My full names are Shanu Afolami Richard, Aikesan Baale Oja of Iperu Remo. Born on May 1 many years ago in Lagos. I was a normal kid who grew up under the care and supervision of loving parents. That was until things changed. Until my world was thrown into a kind of turmoil, a darkness from which I have fought hard for an escape. I am still fighting….
I was maybe seven or eight when my dad left the homestead, and left all three of us – me, my brother and our yet-to-be-born sister to be cared for by my mom. It wasn’t like I became an “abnormal kid” or anything. But, this singular turn of event had a remarkable impact on how I have turned out today.
I was aware enough to know what had happened on that day I walked into our apartment in Surulere to find it almost empty.
“Thieves,” my younger brother had whispered, as he clung on to my arm and his school bag.
“No,” I whispered back. I knew because I had witnessed some of the late night “silent” arguments between my parents. I witnessed other things too…but, maybe that is not for today. Maybe never for any day sef.
So, where was I ….
Yes, from that day onwards I grew more from the inside. I smiled and laughed a lot less than I used to, I also stopped watching Saturday night boxing that I used to very much love watching with my dad. Not because I wouldn’t have, but because he left with the TV. So, I developed a reclusive side and many times lived in the world inside my head where everything was perfect.
Perfect for me that is, but for those around me it was hell. My siblings, my mom. I am sure at a point they must have thought me a weirdo. I was almost always alone and by myself – playing table soccer or Voltron with crown cocks under the huge mango tree in the backyard of our house on Akobi Crescent, off Fashoro lane.
Then, one day my mom bought a new black and white TV, and that again changed my life.
My early childhood was nearly messed up and I could have turned out a bad kid.
I didn’t turn out bad….I think.
Maybe due in part to the fact that we moved out of that neighborhood in time or because I made the TV (to which we pasted the wine foil of Ribena bottle to turn it into a colored TV) my best friend.
From that early age of watching Modele Sarafa Yusuf and Akinloye Oyebanji on TV, I always wanted to be on TV. I wanted to also be able to speak to millions and billions of people.
And for a while, I lived that dream. But, that was later in my life. But, at least I could beat my chest that I chased my dream and got a taste of it – even if didn’t taste as good as I thought it would.
Shouldn’t that tell you something?
I grew up with the kind of mind that tells me – You will have to achieve that which you have set for yourself, or else….
I have never tried to find out what would happen if I didn’t achieve. I have just gone on to do it.
Yes, now you get the general idea….
That was how this blog was born.
I always had wanted to write. For someone who spent a lot of time before the TV, and listening to the radio, and day-dreaming isn’t it a logical extension of the vices to be caught up in? I lived so many dreams in my head, and as a kid I always had a notion I would write my autobiography – I even had to check up the word in my dictionary (the one I won as best Overall Student in Primary 5 at St. Thomas Aquinas Primary school) to be sure that is the correct word to use, and not biography.
For a while, I tried to keep records of things in my life. But, I have a very short attention span when it comes to these kind of things. However, I found I had a very remarkable memory for grasping and saving up all the big events in my life.
So, I chucked out the notebook and kept a mental record of everything. If not in the details, as per dates and time, but the general details. And they are still stored in my memory, most of them very ugly memories.
I am veering off again….
So, I developed an appetite to write from early on and I actually started out early to write. My passion was poetry and I believe I am quite good at it.
At one point, I went and registered on an online poetry forum www.poetry.com in hope that my pieces would gain me international recognition and a let out from a difficult childhood. I knew they were very good pieces and I always felt someone out there in the larger world would see them and say, “Oh, he is very good.” Then I would become the next Wole Soyinka – yes, that was another dream of mine.
I had so many, so please pardon me.
Well, it never happened that way.
One day, I just found that the site was no longer there. All my beautiful pieces were gone – and I had so many on that site, most of them nominated for one award or publishing collection or the other. Suffice to say I got nothing in way of cash reward for these feat.
After that, I began to scribble my pieces in a special book. By the time I gained admission into Ogun State Polytechnic (Now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic) I had two full books of poems. One day, a friend of a friend asked that I should borrow him my books as he wanted to use something inside for someone.
That was the last I saw of my pieces.
And because I was the way I was, I didn’t ask him. But, I was never going to borrow him anything ever again.
I am one of those people who would not come running after you with a club when wronged, but will walk away and vow you will never get a chance to do it a second time. But, I can be a very wild, loose cannon when I lose my head and control.
It was why I was called Shy by all my friends from early. I didn’t like how that sounded so, I creatively turned it into Shai (even though at the time I never knew a popular RB group went by that name too).
On many occasions, in tight situations, I would just walk away and look for other non-violent but yet effective ways to deal with my adversary. But, when it came down to it I can always hold my own. I had enough in my tank for that –as a few people found out.
After that guy took my pieces, I just went back storing my words in my head.
Then one day, many years after I left that Polytechnic and after I had appeared on national TV on one of the longest running Football review shows – Road To Germany 2006 and Road to Egypt 2004, I had a brilliant idea to get back online and start writing all my stuffs there.
So, I started my first blog on www.blogspot.com. That particular blog was very personal, so I am not giving out the address here. But, it is out there and some of y’all may stumble upon it.
One day, while on my usual foray into online crabbing (systematic but random browsing of the internet) I stumbled upon www.naijastories.com . As I remembered later on, a friend had actually invited me into that platform before, but I never gave it a serious thought.
But, the day I decided to register was the day that my writing experience was given a different, more defined and structured direction.
I registered, and met some of the most amazing young, unheralded writers I have ever known. Albeit, when I registered I was very careful to look around first for several months –my experience on www.poetry.com still weighed very much in my opinion of www.naijastories.com . But, gradually the platform won my respect and I found my wings among a group of highly talented people –many of whom are my friends today. I have met them, I have shared many happy moments with them and we have all shared our dreams with one another.
But www.naijastories.com lost something and I lost my love for it. So, it came about that one of my friends from on there told me one day, while we were at the beach, “Shai, I’d one day love to read a collection of your poems in paper back.”
I thought long and hard about that for several weeks. But, I knew two things from the start –I wouldn’t be doing a paper-back anthology any time soon; and I was chomping at the bits to get my stuff out to a higher audience.
But, which publisher will take on a poet? When poets are only seen as second class citizens in the literary world, poetry seen as too easy and unserious. So many times I have had to argue this points with my literary friends; once I was disappointed to hear from one I respected so much that, “One can write poetry in five minutes. All it takes is to string some words together.”
It hurt to hear that from someone who prided himself as a writer. It also put into perspective the reason why everything that went down on www.maijastories.com went down the way it did. Prose writers and prose was always going to be seen as better as and more respectable than poetry and poets.
So, I left www.naijastories.com and started a blog on www.wordpress.com . It was meant to be my space to express myself. My poetry was good enough to stand their own against any – or so I liked to think. So, why lump them in a site where they were not appreciated? So, I started www.shaiguydotcom.wordpress.com .
I was not putting my pieces in a paper-back version, but this was the 21st century. Who needed a publisher?
I just hope I have been able to live up to that expectation?
Somewhere along the line, at one of our several hangouts, I had mentioned to the same friend my challenge with how prose is perceived as better than poetry, how it is not that I couldn’t write prose but was just afraid of diluting my pen hand.
“Shai, you have to challenge yourself. Your poems are the best I have seen around. If you can write prose….” I am sure it was not in that exact words, but he had thrown me another challenge.
He has a habit of doing that. I guess because he does same to himself. And that is why I respect this fellow so much. His e-book “For Days and A Night” I still read like I am reading a bible. Interestingly, I wrote a poem “Silent Voices” that was so akin to the first story in that book (and it was not like I knew what he was doing)…how I wished he used the poem in that book!
I am such a romantic when it comes to collaborations with other writers. But, pardon me –it is another dream of mine. I like to see writers work more together. In fact, I believe and expect creative people to work creatively together. A graphic artist and a writer or poet, a singer and a poet, a prose writer and a poet etc.
Well, I took on the challenge and that was how my third blog was born.
This one.
I brought in another friend to help me set up the basics of the blog and help me manage content and so on. I needed to make it look as good as any people would ever read. His name is Dipo Otunuga – I have known this dude a looooooong time. If you like what he has done here, you can reach him via twitter @DiNuga or otunugaoladipo@yahoo.com.
So, by August everything was set up.The blog site www.uncoveredsheets.com was born on September 17, 2012 (that’s why I posted so many stuffs in September) to answer to my friend’s challenge to venture into prose.
I was ready to put out all those stories I had in my head from the days I sat before the TV and radio. I was ready to make the world here all the stories that I had to tell.
On October 1, 2012 I officially launched the blog site with my first post ……and in a very short time, the blog had racked up so much readership I was blown.
One year down the line and I am here to say my thanks to all my friends.
Yes, that is what all of this is about.
Hang on a bit more….
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My heart goes out to my family. Kinky –my pretty wife; Kish and P-ye, my first and second sons. Sorry for all those late nights you guys have had to endure and will continue to endure – You guys are the bestest!!!
I love you guys….
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And in no particular order, my special one year anniversary for www.uncoveredsheets.com goes to Seun Odukoya, you gave me the push. In life, we meet people who change our lives and those whose lives we change. Always, we should pray we do this in a positive way. You have done that, twice. One love.
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Also, special appreciation to my twitpack – Tiwa Alagbe, Oyinade Adeyemo, Kingsley Iweka, Tosin Oshagbemi and Seun Odukoya. Somehow, you guys allowed the pack to fall apart –I think. But, I am sure y’all know it was fun. Mad fun out there while we were at it on twitter. I don’t believe in what someone once told me about fifty children not being able to play together for fifty years, but what can I do? You guys should know though, people wondered who we were….lots of people.
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A very, very special one goes to the“Sleek”one. You know where the river started from. Thank you for always helping to spread the word and giving that support that couldn’t be bought…maybe only through my written works. They are paying, right? God bless you and yours. Will wait for that 50 yrs something, it should be a good wait.
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Sally Dadzie, we met almost on chance but I have not regretted it. You have been such a great person. The support I have gotten from you –especially on Eggshell, when I got stuck on a story. A shame about that one we could have worked together on. But, I am eternally grateful on Eggshell which you hosted on your blog. That idea, and the ideas by the respondents, helped crystallize the ones I had in my mind and opened my eyes to other possibilities.
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To all of you who come here to read my stuff and have made this blog a favorite of yours, what can I say?
Merci….
How many times can I say “Thank You”?
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Wow! Well done shai. I enjoyed reading this.You have come a long way! I believe this marks the beginning of better things to come. Keep living your dreams
Thank You @Crossb