#TheYNaijaInterview: ”I have only an American passport but nobody can determine my identity for me” – Tope Folarin, Caine Prize winner

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by Wilfred Okiche

Tope Folarin is the current winner of the Caine Prize for African writing. We caught up with him via a telephone chat and got him to talk about his writing, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the meaning of the term ‘African writer’.

Enjoy excerpts from the interview.

Congratulations on your Caine Prize win

Thank you very much, I appreciate.

You said since the Caine prize, your life has gotten busier, can you tell us some of your new responsibilities?

Well, I suppose the first thing I can say is that I can now talk to people about my writing. I also have more book readings scheduled. I have done a few in South Africa and will be in Nigeria in November. You have to understand that before I was somebody who wrote after work every night but now I have a public space.

Has the win settled in full yet?

It is still settling because the turnaround is so quick. The interviews and appearances, I am not sure if I have had an opportunity to sit back and bask in it. It will take some more time I suppose but I am incredibly happy.

Your win has provoked a conversation on the definition of the term ‘African writer’. Are you comfortable with this and should we even be having this conversation at all?

I don’t know if there is such a thing as the African writer, part of that phrase seems external. I mean it is not like people in Africa are talking about the African writer. My friends talk about writing in their own individual countries, not on any continent as a whole. It is just a phrase used by people in the West but I know that you can only write what you know, from your particular context. People in Nigeria will write from Nigeria, those in the States will write about the States and that is what it is. Good writing should be about the human condition and is more important than any literary label.

You were born in the United States.

Born and raised in the US. I spent a year in Nigeria, came back to the states and have lived here ever since. I attended Georgia Moorhouse college and graduate school in Oxford university. I currently work in a financial regulatory organization as a special assistant to a senior executive.

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When did the writing start?

In graduate school actually because that was the first time I had a lot of time on my hands. In college, everyday was a test or quiz or debates. Oxford was the first time in my life that I could just step back and breathe so I just sat down and started writing.

You must feel vaidated now that all of your efforts are paying off

Absolutely. This is the first story I had ever published and it is edifying that after a year of rejection, I get all of this. I knew when I started writing my book that I was on to something but the Caine prize has given me this platform and it feels great.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recently made some comments about the Caine prize being over privileged and not exactly the arbiter of the best fiction on the continent , do you agree with her?

No, I do not. Her career actually started with the Caine prize in 2002 when she was nominated for her short story, ‘You in America’. The prize has become the platform for writers who are trying to establish themselves on an international level. I am a fan of her work but the Caine Prize is doing great things for writers and I will continue to support the prize.

But do you really think it presents the best work on the continent?

I think so. The thing about these prizes is they are subjective. Five people in the room sit and go through all the stories they are presented with and say a particular one is the best, it is the best of what they have. At lot of people who say it is not the best say so without offering alternatives. At least Ms Adichie offered her mailbox as an alternative. Again she is entitled to say so and it’s fine and again I cannot say for sure that Caine offers the best out of Africa because I have not read every single story out of Africa but out of what is submitted, then yes.

Would your writing be found in Ms Adichie’s  mailbox?

No, because I am not sending her any of my stories.

Your story ‘Miracle’ is an excerpt from a forthcoming novel isnt it?

Miracle is a chapter from a novel made up of short stories that are interlinked. Each of the chapters link and it is a semi-autobiographical novel about someone in the States with immigrant parents. I am finalising the manuscript, working title is ‘The proximity of distance’ and maybe in a year or two, it would be published.

The unnamed protagonist in ‘Miracle’ has some struggles with religion, do they mirror some of your own struggles?

Well I have certainly had mine and the struggle isn’t necessarily that of black Americans in a Nigerian church or pastors from Nigeria but doubt always reflects in our interactions with religion. ‘Miracle’ is about what has to happen for a community to survive, the kind of stories a community tells itself to survive. It is like you might criticize the policies of a government but when a foreigner is antagonising, you ask them what gives them the right because even if you are rejecting these policies, you have in some ways bought into it them. I was trying to buy into that, especially the immigrant policy in the diaspora. By virtue of my upbringing, I am attracted to what and who these people are and I wanted to capture that. Also it is a story about someone who turns to religion even when there is evidence that should put him off. He becomes a believer at the same time that the faith fails. Most importantly, he comes to it as a result of his experience.

Immigrants, religious strife, war, all that sad stuff… do you think the Caine prize perpetuates a form of single story from Africa

‘Miracle’ is different and I think that Rotimi’s story is also different. The people who organize the prize are interested in validating themselves and they do so by picking only the best story so I do not think that agenda holds water. Legitimacy comes by constantly rewarding good work. I know that publishers submit on behalf of the writers so maybe you could say that publishers only publish such stories and that may be a legitimate critique. But the judges work with the pool they are presented with. They may be biased, yes but they also want to be entertained, surprised and educated. At the end of the day a good story is all they want.

Do you think ‘Miracle’ could have won the top prize say 4, 5 years ago?

I am not sure actually. 2009 was E.C Osondu I think. This was the moment for a story like mine to win. A lot of people criticized the older stories for beeing dark and depressing but I would say even then the judges were lookinng for quality. ‘Stick fighting days’ is a great story even now and so is NoViolet Boulawayo’s winning story.

You have both Nigerian and American passports…

No, I have just an American passport

How much of a Nigerian are you then and how much American is in you?

It is an impossible question to answer. I don’t know, it is inquantifiable really. I am who I am, raised in a Nigerian household in America. Nigerian-American, I shuttle back and forth. If someone came to me and said because of my passport, I am American, I’d let them have their perspective but nobody can determine my identity for me. My characters say they exist between states and that is what I am.

Is writing something you hope to do full time?

I plan on merging my passion for writing with my passion for public policy. I write every night and during the day I do politics.

One comment

  1. Excellent…glad this came through finally. Congrats once more Topsy and wish you all the best in your writing life!!

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