bookshy: July 2015

The 'Meet' Series is my chance to interview anyone I would love to meet that is involved in African literature. And next in the Meet series is a writer from Nigeria, Diekoye Oyeyinka, whose debut novel, Stillborn, I first found out about last October.

Published in Kenya by East African Educational Publishers in 2014, Stillborn is a historical fiction, which tells the story of Nigeria over six decades (from 1943 to 2010) through the lives of five characters - Seun (the narrator); his uncle, Dolapo (a civil rights lawyer); his uncle's friend, Emeka (a war deserter); his lover, Aisha (a refugee from the religious clashes in Jos); and a corper, Nneka - sent from Enugu to serve in Jos.

This is a beautiful story, with an old school vibe - indeed I found Diekoye's writing to be more in the vein of classic African literature, such as the works of Achebe and Thiong'o. Diekoye's inspirations are also present in the chapter titles. Look close enough and you will notice each chapter is named after a Fela Song. For a true literary experience, the author recommends making the playlist, sitting back and reading Stillborn to the soundtrack of Fela.

Well, a few months ago I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Diekoye via Skype, where we spoke for over 2 hours on the pronunciation of his name (Dee-ye-koye), the two versions of Stillborn (the EAEP version and the soon-to-be published 'world' version), his journey to becoming a writer and being published, his favourite African novels, the Fela vibe and more.

Really enjoyed speaking with Diekoye, and honestly if it wasn't for the time (it was around 2am, probably closer to 3am if I'm being honest), getting to that point where my level of coherence was dipping, and that whole thing of needing to be up in a few hours for work, the conversation may have continued for at least another hour. Well, here's a sneak peak at our 2 hour plus interview:

So now this is probably going to be unfair, it’s like asking a parent to decide which of their children they love …

Diekoye: Aisha!

Really! Just like that? You didn’t even have to think!

Soundtrack to Stillborn

Diekoye: Seriously, I don't know why. If you notice, she’s the only one that had a section named after her in the first book. Even though it’s not really about her, it’s about Emeka. I don’t know why I just loved that character.

Wait, Stillborn is about Emeka?
Diekoye: To some degree, yes! Emeka is the only character that is in all the sections and he is supposed to be how Nigeria’s happened – everything just seems to be a mistake but yet he just seems to keep going forward. Someone described him as a Nigerian Forrest Gump, and I was like ‘oh yeah! That’s true!’.

And Dolapo is supposed to be what Nigeria should have been – like everything just seems to just be aligned for him, he has all these things just given to him, all these resources (Emeka just gives him his wealth). He never even proposes to his wife, she just agrees to marry him - even though he pisses off right before the wedding.

So Dolapo is supposed to be what Nigeria should have been because of all the luck we have as a nation in terms of resources, but Emeka is what we actually are – we just keep stumbling from one tragedy to another without really knowing what is going on.

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Last night, I came across this fascinating online African feminist journal, and I just had to share. The Wide Margin describes itself as:

'a new online quarterly collection of essays which focus on discussion and critical thought about social, economic, political and cultural issues through a feminist lens.'

The first issue was published at the beginning of the month with the editorial, Feminist While African, explaining how The Wide Margin:

'seeks to imagine living a feminist life while African, thinking and creating through and beyond the work already done by the many feminists working in East Africa, and Africa as a whole as well as its disapora.'

I knew I was going to like this journal the second I saw the tagline 'Feminist While African', but as I read the Editorial, I couldn't help but think that this was a space that could discuss some of the issues I constantly struggle with as a young Black/Nigerian/African Feminist:

"'Feminist While African" explores how we (Africans) have come to understand feminism, how we are involved (or not) in feminism, how we interact with feminism, and how we have learned and continue to learn about feminism."

Of course it obviously helped, that female writers got a shout out for the way their novels were 'written with fierce female voices'.

'In the past 5 years, feminist discourse has exploded online ... and especially on social media as well as in the street. Women and feminist-allied men are continuously positively discussing policy and legislative issues affecting women as well as the labour of living with everyday sexism ... Recent novels like the Folio Prize nominated, Dust, by Caine Prize winner, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya), Kintu, by Commonwealth Prize winner, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda), Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, are written with fierce female voices and imagine new ways of African women inhabiting the modern world.

The first issue 'explores a diverse range of perspectives on learning, (mis)understanding and practising feminism; from embracing our defiance of how we are expected to be, to how we became to be feminists, to how we relate to each other as feminists.' What's there not to love!!!!!

In addition to the Editorial, there are six essays and a cartoon. Unfemiliar Territory explores feminism from the perspective of a man in the process of educating himself about the movement. I love that The Wide Margin is involving men in its discussion and its use of comics to do so. At work, one of the projects I work on is related to engaging men in addressing sexual and gender-based violence, and one of the things I am currently trying to do this year is to produce a series of blog posts related to men's engagement in this field (trying to move beyond 20,000 word reports - for this one output, at least), where each series has a guest editor who writes a short piece on a topic of their interest, which we send around to hopefully get diverse perspectives on the issue. Maybe it's my bias towards blogging, but cartoons, blog posts, social media and the likes are great ways to ensure issues are being discussed in formats that are more accessible to a wider variety of audiences.

As for the essays, they include, 'The Political is the Personal', where Sara Salem goes beyond presenting 'an individualistic account of [her] feminist journey' and instead discusses some of the 'broader debates within feminism ... that have been central to many feminists [and] feminist movement.' As well as Nyaboe Makiya, who in 'African Woman Seeks Feminism for Survival', explores how the role feminism played in her ability to think critically about how and why as a woman she behaved, and was treated, a certain way by society and men. She ends by asserting that:

'As a woman, feminism is essential for me not only to survive, but to thrive as a human being.'

Anyways, if it wasn't clear by now, I'm saying check out The Wide Margin. The essays are honest and relatable, the writing is beautiful. and the accompanying illustrations (which I'm really loving) also add to the narratives from the essay.

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Tonight (Friday 3 July) I will be sitting, along with a host of other people, at the British Library listening to journalist Hannah Pool in conversation with Africa39 writers Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Ndinda Kioko, Nadifa Mohamed, Chibundu Onuzo and Nii Ayikwei Parkes, as they speak about books and inspiration. I've had my tickets for this event since around May, so to say I am excited is an understatement!!!! What's cool is that in the lead up to the event, the Africa Writes blog have been sharing contributions from journalists and writers on their African books of inspiration.

Broadcast journalist, Zeinab Badawi, writes about how Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is her choice - as it 'captures the complexities of an era that gave rise to the colonial governments in Africa and laid the ground for the subsequent struggles that ensued.' While writers photographed for the awesome #100DaysofAfricanReads series also shared their top 3 titles from African literature. Writer and Editor, Toni Kan names Ben Okri's The Famished Road, Sefi Atta's Everything Good Will Come and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. For Kan, The Famished Road makes his list 'because of its epic scale and the riotous mix of myth, magic and realism.' As for Wanjeri Gakuru, her top three are Yvonne Adhiambo Owour's Dust, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus and Mariama Bâ Scarlet Song. Why Scarlet Song? Well, 'Mariama documents Cinderella's Unhappy Ending with muted melodrama.'

I'm really loving this series and the theme around inspiring books from the world of African literature. Through it we get glimpses of the variety of African literature out there - both classics and contemporary: a spirit child navigating the real world; love, life and everything in between during civil war; the life of a great warrior before and during colonialism; experiences from an adolescent girl and more. And now in less than 12 hours, I (along with many others) get to listen to authors whose works I've thoroughly enjoyed reading, share with us their own books of inspiration. What better way to spend my Friday evening! Can't wait!!!!!

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