ABEOKUTA– One of the foremost young writer, Dimeji Sodeke has launched a book titled ‘Dwelling in the belly of the beast’, in commemoration of the 176 years of the first paramount ruler of Egbaland.
Speaking with The News Ville at the sideline of the event held at the Sodeke House, Abeokuta, Sodeke said the book is motivated by realities which are in aboundance in the African setting.
He added that he intend to covert some of his literature into motion picture in order to further spread his message to people who ordinarily would not read books.
“Am working towards converting every of my arts into a movie screen, these days it’s so easy for us to watch documentaries and you think have learn something. The world has involved, so there’s a way we have made learning simpler”
Speaking further, ” Well, I have always been motivated by realities. There’s a reality that’s in African which is different from European world, so our African reality and predicaments has led me to actually want to lend my own voice also and tell our own stories
“So, am motivated by the way and my experience have been shaped over time which has been involved in so many things and have passed through so many things, have had encounter with a lot of people, so I draw my inspiration people’s reality”
Sodeke further stated that his literatures has different perspectives depending on the current realities he found himself, adding that he tries to appeal to the ordinary people on the street, using simple words to depicts his messages.
“Well, I think this book is for all ages, everyone can relate with the book, either you are old, young, or you are aged, I think is more appealing to we the youth, we can relate more and the teenagers,
“We’re bringing learning to doorsteps of people, that’s why when you read my novel, I don’t want to use big grammar, an average kids can read my book and relate and laugh, so I made it in a simplest form, like Nigeria Pidgin and Yoruba dialect So you relate well, just like China Achebe.
“That would bring me back to my first novel which the tittle is ‘athe Gods of my Parents’. That was revolutionary, it really the warrior a kind of person, you will find it my first novel.
“But the second novel is actually tailored towards a kind of person that found himself in this kind of system that is disorganized, a kind of system that government doesn’t really have time for its citizens, the average Nigerian setting!
“So I wouldn’t say is more like am hearing voices, am trying to revolutionalize, am trying to spark an average mind towards our African realities and predicament, am trying to shift our mind away from distraction, one of the distractions are mediated reality, are things that people are giving away to.
“I really think what am really after is, am a very deep and cautious writer, I actually have cautiousness about situation of country.
Sodeke however Lament that the current generation reading culture is low, adding that the ignorance of the past heros is rubbing off on the behavioral pattern we see today
“So here, the reading culture is not really booming like it use to be, because there’s a lot of distractions these days but I can still tell you that the readers are leaders so they are still few conscious people out there who will still read.
“I found it so sad when I was asking a girl at a time about Fela Anikulapo and she doesn’t said anything about Fela Anikulapo. So it that serious?
“The coming generation is becoming so ignorance of their past, they’re becoming so ignorance of what our heros have done in the past
“we want to know what happened, the role our fathers play, like me now, am so proud of my forefather, when I got to know the role they played to what Abeokuta is right now, I planned to associate myself with it, but stylishly this is very very important due to self actualization.
Recall that Sodeke was recently selected as one of hundred youths across Africa by the President of Egypt, HE Abdel Fattah El sisi, then African Union Chairman, where he was trained at the National Training Academy, Cairo, Egypt for the African Presidential Leadership Program
Sodeke is a trained Journalist and an Educator from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and the University of Ibadan (UI) respectively
