The Educated Ones Leave, The Ones With

You Deserve To Take Up Space.

Perhaps It Is Time To Debate Culture. The Common Story Is That In "real" African Culture, Before It Was Tainted By The West, Gender Roles Were Rigid And Women Were Contentedly Oppressed.

My Characters Are Usually Composites. I Wish I Could Pretend That I Make Up All Of These Characters, But No. I Steal From People. But People Will Say To Me, "oh, That's Me!" And I'm Thinking, No, That's Not You!

We Teach Girls That They Cannot Be Sexual Beings In The Way That Boys Are. If We Have Sons, We Don't Mind Knowing About Our Sons' Girlfriends, But Our Daughters' Boyfriends? God Forbid. But Of Course When The Time Is Right, We Expect Those Girls To Bring Back The Perfect Man To Be Their Husband.

I Can Write With Authority Only About What I Know Well, Which Means That I End Up Using Surface Details Of My Own Life In My Fiction.