Opoku Evans is a Ghanaian writer and
poet. He has just brought out a book titled The Outsider. Opoku explains here that it has not been easy street
for him...
What is your book all about...you
have said it is a novel, but it's quite slight and really a short novel...
OPOKU: Yes, it is fiction, a novella or novelette
depending on how you look at it. You know many many Ghanaians are based abroad,
and continue to travel daily. There is a particular man in my area who was abroad
in 3 African countries for like 30 years. We used to talk a lot. He's quite old
now and with very limited resources. He was always talking about his
experiences outside Ghana. How one remained a "foreigner"
"outsider" in those places no matter how much one tries to integrate.
Xenophobic incidents. How one is scared to come back to one's country through
it all, without lots of money...the way he talked, everything was so vivid. It
sparked my imagination and I found myself writing my book.
You self-published the book?
OPOKU: Yes. It's so difficult to get new books published, even in Ghana. Many publishers around the world ask one to pay for bringing a book out anyway, and I know people who have spent very large amounts of money in this way for nothing. I think it's better to print the book locally and distribute it as best as one can. I have read about this self-publishing stuff and I know there is nothing that says a writer can not publish a book himself – great writers like Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, Ken Saro Wiwa did so...
You are not afraid to try to distribute the book yourself?
OPOKU: No. I am well aware that many writers who brought out their books themselves went into literary oblivion, but this also applies to many who publish with so called big professional firms too. I think one should distribute one's work in the right places, to literary centres, to people who appreciate books - like you. You are a critic yourself, and you have a blog mainly on literature. I know it's a good investment for me when I give you a copy of my book free!
Well, thanks! Ghanaian literature has always been very rich over the decades...you said earlier that you appreciate some of the all-time greats of Ghana literature
OPOKU: Correction sir, they are greats of African literature, though they are, or were Ghanaians. Ayi Kwei Armah is my all-time favourite, one of the best in the world. The late Kofi Awoonor too was superb, and it was so sad that he had to die that way as an old man (killed by terrorists in Kenya). Mama Efua Sutherland too was a great African writer, playwright. Ama Ata Aidoo is still very much alive after publishing a of fine works around the world. Others like Asare Konadu have made their mark worldwide too, if not to the extent of Armah. For us younger ones, perhaps those of us at home are largely struggling...but that's life.
