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Writing ‘A Biography of Níkę – ‘Bàtà Mi á Dún Ko Ko Kà’

May 19, 2025 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

Kofo Adeleke

As an avid reader, storywriter and collector of books since childhood, I actually believe that the desire to write a book had always been within me. But because it happened rather later in life the urge was probably not quite as burning as for some, although I did for a number of years write articles for magazines and a newspaper column. ‘A Biography of Níkę – ‘Bàtà Mi á Dún Ko Ko Kà’ was not my original plan for writing my first book. I was approached to write this biography, and I must say I was totally elated to do so, and immediately set about trying to grasp the main principles of biography writing. Above all I wanted to capture the real spirit of the subject that became a big part of my life for the subsequent five years.

Methodical planning has always been a big part of how I conduct my life, and before I started typing anything on my computer I had already filled about four or five notebooks with handwritten jottings. It was in 2017 that getting down to serious work really started. My day to day life always begins with a series of lists of to dos, and then once I began planning to write the book I produced lists of timelines, topics to research, interviews to conduct, and much more. My time was spent considering structure, looking for and organising themes and questions.

Writing a biography of a living person is narrative and not just a straight presentation of facts. My aims and objectives were fairly clear in terms of what I wanted to achieve, the question was how to bring together the many different features of the subject’s life, to capture her true character and deep influence. The research allowed me to discover and understand depths to her life that I had not realised before. Since the subject is an artist the book also had to be about art and creativity, and I therefore had to ask certain contextual questions relating to innovation and techniques as well as politics, religion, gender and social and cultural change.

Biography should reflect and provide information about the times in which the subject lived. It is of course a form of written history, and so in writing the book on another level I was able to use the chance to indulge in my love of history. I included historical perspectives whenever the context allowed it, and thereby was able to enter another arena of discovery. Writing the book also provided an opportunity to add to the much-needed number of biographies about women.

The book is based largely on primary sources and I asked the subject for a list of people she would like me to interview, and she gave me four or five names. From then onwards, buoyed also by the research I was doing, it really had a snowball effect. The number of people on my list to interview grew longer, and rose to exceed 30. Trying to get interviews with certain people took a lot longer than others, and in some cases it slightly delayed the writing process.

I organised a series of interviews with the subject, and the whole journey of writing the book was made easier by the generosity and the trust she and her whole family had in me. I was given complete free access to documents and photographs.

Whether it was framed as part of the general narrative or providing background and context, each chapter was a key turning point, either in public life or private life. I felt that putting things into context with interpretive thematic analysis was as important as narrating the subject’s life story using a chronological structure. Chapters then became either actual storytelling or putting context to the overall story.

Some of the research and investigation proved quite a challenge, and using my own resources did limit the amount of travel I could do but I made the best use of the opportunities I had. Only when I was well on my way to completing the first draft of the whole book did I contact publishers. This was partly because I did not want to put myself under too much pressure, which can happen when trying to meet publishing deadlines. Very fortunately, because the subject matter has the status of an icon in Nigeria, all three publishing houses I approached showed immediate interest. I very quickly settled with the publisher who, apart from producing high quality books, had an approach and congeniality that I felt I could very much work with.

Along with a literature review, I know that I did an enormous amount of preparation before I actually started writing. At one point I really felt that my love for preparation and research was overtaking the actual desire to write. But once I did start serious writing the urge to keep on doing research gradually subsided, although now and again I did emerge to do a bit more research. By that time the overall preparation I had done really helped to keep me propelled forward and seriously immersed with the actual writing. Before the Covid pandemic struck I had already made a lot of progress but it was during lockdown that I was really able to focus intently on working with the editors from the publishing house to fine tune the manuscript.

Yes, I learnt a lot writing my first book, and yes you really can spend a whole afternoon trying to get just one single paragraph right!

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Kofo Adeleke Bio

Kofo Adeleke has written widely on environmental issues and before her career in environmental management, where she developed IEC materials and coordinated a wide spectrum of programs, she worked as a researcher, freelance writer and newspaper and magazine columnist. Kofo is a co founder and trustee of Legacy The Historical and Environmental Interest Group of Nigeria, and also a trustee of the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO) an international network of heritage trusts which come together globally to share knowledge and tools for the protection of cultural and natural heritage.

She is the author of ‘A Biography of Nike’ the story of Nike Okundaye, a leader in the revival of indigenous textiles.

A Biography of Nike: Bata Mi A Dun Ko Ko Ka

This book captures Nike’s flamboyant personality; it also explores how powerful elements of Yorùbá culture and art shaped her life, and influenced her art in diverse ways… In this book, you will travel with Mama Níke through her life story which chronicles not only how she got to be one of the world’s greatest female artists, but the why.