The Finesse of Finding Balance: A Dialogue with Feyisayo Anjorin
the Finesse of finding balance
A DIALOGUE WITH FEYISAYO ANJORIN
Feyisayo Anjorin trained as a broadcaster at Damelin College, Bramley, and as a filmmaker at AFDA Johannesburg. He began his creative journey as an actor, working on e.tv’s, Scandal! and MNet’s Jacob’s Cross. He also starred in Akin Omotoso’s Man On Ground and on a few episodes of Nigerian TV drama, Tinsel.
He has also explored his creativity as a screenwriter, songwriter, singer, and actor. He developed EAYoruba’s The Language of Love (Èdè ìfẹ́) and other Yorùbá educational programming for the platform.
His written work has appeared in Temz Review, Lolwe, African Writer, Afritondo, Brittle Paper, Bella Naija, Kalahari Review, Litro, Bakwa Magazine and elsewhere.
He is the author of Kasali’s Africa, The Night My Dead Girlfriend Called, The Hypocrite Series, The Stuff of Love Songs, and A Home Is An Atmosphere.
BY NKATEKO MASINGA
This conversation took place between Akure North, Nigeria and Pretoria East, South Africa, via email.
Nkateko: Hi Feyisayo. Thank you so much for having this conversation with me. As a fellow multipotentialite, I am excited to talk to you about your various creative passions. Before we get to that, I just want to acknowledge that we’re having this conversation at the end of what has been a very challenging year. How are you doing?
Feyisayo: As they say, what doesn’t kill makes one stronger. I’m fine, thanks for asking. It’s my pleasure speaking with you.
Nkateko: In a poem titled Johannesburg (Our Jerusalem), you once wrote ‘a new day is a fortress for the sons of Africa.’ I find that so beautiful. It reminded me of the late Charles Mungoshi’s If You Don’t Stay Bitter for Too Long, where he expressed optimism regarding the future of Zimbabwe, which he refers to as ‘the old country’ in his piece. Does that level of optimism still resonate with you, in the contexts of South Africa and Nigeria specifically?
Feyisayo: Yes, I’m still optimistic about Africa. So far naysayers have been proved wrong about South Africa, and the opportunities are endless. There are definitely challenges and issues of concern, but it’s a great privilege to be able to rise, dream, hope, and make things happen. I was inspired by the energy of the city of Johannesburg when I wrote that poem. Nigeria’s political and economic challenges bring to mind an octopus, but we are also blessed with insightful and courageous men and women. The only way for us is forward.
Nkateko: I agree, and I am equally optimistic. In an interview with Fifteen Questions, you said that your writing rituals involve silence, serenity and nature. Does your everyday environment allow for that, or do you need to get away from the city in order to work on new projects? I ask this because I have found writing residencies and fellowships to be helpful in my own journey. How are you able to consistently pursue your art when circumstances do not always favour the fulfilment of the rituals you mentioned?
Feyisayo: There were times I’ve had to get out of the city to get some work done, and sometimes I just wish for a holiday. You are right, writing residences and fellowships are quite helpful, but each time I’ve had those opportunities something comes up and I’m not able to attend. If I were superstitious I would have blamed a curse.
One thing my late Dad taught me earlier in life was that an artist who keeps his artistic voice to himself would never be truly happy in life. So, I have no side hustle. After varsity I just decided to plunge into creativity full-time. The consistency comes from the awareness of the fact that no one will save me, and the only way to do it is to do it.
“It’s the finesse of finding a balance. You go out there and soak in the inevitable interactions, and then come back to the creative shell to incubate it.”
Nkateko: I hear you. Residencies and fellowships feel like holidays to me, especially the ones where there is freedom to work at one’s own pace. You have become successful despite not being able to fully access those opportunities, so you are consistently breaking that ‘curse’. Those platforms, although helpful, are mere incubators; what is important is the work that comes out of them and if that work is getting done regardless of when and where, you win. I am happy that your Dad imparted such wisdom to you and that it has led you to a life of full-time creativity. I trust that the path has been fulfilling in all its seasons. I wish I had the discipline to create regardless of my circumstances, I am a recovering procrastinator and I rely on strict deadlines, some self-imposed, to push me.
You stated that you’ve had to turn down opportunities due to your busy schedule, so I am curious about how you work around that when you are filming, which requires your uninterrupted availability for weeks or months at a time. How do you navigate that?
Feyisayo: I’m also a recovering procrastinator like you, I think life has been forcing me to swallow all the creative bitter pills. The thing about films is that the pre-production, kind of, prepares you and gives you an idea of the time of potential engagement. Then when you are signed to a project you will just have to work your way around it. The thing about filming is that I also usually observe some production drama, the typical conflict of well-meaning creative people, and then create fictional characters from that.
I typically do that when I have to be away from the solitude of creativity.
It’s the finesse of finding a balance. You go out there and soak in the inevitable interactions, and then come back to the creative shell to incubate it. That works for me. Like you, I rely on strict deadlines, and I try to go through the sometimes demanding creative calendar to make sure no one blames me for failing to deliver.
Nkateko: There is something that you said in an interview with the Akure Writers Forum, which resonated with me in light of what you are saying about creating fictional characters from the typical conflict amongst creatives:
“The writer’s commitment is to truth, just like the actor’s commitment is to truth. When I talk about truth, I am talking about the credibility of the story. I am talking about conceptual relevance, emotional relevance, it’s that thing that connects to the audience at a certain intimate level. If you write a story and some people think you are writing about them or about someone that you know, that is the kind of truth I am talking about.”
I find this approach to storytelling so liberating because what you are saying is that the time that you spend working on one project can be beneficial to the next project. ‘The finesse of finding a balance’. I like that. Do you ever run out of ideas though? Is there ever a time where you’ve soaked in all the ‘inevitable interactions’ but it still does not translate into a story?
Feyisayo: There are times that I try to get some creative work done and nothing comes to mind. There are times I just feel dry creatively. It happens. For me, the interactions are not really for short term intentional use. There is just something about human interactions, whether direct, as in the case of conversations, or by observation or through books, that works on your inner being and eventually crystallises into something more concrete. When that will happen, whether in a few hours or in 30 years, is what the creative soul doesn’t know.
There was a time when I wasn’t writing about my childhood neighbourhood. In recent times, some details of my childhood experiences in the neighbourhood came to me in concrete terms and a short story was born. A few years ago I wrote and released a song about Judas Iscariot, which is based on what I read. Last year, one of my closest associates basically turned a Judas on me and I wrote another song, a more personal one, in two days and recorded it the following week.
A storyteller will always have a story to tell, but it is not something that can be forced like just opening a tap. Soaking in every human experience is key.
Nkateko: Whenever a person is called a Judas, I know for a fact that their betrayal was a cut right to the soul. I am sorry that you went through that. I was the Bible quiz district champion back in my Sunday school days and I realise now in adulthood that the quickfire question-and-answer format of learning the Word has made me question the narratives that I was taught to admire and has solidified some of my feminist ideals. For instance, the framing of the story of Ruth and Boaz as a love story is one I reject with a passion. Another narrative I find dehumanising is how Queen Vashti’s refusal to appear before the inebriated King Xerxes and his acquaintances led to her being stripped of her title and banished from the kingdom. I now struggle to read the Bible without such judgements, so it has been years since I’ve read it from cover to cover as I used to.
When I was doing my research for this interview, the first few videos that I found on YouTube were your gospel songs, all of which are beautifully performed. Did you grow up in a Christian family? Would you say that your faith in God plays an important role in your storytelling and in your life overall?
Feyisayo: I grew up a Christian family, and I am also a Christian. My faith plays an important role in my storytelling, but storytelling is more about humanity and cultural relevance than about religious dogma. Stories have cultural context, so the story of Ruth and Boaz may be a love story in that time in Israel, but it won’t work as a love story in our time. Imagine giving a bouquet of flowers to a love interest as an indication of love during the time of the Oyo Empire. As a Yoruba man who is quite familiar with the evolution of the culture, the expression of romance has changed. I agree with your thoughts on Vashti, I wouldn’t want any woman in my life to do what Xerxes wanted her to do.
Stories should be told in a way that the reader who engages with the story should be able to make his or her own deductions without the storyteller’s intrusion.
Personally it is only in songwriting that I intentionally push my faith. Faith is usually about who God is, and what God requires of human beings, it could seem dictatorial.
But stories are about human beings; the best of us, the worst of us, and everything in between.
Nkateko: That is such a thoughtful and nuanced response, thank you. ‘The best of us, the worst of us, and everything in between.’ I love that. Which of your books do you feel are the best reflections of the complete spectrum of human behaviour and emotion?
Feyisayo: I would say that the Hypocrite Series does that. There are three books in the series, One Week In The Life of A Hypocrite, Another Week In The Life of A Hypocrite and Love Lessons From The Life of A Hypocrite. The books have seven chapters each, so we go through a week in the life of a couple, from their individual perspectives.
As someone who grew up attending church (I still do), I wrote that book from a place of realising that every human being, whether religious or not, tries to make the best of the frail nature we have, in the context of good and evil. Every one of us needs grace, otherwise we will just surprise ourselves with moral failures we might not think we could have. If you look at the Lord’s prayer, a part says, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. There are some things a person might think they could never do, but it is because circumstances are favorable, and choices are not that difficult, and there is not much pressure.
We are all mostly trying to be better, to do better. There are variations of successes and failures from that quest. That is why as human beings we shouldn’t judge others as if we are infallible like God. Indeed if we see a rapist do his or her evil, we should state clearly that it is evil. A thief should be judged as a thief, a pervert is a pervert, but don’t judge others as if you are an angel or you are a God. There should always be that hope that a terrible person will have redemption and change.
Some people just go from one bad choice to another until they fatally ruin their lives, while some make a mix of good and bad choices, while some make mostly good choices even though the consequences of choices vary in their severity. In the Hypocrite Series, I went to church and explored the life of a man and a woman who fell in love and had expectations based on their membership of that church community, and then their humanity unfolds.
Nkateko: Brilliant. Did you know after you wrote the first book in the Hypocrite Series that the story would end up having several parts? Is it safe to say that you authored a trilogy, or is the story between Bosun and Titi still unfolding?
Feyisayo: I didn’t know it would be a trilogy when I started writing it, in fact I didn’t know how it would end. I was thinking of just one book with a happy ending, but the story took flight. The second book was quite rough and for the first time in my life as a writer I decided to free myself of my sense of self-censorship. Then I decided to write the third part to give the relationship a hopeful closure. I was tempted to write “The Unraveling of A Hypocrite” this year. But I resisted the urge. So from my part, Bosun and Titi’s story is done.
Nkateko: I was reading your interview on Ten Words or Fewer, in which you said that your mantra is ‘We’re taking nothing out of this world.’ I feel that you have taken that approach in your career, through the way that you pursue all of your gifts relentlessly. Your profile as a multidisciplinary artist seems like the embodiment of the parable of the talents.
Feyisayo: Exactly. We all have a role to play, one way or the other, to serve others. No two human beings are alike as fingerprints indicate, but we all have the capacity and responsibility to enrich others, to make life here on earth better with our natural endowments, and it is in that service that we find fulfillment.
Nkateko: Let’s talk about your other romance novels, A Home is an Atmosphere, and The Stuff of Love Songs. In your conversation with Chapter Break, you mentioned that the Hypocrite Series took inspiration from your own life and marriage. I am curious to know if the same can be said for the other two books? Would you say that all of your romance novels are based on your own journey in life and love, and how have these stories been received by the people in your life?
Feyisayo: In a way all my romance novels are based on my journey in life and love. I wrote The Stuff of Love Songs when I was single, and I’m actually crazy about love songs. When I started dating the woman who is now my wife I realised I have been blessed with the stuff of love songs. ‘A Home Is an Atmosphere’ was inspired by my parent’s love life. The Hypocrite Series was inspired by my perception of myself when I was single and the things marriage revealed about me. I used to think too highly of myself. Marriage is not for the proud self-righteous soul. I’m not Bosun Sanya, but his thinking isn’t unfamiliar to me.
Nkateko: Thank you so much for your generous responses to my questions, Feyisayo. I can’t wait to delve into the archive of your work beyond what I’ve read, listened to and watched so far. I am sure that our readers will be doing the same. Are you working on anything new that we can look forward to?
Feyisayo: I’m always working on something new. My next novel is already with the editors, I will be releasing new music projects in a few weeks time, and Temz Review will be releasing a short story titled “Dog Eat Dog Country” in a few days. For others, non disclosure agreements won’t allow me to say.
Thank you so much Nkateko, for the wonderful conversation.
Nkateko Masinga is an award-winning South African writer whose poetry has been translated into French, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada and Romanian. Her latest book, Daughter Wound, was published by UK publisher Hazel Press in April 2024 and was named Book of the Week at the London Review Bookshop in the first week of its release.
