Gombe Day of Literature and the making of more Habilas

By Jerry Adesewo

HELON Habila, Nigeria’s award-winning author of ‘Waiting for an Angel’, ‘Oil on Water’, ‘Measuring Time’, ‘Travelers’ and ‘The Book of Chibok’, is no doubt Gombe’s most renowned literary ambassador till date. While the state boasts of icons in other endeavours, not many are known in the literary landscape in Nigeria and beyond. 

To ensure that Helon Habila and other writers of Gombe stock have heirs to step into their shoes in no distant future, Halima Usman, a poet and civil servant, who is currently the chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors in Abuja, initiated in 2014, an annual literary feast dedicated to creating a platform for young writers in the state to discover their writing skills and unleash their creativity on the world.

Since inception in 2014, the ‘Gombe Day of Literature and Creativity’, staged yearly under the Halima Factor Community Initiative, has ensured that it held each year with a different goal in mind. Hence, it has remained till date, the only literary activity on the calendar of the North Eastern state.

Year in, year out, young writers from primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions in Gombe State are joined by their professional counterparts from Borno, Abuja, Nasarawa and other parts of the nation. The likes of Professor Sale Abdu Kwami, award-winning writer, journalist Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Professor Neureus Yerima Tadi, Bash Amuneni, Prof Zainab Alkali, Dr. Abubakar Othman and Professor Leticia Nyitse among others have featured in the programme.

Activities of the Gombe Day of Literature and Creativity, which is held over two days every November, centrally features writing exercises and competitions for young writers in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions — in poetry and short story writing; and with various categories of prizes to be won every year.

In 2014, Khadijah L. Kwargana participated in the maiden edition of the poetry competition as an SS3 student. “That experience it was that shaped my literary interest and since then, there has been no looking back. Poetry has become a medium of expression for me, and literature generally, worthy companion,” Khadija who recently published her first poetry collection, ‘Death of Silence’, recounted her experience and the impact that the initiative has made on her.   Today, she is not only a published author but the Chief Executive Officer of the Halima Factor Community Initiative in Gombe State.  

Usman Adamu Garko, 17-year old SS2 student is another rising star who has seized the opportunity the Gombe Day of Literature and Creativity offered him. He not only won prizes but is today a proud author of a poetry collection with the title, ‘When Day Breaks’. He is currently a prospective student of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU. And in view of his rising profile, he is popularly dubbed ‘North East’s Wole Soyinka’.

Despite the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which literarily brought the world to its knee, the 2020 edition, with the theme ‘Literature in a Year of the Pandemic: The New Normal’, held recently on Thursday November 19, 2020. It was an abridged edition.

At the end of the 6^th edition in 2019, Mrs. Halima Usman had promised that the 7^th edition would come as a week-long literary festival… “we had a different plan for this edition, but Covid made it impossible to achieve that plan.  We were going to transform the Gombe Day of Literature and Creativity into a week-long literary festival that Gombe State and the literary community in Nigeria would be proud of. Well, that plan is still in place, we only held this abridged edition, or Covid edition if you like (she laughs), just to ensure that we don’t break the chain,” she explained.

Mrs. Usman further reiterated that the primary objective of the initiative was, and remains, the discovery of new voices in various areas of literature and encouraging them in all ways possible to achieve their life goals. “The idea is to turn literature into action by giving these young ones the platform to express themselves and in the same vein, contribute to the economy of the state using literature,” she said.

NO doubt, the Gombe Day of Literature and Creativity has ensured that the state remained on the literary map. This much the state government over the years have recognised, hence, its constant support of the annual event as one of its major partners, evident by the exalted presence of the Deputy Governor, Dr. Manassah Daniel Jatau.

Obviously, the impact of the initiative on the state is not lost on the Deputy Governor, who is generally known and referred to as ’10:10’ and that he captured succinctly, “we appreciate what Halima Factor is doing with creativity and the young ones in Gombe. It gives us assurances that there is hope that in the not too distant future we are going to have youths that knows their problems, address their issues and will not be too dependent on their parents who themselves are depending on nothing.”

Dr. Jatau added that creativity must be enthroned ahead of the era of the pandemic, stressing that folklores should be included as a means of knowing history. “As we address issues relating to creativity during the pandemic, perhaps Coronavirus is the pandemic now, but I can assure you creativity must continue because aside coronavirus, other viruses will come up and will catch us napping. I still believe there are a lot of pandemics that only creativity can solve.

The deputy governor ended his charge by requesting the organisers to consider other areas of arts and culture – music, folklores, indigenous languages and arts and craft, and most importantly to incorporate an aspect of history and heritage by bringing in the older generations.

With the quality of engagement at the just concluded 7^th edition, continuous monitoring and encouragement by the Halima Factor Community Initiative and the state government, the making of more Helon Habilas, Usman Garko, and other literary heavyweights around the nation could be just on the way.

Watch out for Gombe!