To Choose To Write Is To Reject

I Recently Spoke At A University Where A Student Told Me It Was Such A Shame That Nigerian Men Were Physical Abusers Like The Father Character In My Novel. I Told Him That I Had Recently Read A Novel Called American Psycho,and That It Was A Shame That Young Americans Were Serial Murderers.

Show A People As One Thing, Only One Thing, Over And Over Again, And That Is What They Become.

I Had People Read It Early On And, You Know, Well-meaning People Said To Me, You Should Take Out The Blogs. I Didn't Get Much Positive Feedback. Only Because Most Of These People Were Protective Of Me - It Was Sort Of Like A "tone It Down, Make It Easier To Swallow" Kind Of Thing. And I Just Thought If I Do That Then It's Not The Book I Want To Write.

Privilege Blinds, Because It's In Its Nature To Blind. Don't Let It Blind You Too Often. Sometimes You Will Need To Push It Aside In Order To See Clearly.

Many Stories Matter. Stories Have Been Used To Dispossess And To Malign. But Stories Can Also Be Used To Empower, And To Humanize. Stories Can Break The Dignity Of A People. But Stories Can Also Repair That Broken Dignity.