Dr. Onyeka Iwuchukwu, is an Aassociate Professor of English at the School of Arts and Sciences, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Victoria Island, Lagos. She is a literary scholar with a bias for drama and theatre, and a playwright with varied experience. She has published eight plays:Sons for My Son; Into the World; Like father Like Son; Regal Dance; Whose Fault; Our Honourable Member; Enough is Enough; Choices; and other books.

She is also the Director of NOUN Theatre and Cultural Troupe. But one thing that worries many, especially those that have come across her and her books is that despite her exploits in the literary and creative world, not much is heard about her. In this chat with Sunday Art, the multidisciplinary researcher bares her mind on a whole range of issues. Excerpts

By  Japhet Alakam

When did you start writing?

I started writing from my undergraduate days in the university, precisely in the third year when there was a course called Noon theatre, and in the course, you are expected to produce a play with your group, so I toyed with the idea of producing another person’s play and on  second thought, I said no, let me use my class project because we write plays as part of play writing courses. I used that my 3rd year play which I called an Only Son  then and I was surprised at the way it was well received by both my fellow students and even the lecturers.

• Dr Onyeka Iwuchukwu, passionate about women liberation

The lecturers even encouraged me , so in my final year, I wrote another play which was a class project, but that my Only Son later metamorphosed into a play called Obiefuna when I went for my youth service in 1985 in Jos. I presented it and used it with the students. But because they wanted roles, I have to create more roles and expanded it and eventually, it turned out to be my very first play which was published in 1990 as Sons of My Son.

How many books have you published?

I have published 8 plays, but in terms of books because here in National Open University, we also write books which are used as course materials, I have written five too.

Why did it take you so long to come up with new books?

Like I told you, I started writing before I got married, as you can see the first five plays were written as Onyeka Onyekuba, my maiden name. I started writing not even as a lecturer, but as an assistant lecturer because I started as a clerical officer, rose to the rank of Assistant Registrar, before I changed to academics.

So then my desire was just to write. I was happy to see my plays in print. Fortunately, in 1986, I got married and my University, UNIZIK, posted me to their outreach center in Lagos, so it was not easy between that time, 1991 and 2002.

I had a lot of issues to contend with, my family,  busy Lagos traffic, my office and leacturing jobs, so I had little or no time. But, now my children are grown, so I now had more time to go back to my first love which is creative work. And that paid off last year, I was  able to publish three plays and hoping that before the end of the year, I might be able to push out one or two.

Again, in NOUN here, I am very grateful to Prof. Vincent Ado Tenebe, for his great encouragement to me in the NOUN theatre,which has helped to produce 5 plays which I ‘ve not published.

Despite the number of books, you have written, not much is heard about you, why?

I will say first of all, when I started writing I did’nt know much about awards, I was in Awka, just going about my job, writing books and my books were sold in the then Bendel, Imo and Anambra states. I didn’t know much about awards. Presently, in Anambra state, they are still using some of my plays consistently and it is literary critics that will critize your works and make them known. A Phd disertation has been writtien on one of my plays, I am coming out gradually, so I am praying that more people will  pay attention to my works and talk about them. I have done my bit, have written the books, its left for critics to bring them out.

NOUN theatre.

You know this university is a non-residential university, I looked around and said in as much as it is a non residential, we should still be able to create time for past time, so I met the management and they gave approval to start NOUN theatre. So from time to time, we create entertainment for the university. If there is something like anti- corruption day, they call us and commission us to do a play or during convocation, we do plays too. For example in the last book launch at Abuja, they invited us and we presented a dance. NOUN theatre provides entertainment and relaxation for the university community.

Foray into film production.

Luckily, I got invloved in film production courtesy of NOUN ambassadors for the university. It is a university film actually, but it is an adaptation of one of my plays, Enough is Enough and we just concluded the shooting of the film and we wre hoping the film will be premiered in January 2016. I am the associate producer of the film and also played a very minor role waka pass, as they call it. That is my incursion into film production and I believe there is opening, we will do more.

Most of your plays talk about women empowernment, are you a feminine activist?

The truth is that I am passionate about women empowerment, let me just put it that way. If you look at Into the World, one of my books for instance, there is a line that says “the time of Oriaku is gone, the woman today should be Ogbata aku.” You should be able as a human being to contribute to the wellbeing of your family and  society.

I am passionate about that, I am also passionate about girl child education. It is very important that women be allowed to go to school. I am from a family where the first four children are girls, and at a point, I think there was pressure on my father not to train the girls but to keep the money for the boys. When I was growing up, I also saw families where the girls were told to stay at home so that the boys can go to school.

A child is a child, that is my own philosophy of life. Give the children equal opportunities and then let them grow, you don’t know who will be the king. We have families that have males but women are the ones carrying the responsibilities, so give everybody equal opportunities, do not marginalise anyone.  Ofcourse, the issue of women liberation is almost in all my plays.

What can you say about Nigerian writers?

Nigerian writers are doing a lot, they are doing well, but we still have the major issue of publishing and circulating. There was a playwright confab in Ife and Ilorin, though I did not attend, but I have the proceedings, its still the issue of readership, people are not willing to read. They are not reading. Another point is that some people are writing because they want to make money, some write because they have the talent to write, most of us are writing because we’ve something to say, which we want others to share and know about so that we can move the society forward.

Nigeria writers are trying, contributing to the wellbeing of the society because they look at some of the anomalies of the society and highlight it. Some of them profer solutions, some just leave the audience to decide but poor readership, publishing and circulating are very big hinderance for Nigeria writers.