Finding Space For Words: No Violet Bulawayo

NoViolet Bulawayo adjusts her legs and leans comfortably into the back of the chair preparing for the inevitable onslaught of questions that are to come. She is the winner of the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature. Her story “Hitting Budapest,” is the opening chapter of her novel, We Need New Names, and won the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing. We are at the Fairview Hotel and UP has managed to pin her down for an hour as she takes in some rays of the Nairobi winter sun.

Like Darling, the protagonist of We Need New Names, you moved from Zimbabwe to the US. Does this mean the story is autobiographical?

It’s a work of fiction but it still borrows from my own experience. I think I was traumatised by the move and spent my first year in silence, I couldn’t speak. Struggling with culture shock and struggling to fit in, for a minute I lost a part of myself.

What was the impact of westernization on Darling?

It’s not so much about westernisation, it’s about leaving your natural space, your family and friends behind and just being in a weird space that you can’t relate to. That would affect anyone. That’s what’s happening to Darling when she moves to the US. Back at home she’s always out playing, in the first chapter in the US she can’t get out because there’s snow, and she doesn’t have anybody to talk to. Those are the small losses that we encounter when we go to other countries, but that narrative gets forgotten because people are so focussed on making it.

How did you come up with the name of the book?

It was one of my characters that says it, I came up with a few that didn’t work and then I went to the book itself where I ran across the phrase. It was an aha! moment because as I was writing, I was thinking that as a people we need to find new ways of looking at our destinies, our future.

Did you feel pressure when you moved on to the next project?

Not really, as a creator you set standards, you tell yourself okay this is your book and the next one needs to be better. I give myself pressure because I need to be getting to the next level. But of course there are a lot of expectations, people are asking what are you going to do. I try not to let that interfere with my vision.

Did you start off somewhere else before going on to writing?

I was meant to go to law school and I did pre-law but while I was doing it, I took a creative writing course and I decided that was what I was meant to do. I think it took me ten years from the time I took creative writing to the time I published.

How was the process? Was it difficult to move from law to writing?

No it wasn’t. I didn’t have grand ambitions, I was doing it one step at a time, learning to read, learning to write. It needed a lot of faith to believe that what we were doing was worthwhile.

Long hours?

Long hours when I grew to become a serious writer, I think that’s what’s missing with young writers; I’m not just writing because I’m talented or because I want to do it, writing is hard work. When I was writing We need new names I would wake up at 5:30 and go to bed by 9:00, work every day, so yeah it was tough thing.

What have you learned from the book after it was done and published, about yourself, your country, Darling, was it anything new?

Nothing new but I was reminded it is impossible for one group to tell the story of a people. I know that We Need New Names in as much as it a Zimbabwean story, it is not the Zimbabwean story, I am aware it misses other narratives which is fine, because I am only an individual writing from a tiny corner.

What about the writer trying to find their voice, what would you say to them?

Understand yourself as a writer, have the courage to tell your story, have the confidence to make your story relevant because your voice matters. Form networks with other writers, it’s an exciting time because now more than ten years ago when I started writing, more than 15 years ago when I was in high school, more people are interested in writing, more people are writing books, so there’s a community and people to look up to, just be part of it.

by Ondi Madete