While packing to leave for Lagos, Nigeria, I realise I owe an explanation. An explanation to Maputo, Mozambique, my favourite city on the continent ever since I started travelling through Sub-Saharan Africa ten years ago. As several friends understandably asked me when they heard I was moving to Lagos: why not Maputo? The answer is simple: the prettiest town I've been to in Africa might be a wonderful place to have a holiday, it is not necessarily a good working environment. Maybe because it is so much fun. I am not betraying you, my dear Maputo, I am just protecting myself. And I totally love the hustling and bustling of Lagos, its energy and promise. But rest assured, Maputo, that I will be back. If only to work on my novel, that partly takes place in your acacia fringed avenues. I will always manage to squeeze you into my work in some way.
After years of journalism and two non fiction books, I am now writing a novel. Why? It started in Lagos last year at a literary writing workshop I was reporting on for
ZAM Magazine, with a remark by Nigerian writer
Chimamanda Adichie – queen of creative writing one liners. She stated to trust writers more when they write fiction than when they write non-fiction. In fiction, she said, there is less need to protect the people you are writing about. Then it dawned on me: I should cover the theme of cross cultural relationships in fiction! The subject had been marinating in my brain ever since I first set foot in Africa - Mozambique to be exact - ten years ago, and saw what was happening between Western women and African men. Over the years I've witnessed so many romances, tragedies and minor an major incidents I could write an entire library's worth. Stories of love, power, gender, betrayal, misunderstandings, culture clashes and money. But I never wanted to betray the trust of all the people involved, so I always kept the idea in the fridge. Until Adichie's observation. That is how the main characters of my first novel came into existence: Daniel, half Zimbabwean, half Mozambican, and Portuguese Cristina. And any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental.
Click here to read my piece on the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop
While packing to leave for Lagos, Nigeria, I realise I owe an explanation. An explanation to Maputo, Mozambique, my favourite city on the continent ever since I started travelling through Sub-Saharan Africa ten years ago. As several friends understandably asked me when they heard I was moving to Lagos: why not Maputo? The answer is simple: the prettiest town I've been to in Africa might be a wonderful place to have a holiday, it is not necessarily a good working environment. Maybe because it is so much fun. I am not betraying you, my dear Maputo, I am just protecting myself. And I totally love the hustling and bustling of Lagos, its energy and promise. But rest assured, Maputo, that I will be back. If only to work on my novel, that partly takes place in your acacia fringed avenues. I will always manage to squeeze you into my work in some way.
After years of journalism and two non fiction books, I am now writing a novel. Why? It started in Lagos last year at a literary writing workshop I was reporting on for ZAM Magazine, with a remark by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie – queen of creative writing one liners. She stated to trust writers more when they write fiction than when they write non-fiction. In fiction, she said, there is less need to protect the people you are writing about. Then it dawned on me: I should cover the theme of cross cultural relationships in fiction! The subject had been marinating in my brain ever since I first set foot in Africa - Mozambique to be exact - ten years ago, and saw what was happening between Western women and African men. Over the years I've witnessed so many romances, tragedies and minor an major incidents I could write an entire library's worth. Stories of love, power, gender, betrayal, misunderstandings, culture clashes and money. But I never wanted to betray the trust of all the people involved, so I always kept the idea in the fridge. Until Adichie's observation. That is how the main characters of my first novel came into existence: Daniel, half Zimbabwean, half Mozambican, and Portuguese Cristina. And any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental.
