Meet Albert Seraphin, author of ‘The Clarion Call'

10:16 - 03 November 2015

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Albert Seraphin author of ‘The Clarion Call’, spoke with Pulse Prose and Poetry about how he advocate for social justice and fairness with his writings and how he intends to change the world one poem at a time.

Albert Seraphin author of ‘The Clarion Call’, a collection of poems, is a graduate of Political Scientist from Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo state. Born to parents from Agbor in Delta state, he was “bread and watered” in Lagos and the last child in a family of five.

Seraphin who is also a stage actor, painter, imaginary thinker spoke with about how his writings advocate for social justice and fairness and how he intends to change the world one poem at a time.

I hated books when i was younger

I must state first that I used to hate books when I was much younger and my mom used to flog me silly especially over “Queen Primer”, I never knew she was paving a way for me. But today, my heart never stops praying for her, i can’t tell my success stories without mention her.

When I got to senior class in secondary school, I began to develop interest in books ranging from story books to poetry and philosophical books. I began to write creatively in December 2010 when I wrote my first poem titled “How Traumatic” which was inspired by my sister. Since then, I started documenting my thoughts, feelings and experiences in poetic form and sometimes, in short playlets.

Newly published poetry collection encourages patriotism and selflessness.

It never occurred to me that I was going to publish those poems in the first place, I was always writing and posting on Facebook with the harsh tag “#My NYSC Diary” and when I finally decided to publish, I suggested out titles to some serving corps members who primarily were the major audience and some who had finished serving and majority went for” THE CLARION CALL; My NYSC Diary & Other Poems.“ The idea behind it is firstly, it is a diary and secondly, it calls for patriotism and selflessness.

Publishing a book

The idea was not to make money, I had always wanted to add value to my society, addressing the ills that bedevils it, I had always wanted to advocate societal change through my arts and thank God the opportunity came as at when it did. I don’t think there can be anything more lucrative and fulfilling than having your name on the shelves of thousands of homes and imprinted on the walls of legacy.

Personal experiences as a ‘corper’ in Abia State

I spent most of my time serving! But while doing that, I was taking notes of all that was happening such that my colleagues were making jest of me because to them it was funny how I had to write poetically about everything including how we killed and ate bush meat.

Also, I enjoyed writing about the happenings in Abia which for me, are not peculiar to Abia alone, but cuts across every spheres as far as Nigeria is concerned.

Touching lives with his poems

Some people have read my works on Facebook and I have received inbox messages on how I touched their lives with my poems, on how I made them change their minds on certain steps they had wanted to take and these are what give me joy and fulfillment.

I try to make my work as short and devoid of ambiguity as possible because I wouldn’t be there to explain to my audience what each poem is talking about and I don’t also want them to get tired of reading by consulting the dictionary every now and then so I try to write in a way that everyone can understand.

One of his poems condemns ‘Slavery’ in Africa

Development in the world today cannot be talked about without Africa. Africa has contributed immensely to the level of development the world celebrates today but ironically, Africa is still struggling to attain the state of development. I strongly believe there should be a paradigm shift on who should be held accountable for our woes and just like Alli Mazrui would say, Africans underdeveloped Africa.

The era of colonialism which is the primitive slavery is gone but our leaders continue to drag us back in a civilized form of slavery, wobbling in neo colonial pathologies and practices, enriching their pockets and eternally pauperizing us. They continue dancing to the tunes of the white men, killing our own local initiatives and boosting foreign economies.

China for example is everywhere today producing everything producible even though some of them are sub-standard. They continue to believe in themselves and improve on themselves. Today, we no longer believe in anything African or anything Nigerian, if it is not ‘made in china‘, ‘made in U.S.A.’ or ‘made in Italy’ we don’t want to buy mean while talents and skills are wasting in Aba, in the slums of Ajegunle, in Warri, and a lot of other places in the country.

It is pertinent to state here that while our leaders should be held accountable for our woes, the followers also have their own share of the blame and except we blow our trumpet ourselves, no one will blow it for us.