BY EMMAN USMAN SHEHU
In the dusty, harmattan-chilled air of Sokoto—known locally as Sakkwato—a quiet revolution unfolded over three days in early 2026. Mentees gathered for the third annual Sakkwato Poetry Nitty-Gritty Workshop. What began as an act of giving back by Nigerian poet and facilitator Emman Usman Shehu has evolved into something more profound: a lifeline for young minds trained in precision and detachment, now rediscovering the messy vitality of verse.
The workshop’s origins trace back three years, when Shehu envisioned an annual gathering to nurture poetry in a region better known for its ancient caliphate history than its literary scene. The participants arrived this year quite by accident as mostly undergraduates in medicine and science-related fields, but as usual with a mix of enthusiasm and apprehension. Poetry, after all, feels worlds away from anatomy labs and diagnostic protocols. They trickled in, masks firmly in place—not against any virus or the season’s late-arriving chill, but perhaps as a subconscious shield against vulnerability in unfamiliar terrain.
The curriculum was deceptively simple yet transformative. Day one tackled the illusion of the blank page as enemy rather than ally. Participants learned to reframe resistance—not as failure, but as the natural friction of creation. By treating the empty space as a collaborator, they sidestepped the paralysis that so often dooms nascent writers. The next demystification struck at a deeper myth: that writing, especially poetry, belongs to a gifted elite. In truth, everyone is a storyteller, surrounded daily by narratives begging to be shaped. Poetry, the group discovered, distills those stories through vivid imagery, sensory detail, rhythm, rhyme, and relentless revision.
Over three intensive days, the workshop transported them far beyond Sokoto’s red-earth streets. They parachuted with Lenrie Peters, wandered with William Wordsworth, confronted mortality alongside Emily Dickinson, and felt the timeless pulse of an Everly Brothers classic. One mentee confessed a bucket-list dream of skydiving—with her future husband, no less—sparking laughter that lightened the room. Humor, it turned out, was as essential as craft: a reminder that art thrives on humanity, not solemnity.
By day three, illusions had been stripped away like old bandages. The blank page, once feared, became a “safe place,” as one participant put it. Zaynab Odusote described the closing emotions as “mixed”—exhilaration tinged with dread at returning to the grind of medical school. Yet the shift was irreversible. They now knew stories—and poems—lurked even in cadavers, in the quiet precision of a scalpel’s path, in the human fragility they would soon confront daily.
In an era when STEM fields dominate aspirations in Nigeria and beyond, the Sakkwato Poetry Nitty-Gritty Workshop stands as a small but potent counterpoint. It reminds us that poetry is not a luxury or diversion; it is medicine for the soul. For these medical students, it offered clarity amid routine, expression amid restraint, and a reminder that healing—whether of bodies or spirits—begins with seeing the world clearly, then rendering it anew. As the masks stayed discarded and the verses flowed, one truth emerged: in the right hands, poetry can indeed be an elixir.
*Dr Shehu is an Abuja-based writer, activist and educator.
