the\u00a0<em>Sunday New Nigerian<\/em>, to which I contributed every week when I was in secondary school in the early &#8217;80s), that the responsibility of providing such space for our numerous poets lay heavily on me. I had the opportunity, being an editor with clout in all the newspapers where I worked\/contributed (<em>Sunday Tide, The Reporter, Hotline, New Nigerian<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Weekly Trust, Leadership, Public Agenda<\/em>). So I created poetry columns (beginning from the\u00a0<em>Sunday Tide<\/em>\u00a0in Port Harcourt in 1990) essentially to give creative minds the chance to express themselves, to try to become Wordsworth. I was motivated by the works of those ancient and contemporary bards that I read with the view to trying to continue with the tradition of poetry-creation, especially on this side of the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>B) Do you have any idea about the volume of poems you receive from readers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ANSWER: It depends on the popularity or influence or circulation of the medium through which I communicate. When I was editing the\u00a0<em>Weekly Trust&#8217;s<\/em>\u00a0literary pages I received my largest volume of contributions. Probably forty poems a week, out of which five to six could be published. (Don&#8217;t forget, poetry is usually given a small corner in the pages &#8211; we call it Poet&#8217;s Corner, unlike prose, which is given most of the space). But after\u00a0<em>Trust<\/em>, i.e. when I went to\u00a0<em>Leadership<\/em>\u00a0and later\u00a0<em>Public Agenda<\/em>, the traffic has reduced due to the limited circulation of these newspapers. Other factors are at play, too, because I am sure even the readers&#8217;s poetry contributions to\u00a0<em>Weekly Trust<\/em>\u00a0are no longer as copious as they used to be. The economic downturn in the country, which has changed the poet&#8217;s mood for the worse, could be one of the reasons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>C) What is the nature of audience reaction to the poems and the column?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong>ANSWER: Reaction has been positive. That&#8217;s why we keep the light one. And you see people telling their friends, &#8220;My poems have just been published in the Weekly Trust!&#8221; Then you receive more contributions. The beauty of it all is that many of these contributors eventually become published in book form, thus launching themselves to stardom as authors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>D) Do you foresee the development of newspaper poetry? What is its future? Do you think poetry in newspaper is different?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ANSWER: Poetry in newspaper is not different from any other. The audience is bigger than those who buy books due to the poor reading culture in Nigeria. The future is really uncertain. Unless the reading culture is improved, &#8220;newspaper poetry&#8221; will remain in a cocoon, unable to grow. As I said, the poetry corners in, say,\u00a0<em>Citizen<\/em>\u00a0magazine and\u00a0<em>Weekly Trust<\/em>\u00a0used to be hugely popular. But\u00a0<em>Citizen<\/em>\u00a0died, and contributions to\u00a0<em>Trust<\/em>\u00a0declined. That means the genre is not improving as fast as it should. Recently I launched a &#8216;Poet of the Week&#8217; corner in the\u00a0<em>Public<\/em>\u00a0<em>Agenda<\/em>\u00a0(the type I created in the\u00a0<em>Weekly Trust<\/em>\u00a0years back). I received only two contributions in a month. The column was rested (till further notice). In short, the future is bleak for newspaper poetry in this country. I think one reason is that no one, apart from us the so-called literary journalists, is coordinating the genre. And we are doing it as part of our routine career. Or hobby. Or whatever.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_4383\" class=\"pvc_stats total_only  \" data-element-id=\"4383\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was interviewed by Ismail Bala Garba, a poet and lecturer in the Department of English and European Languages, Bayero University, Kano, on the role I played in spawning literary columns in Nigerian newspapers, with focus on poetry. Ismail was working on an academic paper. He sent similar questionnaire to other &#8220;literary journalists.&#8221; The interview [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_4383\" class=\"pvc_stats total_only  \" data-element-id=\"4383\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":28,"today_views":0},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Newspaper Poetry in Northern Nigeria - Ibrahim Sheme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Newspaper Poetry in Northern Nigeria - Ibrahim Sheme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was interviewed by Ismail Bala Garba, a poet and lecturer in the Department of English and European Languages, Bayero University, Kano, on the role I played in spawning literary columns in Nigerian newspapers, with focus on poetry. Ismail was working on an academic paper. 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Ibrahim Sheme","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Newspaper Poetry in Northern Nigeria - Ibrahim Sheme","og_description":"I was interviewed by Ismail Bala Garba, a poet and lecturer in the Department of English and European Languages, Bayero University, Kano, on the role I played in spawning literary columns in Nigerian newspapers, with focus on poetry. Ismail was working on an academic paper. He sent similar questionnaire to other &#8220;literary journalists.&#8221; The interview [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383","og_site_name":"Ibrahim Sheme","article_published_time":"2007-06-07T16:29:26+00:00","author":"Nafisat","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"IBRAHIM SHEME","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383"},"author":{"name":"Nafisat","@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/#\/schema\/person\/bb4e2be5e35db546de899bf1493897e4"},"headline":"Newspaper Poetry in Northern Nigeria","datePublished":"2007-06-07T16:29:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383"},"wordCount":830,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Columns"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383","url":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383","name":"Newspaper Poetry in Northern Nigeria - Ibrahim Sheme","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-06-07T16:29:26+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?p=4383#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Newspaper Poetry in Northern Nigeria"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/","name":"Ibrahim Sheme","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/#organization","name":"Ibrahim Sheme","url":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ibrahimsheme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IshemeLogo.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ibrahimsheme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IshemeLogo.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Ibrahim Sheme"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/#\/schema\/person\/bb4e2be5e35db546de899bf1493897e4","name":"Nafisat","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e999cea8cab471727b3785d6d6c13039b2fc941be9c3077e56e254375b4b48f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e999cea8cab471727b3785d6d6c13039b2fc941be9c3077e56e254375b4b48f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e999cea8cab471727b3785d6d6c13039b2fc941be9c3077e56e254375b4b48f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nafisat"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.com"],"url":""}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibrahimsheme.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}