Jekwu Anyaegbuna (JE) recently emerged the Regional  winner for Africa in the 2012 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. He is  among the new young writers from Nigeria whose creative works have caught the attention of the writing community both at home and abroad. He recently granted an interview to Chiaka Obasi (CK). Below  are the excerpts.
  
 CK:  Congratulations on winning the 2012 Commonwealth Short  Story Prize for  Africa.   

JE: Thank you,  Chiaka.  

CK: Let’s begin  with the announcement of the  shortlisted writers. When you were informed that  your story, “Morrison
Okoli (1955-2010)” was among the shortlisted stories, how  did you  feel?
 
JE: I was  terribly shocked because I wasn’t thinking  about the competition at the time the  news came to me. I started shouting,  jumping up and down like a grasshopper,  thrilled. You can imagine how I  felt.
 
CK: Did you ever  feel the winner could have been  someone  else?
 
JE:   Anybody could have won; it’s a  competition after all. I did not  anticipate I could even be shortlisted,  not to think of winning. The  Commonwealth competition is global and  attracts a lot of entries. So  participating in such a contest is like
shooting into the void without expecting  anything good in return.
  
CK: According to  the Chair of the Commonwealth Short Story  Prize, Bernardine Evaristo, the  winning stories, including yours, will  take one on a journey that spans  cultures, eras, generations, and diverse  ways of being and seeing. I quite agree
with her concerning your story.   Did you consciously decide the story  ‘Morrison Okoli’ should be that  way?

JE: Honestly, when I wrote ‘Morrison Okoli’ between June and August  2011, I did not have the Commonwealth competition in mind. Of course by then,  there was no indication that the competition was being rejuvenated to accept up  to 5000 words. But I wanted to write about culture-contacts and  culture-conflicts, with religious contradictions as pudding.  

CK: Maximum word  count for entries in the Commonwealth Short Story is now  5000, a departure from the usual 600 maximum word count. What do you think are  the challenges a writer  usually encounters in each of the genres (short
  fiction and flash  fiction)?
 
JE:  Because  both  genres are short, flash fiction shorter, choosing the right words and   constructing appropriate sentences with them can be challenging. And the need  to  write interesting things with fewer words, economizing the available  space, can  pose another challenge. In respect of flash fiction, there is a  noose around  your pen and you don’t want to disobey this. If you dare to  write beyond what is  deemed necessary to tell the story you have in your  head, you might collapse out  of the page with the story having clumsy  scenes and sentences, with contrived  plots that wear badly measured and  sewn coats and paragraphs. Yes. It can be  this bad. But with a little more  practice, regular reading and writing, one can  overcome this. 
  
CK: Some of your  works explored the use of comparison between  African culture and Western  Culture, especially ‘Grandma’s   Baptism’ published in Eclectica, ‘American  Desire’ published in Black  Heart Magazine and the
  award-winning ‘Morrison  Okoli’. Is this deliberate  or involuntary? 
  
JE: I don’t know  whether it is deliberate or involuntary. Every  good story helps to tell itself,  unfolding from conception to publishing.  I am always interested in learning how  and why a culture acquires its  aroma of  behaviour.
 
CK: In your  short story,  ‘Grandma’s  Baptism’, Mama’s obsession with Catholicism and her dislike  for family members who are not  committed to the faith are similar to  Eugene’s in Chimamanda Adichie’s book,  ‘Purple Hibiscus’. Do you
agree?
 
JE: Chiaka,  anybody can be fanatical. It’s not  restricted to either men or women. There is  fanaticism in both North and
South. Everywhere. I was inspired to write ‘Grandma’s  Baptism’because I grew up in  a village where religion is  destroying families, so I wrote the story because it  had been in me; it caught my attention.  Growing up, I noticed religious  intolerance around me. There was a  semi-literate woman in the village who would  never respond to your  greeting unless you said good morning in English because  she considered  ututu  oma (which is  Igbo for the same greeting) too traditional and  satanic and unchristian. She may  have been misinformed in the church.  This behaviour inspired the character of  Mama in ‘Grandma’s  Baptism’. And writers will always be attracted to this kind of  obsession.
  
CK: How do  writers who also see themselves as  activists tackle religious intolerance in a  heterogeneous society like
Nigeria?
 
JE: I strongly  believe writing can change bad  things, evil people and wrong perceptions. As  writers we should continue  to write and explore issues that catch our attention,  hoping that one day  we will all understand each other’s point of view and learn  to tolerate  our differences. Nigeria is a special case because we  don’t even  practise   religion here; we practice hypocrisy and intolerance.  Religion is  supposed to bind us in love and understanding, but here it is destructive,  divisive, and blind. What a better way to tackle this than writing  and  discussing it; a delicious, tolerant world is  possible!
 
CK:  Do you  intend to develop ‘Morrison Okoli or any of your short stories in  the  future?
 
JE: Storytelling  is mystical, and it may  come to you unannounced. If I have enough urge in the  future to expand any
of the short stories, I will. 
  
CK: Your poems  have  also gained recognition and have appeared in several journals. Which of  the  two—fiction and poetry—is more challenging to  you? 

JE: Both are  challenging to me because as soon as I finish writing any of  them, I feel I’ve  spent a reasonable amount of creative energy. No type  of writing is easy, my  brother.   
 
CK: Can  you tell  us about your latest projects?
 
JE: I am  working  on my first novel now. And I am also considering publishing my
first collection  of short stories soon. 
 
CK: Which  book  are you reading now?
 
JE: I am reading  issue 208 of  Ambit literary magazine, UK, which its editors sent to me  recently, and
the pages are so graceful and appetising that I can’t read  something else  now.
 
CK: Who has been  your biggest influence on your  writing?
 
JE: There are  lots of writers, both African and  foreign, that I admire and respect, so  influence can come from multiple  channels. But I revere the following amazing  writers, in alphabetical  order by surname: Chinua Achebe, my Chimamanda Adichie  (who discovered  me), and Wole Soyinka (I love Soyinka’s  plays).
 
CK: Which  book  would you love to read again and again?
 
JE: I’ve  read  many books which I would love to read again and again, so I can’t  possibly list
all of them here.
 
CK: Where do you  hope to  be in 10 years’ time?
 
JE: Most  importantly, I hope to be  alive in good health without troubles, still writing  and talking to  you.