I've had my own establishment battles to fight, so I haven't weighed in much on the Kate Clanchy affair, although I've been disappointed to see some people I have worked with fall for the false victim narrative that is being peddled with such force and consistency...
I don't blame them tho; that's how power works. Kate, Oxford alum g'daughter of a Naval Captain, child of an Oxford alum, steeped in establishment & so connected in media that she didn't have to go after a reader who found phrases in her book offensive...
Hey, Saturday folk, good day. I've been asked on 4 occasions in the last couple of wks why I don't worry when I teach/talk storytelling. I say I love what I do so it's easy and that's true - but also I use the same 7 rules for teaching regardless of the age grp I'm working with
I call them the #SevenSignposts (markers by which to direct your writing)
1. All Time 2. Inevitable 3. Changed or challenged 4. Rules Schmules 5. Characters' Own Language 6. Everything Working 7. No perfection
I'll break them down in detail in this thread. 🧵
Jan 14, 2020 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
So, my girl in SA was recently heartbroken on account of a Naija man. She was understandably pissed & said he'd lied to her for years while he was married. I did the comforting/listening thing, but three months later I gave her this breakdown. Technically Naija men rarely lie...
As for the compliments... the toasting... it's a West African thing. You just have to listen to the songs someone is always being gassed or thanked. Early juju and highlife music is full of thanks...
Dec 10, 2018 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
So, that long-promised lowdown on rice and slavery. There's a couple of things to understand from the off: "jollof wars" might be playful but they indicate a long West African history with rice.
That history also means that industrial head hunting actually began during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Rice has been cultivated in West Africa for centuries although the variety native to the region was not considered to have high yields.
Dec 5, 2018 • 5 tweets • 5 min read
My novel #TailoftheBlueBird has a fictional #Kenyan character called #Gawana who has run away from home to escape #British brutality. He's a vital sub character for me, but I'm often asked by Euro-readers who notice him: how is that possible? Nothing bad happened in Kenya! Well..
You can read more about things like the #DilutionTechnique used by the Brits to 'subdue' the #Kikuyu in this @guardian piece: theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/… Other sources reveal varied sexual assaults, which echo in my story Scotch Bonnets from #TheCityWillLoveYou. Writers hide research
Jun 13, 2018 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
#TLDR - if you're a woman or from a #workingclass or 'minority' background in the UK, your exclusion from #publishing is not by accident it's #ByDesign. Inclusion programmes deal w/ symptoms; for change, we need redesign. (co @BareLit & @rlfwriters)
jamesmurua.com/long-read-nii-…
"They didn’t stop to consider the picture that includes what we have been taught to euphemistically call “side effects”, “human cost”, “collateral damage”." #ByDesign
