An Interview with Nancy Farmer
A Girl Named Disaster follows a 12-year-old Shona girl named Nhamo (Disaster) through her adventures on Lake Cabora Bassa as she tries to escape an arranged marriage to a cruel, elderly man who already has three wives. I found the plot and characters to be absolutely astounding, beautifully written and wonderfully construed, and it is a book I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone interested in Africa.
Nevertheless, it disturbed me that Nancy Farmer wrote the book in American English. Nhamo herself is Shona, so of course, she's not actually speaking in English even though Farmer gives us her words in English. A more authentic English, it seemed to me, would be Zimbabwean English. I also wondered how American and British audiences had responded to some of the book's more disturbing elements, including the fact that Nhamo becomes possessed with a spirit during her time on Lake Cabora Bassa. So I wrote to Nancy Farmer and requested an interview. She responded much more honestly and bluntly than I expected, and I respected her all the more for it. Below are her responses to my questions.
Q. You've chosen to write several of your children's books from an African child's perspective. I'm sure you've caught some flak over that. Can you tell me why you decided to write from an African perspective and how people have responded to the fact that a white woman is writing books with African protagonists?
My first book, published only in Africa, is about a family of California hippies. This was considered wildly exotic and thus interesting, but it wasn't a very good novel. I realized then that I had been out of the U.S. so long I didn't have a feel for American characters. And so I did Africans. Nobody has ever given me a hard time about this. Do You Know Me; The Ear, the Eye and the Arm; and The Warm Place were reviewed in Zimbabwe as sly political commentary. A Girl Named Disaster was not published there because by that time the publisher was in financial trouble. It was always a cliff-hanger getting enough ink and paper.
I have always found it hard to worry about what race someone is. In my universe there are the people who get kicked around a lot and who are trying to make a space for themselves in the world. And there are the bastards with guns and power who are doing the kicking. Most of the sensitive, good people I know have found themselves a little island where they can avoid the attention of such bastards.
Q. You've included some potentially "disturbing" elements in A Girl Named Disaster-the idea that Nhamo might be possessed or might be a witch. First of all, what sort of mindset did you have to create for yourself (as a Westerner) in order to write this story? Second, how has the American/British public (adults and children) perceived this element of the story?
I didn't have to create a mindset to think of Nhamo being possessed by a witch. What Africans call possession is what we call being overcome by subconscious impulses. The witch Long Teats is Nhamo's buried rage. Nhamo needs that rage to survive, but because it is uncontrolled and unfocused it becomes dangerous to her. Hence, the exorcism. I have seen people possessed by spirits. It's a genuine physical and psychological state. I have a nephew here in the U.S. who has waking dreams where he meets angels and holy men. I don't think he's crazy. I think the American, and to a lesser extent the British, public simply don't understand this aspect of the book. It makes them extremely uneasy, especially since I take it seriously.
Q.You lived on Lake Cabora Bassa yourself for several years, and, as part of your job, had to travel around the lake by boat for a few weeks every year. How many experiences in this book are similar to ones you had? This region must have been very dangerous during the years you lived there, as civil war raged around you. Can you share some of the experiences you had that found their way into this book?
Most of the incidents in the book are based on real experiences. This is the most autobiographical story I've written. The cholera epidemic, Rumpy the baboon and his troop, getting groomed by a baby baboon, hiding in a tree from a leopard, living off a leopard kill-all these things happened. It would take too long to list everything. I found the leopard kill on Nhamo's Island when we had been eating nothing but fish for weeks. It was a dead kudu that was too heavy for the cat to drag up into a tree. We (the camp cook and I) looked around very carefully before cutting off one of the legs. I remember lifting the leg-which was extremely heavy-over the water to our canoe, to get the heck out of there before the leopard came back. It was a beach of black sand, volcanic, and the water was transparent. As we carried the leg, blood dripped off into the lake and tiger fish, predators with long teeth, leaped out of the water and snapped at the drops. That's an image you don't forget quickly.
By the time I got to Mozambique, that civil war was over, but the landmines were everywhere. I have jumped from elephant footprint to footprint to keep from getting blown up. My work took me close to the Zimbabwe and Zambian borders, which were very dangerous. When our research boat sailed close to Zimbabwe, I stood up and had the black boatmen lie down. When we got close to Zambia, I lay down and the black people stood up. The area was also dangerous because of lions, hippos, buffaloes and snakes, but I would rather be around bad animals than bad people any day.
Q. I can see from the bibliography that you had to do a great deal of research to write A Girl Named Disaster. How did you translate this "academic" exercise into fiction? Have you ever considered using all of this knowledge to write non-fiction books for kids?
I wanted A Girl Named Disaster to be a textbook for African studies, and so I was careful to verify every fact. I did the research while I wrote the novel. For example, when Masvita got her period I stopped and found out exactly what ceremonies were performed. When a funeral was conducted, I needed the exact words used. Thus, I had a huge pile of books on the floor and kept ordering more. A lot of the scientific stuff I knew, but I double-checked anyhow. I don't think I would ever write a non-fiction book because I think my real skill is in teaching through story.
Q. A Girl Named Disaster is sprinkled liberally with Shona words, but when Nhamo speaks, you use standard American English. The text is certainly written in standard American English, though the English used in Zimbabwe is not typically "American." I can understand how that would enhance the appeal for an American audience, but what about the African audience? Was this a deliberate choice and if so, why? Why not write the book using standard Zimbabwean English (at least when characters speak)?
Nhamo speaks Shona, not English. I use American speech because I am American, but put in some Shona words to give a feel for that language. I wouldn't attempt to do Zimbabwean English for Zimbabweans because it would come across as patronizing.
Q. Many of your books were first published in Zimbabwe. How do (white and black) Africans in Zimbabwe and Mozambique respond to your books?
Probably black Zimbabweans like my books better than white ones. They enjoyed the in-jokes in my first three books. I never got along that well with white Zimbabweans, especially the women. They considered me a mannerless, low-class American and I thought of them as rotten, mean-spirited fascists.
Q. I'm curious if you feel that growing up on the U.S./Mexico Border influenced your perceptions of Africa or eased your culture shock or had any influence at all.
Growing up in a hotel on the Mexican/U.S. border taught me that good people are an endangered species that need to be protected at all times. I have a bleak viewpoint of all governments and dislike borders of all kinds.
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