When social justice advocate and author of ‘Decolonizing Human Trafficking’, Oyinkansola Wumkes, writes about human trafficking, she is intentional with her choice of language and imagery: ‘I try my best to avoid reducing survivors to mere flesh, stripping them of their personhood and making them into mere objects of violent and sexual impulses.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
I owe my appreciation for literature to my mum. She worked in a bank and was away from home for most of the day when my siblings and I were in elementary school, but she made sure to never leave us idle. She bought stacks of books at a time for each of our reading levels and made us read them and narrate the stories to her. My first encounter with reading and getting lost in stories was with Enid Blyton novels. I must have read all the Famous Five and Secret Seven books and remember getting lost in the wide range of fictional genres she produced, from mystery to fairy tales, circus stories, and beyond. I also read a lot of Roald Dahl books, with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory being an all-time favourite.
My first encounter with a more ‘serious’ fictional text was a book called Basket of Flowers by Christoph Von Schmid. I must have been eleven years old at the time. Set in Germany over a century ago, it is the story of a 15-year-old girl and her father who faced great persecution and eventually,
Every year, The Republic publishes the most ambitious writing focused on Africa, from news and analysis to long-form features.
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