HCAF STAR SERIES, April 2025: INTERVIEW – Abubakar Auwal

QUESTION: The Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation is known for her central role of nurturing creativity in youths across the country. How has being its member contributed to your growth as an artist, and what opportunities or experiences have been most impactful for you?

ANSWER: Some questions don’t need to be asked; they’re written on our faces. A response to this question is more like a photograph, picture, or painting that can be directly seen in everything that associates with me. Isn’t it ridiculous to see the name Abubakar Auwal without seeing the abbreviated word ‘HCAF’ appear beside it? I can assure you that not a single person in the literary space still has the mind to think of the name Abubakar Auwal, and HCAF does not pop into his/her mind. Isn’t HCAF miraculous? When I joined HCAF in 2021, I couldn’t write anything because I didn’t even know how to write anything. Though, there were so many things I wanted to write about. Today, I am happy to tell you that I am a mentor at the same Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation that once welcomed me as JJC some years ago. I facilitated quite a few classes and have been an anchor and team member as well as the moving engine behind some of its programmes and activities. HCAF, as an adventurous granary and family of stars, has given us a platform to work together, share ideologies, and connect with great minds.

On my part, the sense of brotherhood and discipline in HCAF has greatly impacted my sense of accountability, camaraderie and unity. We’re one and one as always. Every day, we win and grow together.

QUESTION: What themes and experiences push the creativity behind your work, and what part of the creative process poses a challenge to you?

ANSWER: Justice. Speculative dreams. Inbound thoughts of the future and present I am uncertain about. Personal experiences and love of what I am doing. In all the aforementioned, I must confess that I am an addicted lover of authentic news. I easily get inspired by listening, reading or watching news about everything and anything. A single headline can give birth to many creative pieces: news about critical conditions of people, places and territories. News about injustice, pleas, disaster, grief and happy moments in the lives of others do more. I believe that writers should stop writing about luxury things when there is so much chaos burning inside us. I detest writing about physical nature as long as it will not in any way tell about the happenings, share the pain of others and pass the worldwide human echoes.

The most challenging parts of creativity are: one, the absence of a muse, especially when we are mentally absent or aggrieved; two, lack of support to help young writers publish their books; and three, living in a community where only a small number of individuals appreciate the things we do.

QUESTION: As a renowned creative, what advice would you give to emerging artists who are looking to balance the pursuit of artistic excellence with the desire for recognition and validation?

ANSWER: Be diligent and committed towards making your way to the top. Do not envy. Do not backbite. Do not rush. Do not lose hope. Life is all about planning and replanning. You can’t rush to where you’ve not reached. You can’t claim to be who you are not or will never be. Learn to be you and you and you alone.

It’s only after you realise your voice that the world will recognise you. It’s only when you know yourself that the world will know you. It’s only when you appreciate the you you are that the world will celebrate the you they see. Do not kill your voice. You can never be somebody that’s not you but greater than that person in many phases because in this life we are too different and unique.

Calm yourself. Believe in yourself. Believe that you can do it no matter the hurdles you may pass through. If you believe in God and you constantly pray to him and work hard, then he will definitely take you to wherever you want. If you’re an atheist or pagan, explore the things you believe your luck hangs on, and it will be fruitful.

QUESTION: What purpose fuels your creativity?

ANSWER: If there’s anything other than the love of contributing my voice, my opinion and telling my own story, then it must be hope and the strongest belief I have about writing and life. I come to realise that a sense of knowing the language of breath and knowing the value of self-trust and a sense of speculation (about everything and anything) are the key reminders that always awaken me to be in myself. People often ask why I love using the word ‘metaphor’ in almost everything I write. Most of them mistook my emphasis on the word for the fact that I am a poet and can use it in my poems. I think. No, not thinking; a suitable response to their endless predictions is a capital ‘NO’. The word metaphor has so many things associated with it. The term ‘metaphor’ is another metaphor of myself. I believe that I am a direct comparison of my dreams and whatever I am doing. I do my things with commitment, hope and determination. I have the belief that I can do anything and everything anywhere and anytime. I am a person that will never give up. And as Abdulrazaq Salihu once said in his foreword for my award-winning chapbook that will soon be out, ‘…never give up. Knowing that there’s nowhere to go apart from this home we call poetry (…/creativity.) That is what keeps us away from the fake ones.

Believing I can do everything and anything has always remained a strong pillar that motivated my passion, all the time. And knowing that the world appreciates what I write has greatly pushed my passion into the deepest part of it, which I can’t withdraw myself from.

QUESTION: Fifty years from now, what do you want the literary world to perceive of your art?

ANSWER: Greatness and realisation of all the speculations that filled my write-ups. This encompasses the adoption of messages and pleas. I am passing through every single piece I’ve ever written, performed or photographed. This as well covers the Afrofuturism of African culture, the proclamation of the Western system which has now invaded our norms and traditions, as well as some subsequent themes in my writing about nature, society, justice, personal experiences and representation of historically marginalised voices, as well as an unending cry against matters which deeply go against the tranquillity of the world. The world shall not rest until it fully addresses some deadly or life-finishing diseases and viruses that unanimously affected our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers and every living breath.

I will assure you that in a few years to come, the Abubakarian style of poetry will round the globe just like Shakespearean poetry. The metaphoricallity of my prose works will be highly recognised and appreciated in the literary space. We’ve so many big dreams, and I believe that only authentic uniqueness will help us reach those stages.

QUESTION: Is representation a priority for you, and do you see a need for your writing to reflect your background or ancestral links?

ANSWER: Representation is not a subject of concern in creativity or one’s artistic pursuit. Insisting on the idea of representation in the things you do is more limiting your sense of expression. I believe I belong to everywhere and everyone because in this life, we must learn to multi-exist in almost everything and everywhere. I come from dual-tribal and well-accumulated ancestral backgrounds whose footmarks have received many recognitions in both African and world history. As an efficient multilingual writer, performer and actor in Hausa and Fulani literature, I didn’t fail to also possess the same ability in English literature. Reflecting ancestral backgrounds in our creative works is good, and I am never against it. I can only advise that it should be moderate. Have a reason for it; don’t allow a sense of ethnocentrism, sectarianism or even tribalism to have a say in whatever you want to express.

Meanwhile, it is noteworthy to know that the cultural nature in us will not allow us to go free without reflecting on our background at most times. I, personally as a Muslim, know the things to write and things I am not supposed to write. There are things that my mind will not even think of. In fact, my faith will not even allow my thoughts to go there. The same thing applied to my personality as a person with high respect for Hausa/Fulani tradition.

We must know that abiding by the nature of our ancestral link as well as reflecting our background in all we do is what, at most times, measures our sense of reasoning. We must not also forget that representation is likely the root of some unnecessary limitations.