● Pacella: Good day, Zakiyyah Dzukogi. We are very grateful that you accepted this interview. It is no news that female writers have been breaking boundaries and suppression over the years, and we want to contribute to uplifting these incredible feats in the littlest of ways we can. That said, we would love for you to tell us about your writing journey through the years.

Zakiyyah: Thank you, Pacella, for having me. 

Writing, for me, has been gratifying and transmuting. Besides its potential to offer a ground for self-expression and dispense an exceptional measure of entertainment, writing is significant in cultivating perception, attitude and mindset. I have devoured more good that writing or poetry often extends to its writers than the bad. Writing has allowed me to dare to demand lofty recognition from my society and beyond. It has authorized the conveyance of my deepest emotions and sentiments and has allowed me to experience instinctive therapy.

My writing journey has been quite dynamic. I can barely remember my first encounter with writing, considering I was born into it. I always mention that I met writing through an environmental crash, and it has never left me. My social background is the primary basis for my writing journey. I’m adjoined by writers and artists anywhere I turn my head. It’s overwhelming. 

My intense passion for writing and collecting words has been fuming over the years, I always wish to write, and this will has been stuck to my mind since the very day I learnt how to pronounce my name. 

I have had this tendency to write since my early days. Being a ten-year-old author and watching myself develop is a fulfilled fantasy. I’ve never taken the love and support from my family, friends and other Nigerian writers for granted. I’m eternally grateful.

● Pacella: We heard about your newly incorporated literary community, the Northern Writers Forum. Congratulations! We want to know what this community is about and what you wish to do differently from similar organisations.

Zakiyyah: First and foremost, Northern Writers Forum, also known as NWF, is a legal entity that operates as a non-profit and non-governmental organisation to advance literary art in Nigeria by developing writing skills among teenagers and young writers. 

Our goal is to enhance the quality and proficiency of young writers in Nigeria. We offer a range of resources and services to help writers develop their craft and navigate the publishing industry, including mentoring programs and networking events. 
The forum aims to provide a welcoming and inclusive community for young writers and accelerate the growth of literary art with competence and quality in Nigeria by focusing on developing Nigerian teen and young writers.

With the support of my family, Hilltop Creative  Arts Foundation and several exceptional individuals who are heavy in promoting art, reading and literature in young people, we were able to establish the forum and kick-start our activities. We are still operating to grow the forum by doing great work, like grooming young individuals to identify their writing skills. 

We plan to organise competitions of local, state, national and international status in all genres of literature. We intend to propagate literary programs across Nigeria and provide residency programs, workshops, and conferences for writers and artists as a continuous platform for training and development.

● Pacella: As a writer, what would you call your greatest motivation?

Zakiyyah: Motivation comes to me in a variety of ways. My family has long been the motive for my numerous actions and behaviours. As a writer or not, my family is a form of motivation for me.

Tracking and recollecting my goals has as well been a sense of direction and motivation; it has helped in paving the way for my writing career and personal development. It also allows me to accelerate my success and take action to enhance my life.

The new generation of Nigerian writers sparks a shine for literature in Nigeria. The Nigerian literary community has motivated me in some ways, too.  The strong spirit of resilience and determination among Nigerian writers inspires me to create a constructive change to the future of literature in the country in the little ways I can. These are what I consider my greatest motivation.

● Pacella: Do you think being female has affected your writing in any way? If yes, don’t hesitate to share your experience with us.

Zakiyyah: I don’t think being a woman has affected my writing in any way, shape or form. 

There is an expansion in the number of women driving change in various sectors who seek to break and challenge these boundaries set upon them. It is pleasing to know that women now stand firm in chasing an opportunity and live to win it. In a society like ours, women get stuck with lesser opportunities; they get limited to certain things and face all kinds of discriminatory judgments. Being a woman in a social context like Nigeria today has never made me hesitant in pushing my dreams and working to make them come true. It is one of my motivations. Being a woman gives me the strength to follow suit in making this movement of women’s development a success.

I have gotten nothing short of support from every angle as a little child up to the present time.

I got the acknowledgement I needed from my family, friends and, most importantly, my art family, Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation, which is targeted at influencing young creative minds.

HCAF has been doing a lot of great work over the years; it promotes art and develops persons as creative and imaginative individuals with an appreciation of art. Long live Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation.

● Pacella: What is the funniest response you have gotten after telling someone that you are a writer?

Zakiyyah: I am primarily in the midst of a category of people who are into writing. Still, whenever I meet an outcast who is new to poetry or is not deeply rooted in the conceptualisation of poetry, it is always a quest for me to interpret the main idea of a random poem which I came across that instant. This is funny because we are automatically assumed to understand every single living poem; we can only relate and interpret it to our taste, haha.

Furthermore, I get this misconception of being a weirdo and a sadist solely because I am a poet of complex thoughts and propositions (so do people say) from people who are not close to me in school.

To a group of non-writers, we tend to be viewed as very intimidating and hollow; we sound “too” serious and professional. There is this perspective that writers are very tangled and complicated, which is probably a fair misapprehension, lol.

●Pacella: What are your aspirations as a writer, and where and how would you see yourself and your art in five years?

Zakiyyah: I am going to be very realistic in answering this question. As a writer, my goals and aspirations are pretty wild that they scare me. I am going to talk about the ones I can. 

I yearn to continue to write quality works that I and others would benefit from. I greatly desire to impact Nigerian Art and Literature and make developmental changes positively. I aspire to be an example for upcoming writers, artists and women and enhance their writing skills and talents. It is also my wish to build up my organisation, Northern Writers Forum, in a way that it will never crumble.