Why I write about topical issues – Helon Habila

Helon Habila is a creative writing professor at George Mason University, United States of America. He is the author of ‘Waiting for an Angel’, ‘Measuring Time’, ‘Oil on Water’, ‘The Chibok Girls’, and most recently ‘Travelers’ weaved from interviews with migrants. In this interview with Weekend Magazine, he talks about what triggers his writing, his […]

Helon Habila is a creative writing professor at George Mason University, United States of America. He is the author of ‘Waiting for an Angel’, ‘Measuring Time’, ‘Oil on Water’, ‘The Chibok Girls’, and most recently ‘Travelers’ weaved from interviews with migrants. In this interview with Weekend Magazine, he talks about what triggers his writing, his latest work, lecturing in America, and more. Excerpts:

Weekend Magazine: Why did you focus your latest novel, ‘Travelers’, on migration?

Helon Habila: I did for a number of reasons. One is that it’s a topical issue and I like dealing with such matters. My last novel was ‘Oil on Water’ and my last nonfiction was on Boko Haram. So, I like writing about topical issues because I think they are so relevant. You can gauge the pulse of the society in which you live by dealing with such issues. Then you go beyond and in-depth, to look at the characters and the sociopolitical and literary implications of these topical subject matters. So I like to approach my stories that way. I start from the topical and go deeper. I make people see what they cannot see because of the topicality. For instance, with ‘Travellers’, I was in Germany for one year to write a book. When I was there in 2013, there was an accident. A boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea and about 300 migrants died. A newspaper company in Germany wanted me to write something about it as an African writer because most of those in the boat were Africans. I knew about African migrants but this was my first contact with that subject and I had to interview a lot of migrants for the article I was writing. That was when I realized there were so many stories and we only see the tip of the iceberg in the newspapers. This is understandable because they don’t really have time to go into the details. As I talked to the people, I realized I wanted to say more. I wanted to see them as they see themselves, and I also wanted the readers to see them as they see themselves. They are not just statistics or migrants, they are also human beings. So, that is how I stumbled upon the subject matter of ‘Travelers’.

WM: Did you struggle with the decision to place the stories you gathered into a nonfictional or fictional work?

Habila: No, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to capture their voices just the way they (migrants) told me the story, and I wanted to maintain the integrity of the narrative. I didn’t want to change too much. But of course, I changed a lot to make it the way it is now. I realize all the time that I am a storyteller. In fiction, you have more latitude to play with your characters, to re-imagine them and make your readers see them in totality and not just as travelers. I call them travelers instead of migrants because I didn’t want to predispose the reader. Not all the characters in the book are migrants. The main character coming from America is not a migrant. His wife is also not a migrant. But in a way, they are traveling.

I wanted a convenient character who would traverse the stories of all the other characters. It is actually very challenging structurally. Like how do I turn this nonfiction and structure it into an interesting story with a plot and setting, and because it is set in different countries, in Germany, Switzerland, and London, to mention a few, I had to make a character that would easily and convincingly move between all the stories. I also wanted him to be a Nigerian because it is a Nigerian novel, even though this is my first book that is not set in Nigeria. So I wanted it to be grounded in the Nigerian view. That is why I chose that graduate student who is doing his PhD in America and marries the American woman who is an artist. She has the fellowship in Germany and they come together.

WM: You also went for a fellowship in Germany…

Habila: Yes. I went there to write a novel but I ended up writing a different one. I didn’t know I would write ‘Travelers’ when I went to Germany. Now, I am trying to finish the book I initially went to Germany to write. When I started ‘Travelers’ in 2013, 2014, I had to stop to do the Boko Haram book before returning to it. It took me about five years to write ‘Travelers’ because I was researching. I also wanted the people I interviewed to look at the draft of the story and tell me what they think because I didn’t want to misrepresent them or be disrespectful to their stories. So, I sent them the early draft, they read and were happy with it. That is one of the reasons I took so long.

WM: There was a couple that got separated in the story. Did you consider happier endings for the migrants?

Habila: The whole story is about separation. Separation almost becomes a metaphor for traveling. It is about losing much. First of all, they lose their homes in their country and their identity. They are trying to re-invent themselves in a new place. It is not just that family that is separated. There is the Somali character that loses his son to the Jehovah witness. It is basically about losing things. Even the marriage of the nameless Nigerian character ends up suffering. When you travel to a new place, you lose a lot. Sometimes, these things are not tangible or material. But you lose your family and your place in the world, and you have to translate yourself into this new place. It is about re-inventing yourself, translating and reconfiguring your whole life. In a way, that entails losing. The interpretation of that kind of loss is separation of family.

WM: What would you say was most challenging about writing ‘Travelers’?

Habila: The most challenging part was about converting real stories into fiction and making it interesting and entertaining for the readers. Because I am a writer, novelist and a storyteller, I want my readers to enjoy the story. I also want to keep them reading so if they enjoy it, they get to go deeper to understand what the book is trying to say. This subject matter can be depressing sometimes but I wanted to make it interesting. The tools I had to use to achieve this are my characters and language. I had to write beautifully and the description which shows you where the characters travelled to. These are the aesthetic things I had to bring to elevate the mood of the story.

WM: When you set out to write your last book, ‘The Chibok girls’, what did you set out to do differently?

Habila: Because somebody wrote about it shouldn’t stop me from writing about it. The more views we have concerning the matter the better for people to understand it because we all approach it from different perspectives based on our views of life. I am from a Northern Christian background and this issue is happening very close to my hometown in the North-east. So, it was just as if I saw myself in that story and I wanted to approach it from that angle. Somebody may have written about it from a Southerner or Northern Muslim perspective. But I wanted to understand it. I understand things I write and research. So, I went to Chibok and I met some of the girls and their mothers and I interviewed them, and they clarified a lot of things for me. Nigeria had changed so much. I left the country about seventeen years ago. When I heard about Boko Haram, it was almost as if it was about a different country and not the Gombe that I knew. I had family that were Muslims and we lived in so much harmony. But now there is so much warfare all in the name of religion. I wanted to understand it and be able to tell people that this is what is happening, and the best way I could do that was through my writing.

WM: How has relocating to the U.S. influenced your writing?

Habila: It is a dynamic thing, it is not static. I write differently now compared to how I would have if I had not left Nigeria. You change and evolve as a writer because the environment in which you live changes you. It modifies your view of the world. You now understand things. It is almost as if I can stand outside Nigeria and see myself. I get to see things from a vantage point. So, I can look at the country almost as if I am an outsider and compare it to America and other places. I have lost that immediacy with my material but I have also gained a lot. There is the frustration that you are not in your country sometimes, loneliness where you miss your friends and family. In my first five years in the U.S., I was almost paralyzed. I couldn’t think of a subject matter to write about. What would I write about? Was I supposed to write about Nigeria or America? If it was Nigeria, what do I write about? That was when I wrote ‘Oil on Water’. It happened because a film company contacted me that they wanted me to write about the kidnappings in the Niger Delta. That was what forced me to write ‘Oil on Water’. Then I got into writing again after that book. But between ‘Measuring Time’ and the rest, I wasn’t writing anything. Yes, I did the anthology of short stories, but that was not an original writing because I added people’s stories and did some curating. That is what affects you as a writer; you are separated from your material. That can be hard. But if you can endure the alienation and the trauma, fine. The perception is that you live in America so you have it easy. You have everything but there are so many traumas as well. You have to adjust to the food. Also, you are visibly different from the people there and have to make your way in the society. It is a little bit easier for me because I have my wife and children. She is Nigerian so that helps. But then you lose your friends and family, that affects your writing.

WM: You are a creative writing professor at George Mason University. What is it like teaching white students?

Habila: It’s interesting. Sometimes, I am the only black person in the room. But I am happy that I am able to introduce them to writings from Africa. I make sure that I incorporate lots of short stories and novels that they wouldn’t have come across if I wasn’t there. So, I see myself opening their perspective when it comes to understanding literature. America is the center of the world but you would be surprised at how much they don’t know about the world, especially young people who haven’t had the chance to travel. I think it is good for them as writers to experience other cultural traditions. There are a lot of literary traditions and Africa is also one of them.

WM: What is your next work about?

Habila: I don’t want to jinx it. I am superstitious that way. But it will be more interesting than the last one. The book I am working on now is the one I wanted to write before I started ‘Travelers’. I am putting finishing touches to it. So, hopefully, in about two years it should be out.