Nadia Maddy's Journey: Charting Your Path as a Writer

We have another passenger on the Poda-Poda ! Poda-Poda stories chatted with Nadia Maddy, an author, a public speaker and the founder of Indie Book Show Africa. The author shared her writing journey, and tips on how Sierra Leonean writers can pave their own way in the complex world of publishing. Enjoy the ride.

Thank you Nadia for hopping on the Poda-Poda! Please tell us about yourself: Your background, your work as a lecturer and a writer, etc. 

I currently live in London and teach Health and Social Care and Professional Development on the Bath Spa University programme. I am an ex pupil from International School and St Joseph’s Convent.   

I started my creative experience with the BBC on the 90s TV Series, Video Nation with a video recorder and some ideas, then I decided with a friend to create and produce the Channel 4 documentary, Aliens Amongst Us, which won final selection at the Black Hollywood Film Festival in 2003. I wrote a couple of plays that were performed at The Half Moon Theatre, London. 

  My first novel, The Palm Oil Stain– a story about one woman’s survival during the civil war took me  3 years to complete not long after I travelled to Sierra Leone to my father Yulisa Amadu Maddy’s funeral in 2014 and noticed that unless you’re a politician you are not commemorated. If you are , it’s in the form of a statue that no one is made aware of. I decided to start The Indie Book Show Africa Creative Writing Competition with PEN Sierra Leone for 11-18-year-old students in conjunction with PEN Sierra Leone. The competition was set up in honour of my father, director, playwright and author, Yulisa Amadu Maddy.  I also run The Indie Book Show Africa - which comprises of African Literature recommendations on Youtube and acts as a resource for Writers interested in the African perspective. 

When did you discover your love for writing and how did you decide to pursue it? Was it an easy journey? 

 I didn’t really discover a love for writing. Some people discover a love for it later on but that wasn’t me. It was always in me. Always. I was always writing poetry and stories as a child. I didn’t grow up with my father until I was 15 yrs old. Before that he would visit and I would spend random weekends with him. As a child I remember him being an African political activist more than an artist so I didn’t get to witness any form of art around him. So my writing as a child was from a place from within. When I did live with him for 2 years in Leeds, W Yorkshire, I was part of his drama production and toured the UK with Gbakanda Tiata.  At the time, I wanted to be an actress but this was not an option for me as I was expected to go to university, so I turned to TV production and then writing. I wrote a lot of poetry during that time but the novel writing came much later. I decided to write ‘The Palm Oil Stain’ after going to Sierra Leone in 2006 and 2009. I saw how women were affected and yet everyone was talking about child soldiers. So I decided to write about what I saw after discussions with women who remained invisible during my visits. 

Tell us a bit about your writing  process? How did you work on the Palm Oil Stain (writing to editing) . 

I just wrote it. I thought about it for 18 months. I had the story in my head from beginning to end. I developed everything in my head. Then I started writing it. I didn’t have any plan or plot written down. I wrote everything down by hand and then transferred it to my lap top. Then I saw the mistakes and gaps that needed to be corrected. After that I sent it out to beta readers (friends who were willing to read the first draft) who were people I knew would tell me the truth. That was the best part – receiving their feedback. I’m not afraid of criticism. I think the more criticism you get the quicker you can move forward with your work. Criticism is the best. Criticism makes you fly. 

I did three rewrites before it was published and rushed it to an editor. I needed to get my book out before the Charles Taylor trial ended in The Hague, Netherlands. The book was published just before the verdict and I haven’t looked back.  

How can Sierra Leoneans support you in carrying on your father's rich legacy  in the arts? Especially young Sierra Leonean writers and creatives. 

I work with PEN Sierra Leone to have the Creative Writing competition promoted in schools around the country. The first prize is £100, second £50 and third, £30. So far we have had more than 6 winners and I welcome all young people between the ages of 11-19 yrs old to take part. They can contact PEN Sierra Leone, Campbell Street. Contact Allieu Kamara or Nathaniel Pierce or directly indiebookshowafrica@gmail.com 

What advice can you give to young Sierra Leonean writers who want to publish their work internationally? 

I have met a lot of young Africans who are writing and publishing without waiting for approval from the big boys. Those days are over. There are a lot of publishing houses all over Africa as well as UK, Europe, America and Canada. Africans should be thinking about publishing in places like India, China …possibly even South America.  

Publishing in Africa is a thing too. Now, you can upload your book to the Nigerian publishing house  - Okadabooks.com and start selling your book straight away - make some money. Things have changed dramatically. We have a publishing company in Sierra Leone run by Mallam O, The SLWS Series - https://sl-writers-series.org/index.php/en/  They also help and support young writers. I understand that it is a lot to take in and there is in fact so much opportunity it can be overwhelming. But I think we need to realise that we can publish around Africa as well as internationally.  The mind-set has to change, once your book is written it has become a product that you are going to sell, so you have to think about the different distribution points that you want to sell your book to. 

One of the main concerns that I have is editing. Young people are not aware that they need to get their work edited and that can be expensive. It’s an African problem and one that writers and publishers are trying to tackle. If you can get your teacher or a member of your family to edit your work it’s a good start but if you want to publish internationally – then your work has to be seen by a manuscript developer, a copy editor and a proof reader before you can think about having a chance at being accepted. We all know that we don’t have those resources. So this is a problem.

That’s why SLWS series and PEN Sierra Leone may be good places to get the resources and experience that can help you attain the next level. 

Stepping Out of the Cocoon: Sierra Leonean Literary Production

Poda-Poda Stories interviewed Professor Miriam Conteh-Morgan, Acting University Librarian at the University of Sierra Leone, to shed light on how Sierra Leonean literature has been archived, and accessed, especially in a world where technology and digitization has become very important.

Thank you for granting Poda-Poda Stories this interview.  Please tell us a little bit about yourself: your academic background and your current work. 

I am Miriam Conteh-Morgan, currently Acting University Librarian at the University of Sierra Leone. In that position, I coordinate the professional activities of the libraries of the three constituent colleges that make up the University. Each college library has its own head, and I head the one at IPAM. I came into librarianship 21 years ago after 18 years pursuing my first career. 

After graduation with a BA (Div II) from Fourah Bay College in 1981, I taught English and history at the secondary school level, first at my alma mater, St. Joseph’s Secondary School and then at Albert Academy. During this period, I took two study leaves, first to do a Diploma in Education at FBC (1984) and then a master’s in Linguistics and English Language Teaching at Leeds University in the UK (1987). In 1989, I joined the Linguistics Department at FBC and left three years later for the United States, in 1992. There, I continued teaching English (mostly writing courses) and African Literature at various universities in Ohio and also English at Harvard University during the summers of 1996, 1997 and 1998. However, after so many years of teaching, I was ready for new challenges, though I preferred to stay in academia. So that’s why I chose librarianship, and completed a Master of Library (and Information) Science degree in 1999, with a specialisation in academic librarianship. 

In December 1999, I was hired by The Ohio State University (OSU), the institution where I had been teaching African Literature, as a reference librarian. That proved to be a very stimulating and academically rich experience – it is a top tier research institution – and there I grew intellectually and professionally, published articles and books and was promoted Associate Professor in 2005. For personal reasons, I resigned to return home in November 2013, back to University of Sierra Leone, but this time in a different capacity at another constituent college, as head of the IPAM Library. I like to quip that the hills and valleys of Sierra Leone echoed their cry in my heart! 

What an impressive journey, and well done for coming back home. What do you currently do at the University of Sierra Leone? 

I love my job at the University of Sierra Leone! In the 6-plus years I’ve been here, my main focus has been to enhance the teaching, research and learning experiences of our faculty and students by a) modernising the library collections through the acquisition of recent research print and electronic resources, b) enriching the delivery of library services using information and communication technologies and c) creating electronic pathways through which research from Sierra Leone flows much easier into the global space.  

And I wear other hats. I am also the Assistant to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of IPAM (deputy head of campus, that is); I serve as chair or member of numerous campus and university decision-making bodies and committees, supervise dissertations, and when time permits, I teach a course in either Communication Skills or Information and Knowledge Management.   

From your experience in academia and research, do you think accessing Sierra Leonean literature has become easier recently, and what are some of these channels been used? 

Let me start off at the continental level. African literature has exploded in terms of its creative energy and global reach in the last 20 years, I would say, and this is mainly due to factors among which are greater writer mobility, more publishing options and the accompanying higher visibility, and the teaching of African works in World Literature courses in the US and Europe. In other words, more African writers live, work and travel more widely within and outside Africa; there are now multiple pathways for publishing outside of the gatekeeping multinational outfits of previous decades (think Heineman’s African Writer Series or Longmans) – self-publishing, online outlets, co-publishing agreements between African and international publishers etc; and what some critics think is a “whitening” or “lightening” of themes and genres that pander to non-African sensibilities. All of these have made writing from Africa more global and easier to access, and consequently studied increasingly in universities around the world. 

So having said all this, the question now is seeing how Sierra Leonean literature fits into that nexus. We would need to first take a closer look at its production. The traditional route of print publication is still patchy in Sierra Leone. There are really no real publishers to speak of except, perhaps, for Sierra Leonean Writers Series, for which its founder, Professor Osman Sankoh deserves high praise. With its mission “[t]o identify, encourage and support writers of Sierra Leonean origin and to publish and disseminate their works in Sierra Leone and in the world at large” (https://www.sl-writers-series.org/index.php/en/about-slws, accessed April 24, 2020), SLWS has single-handedly changed the direction of Sierra Leonean creative writing with publications in all literary genres, though poetry and novels dominate their list. Acclaimed and prolific writers such as Syl Cheyney-Coker and Lucilda Hunter have appeared under this imprint, as well as emerging ones; others have launched their writing careers there, having gone on to publish multiple titles with SLWS. There are other publishing houses that also put out titles (Gbanabom Hallowell, for example, who has been an SLWS author has also published his later collections under the SierrArts imprint) but I am not very sure about their staying power. Time will tell.  

The next issue to examine is the writing itself. Are there enough writers in Sierra Leone? I really cannot answer that question but I can hazard a guess that not many who have the talent or who need to hone their skills are getting discovered and nurtured. This leads to more questions: what can we do to encourage more creative writing? On whom does the burden lie? Again, I don’t know, but I can offer a thought or two. 

Maybe targeted publishing could be a propellant for emerging Sierra Leonean writers. By targeted here, I mean catering to a specific group of writers by creating a safer zone into which they can step and grow. I’m thinking of examples such as the feminist publishers in East Africa and South Africa, Femrite, and  Modjaji respectively, which have done a phenomenal job of bringing more women’s voices into the African literary space. Edwidge-Renée Dro’s Abidjan Lit Collective has pulled together such books by Black women writers into what she calls a ‘feminist library’ so as ‘unearth’ their stories. 

We may also need to look beyond the book publisher to create a wider space for showcasing literary works in Sierra Leone. Literary magazines are another avenue. It is common knowledge that many award-winning writers around the world first published their short stories, excerpts of full-length works and poems in literary magazines. As far as I know, none exists in the country. So what are we waiting for? 

For now, a couple of major roadblocks to accessing Sierra Leonean literature in print in the country are the mere physical unavailability of books there, and the low return on investment for both writer and publisher. Writers put their time and energy into creating the works and publishers finance their production; however, there is hardly a bookstore in the country where the books can be sold and bought. And even if there were, reading has become such a dying pastime that I wonder how many people will want to buy a book for leisure reading, assuming, of course, that the book is even affordable. There’s much work to be done here. And as we know of course, book piracy remains the bane of writers and publishers. Respect for copyright is a problem in Sierra Leone, as evidenced by the multiplicity of pirated books on sale in street-side book stalls. 

Luckily, there are other options that writers can pursue that may be worth their while. And that is, harnessing the power and reach of new technologies. Indeed a few, especially budding poets, are taking advantage of them to reach online audiences via social media. For example, there is Samuella Conteh who shares her beautiful, evocative poetry on Facebook (I don’t know whether she has a collection in print) and a young lady going by the Twitter handle @the WriterAdeola who tweets about her poetry performances. So even if some of these new writers may not have yet marked their voices in print, which would meet a very limited national audience anyway, they certainly have a bigger advantage in using electronic platforms, bearing in mind, on the other hand, of course that social media is itself limited to one’s own circle of friends or followers. Nevertheless, it could be more helpful than waiting for one’s work to appear in print, if ever. 

The one digital medium that I don’t see being exploited much by Sierra Leonean writers, though, is podcasts. When in 2006 I started researching authors for the electronic research database I was developing at The Ohio State University, The Literary Map of Africa (https://library.osu.edu/literary-map-of-africa), I was amazed by the number of podcasts of radio and television interviews and readings by authors that I found. So I think this is one avenue that could help with discoverability and accessibility.  

Also, I am not sure if the full potential of YouTube is being actively explored. There may be a few creatives with their own channels, or at least who are part of other groups’ channels. Vicky the Poet on the UNFPA SL channel comes to mind. This is an international organisation showcasing her, and they might have other platforms where her work lives. If so, that’s great. But use of global platforms over which one does not have total control could be of short-lived advantage. I mean, the platform could change from free to paid, for example, and many of our writers may come to lose their content if they cannot subscribe. Or worse still, the site could be taken down before one realises it – the impermanence of online resources is not a secret. And sometimes, the rules of engagement of hosting platforms stifle creativity; here I am thinking about, say, their rules on the use of profanity, even if the writer believes s/he is covered by poetic licence.  

Another option not yet seen at all, let alone exploited, in Sierra Leone is the audiobook. I met a young lady at a conference in Ghana last year (2019) who had started that country’s first audio book digital platform a few years ago, whose reach is now worldwide. I follow Akoo Books (http://www.akoobooks.com/) keenly because I think that while the concept of audiobooks is pretty novel, they are simply modernising the ancient mode of storytelling, so it would be interesting to see how it evolves. 

Do you think digital is the future for archiving Sierra Leonean stories, or do we have a long way to go for that to happen?  

The exploitation of digital options in a country that has a dearth of book publishers can well be the lifeline Sierra Leonean literature needs. These could be online magazines, digital repositories and multimedia platforms where creative writings and related productions (podcasts, videos, music, art etc) could be archived. I definitely can see a revitalisation of and boost for our oral literary culture in the latter – - archived live storytelling performances, can you imagine? 

These outlets, however, need to be home grown, I would argue. Local ownership is very important for some of the reasons I mentioned earlier. But first, there needs to be visionary Sierra Leoneans with the deep desire to believe in and start up such ventures, like Professor Sankoh did for print publishing. With regards to digital magazines, there are examples on the continent that can serve as models for us here: Jalada (https://jaladaafrica.org/), Kwani (http://kwani.org), Saraba (http://sarabamag.com) and Afridiaspora (https://www.afridiaspora.com/ ). So how about throwing a challenge to Poda-Poda? 

With wider internet penetration in the country, cloud computing, coupled with a growing tech-savvy youth population, I foresee digital literature growing as well. That would certainly bend the arc of our literary culture. But whether or not Sierra Leoneans are ready for e-reading is another matter altogether. We’ll see if “build it and they will come” will work.

But while waiting, writers should step out of the cocoon to explore what’s happening in other African countries and submit their works there for publication. Perhaps they themselves are the future of Sierra Leonean literary production that we all have been waiting for. 

Remembering Professor Eldred Jones-Elizabeth Kamara

To remember  the legacy of Professor Eldred Jones, Poda-Poda spoke with Elizabeth L.A.  Kamara, Professor Jones’s  granddaughter and mentee .  

 Poda-Poda: Thank you for granting us this interview. How would you describe the legacy of Professor Eldred Jones? 

Elizabeth: Professor Eldred Jones was a distinguished scholar and I count it an honour and a privilege to talk about him. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so. The legacy of Prof. Jones, the national monument spreads far beyond the borders of Sierra Leone.   When he was born in the east end of Freetown, no one knew how great he would become. No one knew that the doors of all the leading universities in Africa and the Western world would open for him or that the academics in those great universities - would yearn for him to share his wisdom with them.  And he did. He travelled widely, attending conferences, delivering papers and teaching African Literature and Shakespeare. His publication of Othello’s Countrymen and The Elizabethan Image of Africa were the first studies on blacks in Shakespeare. By writing these works Jones as it were broke into a forbidden territory of writing hitherto reserved for whites. He and his wife, Mrs. Marjorie Jones also edited the esteemed African Literature Today, for a  little over three decades. He was a founding editor  of African Literature Today and this enabled him to promote African Literature and African writers. His were the shoulders on which many African writers stood to gain visibility and prominence. In fact, in Sierra Leone, the name Eldred Jones is synonymous with education. Prof Jones’s dedication to scholarship is a tribute to a man who believed that whatever one does, one must do to perfection. 

 Poda-Poda: How did Professor Jones influence Sierra Leonean writers and academics? 

Elizabeth: Apart from being well known internationally for his scholarship, Prof. Jones greatly influenced Sierra Leonean writers and academics in his homeland. Professor Jones was Professor of English in the Department of English at Fourah Bay College and later Principal of Fourah Bay College and Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone before he retired in 1985. During his lifetime, he gave some writers and academics the opportunity to publish in African Literature Today and helped to provide scholarships/ grants for others to further their education. Many prominent men and women in Sierra Leone and elsewhere studied at his feet. For a long time after his retirement, he continued to offer his services to Fourah Bay College and students conducting research would often visit him. Writers or academics, researchers, friends, family and others frequently visited him for pieces of advice or asked him to write forewords, introductions, reviews and the like. Although he was not physically in the limelight, he was there behind the scenes, helping to create a space for others.  

Poda-Poda: In what ways did he serve his community? Were there any special projects he worked on ? 

Elizabeth: Prof. Jones helped to raise the profile of his community just by his presence. He and his wife, Mrs. Marjorie Jones were among those who helped the community to retain its peace and quiet. I also learnt from his memoir, The Freetown Bond that he used to hold classes in the city and surrounding villages, for – the elderly , pensioners and school teachers.  He was also one of the founders of the Mountain Rural Secondary School that was set up to provide education for underprivileged kids in the mountain rural community. As a student and later young lecturer staying with Prof. Jones and his wife, I remember them going for walks in the evening and a neighbour or two dropping in to chat with them on certain days. 

Poda-Poda: What are some of your favorite memories of him, both personal and professional? And how did he influence and support your work and journey as a writer?  

Elizabeth: My memories of Professor  Jones date as far back as the 1980s. However, I came into close contact with him and his wife in 1991 when I stayed in their lovely house as a student, my father being the adopted son of one of Prof. Jones’s favourite aunts. That is how our lives crossed and that is how I came to call Professor Jones, ‘Grandpa’. I can almost see him now in my mind’s eye as he used to sit in his swivel chair, listening to me as I read something to him from social media or a book. I spent a lot of time with him especially after the death of his dear wife in 2015 and used to visit him thrice a week or sometimes twice a week because of work pressure and my domestic life.  

One of the favourite memories I have of him is the near-surprise personal statement that he prepared for me on the launch of Distilled , which is my debut collection of poems. It made me feel proud and singled out that the extraordinary   Professor  Jones could not only find my poems a thing of joy but delighted in preparing a statement in my honour.  This demonstrates how he relished spreading happiness.  

 On the day before he died, when I visited him in the morning, he told me that he was afraid that it had got to the point where he had to depend on others to do everything for him and he did not like that. I told him that it was because of his age and ill health. Even when my husband and I visited at dinner time on that day  and supported him to take his food and medication, little did we realise that will be the last time that we shall see him alive. And when we were called to his bedside at 1:35 A.M on Saturday 21st March, we discovered that the gentle and unassuming academic colossus had quietly passed away. He was a blessing and a joy to be with. 

Poda-Poda: How can we continue to remember him and carry on his legacy as Sierra Leoneans? 

Elizabeth: This is a very weighty question. For me personally, it will be impossible to forget him. How can you forget someone you have known for over thirty years? How can you forget someone who helped to educate you? How can you forget a father figure, who had nothing but love for you?  Some of us who were close to him will attempt to carry on his legacy. He will always be remembered not only as an academic giant but also as a “human being”. I know that all the people on earth are human beings, but when Sierra Leoneans say that someone is a ‘human being” we know what that means.  I have captured the idea of Professor Jones being a human being in ‘God made him a human being’, one of the poems I wrote on his passing. 

To come back to the question, Professor Jones will be remembered for his integrity, solidity, humility, generosity, fortitude and equanimity. As Sierra Leoneans we can carry on his legacy not only by promoting education, but by being humble, true and kind. 

If I continue to be humble when greatness comes my way; if I can light a smile on someone’s face; if I can help to educate someone who is not related to me; if I can help to lift someone out of the mire of poverty; if I can offer my ear to those who need help; if I do not allow challenges to drown me; if I can do all of these, I shall consider myself as remembering him and carrying on his legacy. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace. 

 Elizabeth L.A Kamara holds an Honours degree in English Language and Literature and a Master of Arts degree, both from the University of Sierra Leone. She is the Head of the English Unit and currently lectures the key genres of Literature in English in the Department of Language Studies at Fourah Bay College, the University of Sierra Leone. Kamara is also the Founder/Coordinator of the Poetry Reading Club FBC where she continues to inspire members to read and write poetry. She is the author of Distilled : A Collection of Poems and has published some of her works in several anthologies. She is married with two lovely sons. 

Remembering Professor Eldred Jones-Daphne Pratt (Part II)

Professor Eldred Jones was a Sierra Leonean academic, literary critic , and a pioneer of documenting Krio literature and language. An Oxford graduate, he served as the principal of Fourah Bay College, and contributed in outstanding ways to African literature.

Renowned Sierra Leonean poet, writer and educator Daphne Pratt shares snippets of how she remembers Professor Jones, in this audio series.