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Akwaeke Emezi
&
Halimat Shode
We talked with Akwaeke Emezi about their debut novel, Freshwater, a story of spirit selves
known as ọgbanje , birthed into a child’s body. From her youth in Aba, Nigeria, to her adult
life in America, Ada merges with spirit selves within her after she faces a terrible assault.
Akwaeke Emezi spoke about their writing process, inspiration and who they had in mind
when writing.
Shode:
Emezi:
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Akwaeke Emezi | In Conversation | Granta Magazine 19/12/2018, 21)51
It comes from an Igbo proverb, ‘All freshwater comes out of the mouth of a python.’
It’s another way of saying that all life comes from the deity Ala, whose avatar is the
python.
Shode:
How would you describe your experience and process writing Freshwater?
Emezi:
Honestly? I had several emotional breakdowns while writing it. The novel is
autobiographical, so I used my life as a chronological skeleton for the story, which
meant revisiting a lot of things that were immensely painful. It was also a process of
discovery – I had no outline for Freshwater, no idea how it was going to take shape,
but it built itself as I was writing it.
Shode:
How did you learn about the ọgbanje ? Was this through your own personal
interest/discovery, or have you had any knowledge given to you by family or friends?
Emezi:
It’s a significant part of Igbo culture, which I was born and raised in.
Shode:
Do you worry about how ọgbanje and Igbo ontology in general will be interpreted by
the reader?
Emezi:
I’m painfully aware that I can’t actually control how the reader interprets the work,
no matter what kind of guidance I provide. However, it delights me when people
engage with the book as a literary work about metaphysics, because that’s very much
what I wrote, and I think it’s radical for Igbo ontology to be taken seriously in a world
that often invalidates non-Western schools of thought.
Shode:
Did you have an audience in mind? If so, what did you want these readers to
experience?
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Emezi:
I wrote the book for people like me, who have been inhabiting realities that aren’t
considered valid unless they’re pathologized in Western or religious terms as mental
illness or demonic possession. I wanted those readers to feel less alone, to know that
there are other people living in worlds like these, non-mainstream worlds, and that
our worlds are valid. I hoped it would help with the terrible isolation and depression
that often comes from having a reality you can’t share with anyone else.
Shode:
You have said elsewhere that your novel is loosely based on your own life; your
feelings and experiences of feeling disassociated and isolated. Have you found a space
in which you are accepted?
Emezi:
I’ve learnt to build a bubble around myself, one that protects me as much as it can
from the violence of being embodied in a world like this, to have people in it who are
like me, who understand how important tenderness is to staying alive.
Shode:
Emezi:
Toni Morrison, for showing me it was okay to write lush sentences. Helen Oyeyemi,
for making odd worlds and sharing them, which helped me feel like I could as well.
Fran Ross, for challenging me to shatter form. I haven’t done that as well as I know I
could, not yet.
Shode:
Which book can you always return to when you are having challenges with your own
writing?
Emezi:
When I’m a little stuck, I always go into books that remind me why I love reading
stories, why I love writing stories. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is full of those,
storied worlds to escape into. I wish my other favourite speculative fiction writers
would give me forty books in one world! I’d be ecstatic.
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Akwaeke Emezi | In Conversation | Granta Magazine 19/12/2018, 21)51
Shode:
What advice would you give to those who are just starting their writing journey?
Emezi:
The secret is really to just keep writing, over and over again. Do it as much as you
can, and read as much as you can. I think making that part of a disciplined practice
helps immensely.
Shode:
Emezi:
Daydreaming, actually. I can’t tell you how much of my work was created by telling
myself stories in my head during daydreams.
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