Nigerian writer Ngozi Achebe was born in London and raised in Nigeria in a middleclass family; the daughter of Augustine, a civil engineer and Matilda, a nurse. Her uncle is Chinua Achebe, author, Professor at Brown University, and critic, best known for his book Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature.
Her early unpublished writings were about the darkness of war and survival having been one of the children that lived through the Biafran war - a catastrophic event that engulfed 1960’s Nigeria and a potent definer of many childhood memories.
Ngozi currently lives in Olympia, Washington and is a practicing physician.
In this interview with publisher Gibril Koroma she talks about her preoccupations as a writer and the business of writing:
Gibril Koroma: Please tell us why you, a medical doctor, have decided to write fiction. Has your uncle the famous Chinua Achebe, been an influence?
Ngozi Achebe: Writing has come naturally to me because I was an avid reader. I read and wrote before I ever thought about going to medical school which by the way was a calling for me.
I have to say a big yes to the Uncle Chinua effect. How could I not have been influenced by growing up in the shadow of the greatest writer out of Africa? It was a foregone conclusion.
GK: A lot has been written about Biafra and the Biafran war. Why are you
interested in this particular segment of Nigerian history?
NA: The Biafran war shaped my world outlook in many ways because we were the ‘Biafran Children of the late 1960’s; we were the ones that made the world aware of the plight of children in wartime. My next book is a coming of age book. The war in it is almost incidental. It’s not a doom and gloom book at all. Talking about Nigeria, I believe that despite its oil wealth it has continued to suffer the negative effects of that war. It has a disenfranchised population that has felt like it was not fully integrated into the scheme of things. This is a problem for any country.
GK: Writing a novel can be a daunting task. How have you been able to do your writing in addition to your day job and your responsibilities as a mother?
NA: I won’t dispute the fact that it has been difficult at times to combine all of the above and sometimes one takes a back seat and its usually the writing. It can be difficult make deadlines but I have to confess also that I enjoy the writing very much. Most times it does not feel like work and I want to do it well to respect the people that go out and buy your book. You want to make sure they have real value.
GK: Please give us the main narrative focus of your latest novel, *Onaedo,
The Blacksmith’s Daughter*. Why did you decide to write this novel and what
do you think it would bring to World Literature?
NA: Onaedo is my debut novel and is set during the Portuguese era of discovery in African. There haven’t been too many books set in that era actually written from the African view point and perspective; I went into the actual day to day lives of real sounding people and not the broad strokes and over generalizations one soften sees sometimes in stories about Africans. We read a lot of novels about Africans from that era residing in the new world but not much about the real facts of their lives back home. It is not taught very well in Africa especially Nigeria and that’s the discussion I want to start for all its worth.
GK:You were born in England and grew up in Nigeria. What contributions have
these two very different cultural environments made towards your personality
and literary output?
NA: I think it has given me a particularly unique perspective which I think will even be more evident in my next novel coming out later this year. It has been priceless for me to have that kind of opportunity. I am lucky and blessed which incidentally is the meaning of Ngozi – Blessing.
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