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Ghanaian writer and author of The Hundred Wells of Salaga, Ayesha Harruna Attah, says she was inspired to write her latest novel during the COVID-19 pandemic: ‘The inspiration for Zainab Takes New York came from being stuck indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ghanaian writer and author of The Hundred Wells of Salaga, Ayesha Harruna Attah, says she was inspired to write her latest novel during the COVID-19 pandemic: ‘The inspiration for Zainab Takes New York came from being stuck indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the uncertainty of those first months of the pandemic, I thought to myself: write what you’ve always wanted to write—and that turned out to be a romantic comedy.’
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 read anything I could get my hands on! My parents had a magazine called Imagine, and I would read it from cover to cover. Also, my grandmother ran a nursery school, and I spent my summer holidays devouring the books in her library. I was the library prefect in primary school. After tidying the shelves, I was spoilt for choice for books to read. I loved Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club series and anything by Roald Dahl. In high school, my friends and I exchanged books by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, and Jude Deveraux, and our library introduced me to Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. My mother and aunt were big readers, too, and it was through them that I read books like Barbara Kingslover’s The Poisonwood Bible.
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About the Author
is a Senegal-based Ghanaian author who has published five novels: Harmattan Rain (2009), Saturday’s Shadows (2015), The Hundred Wells of Salaga (2018), The Deep Blue Between (2020) and Zainab Takes New York (2022). She was a finalist in the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, long-listed for the Prix Les Afriques, and shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.
Nigerian novelist, poet and author of Graceland, Chris Abani, does not believe ‘Nigerian literature’ exists as a category: ‘It is a common misconception that there is a fixed category that can be read as essentially “Nigerian literature”. Nigeria has 500 nations, 500 languages and about 2,000 dialects. While culture and language can overlap, the level of diversity is such that Nigerian literature cannot be easily narrowed down.’
For the co-founder and publishing director, of Cassava Republic Press, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, it is telling that African literature is often pronounced dead in recent years, when more women and queer voices are becoming more prominent: ‘The loudest obituary writers about African literature tend to be men. These elegies seem to come from a tacit sense of personal or generational displacement rather than from the actual state of the field.’
Nigerian poet, novelist and author of Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted, Ben Okri, argues that Nigerian literature doesn’t always have to be about Nigeria: ‘Nigerian literature limits itself to Nigeria and then limits even the ways in which the country can be written about. What we want is a vast literature, a great literature…that speaks to all humanity.’
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