Hafsat Abdullahi has emerged the winner of the Benue Books and Arts Festival (BBAAF) Poetry Slam Contest.
The 21-year-old undergraduate of English & Literary Studies at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) bested six other contestants at the festival’s spoken word contest to take home the N110,000 prize; while Younglan Talyoung and Umar K. placed second and third respectively at the contest.
Evaluated based on their content, performance skills and articulation, the jury comprising of Spoken Word artiste and author, Bash Amuneni; Theatre Director and founder Jerry Adesewo, and the Secretary, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Benue, Stephanie Akubie, judged participants based on their cohesiveness of their poems, their articulation and audibility, and performance skills.
The first round saw the seven artistes Talyoung Younglan, Hafsat Abdullahi, Umaru K., Ogabo Rebecca, Ejiga Michael, Igbidi Tenengi and Nasurudeen Mohammed make a strong start. Although some proved more stronger than the others. Hafsat stood out with her singsong, fast paced yet clear elocution, her piece Wake Up ruminating on sexual gender violence. Younglan’s Teach Your Sons focused on the state of the nation, while Umar K’s The Love Doesn’t Live Here Anymore speaks of well-known fact that sexual and gender-based violence victims are often closer to home. The three, alongside Michael Ejigo averaged between 20 to 25 points to move to the second stage.
At the second stage Hafsat maintained her momentum with the stunning lyrics and rendition of I Know the Devil, a piece that highlights the insidious characters in families that abuse the more vulnerable members of their families; Younglan grew more confident with his calmer, more controlled performance of Church People which satirizes human hypocrisy particularly in religious setting, one his self-deprecating humour, condemns him as well; while Umar K, hit the ground running again with the poem that addresses the rising insecurity induced by the herdsmen and bandits, and where freedom lie – in dying for freedom, or being a coward to live again, or in committing suicide to decide her own freedom of living? The three hit an average of 30, 27 and 26 points respectively over Ejiga’s 23 and Nasurudeen’s 24 point to get to the final round.
However, while Hafsat dug deep into her thematic source of content – feminism, to hold down the first position with her untitled piece, Umar K dropped the ball on her performance, stuttering through her We Are Beasts act to place third; and though of higher quality content, Younglan’s performance of Elbow Room couldn’t convince judges he believed in his own utterings.
Exhilarated by the win, Hafsat who have come a long way in the spoken word performance said she hadn’t always had quality lyrics despite having mastered the theatrics of performance with time.
She had begun writing poems and performing at a young age, following her introduction to the Hilltop Creative Art Foundation, where she was mentored by popular artistes. It was at one of the foundation’s meetings that she knew her craft for its real name, Spoken Word Poetry. From thence, she honed her skills participating in several poetry slams including the Abuja Literary Society Poetry Slam.
In one of her appearances at the ALS Poetry Slam, where she lost, Hafsat said that for a while, she felt slighted because the judge believed her lyrics which suffered at the expense of her performance skills could be better. It took a while of accepting the truth and not participating in slams (from 2018 to 2020) to work on her content.
“He said I could be all dramatic and wow the crowd but my content isn’t really good enough. Hence, it is not good to award someone who is all loud and no content.”
“I do appreciate that advice. I mean I went back to videos of those past performances and indeed my act was all over the place.”
So, it seems a poetic justice that the same judge who found her content lacking was part of the jury that approved her winning this time.
The young poet’s content draws from her own life (her struggle for self-assertion) and feminism.
Born in a Muslim family, with a strict father, Hafsat has had to fight to be her true self – a petite, outspoken, afrocurled, and non-hijab or non-gelabi wearing muslim woman. Her father and relatives have learnt to accept her for who she is.
And at present, her pieces are influenced by a friend with an SGBV background. She describes herself as a Sexual and Gender-based Violence ambassador.
“Where people think expressive and progressive, my father uses words like brazen, and that as woman I shouldn’t be that outspoken rather reserved. Of course, he was judging me based on his own perspective of things. Poetry is the only floor I feel I have the leverage to express myself. Hence, people saying I have two personalities, my regular self who is quiet, and my stage self who is outspoken. I use that opportunity to talk about issues that border me about feminism, sexual and gender-based violence. Most of my pieces are inclined to that because of certain past experiences. But what motivated the piece I Know the Devil and Untitled is my friend who was mutilated and raped by her father.”
Today, Hafsat has a large presence on social media where she is very outspoken. Her slam victory comes with a N110, 000 cash prize, and the drive to continue being improving her craft. She is definitely one to watch out for in the future, alongside Younglan, if the latter doubles down on his satirical and playful lyrics while mastering the theatrics of performance art.
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