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 all resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental.
Click here to read my piece on the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop
Is Nigeria moving toward a political Spring? On the national
congress of the Dutch Labour Party this weekend I will speak about recent developments in Africa's most populous country. A nationwide protest movement arose after the government removed the subsidy on fuel on January 1, causing prices to almost triple from one day to the next. The protests are about much more than the price for a litre at the filling station though. Political movements in other countries will also be discussed in the debate at the congress. Member of Parliament
Jacques Monasch will talk of Russia and representative of the Dutch NGO HIVOS
Marcel van der Heijden of Syria. What are the differences and similarities between those popular movements and what could we learn from them?
Sunday 22 January, 13.15, Brabanthallen, Den Bosch, in the foyer
I had felt the lecture coming on for a couple of weeks now, after following with growing amazement the misinformation online on current affairs in Nigeria. In times like these (talking about Naija in particular) responsible (civic) journalism is a must. Pouring oil into the fire is too easy. That is why I put on my academic hat - coming from a family of teachers, I couldn't help it - for a class of civic journalism on my Twitter account
@femkevanzeijl. It can still be found under
#civicjournalism, but as tweets expire quicker than an opened carton of milk, I put it on this blog too. Called the impromptu lecture 'How to Recognize a Trustworthy Source' - or rather: 'How to Recognize the Ones That Are Not'. It is simple, really.
Just follow these 10 rules:(more)
'Was he just saying Africans were stupid? Of course we knew.' South-African singer
Boomtown Gundane has always been irritated by the song
Do They Know it's Christmas. Mid eighties this single raised millions of pounds for the relief of the famine in Ethiopia. The Bob Geldof project set off the vogue for celebrities to get into development aid. After 28 years there finally is an African answer to the Band Aid song. The single is appropriately called
Yes we do and is said to have been
launched in Cape Town this month. The proceeds will go towards teaching discipline, literacy and contraception at British schools. Don't go looking for the mp3 though. The song does not exist. Nor does the outspoken singer Gundane. It is a hoax. A nice one, that many fell into. Apparently there is a need for an answer to that Geldof song. Waiting for an African group to jump on the bandwagon and make it.
We'd talked about it a lot, and finally she decided to go through with it. She asked me to be there and report 'to show other women it can be done.' My friend from Burkina Faso, circumcised when she was a little girl, wanted to regain what was taken from her. Together we went to the clinic in Ouagadougou, where she had reconstructive surgery that gave her back her clitoris. The procedure did not even last half an hour. Preparation and recovery of course took a lot longer and comprised many sometimes hilarious conversations about sexuality, orgasms and masturbation. My report about it will be published in
the next issue of MS Magazine.
To see the video, click 'more'.(more)
A bit early I admit, these year's resolutions. But then migrating is a big move and one cannot start preparing early enough. For the Nigerian website Nigerianstalk.org I wrote a blog on what I will and will not do once I have moved to Lagos, the buzzing economic capital of Nigeria. Obviously I did not get it everything in - I did not even start about mastering driving in Lagos traffic because I fear this is an entire blog in itself - but this is a beginning. And yes, feel free to remind me of this piece by the end of 2013 to see how I'm doing.
10 Things to Do Once I Have Moved to Lagos
'All journalists have the same subjects on their pads when they arrive in Eastern Congo: rape, gorillas and child soldiers.' I quoted this observation of a friend living in Bukavu in my book Gin-tonic & Cholera. He wasn't far off. I also covered the widespread sexual violence in Congo and like many journalists had visited the famous Panzi hospital in this city where the victims are treated. Their suffering is hardly describable and it is a good thing that the cry for justice for these victims has become an international one. But the worldwide attention for this aspect of the problem has its side effects, as Dutch filmmakers Femke and Ilse van Velzen show in their latest documentary
Justice for Sale. They follow the case of Congolese Masamba, accused of rape. Their film poses the question what a call for justice means in a country where justice can be bought.
Remembered why I've always stayed away from showbiz journalism. No patience for celebrities. Now I'm working in Lagos on a report on the Nigerian film industry and I have no choice but to try and get it touch with them. This acquires some strategic planning. Someone's mobile phone number does not do the trick: as a rule important people – and those who feel they are – do not pick up their phones when they don't know the number of the caller. So it is paramount to find a friend of said big shot to make first contact from their phone. Although sometimes a text message with your foreign name might raise some interest. Thus the bigger part of my time I spend concocting phone strategies.
(more)
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 all resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental.
Is Nigeria moving toward a political Spring? On the national congress of the Dutch Labour Party this weekend I will speak about recent developments in Africa's most populous country. A nationwide protest movement arose after the government removed the subsidy on fuel on January 1, causing prices to almost triple from one day to the next. The protests are about much more than the price for a litre at the filling station though. Political movements in other countries will also be discussed in the debate at the congress. Member of Parliament Jacques Monasch will talk of Russia and representative of the Dutch NGO HIVOS Marcel van der Heijden of Syria. What are the differences and similarities between those popular movements and what could we learn from them?
I had felt the lecture coming on for a couple of weeks now, after following with growing amazement the misinformation online on current affairs in Nigeria. In times like these (talking about Naija in particular) responsible (civic) journalism is a must. Pouring oil into the fire is too easy. That is why I put on my academic hat - coming from a family of teachers, I couldn't help it - for a class of civic journalism on my Twitter account @femkevanzeijl. It can still be found under #civicjournalism, but as tweets expire quicker than an opened carton of milk, I put it on this blog too. Called the impromptu lecture 'How to Recognize a Trustworthy Source' - or rather: 'How to Recognize the Ones That Are Not'. It is simple, really.
'Was he just saying Africans were stupid? Of course we knew.' South-African singer Boomtown Gundane has always been irritated by the song Do They Know it's Christmas. Mid eighties this single raised millions of pounds for the relief of the famine in Ethiopia. The Bob Geldof project set off the vogue for celebrities to get into development aid. After 28 years there finally is an African answer to the Band Aid song. The single is appropriately called Yes we do and is said to have been launched in Cape Town this month. The proceeds will go towards teaching discipline, literacy and contraception at British schools. Don't go looking for the mp3 though. The song does not exist. Nor does the outspoken singer Gundane. It is a hoax. A nice one, that many fell into. Apparently there is a need for an answer to that Geldof song. Waiting for an African group to jump on the bandwagon and make it.
We'd talked about it a lot, and finally she decided to go through with it. She asked me to be there and report 'to show other women it can be done.' My friend from Burkina Faso, circumcised when she was a little girl, wanted to regain what was taken from her. Together we went to the clinic in Ouagadougou, where she had reconstructive surgery that gave her back her clitoris. The procedure did not even last half an hour. Preparation and recovery of course took a lot longer and comprised many sometimes hilarious conversations about sexuality, orgasms and masturbation. My report about it will be published in the next issue of MS Magazine.
A bit early I admit, these year's resolutions. But then migrating is a big move and one cannot start preparing early enough. For the Nigerian website Nigerianstalk.org I wrote a blog on what I will and will not do once I have moved to Lagos, the buzzing economic capital of Nigeria. Obviously I did not get it everything in - I did not even start about mastering driving in Lagos traffic because I fear this is an entire blog in itself - but this is a beginning. And yes, feel free to remind me of this piece by the end of 2013 to see how I'm doing.
'All journalists have the same subjects on their pads when they arrive in Eastern Congo: rape, gorillas and child soldiers.' I quoted this observation of a friend living in Bukavu in my book Gin-tonic & Cholera. He wasn't far off. I also covered the widespread sexual violence in Congo and like many journalists had visited the famous Panzi hospital in this city where the victims are treated. Their suffering is hardly describable and it is a good thing that the cry for justice for these victims has become an international one. But the worldwide attention for this aspect of the problem has its side effects, as Dutch filmmakers Femke and Ilse van Velzen show in their latest documentary Justice for Sale. They follow the case of Congolese Masamba, accused of rape. Their film poses the question what a call for justice means in a country where justice can be bought.
Remembered why I've always stayed away from showbiz journalism. No patience for celebrities. Now I'm working in Lagos on a report on the Nigerian film industry and I have no choice but to try and get it touch with them. This acquires some strategic planning. Someone's mobile phone number does not do the trick: as a rule important people – and those who feel they are – do not pick up their phones when they don't know the number of the caller. So it is paramount to find a friend of said big shot to make first contact from their phone. Although sometimes a text message with your foreign name might raise some interest. Thus the bigger part of my time I spend concocting phone strategies.
