Olamide Bamtefa-Onasanya is in love with writing. The former president of Women Writers of Nigeria WRITA has since started the Creative Arts and Social Development Centre (CASDEC) not only to empower writers but also artists. She talks about CASDEC and sundry issues in this interview with Assistant Life Editor, TERH AGBEDEH.
Why are you starting this evening of poetry, drama and music event?
I am a writer who was with Women Writers of Nigeria and occupied the small position of the presidency for a while. I got interested in writing because it was what I love to do, and because I find that you can be a bit more organised. With 170 million very intelligent people, we, Nigerians, need to have our voices heard in the literary world. It is unbelievable how brilliant Nigerians are in terms of the arts, but there is no cohesive organisation really that pushes the cause of writing, of sculpting or just being a painter out there.
We are starting this evening of poetry, drama and music, so that it is all-encompassing. The Creative Arts and Social Development Centre (CASDEC) was put together such that it will be an umbrella body where anybody can thrive, not only writers. We want to tap into the wherewithal of those who have done it well, successfully. You will be surprised how many Nigerians are great writers in the Diaspora. We have Chimamanda (Ngozi Adichie) today because she did try, she believed in herself and she kept writing. We have many more like that. But the situation is not as conducive in Nigeria, so everybody is out there subsuming their capabilities in the arts because they have to survive. Take for example those who are in journalism; it is because you want to do it and not because of the money. I know it is like that all over the world, but it could have been easier if there was a lot of support for journalists. In the United States, for example, you are very much respected.
How long has CASDEC been here?
CASDEC came alive over five years ago, but it was not functioning. Now it has started. It has been able to get the resort to support it, to say if we have anything doing, please give us rooms at a highly ridiculous (subsidised) rate.
You started CASDEC, but are CASDEC and the resort not one and the same thing?
They are related, but CASDEC is a separate body from the resort, but the resort can support CASDEC to run its programmes. For example, we also intend to invite publishers to come and display their wares, artists to come and display what they do; their paintings and stuff. One of the things CASDEC also wants to do is to support a particular charity, such that on that day there will be stuff that will be sold at a maximum of N1,000; things that will be useful to everybody and that money can go to the charity. So, CASDEC is not only a body that will support artists, but also charity. It is a body that intends to give back to society. That is it, to give back to creative arts, to give back to charity, to say that in Nigeria we need to think of our neighbours.
Is the King’s Royal Resort and Gardens your baby?
It is a family concern that is very different from CASDEC.
How big is the place?
About 50 rooms.
So if 50 people come, they can all have rooms?
Yes.
How long do you see yourself doing this?
CASDEC will eventually grow to a body that will be manned by Nigerians. It is going to be an organisation that would almost serve as an NGO, which will not go away with me. It is a body that should be there for years to come, to grow and support society. It should be a body that should be able to give grants to writers. We want to have prizes, residencies and from time to time support not only writers but also journalists and say for three months you can come in here and just stay at the resort.
How big is the amount for the prize on the evening of September 17 and who is eligible to vie for it?
You can send in your play, short story, poem; we are going to have a body of lecturers that will sit down and review, and we would all determine how much it is going to be.
This first presentation will have prizes too?
It will have a prize, one prize for whatever you present. It is going to be for creativity, a prize for creativity. It could be a poem. It is going to be a modest amount, anything ranging from N20,000 to N50,000 on the day. But that would be there and it will be our first and hopefully, we will continue and grow. If we are able to get support, we will grow more. What we want to do is to be self-sufficient first; be able to put money where our mouth is, such that people can benefit and look forward to becoming better and look forward to partnering with CNN and Al Jazeera to have Nigerians celebrated.
After this first event, when is the next one?
It is a quarterly affair, so it is going to be four times a year.
Who will come aboard to judge the prize?
A body of lecturers, people like Otunba Tunji Sotimirin, Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo, who are tried and tested fully will be the ones that we will lean on their experience to know what to do, so that Nigerians can benefit.
Will you depend only on university professors or have a mixture of them and people in the arts and culture industry?
Our prize will be a mixture. Professors are people who are very intelligent and they are thorough. But then, if you also excuse all the people who are practitioners from it, it may be lopsided. So we will be looking at having a modest body which will be a mix of practitioners and those who are also in the lecturing world.
Would CASDEC do anything beyond literary arts?
It is not going to be basically literary, it is the creative arts. The name says creative arts and even if we are complaining about writers, I think sculptors, painters should actually scream because nobody is even looking at that side; whereas if you look at so many people all over the world, some of their paintings command millions (of dollars) because the society believed in them and also assisted them. We don’t have a shortage of such people in Nigeria. We have so many people who deal in the native art; sculptors, painters, those who even do beading. There are so many of them and they need to be celebrated; they need to be exposed to the world.
So CASDEC is going to do that?
Yes.
Because Nollywood has done quite well, do you hope to maybe sponsor a movie in the future?
Maybe; I shouldn’t say no, but that won’t be our first thought because Nollywood, like you said, has done well for itself. It can do with some help but Nollywood is reckoned with; the other parts of the creative arts are not reckoned with. That is because really there is not a body that shouts out there and says: come and look at us. We are doing something here. There is something we are also contributing.
Nigeria produced the Soyinkas of this world and sold not only their books but sold Nigeria to the world. I mean, here is a Nobel Laureate. Come on, that is a big thing and it is not just the money. But what is happening? At the time you had the Soyinkas of this world, Nigeria celebrated its writers, its journalists; they had a voice and who celebrated them? You will be surprised; it was the British people. Who projected them? It was the British people. We need to start the projecting; if you talk, the world will listen. If you say that you are good, the world will say yes. And if you are silent, then you are gone. So we dare not be silent.