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Author of The World Was In Our Hands: Voices from the Boko Haram Conflict, Chitra Nagarajan, decided to write a book on the conflict to shift narratives that tended to focus on particular stories—such as the abduction of the Chibok girls: ‘I set out to write a non-fiction book about the Boko Haram c
Author of The World Was In Our Hands: Voices from the Boko Haram Conflict, Chitra Nagarajan, decided to write a book on the conflict to shift narratives that tended to focus on particular stories—such as the abduction of the Chibok girls: ‘I set out to write a non-fiction book about the Boko Haram conflict but decided put together this collection of narratives instead. I felt these stories would reveal the truth of what is happening in a different (perhaps more compelling!) way.’
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?
When I was a child, my two key sources of stories were local libraries and the people around me. I received special permission to borrow adult books after I had made my way through the library’s children’s section, and I read anything around me—adventure stories, Amar Chitra Katha comics, children’s horror, non-fiction and authors I was most definitely too young to read! Yet, some of the best stories of my childhood had nothing to do with the written word. They were told by my parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents and cousins. In the evenings, when power was out, we would gather and take turns to tell stories—local legends of ghosts and other supernatural beings, folk myths, family and ancestral tales, religious sagas and even stories that were invented on the spot as the storyteller was going along. And, of course, there was no better way to get us kids into bed than to tell us a story—or three—as we fell asleep.
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About the Author
is an activist, researcher and writer who works to analyze conflict, build peace and promote and protect human rights, particularly those of women, girls and other marginalized groups. Her books, both published by Cassava Republic Press, are She Called Me Woman: Nigeria’s Queer Women Speak and The World Was In Our Hands: Voices from the Boko Haram Conflict.
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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