Civil War and war in general does not
tend to stop at a frontline
we can all have truth and reconciliation
that’s not the end how do you dig out
all that hurt all that oppression from
the hearts of so many people and so for
me writing has really become a way to
explore the ways in which the courage
with which people come back from
tremendous violence and oppression
so I wanted to begin by asking you about
your first book don’t let’s go to the
dogs tonight which I think probably
everyone in the room would agree is just
a really really extraordinary memoir an
amazing Eve occasion of Africa and of
your childhood there an incredibly
moving book and I wanted to ask you
about the process of writing it first of
all why did you decide to write it well
my mother considered that God had given
her a pair of ovaries for one reason
only and that was to produce a
biographer so when she was pregnant with
my sister she read the foetus the entire
works of Shakespeare in the womb and the
upshot was my sister was born
functionally illiterate refused to read
or write it’s the extent that she’s even
a bit sort of haphazard with the English
language so they’re not inconsiderable
literary ambitions on me and I was five
also and it was during the war in what
was then Rhodesia and instead of sending
us to boarding school because you
couldn’t you kindergarten they they sent
out packets for the parents to teach
their children at home until you were
old enough to be sent to those ruthless
boarding schools anyway they sent this
correspondence pack it out to Mum and
she would literally just mathematics
darling you can always pay someone to
count for you but English now this will
be fun who are you going to write about
and then she would fix her not
inconsiderable glare on me and I would
go god I guess you and so you know I
went to school and I couldn’t count so I
had to write it so I wrote a book about
my mother okay you were being groomed
from a young age to write that book
quelle sebaceous I think the word well I
love the book as many many many people
do and as a writer I
I just kept exclaiming as I was reading
how incredibly vivid your your
descriptions are and I’m just wondering
you weren’t taking notes I imagine
as a child they weren’t keeping maybe
you were keeping a diary but how did you
make such incredibly evocative
descriptions of of Africa and your
childhood how did that process work for
you you know I think it helps to have
that many near-death experiences it
tends to sharpen the mind yeah really
you know I mean it’s funny how often
this comes up and I think okay so if you
not only surrounded by water right we’ve
been at war for over a decade in this
country and we don’t feel it I mean we
really unless we’re military family or
military town and possibly here in DC
you do but we really aren’t feeling that
war or those Wars the way that we should
I think if you’re going to go to war
there should be a horrible shock
physically and psychically to you it is
a incredibly expensive thing to do not
just financially but also to the body
soul and mind and growing up I was
incredibly aware of that in part because
by the end of our very ill-conceived war
anyone between the age of any white male
between the age of 18 and 60 spent as
much as six months conscripted at war my
father was at our neighbors it was their
sons it was everyone we knew civil war
then war in general does not tend to
stop at a frontline there’s no such
thing as that came from line I mean it
makes its way into the home makes its
way onto your farm
you’re constantly worried about being
ambushed school was watered a couple of
times and so that I mean the one and
it’s soldiers will tell you and some
sort of way I mean it in spite of the
post-traumatic stress and so war tends
to be this kind of incredible thing
because you are very aware of the fact
that every day moment let alone day
might be or last I think it makes you a
very nervous and very observant person
makes it a very good writer in that case
and this you sort of reprised this theme
in scribbling the cat and from a
different perspective can you talk about
what moved you to write that well one of
the shocking things in Donuts go to the
dogs night came out was that received
very few critical in other words very
few people were critical of it I mean
other than on amazon.com I have three
children
so I’ve other words over bred for my
ability to keep up but ungrateful little
wretches they are occasionally when I
punish them it fairly often they like to
go on Amazon and read the one-star
review and this person would give you
know stars but it’s not an option I
hated this book I will never read
anything by this author again shouting
that yeah and don’t let’s go dogs right
I was I expected that it would start a
conversation but war that race about
what it is to bring children into a
world where yeah I mean I don’t know
about you but how do you raise children
and a war I mean like my three children
are very aware of the fact that we’re at
war very aware of that fact and I bring
it up daily and I get criticized for
that I might bring my children up to
know that there is climate change and
that they are going to have to be
dealing with that you know I was very
surprised that people didn’t bring up
look there was war there was racism and
and that you know to have so toward the
end of the war in Rhodesia that was
roughly a hundred thousand white people
trying to oppress something the region
of six seven million black people
it was incredibly bad war I don’t care
of you the wrong side or the right side
what I mean however history judges you
war is horrific and it’s really horrific
for children you have no idea what side
they’re on it just so happens I believe
we were on the wrong side but it makes
no difference to the trauma and that
never got broader atlases of people with
very sensitive people in the states and
general incredibly sensitive squeamish
around the issues of race and identity
and war
actually as we should be because we have
not resolved those issues here and so so
the reviews of general very tentative
around that and it’s a scribbling the
cat was actually my effort to address it
and say no no no you must understand I
wasn’t some innocent there are no
innocent some more the first casualty of
war wasn’t truth its innocence then
truth there are no children and war you
are robbed of your childhood yeah it’s a
really powerful message it’s an
amazingly powerful book it’s a it’s a
wonderful book
it’s a tough book it’s a very very tough
I think a lot if you’re going to read it
I recommend my beautifully written and
and you beautifully felt and it
certainly put war in a different
perspective for me I mean like you said
everyone’s a victim well I think that
one of the things that doesn’t get
spoken about enough is what are the
repercussions of what is the half-life
of violence what for example is the
half-life of apartheid you know we can
all have truth and reconciliation that’s
not the end how do you how do you dig
out all that propaganda and all that
hurt and all that oppression from the
hearts of so many people how do you
regress that imbalance I mean when we
are violent let’s think about the
half-life of that and the equal and
opposite reaction to everything that we
do great
did you after writing that book did you
feel like you’ve gotten rid of the
demons to a certain extent no I think I
brought them back to life and they live
with me now and that’s all right it’s
not a bad thing to live with one’s
demons and the open really yeah about
I’m alright but I mean I how do they how
do you live with your demons and do they
wake you up at night and you have a
jolly good conversation with them at
night yeah I mean it’s also right not to
be completely content all the time we
shouldn’t be content you know look at
what we have done look at what we have
done is those as a species look what
we’ve done as a country look we’ve what
happened what have I’ve done as an
individual I should not be sleeping well
at night
that’s fair to say and now nights when I
stay awake and I’m woken up by my own
terror two o’clock and it’s okay I think
to be exhausted and to be all not
terrified by your own self and by the
things that one is responsible for I can
see that it would be really fun to live
off a diet of xanax and wine but I would
prefer to feel at all mm-hmm and to be
very responsible for that so I think
that this idea that one should be
contentedly sloping towards some sort of
retirement is completely bogus I ain’t
you should be terrified out of your wits
all the time certainly pay attention
more how does that translate into your
your writing these days or into your in
fact very beautiful way my most recent
assignment was to go for National
Geographic to some Bobby Thank You
National Geographic for sending me home
to my people and what was amazing about
that was in Bob we have all people very
traumatized nation they’ve been under
subjugation of Robert Mugabe for thirty
plus years it’s the fifth most dangerous
place for journalists on the planet I
saw that change I mean Suria me about
two to six
it’s an incredibly oppressive place and
rape for example is routinely used as a
weapon against communities to silence
people very clever actually it’s a Peter
Godwin term this phrase smart genocide
which you don’t actually have to kill
people if you can just rape an entire
community of women which has the double
effect both isolating them and
terrorizing everyone into silence what I
met when I was there was women who
refused to stay with that title of
victim they said no no we are going to
be activists we’re going to take our
lives back in our hands and be with
these women
but essentially and again what I love
about writing for National Geographic
it’s one of the few places anymore where
one
is allowed to go to a place and fully
explore what is going on they don’t drop
you in for three minutes inspector to
come up with a story they drop you in
for as long as you need to come up with
the humanity of the place and so to be
with these women who not only recognize
that they had been the victims of the
violence but they sat down with their
perpetrators and said both of us died
that night we both lost our humanity you
and me together I am old enough to have
suckled you and you did this to me who
are you
who made you into this thing and how do
we go forward from here because unless
we can go forward together no one goes
forward I can’t go forward alone we have
to move together what a gift what a gift
and so for me writing has really become
a way to explore the gift of being on
the planet the gift of our shared
humanity and the ways in which the
courage with which people come back from
tremendous violence and oppression the
terror I think for me I mean to be
honest the real difficulty is that I am
afraid of my own how frightened I am I’m
most afraid of being too afraid to come
back with the story I’m afraid of being
arrested I’m afraid of being beaten I’m
afraid of being raped or tortured so
you’re living every day with that terror
when you’re when you’re searching mister
yeah but I mean and my basic
understanding is look odds really good
I’ve got a you know US passport I get
taken and I’m probably going to get
taken out so my other real terror is I’m
very aware of the fact that everyone I
was talking to is an imminent danger and
that I have to be very very responsible
that you know there’s a big difference
between being a story maker and a story
taker Story takers leave and they don’t
care what the consequences are story
makers I think you have to know that
you’re just really blessed with the
opportunity to go in there and be with
these amazing in this amazing time with
these incredibly courageous people and
that your courage only has to match
millionth of theirs
and that but your responsibility lies at
home when you’re writing this story well
research again writing and you’re
navigating that that you’re trying to
hold your humanity into a certain extent
so you can be a good reporter and yet
you have to evoke the full brutal
humanity of the situation how do you how
do you navigate that I think people
often mistake humanity for gratuitous
emotion right when you’re trying to so
you don’t get emotionally involved in
the in the recreation of course you do I
mean that but been gratuitous about it
versus having ones humanity very
different thinking that it belongs to
you taking some kind of self-important
ownership over somebody else’s trauma
it’s very very different from barring
rigorous witness whichever doesn’t shock
you and terrify you and keep you up all
night and make you sob you’re not paying
attention but it’s not yours right right
I I mean I really think that my father
has lived and every single corner of his
life he said to me once he was looking
at me rather pointedly at them he said
you know problem with most people as
they want to stay alive for a long time
without having any idea whatsoever how
to live mm-hmm
and I think by which he means was so
terrified and risk-averse and we take
such completely free ownership of stuff
that doesn’t belong to us at all makes
us make such reactive stupid decisions
and we lose the dignity of our
intelligence and we list a dignity of
our soul I mean eventually there’s this
great Buddhist phrase that if you do one
feels wounded you should just make your
target smaller when people ask you
where’s home
so I think the job of the storyteller is
to be caught eviction from the tribe is
to be caught the storyteller should
court eviction from her tribe court
eviction from her tribe right I think
that you should be on the outs you if
you’re not being pushed out by your
people you’re not doing your job we are
the ones who pay attention
horrible attention to what everyone else
is doing call attention to the fact get
booed get yelled at get mud through but
that is your job your job is really I
mean in the old days you were a shaman
you were the witch you were the one who
said pay attention something is wrong I
can see this I am I am your observer and
I think we are we’re terrified of our
truth-tellers and I think that that’s
really the job of writers is to court
eviction from any tribe so if I was to
say – well I’m African night where I’m
why i’m wyoming i or i’m USA then i’ve
attached to me a label which is
instantly some kind of thing I had now
have to defend but someone says to me
well you say you’re American you didn’t
sound American to me and I will say
that’s all quit okay well I’m African
but what it can’t be a whole continent
of what rhymes and Bob will show me your
passport bugger
British what you don’t you know you only
were born there nothing else Oh what are
you then I’m a storyteller and placeless
as it should be
and as we should all be really I think
we should fight to remove ourselves of
our labels and you know I will save us
in all seriousness when I became a US
citizen I went to camera Wyoming
I was ready swear you in and Wyoming and
it was a jolly difficult decision well I
didn’t really feel very British that
where I was all right about leaving up
my British passport in general although
they made me renounce the Prince I said
you know if you mean that trap with big
ears I’m
that’s all right but if you mean the guy
is saying Purple Rain I’m not gonna do
it and then the most dignified person
they could find to do the swearing-in
ceremony was a dentist and it was it was
me and there was some lot of people from
Mexico a lot of people from ourselves a
lot of people in Guatemala would escaped
I mean after this course we went her my
idea drank a lot of tequila uh-huh and I
was one of the few people who didn’t
have a bullet wound to show well and one
of the things that the dentist said to
us and this moved me incredibly now the
one thing I did not have growing up was
freedom of speech I grew up either and
again psmith where there was censorship
boom Robert Mugabe censorship and it’s
Chile and Chiluba in Zambia he tried
freedom of speech for I don’t know three
minutes and like very much says it was
the end of that and I came over here and
I could say whatever I like and the
dentist said to us bring us your hunger
why ever you left whatever brought you
here no one leaves their home because
they want to they come here because
they’re hungry so if you came here
because you were hungry for economic
growth or because you were hung hungry
freedom because you were hungry for your
voice bring us that thing please don’t
ever lose your hunger because this
country was made out of the hunger of
displaced people which includes by the
way the hunger of our native tribes who
have been displaced I was incredibly
moved and it took a long time for me to
realize that the opposite and equal
reaction of one’s freedom of speech
which is the thing I hungered for my
voice was the courage to hear one
another
hmm so I really thank you for that
because that is something that we have I
think in danger of losing we talk about
our freedom a lot but we don’t talk
about the courage to hear one another
that’s a great I wanted to ask you one
last question you said so many moving
profound amazing things tonight
I’m just wondering what’s the kind of if
you if there were one truth that you
would leave us with what’s the truth you
would like to leave us with at the end
of it all he’s still alive so he’s still
going but dad took me down to the
sambisa River one day and from his farm
that he now is preparing to die on he
can see Zimbabwe where my three siblings
are buried and where he fought an unjust
war for ten years she will acknowledge
he’ll say I was brainwashed
I spoke blood I shouldn’t have spilt but
man will not raise a gun now so he has
been five years ago he was some robbers
came I think they got the wrong chap
thought I had money who’s quite proud of
the fact and they broke his nose knocked
a tooth out and he hasn’t had it fixed
but he says pipe fixes sticks in there
quite well and everyone after that said
you got to get a gun he says no no and I
know what he means he’s I know what he
means
so we were because we weren’t even drunk
it was breakfast and he said to me the
proper journey has taken alone and if I
told you that people died on that
journey and maybe don’t come back from
it but it will be lonely and that people
will tell you you’re crazy you might not
have the courage to go so I won’t tell
you those things
thank you so very much
Oh
tend to stop at a frontline
we can all have truth and reconciliation
that’s not the end how do you dig out
all that hurt all that oppression from
the hearts of so many people and so for
me writing has really become a way to
explore the ways in which the courage
with which people come back from
tremendous violence and oppression
so I wanted to begin by asking you about
your first book don’t let’s go to the
dogs tonight which I think probably
everyone in the room would agree is just
a really really extraordinary memoir an
amazing Eve occasion of Africa and of
your childhood there an incredibly
moving book and I wanted to ask you
about the process of writing it first of
all why did you decide to write it well
my mother considered that God had given
her a pair of ovaries for one reason
only and that was to produce a
biographer so when she was pregnant with
my sister she read the foetus the entire
works of Shakespeare in the womb and the
upshot was my sister was born
functionally illiterate refused to read
or write it’s the extent that she’s even
a bit sort of haphazard with the English
language so they’re not inconsiderable
literary ambitions on me and I was five
also and it was during the war in what
was then Rhodesia and instead of sending
us to boarding school because you
couldn’t you kindergarten they they sent
out packets for the parents to teach
their children at home until you were
old enough to be sent to those ruthless
boarding schools anyway they sent this
correspondence pack it out to Mum and
she would literally just mathematics
darling you can always pay someone to
count for you but English now this will
be fun who are you going to write about
and then she would fix her not
inconsiderable glare on me and I would
go god I guess you and so you know I
went to school and I couldn’t count so I
had to write it so I wrote a book about
my mother okay you were being groomed
from a young age to write that book
quelle sebaceous I think the word well I
love the book as many many many people
do and as a writer I
I just kept exclaiming as I was reading
how incredibly vivid your your
descriptions are and I’m just wondering
you weren’t taking notes I imagine
as a child they weren’t keeping maybe
you were keeping a diary but how did you
make such incredibly evocative
descriptions of of Africa and your
childhood how did that process work for
you you know I think it helps to have
that many near-death experiences it
tends to sharpen the mind yeah really
you know I mean it’s funny how often
this comes up and I think okay so if you
not only surrounded by water right we’ve
been at war for over a decade in this
country and we don’t feel it I mean we
really unless we’re military family or
military town and possibly here in DC
you do but we really aren’t feeling that
war or those Wars the way that we should
I think if you’re going to go to war
there should be a horrible shock
physically and psychically to you it is
a incredibly expensive thing to do not
just financially but also to the body
soul and mind and growing up I was
incredibly aware of that in part because
by the end of our very ill-conceived war
anyone between the age of any white male
between the age of 18 and 60 spent as
much as six months conscripted at war my
father was at our neighbors it was their
sons it was everyone we knew civil war
then war in general does not tend to
stop at a frontline there’s no such
thing as that came from line I mean it
makes its way into the home makes its
way onto your farm
you’re constantly worried about being
ambushed school was watered a couple of
times and so that I mean the one and
it’s soldiers will tell you and some
sort of way I mean it in spite of the
post-traumatic stress and so war tends
to be this kind of incredible thing
because you are very aware of the fact
that every day moment let alone day
might be or last I think it makes you a
very nervous and very observant person
makes it a very good writer in that case
and this you sort of reprised this theme
in scribbling the cat and from a
different perspective can you talk about
what moved you to write that well one of
the shocking things in Donuts go to the
dogs night came out was that received
very few critical in other words very
few people were critical of it I mean
other than on amazon.com I have three
children
so I’ve other words over bred for my
ability to keep up but ungrateful little
wretches they are occasionally when I
punish them it fairly often they like to
go on Amazon and read the one-star
review and this person would give you
know stars but it’s not an option I
hated this book I will never read
anything by this author again shouting
that yeah and don’t let’s go dogs right
I was I expected that it would start a
conversation but war that race about
what it is to bring children into a
world where yeah I mean I don’t know
about you but how do you raise children
and a war I mean like my three children
are very aware of the fact that we’re at
war very aware of that fact and I bring
it up daily and I get criticized for
that I might bring my children up to
know that there is climate change and
that they are going to have to be
dealing with that you know I was very
surprised that people didn’t bring up
look there was war there was racism and
and that you know to have so toward the
end of the war in Rhodesia that was
roughly a hundred thousand white people
trying to oppress something the region
of six seven million black people
it was incredibly bad war I don’t care
of you the wrong side or the right side
what I mean however history judges you
war is horrific and it’s really horrific
for children you have no idea what side
they’re on it just so happens I believe
we were on the wrong side but it makes
no difference to the trauma and that
never got broader atlases of people with
very sensitive people in the states and
general incredibly sensitive squeamish
around the issues of race and identity
and war
actually as we should be because we have
not resolved those issues here and so so
the reviews of general very tentative
around that and it’s a scribbling the
cat was actually my effort to address it
and say no no no you must understand I
wasn’t some innocent there are no
innocent some more the first casualty of
war wasn’t truth its innocence then
truth there are no children and war you
are robbed of your childhood yeah it’s a
really powerful message it’s an
amazingly powerful book it’s a it’s a
wonderful book
it’s a tough book it’s a very very tough
I think a lot if you’re going to read it
I recommend my beautifully written and
and you beautifully felt and it
certainly put war in a different
perspective for me I mean like you said
everyone’s a victim well I think that
one of the things that doesn’t get
spoken about enough is what are the
repercussions of what is the half-life
of violence what for example is the
half-life of apartheid you know we can
all have truth and reconciliation that’s
not the end how do you how do you dig
out all that propaganda and all that
hurt and all that oppression from the
hearts of so many people how do you
regress that imbalance I mean when we
are violent let’s think about the
half-life of that and the equal and
opposite reaction to everything that we
do great
did you after writing that book did you
feel like you’ve gotten rid of the
demons to a certain extent no I think I
brought them back to life and they live
with me now and that’s all right it’s
not a bad thing to live with one’s
demons and the open really yeah about
I’m alright but I mean I how do they how
do you live with your demons and do they
wake you up at night and you have a
jolly good conversation with them at
night yeah I mean it’s also right not to
be completely content all the time we
shouldn’t be content you know look at
what we have done look at what we have
done is those as a species look what
we’ve done as a country look we’ve what
happened what have I’ve done as an
individual I should not be sleeping well
at night
that’s fair to say and now nights when I
stay awake and I’m woken up by my own
terror two o’clock and it’s okay I think
to be exhausted and to be all not
terrified by your own self and by the
things that one is responsible for I can
see that it would be really fun to live
off a diet of xanax and wine but I would
prefer to feel at all mm-hmm and to be
very responsible for that so I think
that this idea that one should be
contentedly sloping towards some sort of
retirement is completely bogus I ain’t
you should be terrified out of your wits
all the time certainly pay attention
more how does that translate into your
your writing these days or into your in
fact very beautiful way my most recent
assignment was to go for National
Geographic to some Bobby Thank You
National Geographic for sending me home
to my people and what was amazing about
that was in Bob we have all people very
traumatized nation they’ve been under
subjugation of Robert Mugabe for thirty
plus years it’s the fifth most dangerous
place for journalists on the planet I
saw that change I mean Suria me about
two to six
it’s an incredibly oppressive place and
rape for example is routinely used as a
weapon against communities to silence
people very clever actually it’s a Peter
Godwin term this phrase smart genocide
which you don’t actually have to kill
people if you can just rape an entire
community of women which has the double
effect both isolating them and
terrorizing everyone into silence what I
met when I was there was women who
refused to stay with that title of
victim they said no no we are going to
be activists we’re going to take our
lives back in our hands and be with
these women
but essentially and again what I love
about writing for National Geographic
it’s one of the few places anymore where
one
is allowed to go to a place and fully
explore what is going on they don’t drop
you in for three minutes inspector to
come up with a story they drop you in
for as long as you need to come up with
the humanity of the place and so to be
with these women who not only recognize
that they had been the victims of the
violence but they sat down with their
perpetrators and said both of us died
that night we both lost our humanity you
and me together I am old enough to have
suckled you and you did this to me who
are you
who made you into this thing and how do
we go forward from here because unless
we can go forward together no one goes
forward I can’t go forward alone we have
to move together what a gift what a gift
and so for me writing has really become
a way to explore the gift of being on
the planet the gift of our shared
humanity and the ways in which the
courage with which people come back from
tremendous violence and oppression the
terror I think for me I mean to be
honest the real difficulty is that I am
afraid of my own how frightened I am I’m
most afraid of being too afraid to come
back with the story I’m afraid of being
arrested I’m afraid of being beaten I’m
afraid of being raped or tortured so
you’re living every day with that terror
when you’re when you’re searching mister
yeah but I mean and my basic
understanding is look odds really good
I’ve got a you know US passport I get
taken and I’m probably going to get
taken out so my other real terror is I’m
very aware of the fact that everyone I
was talking to is an imminent danger and
that I have to be very very responsible
that you know there’s a big difference
between being a story maker and a story
taker Story takers leave and they don’t
care what the consequences are story
makers I think you have to know that
you’re just really blessed with the
opportunity to go in there and be with
these amazing in this amazing time with
these incredibly courageous people and
that your courage only has to match
millionth of theirs
and that but your responsibility lies at
home when you’re writing this story well
research again writing and you’re
navigating that that you’re trying to
hold your humanity into a certain extent
so you can be a good reporter and yet
you have to evoke the full brutal
humanity of the situation how do you how
do you navigate that I think people
often mistake humanity for gratuitous
emotion right when you’re trying to so
you don’t get emotionally involved in
the in the recreation of course you do I
mean that but been gratuitous about it
versus having ones humanity very
different thinking that it belongs to
you taking some kind of self-important
ownership over somebody else’s trauma
it’s very very different from barring
rigorous witness whichever doesn’t shock
you and terrify you and keep you up all
night and make you sob you’re not paying
attention but it’s not yours right right
I I mean I really think that my father
has lived and every single corner of his
life he said to me once he was looking
at me rather pointedly at them he said
you know problem with most people as
they want to stay alive for a long time
without having any idea whatsoever how
to live mm-hmm
and I think by which he means was so
terrified and risk-averse and we take
such completely free ownership of stuff
that doesn’t belong to us at all makes
us make such reactive stupid decisions
and we lose the dignity of our
intelligence and we list a dignity of
our soul I mean eventually there’s this
great Buddhist phrase that if you do one
feels wounded you should just make your
target smaller when people ask you
where’s home
so I think the job of the storyteller is
to be caught eviction from the tribe is
to be caught the storyteller should
court eviction from her tribe court
eviction from her tribe right I think
that you should be on the outs you if
you’re not being pushed out by your
people you’re not doing your job we are
the ones who pay attention
horrible attention to what everyone else
is doing call attention to the fact get
booed get yelled at get mud through but
that is your job your job is really I
mean in the old days you were a shaman
you were the witch you were the one who
said pay attention something is wrong I
can see this I am I am your observer and
I think we are we’re terrified of our
truth-tellers and I think that that’s
really the job of writers is to court
eviction from any tribe so if I was to
say – well I’m African night where I’m
why i’m wyoming i or i’m USA then i’ve
attached to me a label which is
instantly some kind of thing I had now
have to defend but someone says to me
well you say you’re American you didn’t
sound American to me and I will say
that’s all quit okay well I’m African
but what it can’t be a whole continent
of what rhymes and Bob will show me your
passport bugger
British what you don’t you know you only
were born there nothing else Oh what are
you then I’m a storyteller and placeless
as it should be
and as we should all be really I think
we should fight to remove ourselves of
our labels and you know I will save us
in all seriousness when I became a US
citizen I went to camera Wyoming
I was ready swear you in and Wyoming and
it was a jolly difficult decision well I
didn’t really feel very British that
where I was all right about leaving up
my British passport in general although
they made me renounce the Prince I said
you know if you mean that trap with big
ears I’m
that’s all right but if you mean the guy
is saying Purple Rain I’m not gonna do
it and then the most dignified person
they could find to do the swearing-in
ceremony was a dentist and it was it was
me and there was some lot of people from
Mexico a lot of people from ourselves a
lot of people in Guatemala would escaped
I mean after this course we went her my
idea drank a lot of tequila uh-huh and I
was one of the few people who didn’t
have a bullet wound to show well and one
of the things that the dentist said to
us and this moved me incredibly now the
one thing I did not have growing up was
freedom of speech I grew up either and
again psmith where there was censorship
boom Robert Mugabe censorship and it’s
Chile and Chiluba in Zambia he tried
freedom of speech for I don’t know three
minutes and like very much says it was
the end of that and I came over here and
I could say whatever I like and the
dentist said to us bring us your hunger
why ever you left whatever brought you
here no one leaves their home because
they want to they come here because
they’re hungry so if you came here
because you were hungry for economic
growth or because you were hung hungry
freedom because you were hungry for your
voice bring us that thing please don’t
ever lose your hunger because this
country was made out of the hunger of
displaced people which includes by the
way the hunger of our native tribes who
have been displaced I was incredibly
moved and it took a long time for me to
realize that the opposite and equal
reaction of one’s freedom of speech
which is the thing I hungered for my
voice was the courage to hear one
another
hmm so I really thank you for that
because that is something that we have I
think in danger of losing we talk about
our freedom a lot but we don’t talk
about the courage to hear one another
that’s a great I wanted to ask you one
last question you said so many moving
profound amazing things tonight
I’m just wondering what’s the kind of if
you if there were one truth that you
would leave us with what’s the truth you
would like to leave us with at the end
of it all he’s still alive so he’s still
going but dad took me down to the
sambisa River one day and from his farm
that he now is preparing to die on he
can see Zimbabwe where my three siblings
are buried and where he fought an unjust
war for ten years she will acknowledge
he’ll say I was brainwashed
I spoke blood I shouldn’t have spilt but
man will not raise a gun now so he has
been five years ago he was some robbers
came I think they got the wrong chap
thought I had money who’s quite proud of
the fact and they broke his nose knocked
a tooth out and he hasn’t had it fixed
but he says pipe fixes sticks in there
quite well and everyone after that said
you got to get a gun he says no no and I
know what he means he’s I know what he
means
so we were because we weren’t even drunk
it was breakfast and he said to me the
proper journey has taken alone and if I
told you that people died on that
journey and maybe don’t come back from
it but it will be lonely and that people
will tell you you’re crazy you might not
have the courage to go so I won’t tell
you those things
thank you so very much
Oh
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