The eclipse of the cultural media and the emergence of the new media has over the past few years led to a massive consumption and production of literature among young people in northern Nigeria.
With time, the tie between new media and literature has gotten stronger, and more young individuals in the region who are active on various platforms are using those channels to share stories without having to go through the red tape of traditional publication..
The region has seen an increase in literary events, many of which are organized and attended by young people, from Kaduna to Kebbi, Maiduguri to Niger, and Kwara to Sokoto.
To better understand the effects of new media on literature in the region, SAHELIAN TIMES spoke with a multitude of distinct literary event organizers, writers, and people who were active in online literary communities.
Writers, and founders of literary circles such as Borno Book and Arts Festivals, Poetic Wednesdays have been exploiting the enormous space offered by the new media to get an audience for their creative work.
Sa’id Sa’ad the curator of Borno Book and Arts Festival believes that before the advent of New Media most northern Nigeria authors and writers do not have outlet to publish their works, “because most of the literary magazines are not in the north, this coupled with some ill biases (such as, assumption that literary work from northern Nigeria are mostly not excellent), makes output from the north less.”
“ However, with more adoption to digital media, numerous northern Nigeria literary platforms, journals and magazines were established which pays attention to work from the region,” he said.
“ Thanks to the New Media, northern Nigeria authors and creatives are now heard loud and clear around the world.”
A university don Dr. Ismail Bala said that, “ My thoughts on the new media and literature in northern Nigeria is that it has democratize the creative space in such a way that the hitherto “voiceless” and “hushed and muffled” northern Nigeria writers could now leverage on the availability and pervasiveness of new media to not only appropriate back their voice but now have the chance to reach hitherto unreachable audience across the world. New media accords them the opportunity to join the global creative bandwagon and represent themselves as themselves.”
According to Bala the New Media gives the illusion of “arrival” even before the departure. “ Having a space in the new media is not the same or is not a substitute for excellence. Because of its pervasiveness, some writers do often mistake engagement on the new media as acclaim, comments for endorsement and are often too sensitive to criticism.”
Hassana Maina who is a poet and a Gender Consultant believed that the new Media has set in an insatiable hunger for young people and also the hunger of consuming stories emanating from northern Nigeria.
“When you look at Twitter, Wattpad and other platforms you will see how people express themselves using these platforms, we will also see how initiatives take advantage of all this ( digital media) to foster collaborations and give platforms for young people to have communities.”
Maina cited Poetic Wednesdays and Open Arts as examples of platforms that portray how hungry young people are to consume or produce stories that are new and have never been seen before.
For her censorship is still a problem as many women are facing sexism and are still finding it difficult to still voice their opinions.
The founder of Poetic Wednesdays, Salim Yunusa believed that apart from giving voice to the teeming young population of writers in northern Nigeria, the digital media has also ushered in the era of literary renaissance, where writers can meet online and offline for literary activities.
“ Before the coming of social media, this was a difficult task to pull off. Even during the time of lockdown in a global pandemic, literary gatherings continued online. Social media also birthed literary organisations such as Ayamba Litcast, a literary podcast and Poetic Wednesdays Initiative, where everything began through online prompts.”
“ It has also helped a lot of Northern writers connect with publishers; both traditional and online publishers, where they can put out their works. Same goes with magazines, journals and other places where creatives can submit their works, “ he said.
Some of the challenges faced through the New Media, according to Yunusa is the proliferation of wannabe writers who want to skip learning and go for the cheers and claps, birthing substandard works. Another is blatant plagiarism, which young writers do.
The Creative Director of Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation, Eugene Yakubu opined that the New media has sensionalize literature and because it is supposed to be instantly gratifying, writers tend to specially select topics that are either trending or are sure to catch the reader’s attention but not mind.
“ And even though new media has been able to get people to access as much information as they want at any time, it has made writers lazy and even rely heavily on just what readers want to read rather than on being the soul of conscience.”
He also believes that, the emerging writers who no longer have to go through the rigorous process of publishing literature the conventional way, are compromising standards of literature by the sole writer o f their story.
