A Letter Away From Asaba: A Novella

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Why did you choose this particular style of narration? How does it compliment the message you are trying to get across? You mention in the foreword that you received a book deal from an independent publisher but instead decided to self-publish. Could you tell us more about this decision? How was the process from writing to the final product?

What next for Claudia Efemini? Will you focus on writing novels after you complete your degree? If so, have you got another story you want to tell? A Letter Away From Asaba, an epistolary novella, is a historical fictional narrative centred on the Asaba massacre of the Nigerian Civil War. The story follows the lives of best friends Onome and Chioma. Onome is an international student from Nigeria studying law at King’s College London whilst Chioma lives in Asaba, Nigeria. Chioma experiences the Asaba massacre, an overlooked and traumatic event of the war, and is forced to confront issues of censorship, grief, and trust. Whilst in London, Onome notices the blatant censorship of the event within the British press. Through a series of diary entries and letters these two young women attempt to come to grips with the massacre and fulfil their desire of publicising its existence in opposition to this censorship. This is far from easy, and they await a series of hurdles in ways they least expect that, in contrast, try to ensure that the victims of the massacre die in vain. In the book you explore the idea of being ‘changed’ by being in the West, where did you pull that from? Writing has always been a huge hobby of mine. Growing up as a child, I would start writing different kinds of novels all the time, but I would always lose motivation around the third or fourth chapter. However, in my final year of the IB diploma programme, I wrote my History Extended Essay on press censorship of the Asaba massacre, a tragic event that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. That essay never really left my mind. Even as I continued into university, I was still captivated by how under-researched and neglected it was within the scholarship.

I think it can. I think people who look like me need to be sat at the table when discussing these issues, which is why I mentioned staffing, as that determines what’s available to students. More people need to be involved in the process of decolonising. I hope this book contributes to the movement and that the people who read it look into history. Even though historical fiction isn’t scholarly, it is a way for people to engage with historical discourse on a more relaxed level. I appreciated the ending because it was hopeful rather than final. They were unable to achieve their objectives of resisting British censorship and obtaining justice for the Asaba massacre victims, which, in my opinion, held a more important lesson. Sometimes our need to achieve a thing causes us to lose sight of the bigger picture, we burn ourselves out with rage or frustration leaving us with nothing. The ending left us hoping that someone would someday locate the letters (maybe even write a book about it) and tell their story. Both characters were bold, courageous, and brilliantly written; they accomplished much more than individuals at their (fictional) time were able to.

The book is narrated by two young Nigerian women, one of whom is now a student in London, the other still living in Nigeria in the wake of the massacre. What did you hope to achieve in presenting two such different perspectives and the effect this has on the women’s relationship? Do you feel there are parts of your own experience reflected in the characters? (Being at university, in the diaspora, being Nigerian in the UK) You are nothing without a community! This is really a proverb that I have flipped into a slightly less exciting sequence of words, but really means “it takes a village to raise a child”. Every opportunity I sought after during my internship was championed by each of these interns. Ndubuisi reminded me that he was my comrad in all things finding a way to better represent Africa in UK curriculums and abroad, which gave me a strong foundation of knowledge and support.Through this project, I wanted to illustrate the brutality students faced while protesting their rights during the Soweto uprising. For this reason, I chose the mask as an element to put the viewer in the same position as the Soweto students» Alicia Though the book’s focus is historical, does it reflect themes in Nigerian politics today, specifically with the recent elections in February? I think there’s a staffing issue. There’s only so much you can decolonise if you don’t have people that specialise in certain areas. There are scholars out there, but you don’t see them at our university, or really the UK in general. America seems to have a lot more diversity in what they offer. Also reading lists; I am taking a course about contemporary Africa, and we had a reading list where every author was a white man. I think diverse reading lists are so important because not only does it enrich your knowledge, but it also introduces you to so many different perspectives.