Obinna Udenwe: the making of a ‘literary icon’

When he delved into literature in 2005 after he left secondary school, aged 17, Obinna Udenwe did not know what fortune had in store for him. Motivated by what he calls “an urgent need to tell the story of the Abakaliki people”, he began work on an epic novel titled The Dancing Bird, which was eventually published in 2009 by Trafford. “It is difficult to find a standard novel written by an Abakaliki man, or the characters bearing Abakaliki names, or set in Abakaliki,” Udenwe tells me. “When most Igbo writers tell stories, they use central Igbo names and settings, so I wanted to put the story and names of the Abakaliki people on the lips of millions of people all over the world – that is also why the book was written in a code-switch of English and Izzi dialect in a very moderate way.”Today, the literary efforts of this 26-year-old graduate of Civil Engineering have paid off as

he was recently awarded State Literary Icon by the Ebonyi State government.“The award has validated my efforts to not just write books – novels, essays and short stories – but also to contribute to the promotion and development of literature in the state and beyond. You know, sometimes when you are engaged in one thing or the other, you think people are not watching, that no one takes notice, but this award, this validation from my own government has proved otherwise and it is a wonderful feeling. The euphoria for me is so massive that it will go on and on,” he says with excitement. Aside from The Dancing Bird, which he says is one of the most loved books in Ebonyi State because it tells the epic story of the Abakaliki people, Udenwe has written a number of other literary works. One of them, Satans and Shaitans, which he calls “a conspiracy theory”, is currently with Jacaranda Books and will be published in the United Kingdom in October. He

hopes that in the next 10 years the book would have sold millions of copies. He has also almost completed work on another novel, Viaticum. In 2013 ABIC Books in Enugu published his collection of children’s stories titled Wenitem and Her Friends, and ABIC is currently working on publishing his young adult collection of three stories titled Homecoming. Besides these, he has published over 30 short stories and non-fiction in magazines, ezines, blogs and journals.He has also just been admitted into the Ebedi International Writers’ Residency. He tells me he intends to use the six weeks he will spend at Ebedi to finish everything about Viaticum and concentrate on a work in progress titled Darkness – a novel about the Book of Mormon, occultism, the German Norsemen god Odin, and politics in Nigeria.Ebedi Writers’ Residency was initiated by Wale Okediran, former president of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), with the aim of providing enabling

environment for writers to complete ongoing works at no cost. Situated at Iseyin, Oyo State, the residency has become a global literary centre for writers.But beyond writing and publishing, Udenwe also leads a youth organisation called Ugreen Foundation. “Part of what we do is creativity class training where we train about 20 to 30 young people annually. After the training we commission them to produce stories which we collate in an anthology titled ‘Voices from My Clan’. The anthology was edited in 2012 by Mukoma wa Ngugi and myself and I edited the 2013 edition with Jayne Bauling, the South African multiple award-winning author of young adult novels,” he says.He is inspired in his writings by various things – poverty in the neighbourhood, corruption, war, terrorism, insecurity, people’s success stories, politics, entrepreneurship, etc, he says, adding, “I listen to people tell stories and I say to myself, why not capture this story in

one of your works? I love travelling and this is a great motivation.” And he has other sides too. “I am a democracy activist,” he says. “I love democracy and see it as the best form of government ever known to man. I preach democracy and I wish countries all over the world could transit to democracy. I am also a farmer. I own a pineapple farm and do one or two small farming on the side.”  Udenwe says he has many role models depending on the field. “In literature, I would say that I admire Mario Puzo a lot – I named my cat after him, but the cat died few weeks ago at the tender age of six. I admire Dan Brown and love his works. I love Maria Corelli, the author of the Sorrows of Satan. I have a literary mentor, Mukoma wa Ngugi, and a godmother, Chika Unigwe. I admire and love them. Generally, I love Barack Obama, especially as I would want to go into politics someday soon. I love his person,” he says. In the future, he hopes to get an MA

in Creative Writing and teach people how to weave stories. “I am the lead facilitator in my organisation’s Creativity Class programme and I enjoy teaching creative writing,” he says.

CHUKS OLUIGBO