Welcome to another interesting edition of the Writers Space Africa Magazine. This month, I chatted with Adétutù Adedoyin, winner of the 2021 African Writers Award in Creative Nonfiction. – PPBlessing
PPBlessing: Thank you for joining me for this interview. What do you do for a living?
AA: I work as a content manager/Copywriter for a Digital Marketing Agency in Lagos. I also double as a Community Manager for the company and clients.
PPBlessing: Was this career path influenced by your being a writer or by what you studied in school?
AA: A little bit of both. I studied English for my first degree and majored in Literature. For my second degree, I studied Communication. But I would say, it’s more of the first one. I am passionate about writing; specifically telling stories. So when I applied for the job, I had one thing in mind “at least, you’d get to write”. But I found it’s not the same thing. And I think I am learning that because I can do something, doesn’t mean it’s what I have to do. I’m also learning to embrace the uncomfortable and create what I want from it. Life won’t always welcome me with pleasurable things, but I will make what I want out of it.
PPBlessing: Exactly! Life’s all about creating what we want from it. How long have you been writing?
AA: I have been writing for about 9 years plus now. I used to count from when I wrote my first poem in SS2, but I think I have been writing before I realised it because some years ago, my father gave me a manuscript I wrote when I was 9 that I wanted to publish for my 10th birthday. I went to a few birthday parties where the celebrants published books and I wanted one too.
PPBlessing: Whoa! A young writer that started out with big dreams! Did you get to publish it?
AA: No. By the time I read it again, I had a good laugh. It would have made for a good Children’s book now that I think about it. Banter aside, I think for a 9-year-old, it was a really superb story about the beauty of faith and taking care of what God placed in your care. It was about a couple who had to wait for years before they had their son. They went on to pamper him as a result and let him get away with many bad things until it backfired. At the end of the day, Jesus came to the rescue.
Now, I believe it was influenced by a Mount Zion movie I watched, but nonetheless, it feels like God was preparing me for such a time as this. I published something else in 2015 though; an anthology of poems. I was really surprised when I got a call that my manuscript was accepted. I look at the content now and just laugh at myself.
PPBlessing: Well done. Have you published anything else aside from that anthology?
AA: No, I haven’t.
PPBlessing: When do you plan on publishing?
AA: If everything goes well, very soon. I’ve got a complete manuscript sitting in a folder on my laptop and I don’t know what to do about it. At this point, I am considering self-publishing but I want to make sure it’s good enough before weighing in on every option. I need an extra pair of eyes to spot things I might have missed. I haven’t gotten that yet.
PPBlessing: Godspeed on both. What made you start writing?
AA: I started writing as a form of escape. That’s the short answer. It was a way of expressing feelings that I couldn’t share with anyone for the fear of being misunderstood and to also understand myself. The long answer is that writing found me. God blessed me with this gift and although I didn’t know it then, I started writing at the core part of my life when I felt vulnerable and everything I was feeling would throw me on the path that I am now. It felt like something came on inside of me and continued to grow.
I am big on emotional health. It’s one of the top things I use my writing for. At the time, I wrote to express feelings I couldn’t verbally put into words, to make sense of what I had in my mind, the world, and other people’s behaviour towards me.
PPBlessing: What themes do you write on?
AA: I write on themes that have to do with identity, faith, emotional healing, friendship and love. I don’t restrict myself to those themes though because I like to explore different topics and have conversations with people that could broaden my knowledge and help me understand people better. Over the years I have grown, I have dabbled into more complex topics like toxic masculinity, suicidal thoughts and battling with faith. Basically, things people don’t readily talk about interest me.
PPBlessing: If you were to meet a character from a book, who would it be and why?
AA: At first, it was Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë because he just seemed to have a lot of pent-up anger and was so vengeful. Understandably so. Now, I think it’s Chinoso from Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma to knock him for what he did at the end of the book. I mean, why? Why couldn’t he be patient? I pitied him at first and was really rooting for him. He just used rage to mess everything up. His Chi tried to defend him, but that’s just really unacceptable what he did.
Sometimes, I occasionally think about Ayoola from My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. I mean, what was going through her mind all the time? Why was she leaving a mess for Korede to always clean?
PPBlessing: That’s a handful of characters to meet. What’s your favourite thing to do?
AA: My favourite thing to do is talking with my really close friends. I have been blessed with people who have an amazing sense of humour and also speak the truth without going back. If I’m letting myself spiral from overthinking scenarios or sleeping on myself (and abilities), they call me out without a second thought and set me straight.
PPBlessing: What’s your preferred writing genre?
AA: Prose. That’s where I can do all the talking I don’t do verbally. To be specific, I like Nonfiction the most. On some days I like poetry, but I think for that I have taken to writing it only in Yoruba.
PPBlessing: Why poems in Yoruba?
AA: I don’t have a specific reason. I just enjoy writing it. Although I don’t think I write it that well. I try to when I feel like it.
PPBlessing: Why are both your website and medium page starting with Tutu?
AA: This question made me laugh because for the longest time I have preferred to be called Adétutù. My name means the crown is peaceful. When put apart, it’s just crown and peace. And for the type of writing that I do to help foster emotional healing, it came naturally to me to stick with Tutù. There’s still peace that comes from soothing words and healing to become whole after being broken apart from events. I put a whole lot of thought into my writing process because I understand the importance of what I’m trying to achieve with it. I have a great idea of what God would have me do with it. Although I have a friend who calls me Adé, most people naturally just call me Tutù. So, I think there’s also that part.
PPBlessing: Beautiful name. Can we say you’re already declaring peace to your readers even before we read your words?
AA: I didn’t even think about it that way.
PPBlessing: Who is Adétutù Adedoyin?
AA: Adétutù is an Osogbo girl who enjoys speaking Yoruba. Seriously now, I have tried to relegate this question because sometimes I wonder. But who hasn’t at one point or the other?
Adétutù is an amazing writer. I don’t know if it’s because I referred to myself in the third-person but it was actually easy to say. This is the first time I am letting myself say it out loud to someone without feeling like a fraud. And it’s amazing because it’s also the first time I am letting myself believe it.
Adétutù is an introvert who likes to laugh and believes in wearing one’s heart unapologetically on one’s sleeves regardless. She’s committed to sharing stories that help people get comfortable with what they’re feeling and how to grow from there.
She’s totally sold out to living a purposeful life in the way God has intended it. She enjoys reading mostly African novels, and watching Kdrama. She believes in being honest about where one is at each stage and having difficult conversations. She’s presently learning to do it afraid.
PPBlessing: Such a clear appraisal of one’s self. Cheers to showing up regardless of the fears. What is your ideal day like?
AA: My ideal day is Bruno Mars’s “Lazy Song” video. I just want to wake and vibe, no need to go to work and all that.
PPBlessing: Who are your top 3 authors?
AA: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chimeka Garricks, and Elnathan John.
PPBlessing: Why them?
AA: It’s in the way they wield words. Chimamanda is so good at describing things that all your five senses will be involved in what you’re reading. For Chimeka, he’s that good too and the way he makes me feel things. It’s like any time I read something from him, I have a willing suspension of disbelief and I am truly involved with the characters. For Elnathan, it’s satire. The way he says serious things lightly without losing its effect. The way he wrote Dantala’s story in Born on a Tuesday.
PPBlessing: How will you describe your writing journey from when you first started writing until now?
AA: It’s been a constant pulling of my edges. If you check, you’d see it forming a W already. Writing, especially the kind that I do, happens in such a way that, to be honest with others, I have to first do that with myself. That’s not always easy. But it’s like being in a love relationship where it gets sweeter as time passes. It’s not to say I don’t have moments when I don’t feel like writing, but even when I don’t, I still write.
PPBlessing: Would you say that writing even when you don’t feel like it has helped?
AA: I have never thought once that writing hasn’t helped me. Because after talking to God, before I even open up to someone about what’s going on in my head, I probably might have written it first.
PPBlessing: Do you have a mentor?
AA: Yeah, I would say that it is Chimamanda N. Adichie. From a distance. I mean, you don’t have to know someone personally to learn from her. So, when I read her works, I am paying attention to what she says sometimes. She writes in Igbo unapologetically. She doesn’t italicise or have a glossary for it at the bottom.
PPBlessing: A distant mentor… Interesting. Are there any others?
AA: No, there aren’t. It’s actually funny because in the real sense of it, I don’t think that should qualify. But you know there’s a way you can guide and advise people without even knowing that’s what you are doing. I feel she knows. She’s intentional about what she says and what she writes and I pick out what’s important and relevant to me in those things.
PPBlessing: What do you consider your greatest achievement as a writer so far?
AA: Finding my voice. When I started out writing, I was borrowing voices from people I had read. Reading my stories in those voices sounded like a badly-produced auto-tune song. Like I tried to be someone and failed woefully at it. Finding my voice has helped me bring some sort of relief to people at different points in their lives and that’s really awesome for me.
PPBlessing: How did you feel about winning the creative nonfiction award in last year’s African Writers Award?
AA: Ecstatic! Everything was divinely orchestrated. Because when I applied, I had done it without much thought. It was so bad that I didn’t follow up. I got to know I was longlisted from my manager at the time. It took a while to internalise it, but as I did, my smile became wider than the Joker’s. If he and I had a smiling contest, I’d win by a long reach. It made me more confident in my ability as a writer and that my story was important. That my friends weren’t just gassing me up when they told me my writing was good. Because here I was, an Osogbo girl having her story chosen by strangers
PPBlessing: Have you won other awards aside from the African Writers Award?
AA: Yes, I have won two other awards. They were from my undergraduate study. “Writer of the Year” for the whole school. And there was another one with the same title within the English department to which I belonged.
PPBlessing: A multi-award winner! Congratulations. Do you have a writing routine?
AA: I show up every day. My writings on Medium have been largely spontaneous. All I do is show up every day in front of my laptop, ready to write something. I guess that’s my routine. On some days, I don’t succeed and on most days, I do.
PPBlessing: Have you experienced writer’s block?
AA: Oh yes, I have. Depending on the kind of block, either ice or cement, I have had to take a different approach every time it happens.
Sometimes, I just let it be and try to enjoy life till it feels like it’s cleared.
PPBlessing: Eish! Which one is ice and cement Ma’am?
AA: Ice can be melted over time, cement might need to be broken or blown up. Either way, the block will disappear.
PPBlessing: What do you hope to achieve with your writing in the next 20 years?
AA: This is the first time I have thought that far. That would be about 29/30 years of writing in total. I hope to have helped a lot more people heal emotionally then. Who knows, I might even dabble into learning to write for children. Maybe turn some of these writings into podcast topics where we can have deeper conversations. I also hope to have written for stage plays, movies and documentaries.
PPBlessing: That would be awesome. How far had you thought before now?
AA: I have thought as far as 5 years. And then, it was in line with publishing a good book.
PPBlessing: Which among your writings do you consider your best so far and why?
AA: Hmmm… this is so hard to answer.
Because it changes per time, but there was something about Adétutù that meant a lot to me, and still does. It felt like I fully came into myself and wrote in my voice.
PPBlessing: And it won you the award too. What will you tell young writers who hope to follow in your footsteps?
AA: Follow who know road. Specifically to where they would want to reach. Writing can be a subjective thing. We might all be writing fiction, but there’s still something that will make each of us distinct from one another. They should find their own pathways. Really.
PPBlessing: Do you have mentees?
AA: No, I don’t have any.
PPBlessing: Are you open to mentoring though?
AA: I honestly don’t know. I often feel like I am just vibing through life with little to no knowledge of what I am doing. I don’t know if I can help them do better.
PPBlessing: I know your present career let’s you write but have you considered being a writer/author as your sole career?
AA: That’s what I wanted at some point. Maybe I will eventually become that, but I look at the reality at times and think about survival. I often remind myself that even in this present economy, people are still doing it. So, why will my case be different? Why will I be the “unlucky” one?
PPBlessing: True. So is there a timeframe to when you might likely start?
AA: To be honest, I haven’t put a timeframe to that. I’m at a phase where I’m defining things and learning to put hard stops on goals and not make excuses. This is one of them. I mean, it has always been my dream and I’m trying not to let the fear of survival keep me from living my fullest life. And when you get too many rejections, on some days, you’d wonder if you should just stick to the things that bring you money or if you should wait a while longer, but I’m done being that person. So, like Burna, I’ll bank on myself and go all out. At least, if I would regret something, it won’t be that I didn’t live my life the way I truly intended.
PPBlessing: What will you tell Writers who are scared of submitting their works to magazines, anthologies or awards?
AA: I will tell them to start small, and share their stories with friends and people on WhatsApp. To bank on themselves. What’s the best that could happen? (Because I am sure they are already thinking of the worst). If I didn’t win that award, I would still have been proud of myself for putting it out there. Truth is, even after that, I have had rejections, but that won’t stop me. They also need to know that selection is often subjective. So if their works don’t get picked, it’s not because they aren’t good writers.
PPBlessing: True. What one Judge or Editor might consider crap could be considered awesome by another. Thank you too for your time. It was a pleasure chatting with you.
AA: Honestly, I must say that I’m grateful for this opportunity. I have never been interviewed for something this big before. It’s given me more confidence to pursue my dreams boldly with little to no fear about survival.
Thank you our esteemed readers for staying with us through this chat. Until next month, keep reading the African Writers magazine.
Read – Makhago Peter – Winner of the 2021 Wakini Kuria Prize for Children’s Literature
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