Welcome to another interesting edition of the Writers Space Africa Magazine. This month, we will be chatting with the winner of the 2021 African Writers Award (Drama category). Let us welcome Gordon Bernard Aywa Anjili, the veteran playwright and retired teacher all the way from Kenya.
PPBlessing: Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. Can you give me a short introduction of yourself?
GBAA: I am Gordon Bernard Aywa Anjili, a qualified high school teacher. I have just retired after teaching in many schools in Kenya. I have taught in five different counties. I teach English and literature. I am a senior national examiner. I love reading classics and listening to country music.
PPBlessing: Wow! That is commendable. How is life after retirement like?
GBAA: Great. I now have the time to read the books l could not while in employment. I now also have the time to work on and complete the manuscripts l had previously started.
PPBlessing: Interesting! How many manuscripts are there to complete and have you published any books before?
GBAA: 3 plays in the works, that is, still not completed. 3 completed plays not yet published. Haven’t had much luck with publishers.
PPBlessing: Okay. I hope you do get one soon.
GBAA: Thanks for the encouragement.
PPBlessing: How has winning the African Writers Award impacted you as a person and your writing?
GBAA: It is quite a fantastic feeling. My former students are excited and encouraged that writing is something worthwhile doing. I won’t be surprised to see one of them winning the next prize.
PPBlessing: Amen to that. Have you won any other award aside this?
GBAA: Yes. In 1993 l won the Nairobi Theatre Academy First Prize with the play “Eclipse at Noon.”
Gordon planting trees in the Mau forest with some students
PPBlessing: This award seems so long ago before the recent award you won last year. Did you stop writing at some point or you stopped entering for competitions and awards?
GBAA: Both. The writing slowed down due to other commitments and l did not enter them in any competition(s).
PPBlessing: How long have you been writing?
GBAA: Since 1993 but intermittently due to work commitments.
PPBlessing: Do you write only plays?
GBAA: Plays are my forte, although l also write short stories and poems.
PPBlessing: Have you won any award from these poems and/or short stories?
GBAA: No. I have not entered them in any competitions.
PPBlessing: Okay. Was it being a teacher of English and literature that made you start writing or you’d been writing even before you became a teacher?
GBAA: The writing bug bit me when l was 12 after reading “Kidnapped” by Stevenson. I always knew l would be a writer someday. Writing plays became a passion after l read “The Lion and the Jewel” by Wole Soyinka.
PPBlessing: You started quite early I must say. Among your plays, which is your favourite and why?
GBAA: I love them equally. I do not have a favourite.
PPBlessing: It’s commonly said that one cannot love two things the same way, so how is it that none among your plays catches your heart more than the others?
GBAA: I am the creator of all those plays…all of them being the best of my imagination… can’t see one of them being better than the others.
PPBlessing: Alright. How long does it typically take you to finish writing a play?
GBAA: Now that l am not working, about 2 months.
PPBlessing: How about when you were working?
GBAA: 1 year.
PPBlessing: Has any of your plays been to the theater or made into a movie?
GBAA: My play “Eclipse at Noon” was acted at Alliance Francaise in 1993.
PPBlessing: Now that you have retired from teaching, do you intend to become a full-time playwright?
Gordon with a group of dancers in Oxford
GBAA: Yes. Plus, other works like short stories and poems.
PPBlessing: That’s wonderful. May you create amazing plays, short stories and poems. What inspires your writing and what do you hope to achieve with them?
GBAA: When I read the works of great writers, l always aspire to achieve what they have done.
PPBlessing: Which is what exactly? What is it that these great writers have achieved that you also hope to achieve?
GBAA: “Hamlet”, “Othello”, “Twelfth Night”, “As you like it”, “Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Shakespeare. “The Road”, “The Lion and the Jewel” by Wole Soyinka. “Saint Joan of Arc” by George Bernard Shaw, and many others. These books/works have great characters. I like the humor and entertainment in “Twelfth Night” and in “The Lion and the Jewel”. Characters like Lakunle, Hamlet, Othelo transcend all ages. I sometimes see Lakunle in our politicians.
PPBlessing: Why do you write?
GBAA: I write when I am inspired and also to highlight certain issues in society. For example, in “Eating with Chopsticks” l highlight the issue of Chinese ills in Africa. I also write to entertain.
PPBlessing: What constitutes a great writer to you?
GBAA: He transcends all ages.
PPBlessing: What will you tell someone who hopes to follow in your footsteps and write plays?
GBAA: They should have the passion and inspiration for it.
PPBlessing: What do you consider as your greatest achievement so far as a writer?
GBAA: My play “Eating with Chopsticks” winning the African Writers Award in drama 2021.
PPBlessing: Who is/are your favourite writer(s) and why?
GBAA: I do not have favourite writers, l have favourite books.
PPBlessing: Which are your favourite books then?
GBAA: “Hamlet”, “Othello”, “Twelfth Night”, “As you like it”, “Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Shakespeare. “The Road”, “The Lion and the Jewel” by Wole Soyinka. “Saint Joan of Arc” by George Bernard Shaw, and many others.
PPBlessing: What else will you like to share in conclusion.
GBAA: I think drama is the king of literature, just like the lion is the king of the jungle and the eagle the king of the air. Most publishers don’t like to publish plays, they prefer fiction. I think if l were a novelist, my works would have been published a long time ago. I still hope that my works (plays) will still be published someday.
PPBlessing: Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, readers, for being with us through this interview, until next month. Keep reading the Writers Space Africa Magazine.
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