Olumide Popoola is a Nigerian/German poetess who has resided in the outskirts of India, Netherlands, London, Nigeria, South Africa and Germany in her pursuit for knowledge. Her welcoming voice, profound writing, and her passion to speak up about matters affecting the society has earned her numerous titles in the media stadium. Olumide’s  Ayurvedic medicine background (an Indian healing way of life) , has proven that she is more than just another poetess but a soul bigger than her own self. We caught up with the poetess just to have her shed some light on her journey. Enjoy!

Jamati:  Welcome and I must say it’s absolutely an honor to have you right here on Jamati.com.

Thank you so much for contacting me. Of course the honor is purely on my side. What a portal! It’s amazing! So much information about wonderful artists.

Jamati: Please walk us through that defining moment when  you chose poetry to be your medium of transformation. What was it about being a poet that spoke in volumes to you?

To be honest, I always wanted to be a writer, from age six, when I learned to write. I used to write little stories then, in my early adolescence, it became poetry. I had my first poem published when I was 13, in an Afro-German magazine called Afro-Look. The poem was about the effect that neo-nazis had on my life, we had a big problem in the city I grew up in, so in a way at that time poetry became a space I could feel empowered in, it was my voice in a racist environment. But I have always been into words, moved by them, loosed myself in them, feeling strangley uplifted and excited by them.

Jamati: Describe your kind of poetry, because I understand you use Jazz, Hip-hop and African story telling to enhance your creations? What kind of issues do you speak upon?

Well, it’s a mixture and depends very much on the occasion. Many of my pieces work very well when perfomed, so that my voice, my rhythm, the melody of the words, and the way I express it physically make it come alive. All the things you mentioned inform my work. Hip-hop is very much about rhythm to me, jazz is being true to the theme while straying about in wider fields, improvising. It can also give a great starting point as I often start with a title, rather than a theme. That title tells me everything, what structure would suit it and what form, etc. African story telling often provides attitude to my pieces and narratives as well as a particular way of of saying things and here I don’t just mean accent. I’m a big admirer of Fela’s work and his ability to put complex matters in a language which is simultanously genius and easy to understand. I just love how he is able to wrap things up in a catchy phrase which would set the whole scene. Early on my poetry was about racism, Afro-German identity (Afro-German artists of mine and older generations had to very much write ourselves into life as you could hardly find any representation of us anywhere when I was growing up). Over the years issues shift and became areas of interests. I like to comment on things, whether it is on a particular aspect of pop culture (’Undercurrent‘), the aftermath of slavery (’Lineage‘), relationships, current issues or the principle/ difficulty of healing. Anything that catches my interest.

Jamati: Which string of poets would you say personally paved the way for the platform you stand on now?

Mutabaruka, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, May Ayim and Erich Fried.

Jamati: As a poet, and one who has studied the Ayurveda way of life, how would you say that played a role in the weaving process of your poetry, and the message you are trying to get across?

I have always been intrigued by the art of transformation and healing. Life is a constant balance of ever changing states of existence, be it mental, emotional, social, cultural or physical. Ayurveda has given me the opportunity to think about our mental states in a new way which I’m sure feeds my work somewhere down the line. The poem “Lineage” for instance is about the effect of slavery on a kind of micro-physiological level. I was looking at how violence impacts on the single cell and then putting metaphorical description into that observation. Of course what you read might not alert you to my initial thought but the ‘cell must be overloaded or vibrating for a long long time as everything affects as on a very subtle and simple level. It’s not really evident that way but that was my starting point. How does it resonates if everything around us affects each and every cell and has to adjust to it. I would like to work more with those kind of concepts as a starting point or underlying currents.

Jamati: Having won numerous awards and having your work published in numerous magazines and newspapers globally, how would you say the media has received you? Has the wish that you had when weaving your poetry, been fulfilled in terms of how or what you wanted people to learn from your teachings?

I have only won one award, the Maya Ayim Award. I think over the last few years I find it difficult to get away from solemnly doing stuff about black german, Afro-German identity and racism. I feel I want to diversify a lot more. While I will always be politically expressive, I would like to express myself as a thinker on many, many issues. I’m not sure if I wanted people to learn anything. I’m not if I can offer that. I comment but don’t expect the same opinions in return. It’s more satisfying to have a good discussion than to agree when conversating. Discussions always bring out something new and make people think beyond what they know.

As for my wish …..I would really like to bring out my collection of poetry.

Jamati: It might be unfair for me to ask this question but my heart won’t rest till I do, please share some lines from your favorite poem?

Come back to me as I’m not sure if it should be a poem of mine of from someone else.

Jamati: What is your favorite heart-felt quote?

“No Condition is Permanent”

Jamati: Are there any projects that you are embarking on that you would care to share?

I’m not very good about talking about things that are not ready yet. I’m still doing my masters in creative writing at the moment which takes up a lot of head space. It proves a little difficult as it is writing but not always what, or how, I want it. So, there I wrote a play which needs editing, which I hope can get developed somewhere. It’s essentially about being bi-cultural and that kind of space in between, the expectations from those different countries of background and their misunderstandings. It’s written in a lighter and funnier way though.

Jamati: Thank you very much for this opportunity and please keep on coloring the world with your creations.

Thank you so much.

For more on Olumide Poopola, visit her website.