African Writers You Should Know: Ellen Banda-Aaku

Ellen Banda-Aaku is an award-winning Zambian writer. Her first book, Wandi’s Little Voice won the 2004 Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa (UK). Her first novel, Patchwork won the Penguin Prize for African Writing and was shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Book prize. Her outstanding achievements in literature won her the 2012 Zambia Arts Council Chairperson’s Award. She splits her time between Zambia and UK but managed to talk with me in the middle of her busy schedule.

Tell me a bit about how you started writing.

I started writing fairly late in life. With hindsight, I put this down to the fact that growing up in Zambia, Zambian writers were not visible. I had access to a lot of books at home and at school but they were not by Zambians. At school, it was a requirement to include African writers in the literature in English courses, the list consisted of writers from Nigeria, Kenya. South Africa….no Zambians. Hence, even though I enjoyed telling stories and writing essays etc. I never really thought to become a writer because one inspires to be what they see, and growing up I didn’t see Zambian women writers. Then in my thirties I moved to Ghana and I started thinking about writing a novel.  Around the same time in 2004 I came across a call by Macmillan publishers for submissions to the Macmillan Prize for African Writing. Even though the call was for children’s stories I thought to write something and submit mainly to give me some practice and I felt writing to a deadline would give me discipline I needed to complete a manuscript. I ended up winning the competition and that was the start to my writing career.

Your latest book is Madam First Lady. What is it about?

Madam First Lady is about the first lady of a fictional African country who is married to a dictator and she falls in love with a rebel leader. I started writing it before I wrote my first novel Patchwork but then I put it on hold as I was focusing on writing Sula & Ja, my YA fiction book which has been published in Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia. Last year I decided to finish it with the intention of self-publishing it. At the moment, it is only available as an e-book on Amazon but I hope to get some hard copies printed. It has been well received hence my plans to have it produced in hard copy.

What do you site as the turning point in your writing career?

Because of the way I started writing, I would say winning the Macmillan Prize was my starting and turning point. I’m not sure I would have continued as a writer if I hadn’t been successful with my first piece of writing. I was so sure it would come to nothing I didn’t tell anybody I was writing until I won the prize. Winning the Commonwealth short story competition in 2007 was a significant point in my writing career because that is when I decided to study for an MA in writing because I decided to pursue a career as a writer.

What do you think is the most difficult aspect of being a writer on the continent as opposed to being a writer in the UK?

As the world opens up due to the internet etc., I think more and more, the challenges writers face will be similar as the physical location of the writer will matter less. Having made the point, I feel in Africa countries like Zambia are lagging behind due to the lack of infrastructure (creative writing courses, literary agents, a vibrant publishing industry,  investment in writers and the creative industries, etc.) to support and develop writers.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on two projects in Zambia, a radio drama series titled Minding Shupe’s Business and a film documentary titled Aunty Rebecca. Aunty Rebecca is a about a volunteer social counsellor who is almost single-handedly working to educate communities about cervical cancer and HIV and the link between the two diseases. Zambia, despite its small population, has one of the highest cervical cancer rates in the world. By following Aunty Rebecca around the Cancer Hospital as she counsels, the documentary highlights the challenges faced in trying to bring the prevalence incidences down.

When I’m done, I plan to write another YA fictional book – hopefully before the year is up.

(NOTE: This columns first appeared in the 2 June 2017 issue of Mmegi in my column, It's All Write)

2nd Meeting of the Mahalapye Writers' Club!!!!

This Saturday is the second meeting of the Mahalapye Writers' Club. We'll be meeting at the Mahalapye Brigades (formerly Mahalapye Development Trust) along the Shoshong Road opposite Tamocha Primary School at 2 pm.

Venue: Mahalapye Brigades along the Shoshong Road
Time: 2 pm
Date: Saturday 20th May

See you there!! 
(any questions you can email me at lakubuitsile@gmail.com or phone 71327525)

Kingsmead Book Fair- Johannesburg!

Next Saturday the 13th of May I'll be in Johannesburg for the Kingsmead Book Fair!
The first event will be about The Scattering with Yewande Omotoso:

Indomitable Spirits (at the Music Centre)
Yewande Omotoso (The Woman Next Door), introduces three unforgettable books about courage and the will to survive at all costs, with Sean Christie (Under Nelson Mandela Boulevard), Lauri Kubuitsile (The Scattering) and Unathi Magubeni (Nwelezelanga: The Star Child).

Later in the day I'll be with Ros Haden talking teen romance! We'll be in the Teen Studio 2 at 15:00. I'll be talking about my two Aunt Lulu books: Signed, Hopelessly in Love and Signed, the Secret Keeper.

Here is the complete programme. I hope to see everybody there!

Literary Crossroads Goethe-Institut Windhoek

On the Monday after Easter I am off to Windhoek Namibia to be part of the Goethe-Institut's Literary Crossroads. The programme sets out to connect writers around Africa for interesting discussions around those places where their writing crosses paths. The main event will be a panel discussion between me (discussing my most recent historical fiction writing) and Namibian author and publisher Jane Katjavivi. I read Jane's wonderful memoir, Undisciplined Heart (Modjaji Books) when it came out in 2010. Below is her bio:

  Undisciplined Heart: When Jane Katjavivi becomes involved in London in support of change in Southern Africa, she meets and marries a Namibian activist in exile. Moving with him to Namibia at the time of Independence in 1990, she faces a new life in a starkly beautiful country.

She starts to publish Namibian writing and opens a bookshop. In Windhoek she develops friendships with a group of strong, independent women, who have also come from other countries, and are engaged in different ways to overcome the divisions of the past. Over coffee, drinks and food, they support each other through times of happiness and sadness, through juggling careers and family, and through illness and death.

When her husband is made Ambassador to the Benelux countries and the European Union, and later Berlin, Jane has to build a new identity as the wife of an ambassador, and come to terms with her own ill-health without her friends around her to support her. 

I'll be in Windhoek for the entire week and will be doing a few other things as well. Below find my schedule if you will be in Windhoek and would like to attend or listen (for the radio interviews). 

TUESDAY 18 April

 10:00 radio interview on NBC Radio- German station with Ralf Boll

15:45 radio  interview at 1 FM

 19:00 Panel discussion Literary Crossroads with author and publisher Jane Katjavivi, moderated by Namibian writer, Sylvia Schlettwien

Venue: Library Goethe Institute Windhoek

WEDNESDAY 19 April

14:00-16:30

Getting your Manuscript Ready: Looking Over Lauri Kubuitsile’s shoulder as she writes a Novel

Venue: Library Goethe Institut Windhoek

THURSDAY 20 April

14:00 - 16:30

The Ins and Outs of Getting Your Work Published and Other Information no-one will Ever Give you

Venue: Library Goethe Institut Windhoek

 

University of Botswana to discuss The Scattering!!

 University of Botswana English lecturer Mr Wazha Lopang will present his academic paper titled "Displacement and sexuality in Lauri Kubuitsile's The Scattering".

Date: Friday 7th April
Time: 9-10 am
Venue: Block 239/ room   003
Everyone is welcome!

I'm so honoured by this! I hope people will manage to attend.

The Night of the Earthquake in Botswana!

Last night at about 7:40 pm,  we had a magnitude 6.5 earthquake in Botswana. Luckily it occurred in a remote area in the Kgalagadi Desert, nearly due west from Mahalapye about 178 km, near to the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve. The depth of the earthquake is different from varying reports from 22 km down to 11 km. So far it appears that there are no reports of damage or injuries. Someone told me that since the earthquake was quite deep, the damage on the surface is less even though it was quite a strong earthquake.

I have never been in an earthquake before. Many years ago, perhaps about 15 or 16, in Mahalapye we had a very slight earth tremor that at the time I thought was the train passing. What happened last night was completely different.

I was at home alone and the house started shaking. At first I was confused about what was happening. There was a rumbling sound, as if a very big truck was passing. Then I fell to the floor and crawled to the door. I couldn't find the keys to the burglar gate. All of this time the house was shaking, the windows rattling. I found the keys and got outside and still the shaking continued. I have no idea how long it lasted. I've read varying reports from 50 seconds to 6 minutes. It seemed like forever.

People were outside of their houses talking loudly, but there didn't seem to be any damage at all. This morning I walked around my house checking more carefully and there is no damage. It was scary last night, especially when they said that we should expect aftershocks, though in the end I didn't feel any. I think we were all very lucky though, we could be telling a very sad story this morning otherwise. 

North American Rights for The Scattering Sold!!

Good news! Good News! From the Umuzi Facebook page:

  "Waveland Press have acquired North American rights to Lauri Kubuitsile’s moving historical novel, The Scattering.
Beautifully rendered, The Scattering was also recently listed as a Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction recommendation.
Kubuitsile’s novel takes as its backdrop two colonial wars in southern Africa – South-West Africa’s Herero genocide and South Africa’s Second Anglo-Boer War – and traces the fates of two remarkable women whose paths cross after each has suffered the devastation and dislocation of war. Moving and intimate, Kubuitsile’s novel provides a fascinating glimpse into the indomitability of the human spirit."

Yes, Waveland Press in the United States have bought the North American rights to The Scattering. Here is their website. Waveland Press publishes quite a few African novels including many of Bessie Head's books so it is quite an honour for me. Let's cross fingers the book does as well that side as it has this side.
 

Mahalapye Writers' Club

MAHALAPYE

WRITERS’

CLUB

All writers or people interested in writing are invited to attend the first meeting of Mahalapye Writers’ Club. After this we will be meeting the second Saturday of each month, same venue, same time.

Date: Saturday 8 April 2017

Time: 2 pm

Venue: Mahalapye Brigade

 (Mahalapye Development Trust) opposite Tamocha PS along the Shoshong Rd

Bring a 500 word sample of your writing to share, pen and paper, and what you’re currently reading.

See you there!!

Any queries contact Lauri Kubuitsile at lakubuitsile@gmail.com

The Walter Scott Prize Recommends The Scattering!

The UK based Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has included The Scattering on its twenty book list of recommended novels.

The news on their website says:
    "For the first time, and to co-incide with the Longlist announcement, the Prize is releasing a further list of 20 books recommended by the Walter Scott Prize Academy from this year’s entries. They include newly published historical novels from Australia, Canada and Africa as well as some unmissable novels from the UK. We’ll be exploring all these books further in the weeks and months to come.  Keep watching!"

Further on their website is more about this prestigous prize.

Honouring the achievements of the founding father of the historical novel, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world. With a total value of £30,000, it is unique for rewarding writing of exceptional quality which is set in the past.
Sponsored by Sir Walter Scott’s distant kinsmen the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, the Prize celebrates quality, innovation and longevity of writing in the English language, and is open to books first published in the previous year in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth. Reflecting the subtitle ‘Sixty Years Since’ of Scott’s most famous work Waverley, the majority of the storyline must have taken place at least 60 years ago.
The Prize was founded in 2010, and is awarded at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland, in June every year. The winner receives £25,000 and shortlisted authors each receive £1000.

Though not on the longlist, I'm quite proud that my first historical novel has been given a nod by such  an important prize.