Lizzy Attree is a figure of importance in African writing, particular with her work as the director of the Caine Prize from 2014-2018, a director on the board of Short Story Day Africa, and as the co-founder of the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature. She spoke to Carey Baraka about her short story on Enkare Review this week, A Funeral in Kumasi, and other things in-between.
INTERVIEWER
I didn’t know you write fiction. Obviously, I am aware about the work you have done and are doing with the Caine Prize and Short Story Day Africa and the Mabati-Cornell Prize and other spaces, but your fiction is new to me. Is this something you want to do more of, writing fiction?
LIZZY ATTREE
It’s not exactly something I plan to do more of; it’s something I do while I’m doing other things. I just don’t spend much time focusing on it and wish I did. However, I remain convinced that I’m only fairly good at sketches, or short pieces, bits of dialogue and description, I can’t imagine writing a novel, for example – plot is way beyond my capabilities, unfortunately.
INTERVIEWER
When Margaret asks Lucy and Ben to come along to view the body, they refuse, saying that in their culture they would not see bodies unless they were those of close relatives. But Margaret refuses to take a no from them, eventually dragging them to the funeral. And this is just one of various instances where different cultural beliefs clash in the story. Is this something you have experienced a lot of, working on the continent? How do you handle the intricacies? Do you ever buy the whole bar drinks and hope it all pans out well in the end?
LIZZY ATTREE
I wish I could say that I regularly buy rounds for the whole bar, but I can rarely afford to do so! Hoping it all pans out well in the end is just an approach to life, and yes, that is how I try to approach things. Of course, experiencing different cultural beliefs and practices is part of travelling and learning about other people and ways of life. I hope I’m as open to that as possible and never presume to know what I’m doing or tell anyone else what to do. I think the best way to handle the intricacies is to be open to persuasion.
INTERVIEWER
One of the characters in the story is a widow, and people whisper that she is a witch who killed her husband. The cases I’ve seen and heard of women in our communities being accused of bewitching and killing their husbands mostly involve women whose husbands have died of HIV/AIDS. Was this something you were trying to address in the story?
LIZZY ATTREE
Perhaps, subconsciously, this was in play. HIV/AIDS became an abiding concern for my PhD and remains a serious interest of mine. But, no, I think the idea of women on their own being dangerous exists world wide and it’s something I have always been aware of, because of my mother’s circumstances, but also as a fairly independent woman in my own right. I think one should never believe what one is told about another person without watching and finding out for oneself. Always form your own opinion and be sensitive to the dilemmas of others, and the interests of those who purport to be telling you the truth.
INTERVIEWER
How has the experience of travelling in the continent been for you?
LIZZY ATTREE
I’ve had so many different experiences travelling in different African countries that it’s impossible to generalize really. At Ake Festival, I met armed police/army guards to the governor of Rivers State in Nigeria who have Cyprian Ekwensi quotes written on their helmets and love the writer, and watched airport officials request bribes from women who have recently travelled from ebola-afflicted Liberia, and I have attended a stranger’s funeral in Ghana as well as interviewed Charles Mungoshi, before his stroke, during a powercut in Harare at Irene Staunton’s house. I have swum in Lake Victoria at midnight and taken the bus from Cape Town to Harare via Johannesburg and made friends with orphaned jewelers, freedom fighters, anthropologists, artists and taxi drivers. I stayed in Asylum Down in Accra for a handful of pennies and the Bronte Hotel in Harare for thousands of Zim dollars, lost my heart in Bagamoyo and walked the streets of Nairobi in Eastleigh with a Somali friend and drunk Ethiopian coffee on street corners with Oromo speakers who thought I was a white devil. For me the continent has been full of challenges, love and surprises.
INTERVIEWER
I have just finished reading Ayesha Haruna Attah’s One Hundred Wells of Salaga and in her book, the specter of the Asantehene looms large over the people of Salaga (The three dominant powers are the Asantehene, the British and the German). In your story, the couple attends a funeral where the Asantehene is present, but that is not the most noteworthy part of their visit. So, I’m curious about this, how dynamics of power shift across generations.
LIZZY ATTREE
I’m curious about how dynamics of power shift too, but I can’t say I have the answer. I’ve always been far more interested in individuals and the politics of power within personal relationships than in those of royalty and men or women of status. All stories are equally valid and interesting, I think; it’s just that some have a greater affect on society as a whole, and, often, historians, journalists and politicians are more interested in the bigger picture. I think those of us interested in literary qualities tend to find the small details and minute intimacies far more compelling, or at least get very distracted by those stories!
INTERVIEWER
A man in the story, a man in a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, asks Lucy to take his picture and show it in London. If this is done, it will make him happy, and, I’m thinking, give him the joy of being transported to London. I picture him boasting to his mates that he is a big man, that “Don’t you know my picture is being showed in London?” Is this pleasure a valid pleasure, the pleasure of globalization? What does it mean that a Margaret’s cousin’s status rises when he reveals that he knows where the visitors come from?
LIZZY ATTREE
I don’t know if it’s a valid pleasure – it’s a fairly shortlived pleasure, but I think one that most people enjoy, the idea of being ‘known’, acknowledged, appreciated, being called an expert. It’s not one I am immune from, but it’s a pretty shallow way to enhance your status overall.
INTERVIEWER
What are you currently reading?
LIZZY ATTREE
I too have just finished reading One Hundred Wells of Salaga, which I really enjoyed. Before that I had the pleasure of reading Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s House of Stone. I’m on holiday at the moment, so I’m currently reading the third part of the incredible trilogy by Amitav Ghosh, Flood of Fire, and I am completely in love with every word on every page. I have saved this final part to read for a long time and I am savouring every minute.
© Enkare Review, 2018