It was delightful to meet Aminatta Forna to record a video
interview for The
Interview Online although I do sympathise with the nonsense
writers have to go through just to publicise their book. As if it
weren't bad enough having your afternoon disrupted by a journalist,
you then have to pretend that you are lifelong friends when you
know damn well it's highly unlikely you'll ever see them again.
However for me I always, without fail, enjoy the
experience and do hope that when I leave it has been at least
slightly painless if not pleasant for the interviewee.
Most people are extremely gracious - offering you tea or coffee
while you rig the cameras. Both of you know this won't take all day
so we have to try and fast track the niceties and pretend that
we've already met a couple of times already. After I have taken
several photographs of her, Aminatta completely disarmed me by
saying that her husband's first career was as a photographer. Great
start eh? Still she has such distinctive features that even an
indifferent shot comes out well. Nonetheless I have agreed to let
her veto the shots before I publish any here or send them to Writer
Pictures. So if you see a photo here, you'll know it's been
OK'd
What did we talk about? Well apart from the book of course, we
discussed the role of aid agencies in developing countries. Her
views would provoke heated debate and as a founding trustee of Street
Child Africa, I do have some experience in the Third Sector.
When it comes to corruption in Africa we agree that of course it
happens, but then European governments are hardly squeeky
clean...
Her home is beautiful and dressing the frame is made easier by
her ornaments. The book is about posttraumatic stress in Sierra
Leone, although when pressed, she says that it's more about love
and relationships which could have taken place in any war torn
country.
The Memory of Love (published by Bloomsbury) follows the story
of Elias Cole in the mid 1960's in the west African country as well
as modern times when a young British psychiatrist Adrian comes to
help at a local hospital. Although Forna never actually names
the country, she has famously written about the Sierra Leone and
her dissident father in The Devil who Danced on the
Water. We can therefore only presume that it is that
country. We follows Adrian's friendship with surgeon Kai who looks
to America for his future while having to treat appalling injuries
as well as routine incidents in the local hospital. We also
follow Adrian's stubborn determination to treat Agnes whose
mental injuries are beyond western imagination. The novell is
enriched with a large large cast of characters, all of whom have to
survive on their own terms.
Archived as
Aminatta Forna | Street Child Africa | The Memory of Love | Bloomsbury publishing