#BABISHAI2018 SHORTLIST:SALAWU OLAJIDE

Salawu Olajide currently lives in Ife. This is the second time he has been shortlisted for the Babishai Poetry Award. His poems have appeared in Transition,  Saraba, New Orleans Review, Soul-Lit,  Poetry City, Paragrammer and so on. 

Courtesy photo

Q:     What was the process of writing your particular poem, The Music
Man Thinks about Dapchi?

A: The poem stayed in my head for a day after the Dapchi saga. History was repeating itself. You remember Chibok? Anyways, after a day I tried to capture the agony of mother losing their daughters in a country with a loose soul. 

Q:     What does poetry mean to you?

A: Poetry is a life wrapped up in the economy of words.  In its units of metaphors, imagery and linguistic aesthetics, human experiences are locked there in.  

Q:   What are your five year goals with your poetry?

A: All my goals are embedded in one. And that is humanity. And it is a religion we should all embrace which gives me the ability to impact my immediate society and other spaces where my feet have not reached through my writing. This, I seek every day.  And this I will continue to seek. 

Q:.    Which African poets are you keen on reading?

A: Dami Ajayi, Gbenga Adesina, Warsan Shire, Clifton, Ladan Osman,  Shittu Fowora, D. M. Aderibigbe, Adedayo Agarau, Rasaq Malik,  Sadiq Dzukogi... My God, the list is endless. Africa is blessed.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face with poetry?

A: When poems stay too long in my head, I hate it. 

Q:   Is there anything of importance you would like to share with
literature teachers, who are reading this?

A: There is a need to look outside the window and teach new poets who are doing great stuff.
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The #Babishai2018 shortlisted poems can be found here:

#BABISHAI2018 SHORTLIST

We’ll be announcing the winner at the #Babishai2018 poetry festival on 5 August in Mbale.

PROFILING SALAWU OLAJIDE #BABISHAI2015 SHORTLIST (NIGERIA)

 

Salawu Olajide is a B.A Literature degree holder from the prestigious Department of English and Literary Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He is presently a postgraduate student of the same Department. He has published strings of works on Saraba Magazine, Stony Thursday (Ireland), Kalahari Review, ZODML, among others. He currently works as a freelance reporter and digital writer for The InfoStride. He enjoys listening to dadakuada music at his leisure time. When he was asked: ‘what piqued your interest in poetry?’ He answered, ‘the nothingness of its everything. Once I am grabbed again in my inside lab, I begin to experiment with those verse-able words.’

His shortlisted poem is here:

                        WOMEN LOVERS by Salawu Olajide (Nigeria)

                        
 

She first said her biology was failing, and then her look, then her smile, then her feeling, then her heart. We look at each other on the rocking chairs. Listen, she says. The tube of her mouth holds something venal and serious. We long for each other. Finally. The finally comes as if it is the only intended word in the middle of the phrasing. She has a way of meaning her adverb. Did you moan on each other’s thigh ‘cept for sex? She says nothing but a nod which means yes. The sun seems to be gossiping through the window, I unhinge the curtain and let darkness swallow us. There are things they must not know. I whisper some calmness into her heart. She adjusts her gown and shows the part of her breast where she last kissed her. It is as if I have never loved before.

The winner will be announced during the #Babishai2015 Poetry Festival, 26 to 28 August at The Uganda Museum.