The Sunday News
THERE has always been a great fascination over how authors are able, through their imagination to create fictional characters that people fall in love with or hate.
Because of this imagination, they are able to come up with settings and plots that leave people reading novels late into the night, desperate to know what happens next.
The need to know how these authors manage to pen interesting tales, led Sunday Leisure reporter Pabalelo Tlou (PT) last week to speak to renowned author Ericah Gwetai (EG).
Gwetai has written and published three books, some of which are set books in international schools.
Her debut book, Petal Thoughts; a biography of her late daughter, Dr Yvonne Vera, signified a major breakthrough in the industry. Her second book, Realities is a compilation of short stories and her last book is titled Embracing the Cactus.
Below are excerpts from the interview.
PT: Can you briefly tell us about your life.
EG: I come from Heany Junction near Bulawayo, my father was a soldier and we then moved to Luveve in the 1950s and that’s where I grew up.
PT: When and why did you start writing?
EG: Basically I grew up during the time of colonialism where we were ill-treated by the white settlers. Even though we were treated unfairly we accepted things as they were, we knew that these are white people and they are rich. For instance you can not bother yourself about knowing the owner of an aeroplane while you know that you’ll never own it yourself. But at the same time we observed and kept these things in our minds and that feeling of wanting to get it out of us led me to start writing.
PT: What influenced you to be a writer?
EG: I was influenced by my own daughter, the late Dr Yvonne Vera whose novels are taught in universities in Africa, Europe and North America. Some were also translated into many languages; I was also influenced by Chinua Achebe and Chenjerai Hove. Another thing was getting involved in academic learning, I did a degree in English and Communication and as a result I read a lot of set books which cultivated me to be a writer. Lastly, I was inspired by students, the book Without A Name was a set book in school and students always came to me to understand the book and to understand the background of the author who happened to be my daughter.
PT: So how much can we say your background influences your work?
EG: Like I said I fell victim to white discrimination, as black people we couldn’t express ourselves. We were discriminated to the extent that a black young man could be arrested for just staring at a white girl.
We were not allowed to walk on the pavement or to get inside some shops, for example we were not allowed to get inside Edgars, it was reserved for white people only, you’ll choose a dress you want from the window, they will then take a salesperson to accompany you to Sales House to fit the dress. If the dress doesn’t fit and you are not buying it they will not return it to Sales House because the dress has been tried on by a black person.
When I went to Harare in a shop called Barbours, I bought sandals from outside and I tried them on and I asked them if I can get inside the shop they asked me where I came from, when I told them I was from Bulawayo they questioned me if I didn’t know that it was taboo for a black person to get inside Barbours. The list is endless and so unbelievable and that triggered my writing, when I write I have the background of all these things, if you read my books you can see that I cannot run away from that because I was a victim to such discrimination by the whites.
PT: How do you come up with your titles?
EG: When I write I don’t think of titles. I only have titles tentatively something to help me to guide my writing; when the book is finished that’s when I decide on an appropriate title for the book.
PT: When you write your stories how do you convey the messages?
EG: In my last book Embracing the Cactus I wrote about women who want to be second class, I don’t want to call them small houses because they want to embrace the title, it is not insulting, from long back till now a prostitute remains a prostitute. When a woman falls in love with a married man she is a prostitute, we do not have to glorify what they are doing and be so lenient to say they are small houses; they are basically prostitutes who want money. So when I write, I say exactly what I want to convey.
PT: You have published a number of books, where do you get the story ideas?
EG: I come up with stories according to the era in which I lived, I lived in the era that we were colonised and have seen many things happening during that time and I am currently living in the post-colonial era. So I combine the experiences I witnessed during the colonial era and the experiences I witness now.
PT: In each book you have written, how much of the book can we say is realistic?
EG: I personally combine memos because fiction does not mean there is no truth in it; you can write the truth and fictionalise it for the sake of the reader to have humour in reading.
There is a thin line between fiction and the truth, it is interwoven for example in my second book Realities there is a story which I called 2008. As a writer you are the mirror of the society, you become a custodian of the culture. I wanted to tell the future generation about the things that happened in 2008, for example if you ask people about 2008 they will tell you about queues, shortages of food in shelves and all the challenges that were there. I did not write about that but instead wrote about a woman who couldn’t conceive because she was obese, the doctor said she should first lose weight in order to conceive. The lady then went on to lose weight naturally because of the economic hardships of that time. It’s not that there was someone like that whom I knew but I put it in a way that a person born after 2008 or those studying literature will get an idea and really feel how difficult things were during the economic challenges in 2008.
PT: How is the response from the public concerning your work?
EG: I think people really like my work, every time I meet people here locally or internationally they always compliment my books. I am happy that I have been acknowledged by reputable and renowned people like Memory Chirere, a literature lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, Professor Terrence Ranger acknowledged me in his book Bulawayo Burning saying my debut book Petal Thoughts was a remarkable book, and many other renowned authors have reviewed my books and told me that I am doing a good job.
PT: Which books are you currently reading and how do these books help you in your own work?
EG: I am reading the English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, Amsterdam by Ian McEWAN and Miguel Street by V S Naipaul. Reading books like these helps me identify the way of life similar or different to mine and to learn different cultures.
PT: Any advice for upcoming writers?
EG: As a writer you should be someone with a photographic memory; most people of my age have forgotten many things that happened in the past. I would advise upcoming writers to travel; there are some people who finish school and reach their 50s and have never been to rural areas. I once lived in the rural areas and also taught there. I have also been to England and Canada and when I write I combine my experiences from rural areas, townships and abroad.
I know going abroad is expensive but if you have never been to Hwange, Tsholotsho, or anyway locally what really are you going to write about, I challenge aspiring writers to travel so that they can grasp and get to know how other people live and to learn their customs and beliefs.
