Title:
Author: I.O. Dike-Ugwu
Published: October 2004
ISBN: 0-9541052-0-6
Pages: 71
Cover: PaperBack
Price: £6.95
CONTENT SUMMARY
I have made several attempts to write but was met with failures. Surprisingly these failures have not deter my resolve, instead gave me impetus and steadfastness to continue attempting.
My flair for creative writing could be traced back to my elementary school days. In those days not once but twice my head master read my essays to the upper classes as the best. Again, in the University of Wisconsin USA my academic advisor, Prof.D Goodman repeated the same ritual. Indeed, these two independent but mutually corroborated assessors of my ability to write concrete essays made me walk on air and hold on trust for me the future trials of writing.
As a young promising lad, though unexposed, I was under the illusion that a black African was incapable of writing poetry until I read "Up From Slavery" by Booker T. Washing, an Afro-American. This book opened my eyes to so many new things. Without much ado, I will unequivocally state that it basically became my mentor and further reinforced my desire to make an attempt in writing a novel or poetry, in fulfillment of my childhood dreams.
As I write I remember those black days when life was an extreme struggle for us as a family. The family was divided up into two; one half in Amuzi and the other half with my father, four hundred miles away from our hometown. Things were not easy but they made sure their children's education was paramount. How they managed this, is beyond my comprehension. I can recall that white plantation employers paid degrading wages to their African employees. Sick people and pregnant women died in their hundreds due to lack of hospitals and medicines. All of these were great inhibitions, yet people marched on slowly but painfully in search of their own survivals. Things must not be left to chances or oral history. Therefore for justice to be done they must be recorded for posterity.
My break through came with the publication of "The Orphan's Cry, which is my first anthology. It is a truism that these collections gave me confidence to pursue with vigor my interest in poetry. My poetry could be attributed to what has happened to me in real life or what happened to those I know, also in real life. As for my success or failure, it would be better left for society to judge.
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