Our Susty Person of the Month is Salim Yunusa, a budding writer, poet, and activist. He’s the founder of the literary movement called Poetic Wednesdays and a Co-Founder of a national NGO, Project Grassroots Nigeria (PGN). He graduated from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with a Bachelors degree in Urban and Regional Planning.
He’s known for his activism through the #HelpSaveMunir campaign, and for speaking against societal issues and injustice and this has won him several awards, notably the Humanitarian award in his Alma mater and his community.
Salim’s special interest include Tourism Development, Environmental conservation and community service. He’s also great art enthusiast and have gone to several literary festivals.
He had his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme at Baze University, Abuja and is currently running a Master’s program in Disaster and Risk Management at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.
Below is our interesting and thought provoking chat with Salim;
Can we have an insight into what led a trained urban and regional planner into poetry?
While growing up, books were my best friends. While other kids were on the playground, I was buried – nose deep – into books. If I wasn’t reading one, I was writing in one. Literature isn’t just a thing of passion for me – it’s my whole life. At every stage I found in my life, my love and loyalty to creative writing remained untouchable.
Whether by chance or by choice, I am now an Urban Planner by profession. But being a poet, a writer and a lover of books is a huge part of who I am. In poetry, I found freedom, expression and truth. In poetry, I unearthed a deep part of me that was hidden beneath me. In poetry, I found myself.
Is there any point of convergence between poetry and your profession?
Yes, there is.
A new term, “writivism” has been coined to describe writers who inculcate activism into what they write. I’ll like to think of myself as a writivist. I guess Planning manifests in the themes I try to write on, especially environmentally conscious themes. The two are intertwined into one and are both thriving well in the blossoming garden of my mind.
My passion doesn’t trump my profession, and vice versa. If anything, I have found a way of integrating the two into one. My views on sustainability and other planning related issues always seem to find their way into my poetry, and I don’t stifle it. My whole experience and training as an urban planner have shaped me into being the person I am today and I am grateful for that.
Many of your poems border on development issues. What role can literature play in helping us achieve sustainable development?
Interestingly enough, I personally prefer writing on real, developmental issues. This made my poem resonate with so many people and with the whole Poetic Wednesday movement. We are writing about issues that we feel and see all around us. We express our sadness, anger and all other forms of emotions through our poems.
Literature is bigger than what people think it is. It has always been an outlet of expression, a platform for making statements and a peaceful tool of revolution. Throughout history, we’ve seen people who have turned into heroes and icons for wielding their pens, rather than weapons.
The importance of Literature in achieving sustainable development cannot be overemphasized. Writers and poets all over the world are, in their own little ways, advocates for the sustainable development goals – especially goal no 4 about quality education – at local, national and international levels. Writers such as Chimamanda Adichie and Mona Elhathawy shot into the limelight through the literary pathway. They are now advocates for gender equality and reduced inequalities. Embedded in the messages that the literary community are sending to the world through various ways are messages that touch each and every part of the SDGs. Some even go the extra length
In a nutshell, literature has greatly helped in raising awareness and enlightening the people about the importance of having a better world.
The Poetic Wednesday movement has become a fledging community online. Kindly tell us about the movement.
Poetic Wednesdays is an online, literary movement that started on Facebook. It is an avenue where young, budding poets interact with each other with the use of themes and other poetic devices. It is a mid-week activity that has active participants from all over the country and beyond. It serves as a burst of fresh air for those seeking a reverie in a sphere full of toxicity. Young people are now engaged in unleashing their passion and creativity in creative writing, instead of whiling away their time hurling insults at each other online. Its aim is to promote literature and poetry in Nigeria and do social good with it.
Poetic Wednesdays is gaining ground primarily due to the fact that it is generally encompassing. It welcomes and encourages everyone to write and submit their poems. Another thing is that it’s the first of its kind, especially owing to its Northern Nigerian origin.
It is being run by amazing, talented individuals that we tag The Poetic Wednesdays Crew.
All one has to do to join is follow our pages on the various social media platforms, write on the given theme and use the hashtag #PoeticWednesday.
Are there plans to build offline activities around the movement?
Oh yes. There are plans already on ground. We intend to give back to our communities. Being a movement sprouting from an educationally backward region, we intend to push literature and poetry into every nook and cranny of our communities at the grassroots level. We intend to tutor and mentor through seminars, workshops and talks all aimed at capturing young people in secondary schools and tertiary institutions and promoting the idea of embracing the creativity that lies in them.
We also intend to donate books and anthologies to libraries and schools in order to boost literacy and creative writing at the grassroots level.
We hear that plans are underway to publish the first Poetic Wednesdays anthology. Give us some scoop about it?
You heard right; It’s going to be amazing. Truth be told, Poetic Wednesdays maiden anthology is long overdue, but God’s time is the best time. People have been clamouring for it for quite a while and we felt that now is the right time to do it. We made a call for submissions and the response was honestly overwhelming. That was when we knew the extent and impact of our outreach. People from all over the world actually responded and submitted. There’s going to be a grand launching, but I’ve said much already. Keep up with Poetic Wednesdays as more exciting news regarding the anthology unfolds.
Climate change and global warming have really devastating effects especially in the North where you live and desertification is believed to be one of the causes of clashes between herdsmen and farmers; do you have plans to do literary or other related advocacy in that regard?
That’s a very interesting and important question; thank you for bringing it up. The adverse effects of climate change and global warming is being felt here in the North, as it is being felt worldwide. Apart from desertification, there’s the drying up of Lake Chad and other smaller lakes around. Desert encroachment is increasing alarmingly due to deforestation in the North East and so many other negative effects. This indeed poses a huge threat to the livelihood and survival of people – fishermen, herdsmen, farmers – and what have you.
Right from the onset of time, nomads (or herders, if you wish) are wanderers. They move around in search of greener pastures for their livestock. It isn’t an issue of desertification or climate change; it is in the nature of a nomad to move around and it had always been done peacefully – until now.
What is happening in Nigeria right now is very unfortunate; lives and properties are unnecessarily being taken. Insecurity is the biggest catalyst, compounded with external forces and political instigation in the latest crises embroiling Benue and Zamfara States. The best way to stop this bloodshed is to enforce security in those states by fishing out the evil perpetrators in both parties. Cattle rustlers, kidnappers and killer herdsmen should be stopped at all cost. Also, for a long-lasting peaceful resolution, cattle routes and grazing laws that would be favourable to both farmers and herdsmen should be enacted. Only when these are done, would peace prevail.
With regards to advocacy in combatting climate change and desertification, on a personal note, I am an environmentalist. I am an advocate for tree planting practices and going green. I am a co-founder of a National NGO, Project Grassroots Nigeria to tackle grassroot developmental issues, including environmental concerns.
As for any literary advocacy, we have severally written about the environment and nature. I think it’d be a great idea if we’d take it up a notch and do more.
When you’re not climbing mountains, you’re going around taking photographs of natural bodies. Is nature your muse?
(laughing).
To a large extent, yes.
I’m a nature lover. The sights, scents and sounds send my soul into a bottomless abyss of peace. I find breathtaking raw beauty, freedom and serenity in the natural environment and all it encompasses.
But that’s not all; my muse is a conglomeration of emotions, memories and experiences. Almost anything and everything can trigger my muse.
Your favourite SDG and why?
They are all crucial goals but I will be more inclined towards Climate Change.
Why? Look around. Need I say more?
How can we reach you if we have questions for you?
I can be reached:
– via email: syunusa@gmail.com
– via Twitter: @limsypotter
– via Facebook: Yunusa.salim@facebook.com