How I recovered my stolen manuscript – Chioma Nnani

Bookshelf: How did you get around to writing your debut novel, ‘Forever There For You’?Chioma Nnani: From time to time, I get asked how I chose to write Forever There For You. I wonder “Why not?” It is my debut novel, a cocktail of love, sisterhood, religion and domestic violence. A number of readers have […]

Bookshelf: How did you get around to writing your debut novel, ‘Forever There For You’?
Chioma Nnani: From time to time, I get asked how I chose to write Forever There For You. I wonder “Why not?” It is my debut novel, a cocktail of love, sisterhood, religion and domestic violence. A number of readers have their own opinions of what it’s about – and I concede that they are entitled to their opinions. Among other things, taking the time to buy and read it, gives them that right.
Bookshelf: How did you end up becoming a fiction writer with your background in law?
Nnani: I started writing from about the age of eight, but I didn’t set out to become a writer. I hold a Law (LLB) degree from the University of Kent, Canterbury, and a postgraduate certificate in Food Law from De Montfort University, Leicester. I wanted to becorporate law’s answer to Fiona Shackleton – She was Prince Charles’ lawyer in his divorce from Diana; Paul McCartney’s lawyer in his divorce from Heather Mills; and more recently represented Nigella Lawson in her divorce from Charles Saatchi. I started out wanting to specialise in family law. A mini-pupillage in Family Law at a set of chambers during my undergraduate years made me wonder. I think many people believe that criminal law exposes the worst of human character. For me, seeing the ease with which people could tear each other to shreds in front of total strangers; people who once supposedly loved each other at some point, was tough. I was fascinated by whatever resides in human nature that can make them to be so mean to people they had shared love and life with; but the experience made me question if I wanted to be around that for the rest of my life.
Bookshelf: So how did the transition from law to writing take place? 
Nnani: During my final year exams, I woke up one day and knew something had gone wrong. The passion I had for law had disappeared. It wasn’t a slow process, during which the love gradually disappeared. It was more a case of ‘Poof! And it’s gone!’ I think I can honestly say it was one of the worst periods of my life. I had a place in Law School in Oxford, but I knew I couldn’t go. I graduated from university at the time that the recession really hit the UK – investment banks were closing. Law firms were following suit – shutting down completely, or downsizing. I couldn’t have argued my way into a (law) job, if I tried. I think recruiters at law firms are specially trained to recognise candidates who don’t care about their firm, or aren’t so hot on practising law. I had spent a huge portion of my life thinking and believing that I wanted to be a lawyer. Suddenly, I didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore. Even worse, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. It made me feel very vulnerable – something I truly hate.
I truly believe that what you’re really meant to be doing just chooses you, instead of the other way round. Just like I think some of the relationships that are meant to be, just happen organically. Like I said before, I’ve written for years,but I had never taken it seriously. Maybe, it was because it came easily to me – I didn’t have to work for it. Maybe, it was because of my culture, where a lot of emphasis used to be placed on being a doctor, lawyeror engineer. Even if there were really amazing writers of African origin whose work I had read, I just don’t remember there being a time when becoming a writer was an aspiration for anyone in my generation. Obviously, times have changed and people are now more open to the creative industries. But growing up, I didn’t. So, in a way, I needed a push.
I had let someone I trusted see my work, then that person tried to steal them from me. This individual travelled to Nigeria, and started to claim that they wrote my work – five different pieces of my writing. So, we’re talking stage production script, film & TV scripts, and the original manuscript for Forever There For You. It was a truly ugly situation that could have become a lot uglier. I used to have nightmares of finding out that my work had been published under the name of the thief. There wasn’t a lot I could do, as my computer which had all my original work on it had crashed. So, I called someone with whom I go back about a couple of decades. I told them, ‘I’ve done something really foolish. I let someone see my work, and now they’re trying to rob me. Can you help me?’ At first, my friend didn’t understand the gravity of the situation, and was going, ‘oK, that’s unfortunate. Can you not just write more?’ I had to make my friend understand that it wasn’t that simple – the stolen pieces represented years of sweat, toil and tears. I’d been working on them, long before I met the thief. My friend was able to extract a promise from the thief, saying  they wouldn’t use my work in any of their endeavours. It would have been quite easy for them to do, because they attended The New York Film Academy and returned to Nigeria with very grandiose dreams. Unfortunately, they couldn’t write, and wanted to use my work to achieve their goals.
After my work was retrieved, someone else who had read my blog basically said to me, ‘I know you studied Law, and you don’t see your writing as a big deal. But if someone is willing to go to the trouble of faking a friendship with you for years, just so they can steal from you, then jet off to Nigeria with your writing; maybe, God is trying to tell you something about the writing.’ So, I called up two of my friends, Carmen Rose, and Keely Augustus, who used to run an artiste management company – they usually had open evenings for their artistes, to try and expose them. The problem was they had never had a writer on their books, so they weren’t sure what to do with me. They had singers, instrumentalists, singer-songwriters, etc. But I told them, “You know how people go on the X-Factor, and are really surprised to hear they can’t sing – because their friends and families have been lying to them. I need to know how people who are not my friends, and are not connected to me in any way, will react to my writing.” So, they gave me a slot at one of their events, and the feedback was good. I found my publisher (Word2Print) shortly afterwards, and a year and a half later after I re-wrote the entire manuscript seven times, Forever There For Youwas released. Before then, I had encountered many rejections from traditional publishers, and literary agents; but knowing that people who weren’t trying to humour me, or spare my feelings, actually connected with my writing made me continue searching for the right publishing deal.

Bookshelf: So what prompted you to write a novel that captured the plight of abused women in the home?
Nnani: One of the reasons was to begin a conversation. I found it aggravating that people refuse to talk about domestic violence, like pretending about it would make the reality of it go away. Although it is nice to be recognised in a literary sense, one of the most gratifying things that had come out of writing the book was receiving a telephone call from Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, founder of Project Alert on ‘Violence Against Women.’ She was in the middle of reading the book and wanted to know ‘how I knew.’ That phrase ‘How do you know?’ is something I have heard many times from people who have read it – people who have suffered domestic violence.
There has also been some attention for the book from church folk who are very uncomfortable with the realities exposed in the book. It’s almost like ‘It’s oK for domestic violence to happen in church, but it’s not okay for people to talk about it.’ I believe this is at the core of the mind-set that led to the demise of Titi Arowolo. It is the same mind-set that will lead to the unnecessary deaths of many women. One of the truly mind-blowing, utterly ridiculous premises that some people operate under is “My God is a big God and He will not allow my abusive husband to kill me.” I find that to be arrogant and mind-numbingly stupid – an abuse of faith, if you like. It has nothing to do with God. If a man has already landed you in hospital with a broken jaw, or ribs – surely you would know that he can kill you and it’s not going to change the size or power of God? And you will not be receiving brownie points in heaven, for choosing to die at the hands of an abusive man; that is, if you do make it to heaven.
I think that religion and culture are the two hardest things to question. You find that people don’t know what loyalty means, until those two elements are called into question. There’s also the tragedy that some folks are completely ignorant of ‘where culture stops and religion starts.’ I have even had pastors who are abusing their wives, attempt to justify their behaviour by claiming that “domestic violence is a natural part of an African marriage.” On the other hand, I have had messages from women who are married to abusive church men, begging for help. They have actually had it drummed into them that domestic violence is the will of God for them – these words were actually used by one woman who was truly confused about her situation. It blew my mind to even begin to imagine just what she had been subjected to, to make her come to the point where she had bought into a truly warped view of God. Being in a position where women who have never met me can say: “You wrote my life story,” is a bitter-sweet victory – because it validates the working of my imagination, in a way. So, it has been quite an experience so far.
Bookshelf: What doors have your book opened up to you that may otherwise have remained closed?
Nnani: Co-presenting a radio series on domestic violence – I went into a radio station to promote Forever There For You and was told later that a former BBC correspondent was listening and he asked the presenter to get me back into the studio. I was then offered my own radio show, as well as the opportunity to co-present a short series on domestic violence. It was a four-week gig that was holistic in nature, in terms of the fact that we didn’t just discuss the incidence of domestic violence. There was also focus on triggers, mind-sets, prevention and cures. I felt like it was a massive coup partly because of the involvements of individuals like Muzvare Betty Makoni and organisations such as Men Against Violence.
Another highlight has been winning a literary award, which lends even more credence to my voice and pushes people to wonder “Who is she? Why is she talking about this?” I am usually amused when people try to imagine me as one of the characters in my novel. In a way, it is a validation because it means the writing is so real that people think, “It has to be her life story.”
Bookshelf: So what should Nigerian readers and the world expect from you any time soon?
Nnani: My next novel is scheduled to be released in the last quarter of this year. Nigerians and the world should expect an enigma.