[Interview_2] Christopher Mlalazi

In an earlier interview, Christopher Mlalazi talked about the effect the political environment in Zimbabwe has had on his writing.

Since then he has gone on to publish an award-winning collection of short stories, Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township ('amaBooks Publishers, 2009) and a novel, Many Rivers (Lion Press, 2010).

Dancing with Life was awarded the Best First Creative Published Book prize in the Zimbabwean National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) and it received honourable mention in the 2009 NOMA Award for Book Publishing in Africa.

Christopher Mlalazi also received the 2009 Oxfam Novib/PEN Freedom of Expression Award for "The Crocodile of Zambezi", a controversial play he co-authored with Raisedon Baya. The play was banned by the Zimbabwean authorities.

In this interview, Mlalazi talks about Dancing with Life and the collaborative playwrighting he has been doing:

How would you describe Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township?

Dancing With Life is a collection of short stories which I wrote between 2004 and 2008.

I started writing them just after I had gone through the Crossing Borders, an online creative writing mentoring project, which was a British Council/Lancaster University initiative.

Before that I had been trying to write my novel Many Rivers, which was published this year by Lion Press (UK). I think delving into the short story genre came as a result of trying to find formula on how to tightly wrap up the novel, a thing I had been failing to do. I remember it didn’t take me very long to teach myself to do that with the short stories. Maybe it was also a result of the creative writing mentoring I had just done.

So, there I was, writing short stories as if I was possessed, and meeting with success on them. too. I remember I saw myself also starting to be invited to represent Zimbabwe in literature festivals and workshops around Africa, which was a pointer to me that I was now on the right track, that my stories were making an impact, and which writer would not like to see that happening to them?

To come back to the question, Dancing With Life is a reflection of the struggles and suffering of Zimbabwean people living in a disintegrating society with its farm invasions and our economy taking a nose-dive. I regard this short story collection as a series of snap shots of this trying period and I try to be as honest as I can in my depictions so as not to misinform readers. I try to be as near to the truth as I can get in the hope that this will leave people asking themselves deep mind-changing questions.

Are there any stories in Dancing with Life that were easier or more difficult to write than others?

Yes, there are some stories which were difficult to write, and there are some which were easy.

I would like to point out "Broken Wings", which depicts the rape of a young girl struggling to cope with her mother who is dying of AIDS, against the backdrop of the political control of food distribution and the breakdown of the health system. I remember one day when I was revising this story, I felt something tear in my heart, a feeling which, strangely, I had not experienced when I was writing the story. "Broken Wings" is so dark, it is so painful that I wonder how I managed to write it... I guess the truth sometimes can be very painful.

There are also the direct political stories, like "Election Day". These, I guess, were written in anger, when I was trying to laugh at the political machinations happening in the country and also trying to make my future audience, the reader, also take them in that light and really laugh at the stupidity of it all. We might ask, are somethings that are done for political expediency really worth doing? Is it really necessary to pick up a stone and chase an old woman for her vote?

Where and when was the collection of short stories published?

Dancing with Life was published by 'amaBooks Publishers of Bulawayo in 2008 and was launched at the Academy Of Music in May 2008 during the Bulawayo Music Festival..

In the past 10 years, 'amaBooks has risen to be one of the two leading publishers in Zimbabwe and being published by them has been an honour.

Also, 'amaBooks published my very first short story way back in 2003 and, ever since, they have published my short stories in every short story anthology they've published -- we have a long and fruitful history together. Every writer aspires to have their work published, for that is the reason that makes us take pen and paper and write isn’t it so?

Another big advantage in working with 'amaBooks is that they are in Bulawayo and it makes it easy to meet and discuss the work face to face, and also living in Bulawayo, they understand the cultural, the regional and political context of the stories.

I would also like to thank the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust for funding this project because with the hyper-inflation Zimbabwe has experienced of late, the book would not have seen the light of day. Special thanks also goes to ama’Books publishers for taking up the project.

Again, I think the drive behind the need to have this book published was also an attempt by me to add my voice to the protest against the no rule of law phenomena that was gripping our country at the time of writing.

How has the book been received?

The book has been received well in literature competition because, in a space of a year, it now has one award and one mention in prestigious competitions. But I cannot say the same of the reading public, because, strangely, the reading culture in Zimbabwe seems to be dying and few people are buying books these days.

Being mentioned in awards has given me that extra drive to want to write more and better stories, and right now I am working on another novel which is almost finished.

Recently two of your plays caused a lot of controversy. Can we talk a little about them?

Both plays are political satires that question bad politics in the African continent.

The first one, titled "The Crocodile of Zambezi", tells the story of a geriatric leader who has come face-to-face with his alter-ego that is accusing him of mis-rule. This is the one I collaborated on with Raisedon Baya.

The other one is an adaption of one of my short stories, "Election Day", which appears in Dancing with Life. The short story was first published in the 2006 Edinburgh Review and it tells the story of a country on election day and the opposition leading the ruling party by a very wide margin. Everybody around the president of the country has panicked and they want to flee the country, fearing the masses whom they have been ruling badly, but the President is adamant and is insisting that he is not fleeing anywhere. When the final vote is announced, the ruling party emerges the winner and questions are raised about vote rigging.

How did the idea for these plays come about?

The plays came about through a deliberate act of reacting to the present political status quo of the country we live in.

Writers and artists are inspired by the moods of their surroundings.

Are your plays written exclusively for performance or will they also be available in print?

It is very difficult to publish in Zimbabwe at the moment because of the economic dynamics. So, for now, the plays are for stage only but we hope that one day we will be lucky and find a publisher who will take them on.

How did you and Raisedon Baya link up?

We met in arts circle. Bulawayo is such a small town and a friendship developed. We both have a healthy respect of each other’s work.

In 2006 we collaborated in a TV drama titled The King's Kraal which was flighted on national television. This was a very fruitful exercise, because it demonstrated to us that we click very well in such exercises. Then Raisedon came up with the concept for "The Crocodile of Zambezi". We tossed this around and finally came up with the script.

Raisedon did the directing.

How does the experience of writing a play with another writer compare to doing the same thing on your own?

Writing with another writer gives you purpose. You both put your all because you don’t want to appear to be the one who is slacking.

It is also exciting because you get to know a lot of new things from the other writer, like style and how far you can go on aspects or themes -- things which you, as an individual, might have considered no-go areas.

Collaborations are also good in the sense that if you both have names in writing circles, you increase your audience.

What are the challenges inherent in the exercise?

Working with a writer who is as good as Raisedon brings no challenges. You turn around the story. It’s a matter of coming up with an idea and you will be safe in the knowledge that it will be aptly treated when you toss it over to him. Besides being a good and creative writer, he is also a very brave writer.

Is this something you would do again?

Definitely. I would also like to urge other writers to invest in such exercises because we grow when we learn from each other.

Possibly related books:

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Related article:

• Christopher Mlalazi [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, January 20, 2007
• Joan Metelerkamp [Interview], Conversations with Writers, December 28, 2009

[Interview_1] Christopher Mlalazi

Christopher Mlalazi has written plays for Zimbawean performing arts groups that include Amakhosi Theatre; Umkhathi Theatre; Sadalala Amajekete Theatre and the Khayalethu Performing Arts Project.

His poems and short stories have been published in newspapers, magazine and websites that include Crossing Borders Magazine; Poetry International Web; the Sunday News and The Zimbabwean newspaper.

Others have been featured in anthologies that include Short Writings From Bulawayo: Volumes I, II and III ('amaBooks Publishers, 2003, 2004 and 2005); Writing Now (Weaver Press, 2005); and The Obituary Tango: Selection of Writing from the Caine Prize for African Writing 2005 (New Internationalist Publications, 2006; Jacana Media ,2006).

Christopher Mlalazi spoke about his writing:

One of your most recent short stories, "Election Day", was published in the Edinburgh Review. What is the story about? How long did it take you to write it?

The story is about election rigging in an unnamed African country. This story was inspired by accusations of election rigging that always follow presidential elections.

There is no given timeframe in which to write a short story, one can even write it in an hour. At the 2006 Caine Prize workshop in Kenya, we were required to write a 3,000 word short story in ten days flat.

It took me almost a month to write "Election Day" because I had about three versions of it and was failing to decide which was the best. Then I did a theatre adaptation of the same story, which helped further develop it, and after that, I came back to the prose version and worked on it until I came up with the draft which was happily and instantly accepted by the Edinburgh Review.

The story is set in a single room. Maintaining excitement through 3,000 words in such kind of a situation is really demanding: one has to dig deep into one’s resources, always planting hooks to keep the reader absorbed. At the end, when I looked back I loved what I had done.

I had really been concentrating on the extra-personal but I later discovered that my story had both inner and personal conflict. The protagonist in the story is a president during the last day of presidential elections. The opposition is clearly winning, and everyone belonging to the ruling party, even the First Lady, has panicked and they want to flee the country before it is too late, because they had been ruling unjustly. That is the surface of the story, the extra-personal conflict. Now, this panic has led to the president’s compatriots to look at their relationship with the him. That is the personal conflict. Going further down, these people also look at their inner lives, and that is the inner conflict.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Seeing an ever declining book reading culture, that’s one -- and in Zimbabwe, the video or DVD is mainly responsible for that. It’s becoming rare to see someone carrying a novel on the streets these days -- it's always the DVD or video cassette.

My second concern is seeing African writers (and I am one of the culprits) shunning writing in their mother tongues and prefering Western languages. Are we not, as artists, custodians of our own cultures? Most young writers are shunning writing in the vernacular because they see it as a sign of backwardness, which I think is being naïve -- they think writing in English is the in thing, that it’s fashionable.

A program should be put in place that supports writing in vernacular languages, a sort of audience-building project as is being done with theatre, and it must be supported by the government. Children should also be encouraged to read books written in the vernacular, both at school and at home, so that when they grow up they will value them.

What does being a writer mean to you? And in what way are writers custodians of cultures?

I have never really given it much thought, what being a writer means to me.

I have always thought that I must write something. I have always had this unexplainable urge to produce something artistically -- which led me to break-dance, a little bit of vernacular rap, writing poetry, writing plays, stories -- just writing. I have even attempted to write an academic paper that attempts to analyze story structure.

Writing has opened my eyes to things I don’t think I would have given much thought to had I not been a writer, things like, "Is everything okay around us? And if they are not, how can I address that through my writing?"

We are custodians of culture in the sense that it is our duty to record our way of life and transmit it to posterity. Ways of life evolve, we can’t remove that, but what can we save? Obviously not all, because there are traditions which hinder progress, but the little that we save must be given its due respect through celebration in an artistic form, just like it used to be done in the past in the celebration of the first harvest or in the rain dance, etc.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

Growing up in a Zimbabwe in political turmoil has dramatically influenced my writing in the sense that, as writing thrives on conflict, there is plenty of that around to pick from -- also the hunger and disease.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

Getting an audience nationally, continentally and internationally. Africa has a wealth of stories and the challenge for the African writer is to seduce the world by the way we tell them. We have to overcome the corruption of power that pulls us back and often shuts our mouths and breaks our pens.

I am still yet to publish my first novel, but on the short story genre I can confidently say I have been successful, with several national and international short story anthology inclusions under my belt. I think my success on the short story genre rests on my being able to write without any reservations whatsoever. Also interacting with other writers internationally through the internet assists, because one gets to hear of a publishing deal here and there.

When did you start writing?

At High School where I dabbled in amateurish writing just for the love of seeing my words providing aesthetic entertainment.

At that stage, I was writing for my classmates -- they always seemed amused by my stories. I remember when I was in Form Four, I started writing a novel and kept at it for three years. When it was finished, I submitted it to the Literature Bureau, who rejected it. I put the manuscript away and forgot all about it. Sometimes I come across scraps of it around the house, and when I read them, I smile at myself. The story was an investigation, inspired by the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, the Three Investigators, James Hardly Chase, James Bond -- books which I read voraciously at that time.

In the writing that you are doing, who would you say has influenced you the most?

My late father, who was a master folklore story teller.

I grew up in the township of Pumula and it had no electricity before Independence. Food was cooked on an open fire in a lean-to. Sometimes, on hot days, after supper, we would sit by the fire and father always made it a point to tell us tales and almost all of them came with beautiful songs. Also, if relatives visited from the rural areas, he would ask them to tell us tales, which I enjoyed listening to very much. On other days father would ask us to recite the tales to him, correcting us where we made errors, and through that way I too became a good story teller. At school the teacher would sometimes require us to tell stories.

Do you write everyday?

Yes, I write everyday. I spend about five hours on it per day

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

I am currently published in nine short story anthologies, with two more already confirmed for 2007. Another of my short stories has also been short listed for a major short story writing award for African writers.

I was also invited to the 2006 Caine Prize Workshop which was held at Cater Lake, a remote and tranquil resort in Kenya. Basically, what we did there was to write, then everyday after dinner there were readings of the stories by the writers, which were followed by group criticism to assist the writer develop his or her story.

There were ten writers at the workshop and two mentors/animateurs. The writers were drawn from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and two came from the UK . All the stories that were written at the workshop have been published in the 2006 Caine Prize Anthology titled The Obituary Tango. My short story is titled “Dancing with Life,” and it is a political and socio-economic satire.

In 2004, another of my short stories, “The River of Life,” was awarded the Highly Recommended citation in the Sable Lit Short Story Competition. The story is fantasy, a recreation of Genesis, postulating mankind as coming from stars.

In 2005 I also attended the Uganda Beyond Borders Literature Festival, which was a British Council initiative. At this festival, I facilitated a creative writing workshop for primary school students in Kampala, and also did a public reading. I had a great time there, and rubbed shoulders with some of Africa’s writing giants -- Shimmer Chinodya (Zimbabwe); Helon Habila (Nigeria); Professor Taban Lo Liyong (Sudan); Veronique Tadjo (Ivory Coast); Bernardine Evaristo (Nigeria, UK) to name but a few.

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Related article:

Christopher Mlalazi [Interview_2], Conversations with Writers, January 13, 2010