Racism pushed me to succeed – Nnedi Okorafor

bookshelf: What’s the essential trait you have as a writer?Nnnedi Okorafor: The ability to relinquish control and submit to a story when required. There are times when a story or character is going in a direction different from my own personal beliefs (and I have very strong beliefs). During these times, I have to step […]

bookshelf: What’s the essential trait you have as a writer?
Nnnedi Okorafor: The ability to relinquish control and submit to a story when required. There are times when a story or character is going in a direction different from my own personal beliefs (and I have very strong beliefs). During these times, I have to step away from my ego and my needs in order to let the story happen the way it should. I did this a lot when I wrote ‘Who Fears Death’. The main character believed in a lot of things that were different from my own beliefs. I had to really embrace the story for it to be what it was meant to be, as opposed to my own diatribe as story.
Bookshelf: Most of your writing could be tagged as speculative. What draws you in that direction?
Okorafor: I try not to label myself. I write what comes to me. I’ve written fantasy, horror, science fiction, satire, suspense, stories with no fantastical or science fiction elements at all, screenplays, scripts for the theater, scholarly essays, journalistic pieces…I’ve written everything but poetry. Call it my muse, my chi, or that ancestor whispering in my ear, it all comes from the same source and I refuse to be pigeonholed.
As for the magical or mystical elements in my work, I see the world as a magical, mystical place and this manifest strongly in my stories.
Bookshelf: You have written many books. What do you hope readers would experience by reading your books?
Okorafor: I hope that their worlds are broadened after reading my work. I hope they are able to imagine more possibilities. For example, I hope they can imagine different types of people, the fluidity and lividness of culture, that women and girls are capable of doing so much more. I hope that readers come away thinking, considering and wondering about life, death, what’s in between, what’s after, what’s before and who or what inspires it all. And I hope readers have a lot of fun.
Bookshelf: There is a blend of cultures in stories you tell. How do you get over the mix and still get around passing a balanced message?
Okorafor: Most cultures are a blend of other previous cultures, so that’s just reality. When I tell stories, I don’t set out to give a message. If there is a message, it comes through on its own.
Bookshelf: Are your stories borne of personal experience or out of day dreams?
Okorafor: Most of my stories stem from personal experience, emotion, energy or observation. Very few, if any, are from daydreams. 
Bookshelf: Some of your works tackle racism. Have you ever had to deal with it growing up?
Okorafor: Many of my stories deal with racism. I’m American and that is an issue I’ve had to live with up close and personal. When I was seven, my parents (my father was finishing his degree in Medicine, my mother her PhD in Health Administration) chose to move the family to a Chicago suburb called South Holland, IL. On the surface, this suburb looked like a dream. A nice up-and-coming town full of middle-class Americans. It turned out that we were the first black family to move there. It was the 80s but living there was like living in the 60s.
My siblings and I had to deal with being called “nigger” by strangers passing by on the street, at school by teachers and classmates. People sent our family hate mail. They threw paint in our swimming pool. It was an ugly place. My parents were fighters and knew racism well. They’d always pushed forward and still achieved what they wanted to achieve, regardless. They expected the same from us and we just dealt with it.
Also, during these times, our parents started taking us to Nigeria. Those trips showed us a country full of black people and introduced us to family. Those trips also told us though born and raised in the United States, Nigeria was our real home and it contained our true culture. Strong parents and a sense of being Nigerian gave us the weapons to fight America’s racism.
Bookshelf: Your fiction is closely connected with your heritage…
Okorafor: Those many trips to Nigeria, where we’d first stay in Abuja or Lagos hotels and then trek to my parents’ villages in Imo State had a very strong impact on me. Those trips were full of emotion, knowledge and drama. So it’s no surprise that when I finally started to write stories at the age of 20, they were all set in Nigeria. It was not something I did on purpose, it just happened.
Bookshelf: As a writer, how have you dealt with criticism?
Okorafor: Criticism always stings, even when it comes from someone who is completely irrational, ignorant or clearly just being a hater. But a significant part of whom I am as a writer comes from listening to good criticism and even bad criticism. It keeps you on your toes. Critics will see and harp on things that I don’t really care about or that I don’t notice. A part of me is always open to criticism and this is why it always hurts. I will always consider what is said. This comes in handy during the editing process.
If a writer is closed to the criticism of an editor, that writer loses out. I don’t always agree with and do what my editor says, that’s not the point. It’s the considering and what the considering does to the way I see things. Creating art is not a one-way street. It is not just the artist creating and then sharing with consumers. It’s more of a give and take. We don’t live in vacuums. Everything is connected.
Bookshelf: What’s the most hurtful thing someone has ever said about your book in a review?
Okorafor: One reviewer of ‘Who Fears Death’ compared it to the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants because it has a group of female characters who travel together. I wasn’t hurt by this, but I was pretty annoyed with the reviewer’s issue with reading about a group of young women.
Bookshelf: As an African woman, how easy has it been for you in this profession?
Okorafor: There were certain obstacles, but they were expected and I was ready to work through, around or destroy them.
Bookshelf: Do you think women are getting appropriate encouragement in the literary world?
Okorafor: Yes and no. Yes, now our stories and works are loved. I think in the past, our stories were not taken seriously or treated as significant. When I was working on my PhD, I recall reading an essay that referred to African women’s literature as “kitchen literature”.
However, African female authors have to fight traditions that discourage them from pursuing their art. I think African women are still discouraged from aggressively pursuing their art through the imposition of outdated ideas of motherhood and wifedom. I think many talented artists or would-be artists are told that they are selfish, have misplaced priorities, and the ticking of their biological clocks are much louder than the demands of their muses. These are some of the challenges I believe most African women who manage to pursue their arts have to face at one time or another.
Bookshelf: Then there are the awards. Which one is the most memorable one?
Okorafor: The most memorable award I’ve won is the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature. This award remains special to me because it was the first time that I felt recognized as a writer by Nigerians. Previously, most of my relatives saw writing for me as a hobby; after winning the award, I became “the writer”. Also, when I flew to Nigeria for the award ceremony, I had no idea that I’d won. It hadn’t crossed my mind. I was just glad to get a chance to return to Nigeria (though, I’d coincidentally been scheduled to return two weeks later). I will never forget that moment when they called my name and I was ushered toward the stage where the great Wole Soyinka himself stood to present me with my Golden Pen. Wow. It was a beautiful moment and it was a validation that I really needed.
Bookshelf: You’ve done some work for Disney. What can you spill on that?
Okorafor: I wrote a book in the Disney Fairies series called Iridessa and the Secret of the Nevermine. First, I was asked to write a summary. They had me read several of the other chapter books and watch all the Disney Fairy films, so that I knew the world of the fairies. Then my Disney editors okayed my summary. Then over two years, I wrote draft after draft of the manuscript and then worked closely with two Disney editors (for example, I had a dragon frog in the story. They both thought my smoke-belching frog was too dangerous for the readers, so I had to tone it down). When it was finished, the layout was done and the book was illustrated. The book was finished. And that’s when things just stopped. To this day, I have no idea why they never released it. The book is 100% complete, I was paid quite well for it and fans were anxiously waiting for it. It’s a mystery.
Bookshelf: What, in your view, is the hardest part about writing a novel: The beginning, middle or end?
Okorafor: I don’t write in a linear fashion. I might start with the middle, and then jump to the end, then the beginning, etc. I string it all in a linear order when I’m done.  I also write in edits, so I will write a draft and then edit it fifty, sixty times. Thus, no part of the first draft is hard. I don’t mind if it’s a mess, because I know I’ll edit.
Bookshelf: What inspired the book ‘What Sunny Saw in the Flames’?
Okorafor: Meeting a young strong-willed Igbo girl named Sandra who liked to talk, giggle and happened to be albino. Also, I wanted to write a story that featured Nigerian children going on adventures and using magic.
Bookshelf: What are you working on now?
Okorafor: ‘Akata Witch: Part 2’, which is called ‘Breaking Kola’, a book called ‘Remote Control’ and brainstorming for a book called ‘Shologo’. I’m also working on the screenplay for the ‘Who Fears Death’ movie.