Nigeria Content Online

Two students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Damilola
Ajayi, and Emmanuel Iduma, teamed up recently to create a fast growing
electronic magazine and a website, geared towards promoting the development of
literature and arts in Nigeria.

Speaking on their partnership, Iduma, a final year student of Law,
said, “We are writers and literary enthusiasts. We met at a writers’ workshop
in Ife and we just bonded and keyed into the vision of an E-zine and website.”

Ajayi, a student of the College of Medicine agreed, saying, “We,
were primarily budding writers who had always scoured the internet for openings
in literary markets and we saw that most times these literary magazines (mostly
western) have a predilection for authors in their locality; and even when they
publish African writers, they are usually in the Diaspora. Hence, we thought we
could start something Nigerian first and then African.”

In the beginning was the
word

The first issue was published online in February, 2009; and
since then, the e-zine, Saraba – a unique quasi African tag – has been nurtured
to become what it is now. The idea to float the e-zine, the two admitted, was
borne out of a “selfish need to publish our works; as we were budding writers
with loads of rejection mails.”

Iduma explained that “Saraba is a quarterly magazine, for which
we usually draw out a theme calendar at the beginning of every year; in
addition we also publish at least three chapbooks every year. We have had four
issues, one sub-issue, two chapbooks, and we try to have online content
monthly.”

Saraba has, in just two years of operation, published both
emerging and established writers, including: Jude Dibia, Emmanuel Sigauke, Uche
Peter Umez and Pelu Awofeso, amongst many others.

Iduma highlighted some of the teething problems faced by their
online literary platform: “We publish stories, poetry and essays because we are
a literary magazine and we are concerned with Literature. In the initial stage
though, there was slight scepticism. Not that the idea was not welcomed but we
had to define and redefine ourselves severally before we finally got the
acclaim that we have now.”

The magazine and the website is self-funded by the two partners,
who presently have not begun to pay their contributing writers. Ajayi expressed
hope, however, that Saraba will be able to offer remuneration to its
contributors sometime in the future. He added that, “Online magazines are
easier to produce and are less capital intensive. They match the current trend
brought about by the computer age.”

Big dreams

Saraba has generated online following across Nigeria, Africa and
the world. Proudly illustrating the reach of their brain-child, Iduma said, “We
have been receiving entries all over the world. We got over 15,000 hits in
March only. We plan to generate revenue by advertising on the website.” The
advantage of online magazines, according to him, is the bridge they establish
between the inadequate number of publishing houses and the country’s growing
need for outlets for creative expressions.

Saraba is a pioneer in online publication in Nigeria and its
creators hope that it will become a household name in world of literature.

“In some years, we hope to be rubbing shoulders with big literary magazines
like New Yorker, Callaloo, and Boston Review,” Ajayi projected.