When did the issue of climate change get personal for you?
There is a waterless valley called Okorokoro situated about a stone’s throw from our homestead in Umugama village of Umuchu town in Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State, Nigeria. The sprawling valley runs through almost the entire length of my hometown. The old men of the land tell and retell the story that a stream used to run through the valley but the waters disappeared back in time when a vile sin was committed against the earth goddess. No make of appeasement by the locals could make the goddess bring back the stream. The valley that is gorge-like in many places has been a mystery to me all through my life, and it was much later when I started learning of climate change and global warming that I began to apply a measure of a possible scientific explanation for the disappearance of the stream. I am still hard at it, strenuously making enquiries as per climate change and the mysterious disappearance of the stream at Okorokoro. It’s indeed a personal issue I can’t just get off my grey matter.
There is a strong presence of nostalgia in your story. Could this sense of nostalgia be of loss or hope?
Delving into the past with a measure of sadness paradoxically inspires hope. Nothing is ever lost completely. It is by remembering that the need arises to opt for the dimension of replacement and replenishment. If one does not look back at the things that used to make the world look cool, there is the danger of embracing atrophy. The fruit trees that were around in the days of yore may no longer be around now, but there abound sundry newer fruit trees to plant and glory in with the birds and their birdsongs. Nostalgic feelings call for an encore of hope that sustains us.
What inspired your story for The Green We Left Behind nonfiction anthology?
In the course of the funeral rites of my father, Chief Stephen Nnopu Uzoatu (Odu 1 of Umuchu, Mgbeamurudikenamba, Ezeabata etc.), I could only see barrenness amid the celebration of his many high titles and deeds. It was for me like a man who loved the seashore being buried in a desert island. I was inspired to do my duty by the old man through the journey I made to rediscover what really made him happy: greenery. The green life he adored in his lifetime had to be put back in place to give me inner peace as his first son. By giving myself peace through the story I undertook to write, I knew deep in my heart that I have paid the due homage to my father.
As an artist, how are you able to merge beauty in language with such a dire theme on climate change?
Tragedy makes the grandest of stories. Climate change may be dire, but reliving it through the eternal human story calls for loftiness of expression. If the theme is just for laughs, one can easily pass it around like a flighty stand-up comedian. The matter is much deeper and thus requires the aesthetic distance to attend to it in all its multiform details. As Benjamin Franklin said, “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.”
As you release your story to the world, what is your wish or hope for the story?
The question of climate change should not be left for only the world leaders to answer. It is my prayer that in getting my experience across to the diverse peoples of the world our comparative humanity will earn a new lease of life. Not enough voices are heard from my small corner of the global village. Helping to fill the void serves up immense satisfaction.
Aside writing, how else do you intend to contribute towards curbing climate change?
One does not just write without participating actively in society. I enjoy life in the company of people, planting trees and nurturing new green life instead of being just an armchair writer in utter seclusion from society!
Biography
Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is the only Nigerian journalist to have written an everyday column, “Today’s Maxim,” for a daily newspaper. He has been the chairman of the editorial board of a handful of Nigerian newspapers and magazines. He was the 1989 Distinguished Visitor at The Graduate School of Journalism, University of Western Ontario, Canada, and was nominated for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2008. He wrote the narrative for Scottish photographer Owen Logan’s picture book, Masquerade: Michael Jackson Alive in Nigeria, exhibited at STILLS, Scotland’s Centre For Photography, Edinburgh from August 1 to October 26, 2014. Married with four children, he is the author of the poetry collection God of Poetry, the novel The Missing Link and the creative nonfiction book, How Not to Be a Nigerian.
