Award-winning poet Ogaga Ifowodo says his poetry seeks to preserve the stories of terrorism victims and challenge attempts by their captors to erase their identities.
Mr Ifowodo, who won the $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature for his book ‘Why does God need a gun’, spoke in Lagos on Sunday.
He said his decision to write about Leah Shaibu as the central figure in his work was driven by the need to ensure that Terrorism did not erase her story.
Ms Shaibu, who was abducted alongside her schoolmates in 2018, became a symbol of resistance after reportedly refusing to renounce her Christian faith in captivity.
The poet said he transformed her experience into a literary voice that challenged the perpetrators’ claims to religious authority while highlighting the human cost of extremism.
He described Shaibu as a poetic persona representing not only herself but also other victims of terrorism, including the Chibok schoolgirls, abducted schoolboys and families displaced by violence.
“For all we know, the account we are giving today of Boko Haram, or the religious terrorism that is confronted in literature, will be what will endure,” he said.
Mr Ifowodo argued that literature could become a lasting historical record, preserving experiences that might otherwise be forgotten or distorted by official accounts.
He said his writing was inseparable from his history of activism and his belief that art should engage with society’s experiences and injustices.
The poet added that winning the Nigeria Prize for Literature, selected from 223 entries, offered both financial reward and validation, strengthening his resolve to continue writing. He stated, however, that writers should not make prizes their primary motivation, insisting that a genuine commitment to literature must go beyond accolades.
Another awardee, Feranmi Abiola, a filmmaker, who won $20,000 in the literature category for her documentary ‘Mara Mania’, highlighted the lack of documented archives on emerging Nigerian music genres. She described it as a major challenge to researching and documenting the country’s evolving music culture.
Speaking about her documentary, Abiola explained that she began the filmmaking process by spending time with the community behind “Mara” music, interviewing its practitioners and studying their experiences before filming.
She noted that the absence of existing documentation and archival materials on the genre made research particularly challenging, reflecting a broader problem facing researchers seeking to preserve Nigeria’s contemporary cultural expressions.
Ms Abiola described ‘Mara’ as an emerging Lagos sound that blends street music with soulful, emotionally driven elements, setting it apart from other popular street music styles. According to her, the genre incorporates diverse musical influences, including sounds associated with Brazil and India, alongside instruments such as violins, horns and harps.
She explained that ‘Mara Mania’ captures the genre’s high-energy, frenzied atmosphere, particularly its popularity on social media platforms such as TikTok.
Ms Abiola added that her approach to documentary filmmaking involves building relationships with the people at the centre of a story, understanding their lives and experiences, and conducting further research to establish the narrative’s context and authenticity.