20th November, 2013
O’Yemi Afolabi, novelist, poet and writer of books for children, released ‘The Indigo Glass’, her debut novel in 2011 to critical acclaim. Since then she has written a series of books for children released under Nelson Publishers imprint. Widely travelled, she tells NEHRU ODEH about her passion for writing, why she writes books for children and what keeps her going as a writer
How did your literary career start?
Is it really a career? Or is it a passion that I am turning into a career? Maybe it is a passion that I am turning into a career. I think I started writing between the ages of eight and 10. I would show the story to my late father who always read them and was happy. So I was just encouraged by his acceptance, I would say, because he never admonished me over anything. He would read the story and be amused. And because of that I was very happy. That was how it started. It was poetry I was drawn to initially until I travelled to Abidjan in Cote d’Voire. And on board the flight that day I wrote a short story entitled Do You Know where you are Going To? That was about 1990. Then I later worked in Cote d’Voire. I was a management official, working in a department where I was doing a lot of writing; and I needed to write articles portraying what we were doing in that department. Eventually we had a newsletter for the department which I was editing. That was really where I honed my career as a writer. I abandoned poetry for a while; I came back in 1998 after I lost a very good friend of mine. And I wrote a lot of poems for him. I think it was sadness that brought it to the fore then.
How long did it take you to write ‘The Indigo Glass’, your debut novel?
The Indigo Glass took me a little over five years to write. And what I eventually produced was not even the original manuscript. When I submitted the version that was about the fourth draft to the person who read the original manuscript she couldn’t recognise the book anymore. And when she told me that she preferred the first one, I wasn’t that happy (laughs). I believed her. Some other people had gone through it and had made suggestions. A writer doesn’t have to follow all the suggestions made by friends, colleagues, family, whoever. You just follow what you believe in. But such suggestions are good. Some might be negative, and you just have to know how to turn the negativity into positivity. So I used some of the suggestions then to turn the story around. And I am glad about the outcome.
Why that title, The Indigo Glass, and what is the novel all about?
One would find why in that book. The Indigo Glass really talks about the clash of cultures. Even though Berenice, my protagonist, was born in British Guyana, in South America, she was taken to Birmingham in England before she was 10. And in later years she met Morak, a Nigerian, with whom she fell in love and married, and Morak brought her to Nigeria. But before she came to Nigeria she had been meeting Nigerians, some of Morak’s friends and relatives that were living at Brixton, in the United Kingdom. As she met with them she enjoyed their culture. She didn’t even know which culture she had.
When she got to England as a young girl she wasn’t very happy. She was laughed at. They laughed at her accent. She really didn’t fit in; and her first dream was to become a teacher so as to welcome other foreign children, or people alien to the culture who were in school. She grew older and chose nursing, through which she met Morak; and she came to Nigeria. In Nigeria, it was another plate of salad entirely, and she adopted her in-laws’ culture. Initially life was good, but when money came in, life turned sour. Morak left her and took another wife …
Would you say when Berenice was in England she suffered from an identity crisis?
I would say she had an identity crisis in England. The identity crisis might have started as a child because she and her brother grew up with their grandmother, Ma Baker, because, truly, their mother had gone to Birmigham to work and was sending money home. There is a passage there that says, Did her life really start the day she was born or the day she stated living with Ma Baker?
You are widely-travelled. What took you to so many countries?
We would go back to my childhood. My father wanted me to read medicine. And his reason for that might seem a little bit vain because he thought I would look good in the doctor’s overall (laughs). But unfortunately I was very poor at mathematics. I just said to myself that I couldn’t know the subject, though my teachers would put in my report card, She could do better. And my parents would say to me, They say you could do better. Apply yourself. And I would say, Papa, I don’t know it. Eventually they said, Well what she could do? And they noticed that I was good at language. So they encouraged me; they just steered me towards French. And that was the time France was interested in Nigeria and were giving scholarships to Nigerians who wanted to study French. Anyway, they wanted Nigerians to know more of French- the French language, the French culture, the French civilization. So that was when they just pushed me there. I remember telling my father that they would laugh at me if I made any mistake. He said, Keep speaking it. One day you‘ll be perfect and be able to speak it as good as the native speakers. And now I am a translator.
What were you doing in Cote d’Voire?
In Cote d’Voire I worked in the African Development Bank as a manager. I first started with them as bilingual secretary. That was 1977. I left them in 1979 and then went back there in 1992. I eventually left them in 2002.
You‘ve written many books for children. Why do you write books for children?
You will agree with me that the reading culture among our children is very poor. I could remember when I was small I would read anything I saw and was encouraged to read. Was it because my parents were in the teaching profession? I don’t know. But there were always books in the house. And I wasn’t the only one reading. My siblings too were reading; we were encouraged to read. But it is not the case nowadays. If children read, they are reading about foreign cultures. So I said, Well, let’s bring back literature for pleasure for children. Children should be able to read and enjoy it, and be able to use some new words they come across. They don’t even know how to use the dictionary nowadays. They would know how versatile a word can be. So let me just contribute my little quota to the society. Daara of the Cabin Crew started by just waking up one day. It is about two little girls who were friends and later fell out with each other. I wanted them to get back together. So I just started the story.
I think the first thing I wrote was Sox Goes To School With Daara. I wrote it in order to read to these two girls who were then eight years old – and their names are in the book. So I read to make them laugh. It would look as an ice breaker. That is how it started, and I started writing them. I found that some other stories were coming into my meditation. You go to visit relatives, there are children talking. I notice them, I notice the games they are playing, I notice what they are doing. All these impressions which I tied up a little bit with my own imagination have come together to make Daara of the Cabin Crew. My joy, really, would be when children read the books and they enjoy them so much that some of them might decide to even write. Writers are just like photographers. Writers write about the time in which they live, photographers capture it.
A concern for the inculcation of good manners runs through your books. Is that concern deliberate? Do you go all out to teach moral values to children through your books?
No. I think the culture of “Please” and “Thank you” is universal. Salutation too is universal. You wake up, you see somebody, you have to greet. It is just to show good manners. Good manners will take you a long way. The Yoruba have a saying: A gentle word will bring out kolanut from the pocket, a rough word might bring out a pistol. So that is just it. It is just to show how it should be because I believe that is universal. In a poem I wrote I said if you don’t respect me for whom I am, respect my grey hair because they have seen many years before you. And respect the wrinkles on my face because they could tell a story.
How did you get in contact with Nelson Publishers? When did the publishing relationship start?
When I met Mrs. Funso Adegbola, nee Ige, in London, we discussed the manuscript of my book for children, and she said when I get back to Nigeria we should meet. When I got to Nigeria I went to see her in Ibadan. She read the manuscript and she liked it. And the rest is now history.
How has it been as a full-time writer?
It’s very rough, but I do some public relations from time to time. I also do some translation. But my passion now is writing; I I do much more of writing. The early years of a writer are not rewarding financially, but when you know that your readers enjoy what you write then you are happy. I think that is the satisfaction. There is a moral satisfaction, not financial. And you just have to hope that the financial satisfaction would come someday.
How do you get your inspiration?
I might even get inspiration from talking to you right now. You might say something and a word might just trigger something up something in me. My children accuse me of people watching. I enjoy people watching because I love reading the body language. I love watching people banter. I listen to the radio a lot. I am more of a radio person. I love listening to Radio Lagos because I know much more of Yoruba culture and tradition from there. And also I remember tales I was told as a child because relatives from my mother’s village used to visit, and in the evening they would tell us a lot of stories. Some of those would come back to me. Right now there are some short stories I have written, which I hope to publish eventually. These stories are inspired by those fables I was told as a child, though my imagination too has played a role in them. My second novel, the manuscript of which is ready, is inspired by what my mum told us about Yoruba culture and what she often speaks about.
What are the titles of the children books you have written?
Daara Goes To School, Sox Goes To School With Daara, The First Day, Sox Goes To Read and Only Yesterday. Then there is a workbook for the series.
What are you writing now?
I am writing a book about an African child explaining his culture to his Oyibo friends. But for adults, I am writing on The Child Who Wants The Moon.
What has kept you going as a writer?
As I said, I believed in my dream and I have got some good people around me. And as I said initially, you can turn negativity to positivity even when they themselves did not know that what they were saying was really discouraging to me. I didn’t show it, I forgave and moved on. And then I have to say that there are some people who believed in me- for instance, my children. They would tell me, “Mummy keep moving on, keep moving on, ma.” And I have some very good friends and some “aunties” who believe in me as well. Those people sometimes give me moral backing. And moral backing is much more financial backing.