Zakiyyah Dzukogi: What is the process of writing a poem like for you? Is it a lot of hard work or easy?
Pacella Chukwuma-Eke: First things first, I would like to acknowledge Konya Shamsrumi, and you, king, for having this discussion with me. Thank you so much.
Writing can be a very fun(ny) process, sometimes. Other times, it’s a bit intense. The fun aspect of writing is that the words, lines, and titles come to me. When I’m intentionally talking to myself, or roaming through the words I had come across earlier; the lines strike. Then I decided to scribble down the lines, and the whole body slowly emerges. Titling used to be a tedious aspect of writing for me when I had recently shown interest in the art. But now, my poem’s title is often the first cement. It’s often the nonsense that falls into my consciousness while I’m still roaming in my mind.
It becomes intense when it’s time to edit, draft, and redraft. I hardly edit my works immediately after writing— no, I wait. Because no matter how hard I try to let go of some lines I just birthed, they still look so innocent and meaningful in my work. So I wait. After hours, sometimes days, of reading more works, and living, I eventually come back to my work as a heartless editor.
Zakiyyah Dzukogi: Please describe your sense of identity in this or any possible world in imagery or metaphor.
Pacella Chukwuma-Eke: I can not settle with a particular one, for now. It could be my country or my mother. Other times, it could be a boy’s body. I get queried a lot for this one, ha! But it has, unapologetically, become an identity I portray in most of my works( and my works alone.) I love the flow that comes with the confusion; of a girl becoming another body in her poems. Fascinating. But most importantly, it is because I write based on the emotions I’ve absorbed from others. And roughly 75% of the people I interact with are of the opposite gender, so I tend to explore much more from them than any other.
Zakiyyah Dzukogi: If any of your poems could literarily save a person’s life, which poem would it be and can you describe the person whose life you think it would have saved?
Pacella Chukwuma-Eke: Anatomy of pain from a boy’s body— written with the sole purpose of saving my eldest sister, who back then, was struggling between her sanity and admission palava. She said the last stanza of my poem gave her new hope.
Zakiyyah Dzukogi: What does Africa mean to you, as potential or reality?
Pacella Chukuwma-Eke: Africa, my Africa… Words I do not have. Africa is home? It’s belonging. Technically, my whole world, art, and identity, revolve around Africa. So it’s a reality for me.
Zakiyyah Dzukogi: Could you share with us one poem you’ve been most impressed or fascinated by? Tell us why and share your favourite lines from it.
Pacella Chukwuma-Eke: That would be Warsan Shire’s Your Mother’s First Kiss. That poem is the sensei of the double entendre. I am mostly fascinated by how a writer can birth a poem with different identities. A line can have multiple interpretations, like the first boy to kiss your mother later raped women when the war broke out. I carry this line everywhere I go. The whole poem just intrigues me. But, here’s my favourite part of the whole work,
Your Mother’s First Kiss by Warsan Shire
‘The first boy to kiss your mother later raped women
when the war broke out. She remembers hearing this
from your uncle, then going to your bedroom and laying
down on the floor. You were at school.
Your mother was sixteen when he first kissed her.
She held her breath for so long that she blacked out.
On waking she found her dress was wet and sticking
to her stomach, half moons bitten into her thighs.’
Pacella Chukwuma- Eke, NGP Xv, is a Nigerian poet and short story writer. She is the winner of the Cradle poetry contest, Abuja Duet Slam, Splendors of Dawn Poetry Prize, a two-time finalist for the BKPW contest, and Joint winner of the FOW Poetry Contest. She is the author of Love in its bliss and sins; runner of the 2022 Nigeria Prize for Teen Authors(Poetry.) Some of her works have appeared or are forthcoming in the Eunoia magazine, Strange Horizons, The Brittle paper, Rigorous magazine, Haven spec, Gyroscope Review, and elsewhere. She is a member of The Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation, tweets @dancing_poet, and can be found on Instagram and Facebook @pacellachukwumaeke.
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