African Writers’ Corner

A certain beauty and a certain happiness

An interview with Leila Aboulela

Mildred K Barya

2009-05-27, Issue 435

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/56579

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Leila Aboulela was born in 1964 and grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, and now divides her time between Abu Dhabi and Aberdeen. She is the author of two novels, The Translator, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and Minaret, long listed for the Orange Prize and IMPAC Dublin Award. Leila was the first winner of the Caine Prize for African writing for her short story, The Museum, included in her book of short stories Coloured Lights. Her work has been translated into nine languages.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Describe your writing journey and what inspires you to write?

LEILA ABOULELA: I started to write in 1992 when I was living in Aberdeen. I was very homesick for Khartoum and I wanted to write about a certain beauty and a certain happiness that was characteristic of a city not known for its tourist value. People around me did not know much about Sudan or about Islam, the two things that made up my identity. This increased my loneliness and feeling of exile. In addition, the anti-Arab and anti-Islam atmosphere in the media following the first Gulf War made me want to write articles and non-fiction. But I found that I was unable to do that. Whenever I tried to write, for example a letter to the editor of a newspaper, it was fiction that came out. Fiction seemed to be the only space where I could express my feelings and where my identity was welcomed.

Writing felt very natural to me, something that did not require a lot of effort. I was teaching Statistics at the time and really had to push myself to teach, and felt very tired afterwards. I liked sitting for long hours writing, I liked the feeling that I was producing work, something tangible that could last and reach a lot of people. It came as a relief that the things that occupied my mind, the things I thought of, and was fascinated by, were not useless but could be made legitimate by putting them down on paper, by being shaped into a story. I wanted to show the psychology, the state of mind and the emotions of a person who had faith. I was interested in going deep, not just looking at 'Muslim' as a cultural or political identity but something close to the centre, something that transcended but didn’t deny gender, nationality, class and race. I wanted to write fiction that reflected Islamic logic, fictional worlds where cause and effect are governed by Muslim rationale.

In 1993-–94 I attended Creative Writing workshops led by Todd McEwen, who was then writer-in-residence at the Aberdeen Central Library. The workshops broadened my reading and introduced me to the work of Scottish writers. Todd McEwen suggested that I send my stories to the (now no longer) annual Harper Collins Scottish Short Stories Anthology. My story Souvenirs (the first story I set in Scotland) was published in the Flamingo book of New Scottish Writing 1997. This was my first publication by a major publisher.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: How did you know about the Caine Prize?

LEILA ABOULELA: My editor at Heinemann, Becky Clarke, submitted the anthology which included my story.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What was your initial response when you won the Caine Prize?

LEILA ABOULELA: Delighted and dismayed that I had to make an acceptance speech. I didn't have anything to say!

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What has been happening or not happening since winning the Caine?

LEILA ABOULELA: My collection 'Coloured Lights' got published by Polygon and my second novel Minaret was published by an even bigger publisher Bloomsbury. It was also published in the US. Also since winning the prize, my stories have been included in anthologies of African Writing the latest being Gods and Soldiers by Penguin.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Apart from writing, what else do you do and why?

LEILA ABOULELA: I am a housewife. Why? It's a respectable career for a woman!

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Forty years from now where do you see yourself?

LEILA ABOULELA: Dead, I hope.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What genre do you read most and why?

LEILA ABOULELA: Serious love/family stories usually written by women. I just finished Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie and it is wonderful!

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Which five authors do you admire most and why?

LEILA ABOULELA:
Jean Rhys: Because of the transparent way she writes about feelings.
Anita Desai: Her intelligent insight into the lives of ordinary people.
Doris Lessing: Always challenging, always ahead, and unafraid.
Ahdaf Soueif: Personally and culturally I can understand and relate to her work. I know and enjoy the Cairo she so vividly portrays. An inspiring, generous writer.
Buchi Emecheta: Because of her direct authentic voice, her writing on being an African in Britain. Like her I moved to Britain in my early twenties and I can relate to her novels of culture clash and the conflict between modernity and tradition

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: List your favourite five books.

LEILA ABOULELA:
Crime and Punishment: Because it is about a big subject – the meaning of life – yet it is gritty, gripping and its depiction of city life gives it a modern, timeless feel.
Jane Eyre: Emotionally powerful and solid. It is both disturbing and comforting, a nightmare and a romantic fantasy.
Rebecca: The first book I read that did not have illustrations. The book that made me fall in love with reading.
The Wedding of Zein: Tayeb Saleh’s classic about the spiritual potential of a village idiot. For me it captures the Sudanese character, the pathos and idealism.
Memories of Rain: The best cross cultural love story I have ever read. Sunetra Gupta writes with equal depth about Indian and British culture.

MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: If you were to make a wish right now what would it be?

LEILA ABOULELA: I wish that my new novel, Lyrics Alley, the one I am completing now, will be the best I have ever written.

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