Sarah Ladipo Manyika, author of the brilliant In Dependence has been interviewed by African Writing Online. Below is a taster:
AW: As I read In Dependence, I find that there are significant issues of imperial literary history, Pan-Africanism, racism and colonialist discourse buried in the narrative. Even your characters – especially in the early stages of the book – are mired in heated discussions on these and other precocious issues. I found these discussions fascinating and in some ways I am reminded of the insurrectionary elements in Soyinka’s The Interpreters and Clark’s America, Their America. Were you perhaps striving to stimulate your readers to a higher level of awareness or is this an insightful style of delivery you are naturally drawn to?
SLM: Imperialism, Pan - Africanism, racism and colonialism are all raised in the novel because these were issues that my characters would have been discussing at the time and issues that touched them personally to one degree or another. Soyinka and J.P. Clark emerged as significant authors in the 1960s and this too is why a reader should not be surprised to find references to their works by one or more characters in the novel. I am particularly intrigued though, by your use of the word “precocious” to the extent that it’s one of the adjectives that I might use to describe Vanessa, the main female character in this novel. I find myself increasingly drawn to women characters that do not conform to what society expects. “Insurrectionary,” perhaps?
AW: And there is also the politics of the complex Nigerian state. Your portrayal of the decadence and the manner in which it affected your main characters was done in deft snatches – almost laconically. Yet there still emerged a sense of disappointment.
SLM: The other day, while reorganizing my bookshelf, I was struck by book titles. More specifically, I was struck by the collection of novels that I teach to undergraduates, and I’m sure I heard the books whispering to each other as they sat there, quietly, on the shelves. The books were: Things Fall Apart, The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Nervous Conditions, Ways of Dying, No Longer at Ease, Waiting for an Angel, Corruption, and Every Day is for the Thief. Now what struck me, and perhaps what also strikes you, is the sentiment carried in each of these titles – the undeniable element of despair, and yes, disappointment, conveyed merely by title. These titles would seem to reflect the mood of our continent and the complex, lived realities that have caused many to leave. Out of the exodus arise books with such titles as: A Life Elsewhere and Home and Exile. But there are also book titles hinting at hope, levity, and arguably, at first glance at least, nothing to do with despair of the societal sort. Take, for example, Everything Good Will Come, Nights of the Creaking Bed, African Love Stories, Fathers and Daughters. But who am I to know what these books were whispering to each other? For all I know, these books might merely have been discussing who had the better book cover, or they might have been arguing over why they were so often shelved only with other African-authored books when, for goodness sakes, why couldn’t they be mixed with books from other parts of the world?
To read the interview in full click here!
Lucy
