Glamsquad Magazine May 2021

INTERVIEW
something like, “You know that part where such
and such happens,” and I would know why he
had reservations because I’d had them myself.
He would come up with an idea and I would
say, “Please give me time to think about it.” By
the next day, I would be in agreement, or at
least open to making changes. After we finished
the script, I let go. He sent me stills now and
then, but I wasn’t involved in the production. I
don’t even know how the film will be edited.
What is your opinion on the quality of movies
produced by Nigerians?
Kunle wasn’t the first director I worked with.
He wasn’t even the first director I talked to about
Swallow, but he was the first to make things
happen. I’m relatively new to the industry, but
I’ve followed the progression of Nollywood for
years. There is a lot of talent. However, people
aren’t always in the right roles. We have writers,
producers, actors and directors who are not
skilled at what they do, so the standard isn’t
always consistent. The joy, of course, is seeing
our lives play out on screen and, for better or
worse, I can’t look away.
From this experience, how would you suggest
the industry should move forward and be an
alternative voice pushing the black narrative?
I see Nollywood as an additional, rather than
alternative voice for the black narrative. We
need better scripts – of international standard.
We need to take time to develop scripts. It
shouldn’t be the norm to churn them out in a
matter of days. We need script readers who can
recognise good writing. In general, we need
people in the industry to find what they’re good
at doing, stick to it and develop their skills. When
that happens, the synergy will be amazing.
Let’s also talk about your other projects – your
forthcoming novel, The Bad Immigrant, and
your monologue, Ikoyi Girl.
What is the novel about? What inspired it and
what would you want the reader to come
away with?
I’d been living in the United States for
about ten years and I had a lot to say about
my experiences there. Once I found the right
voice, I was able to draft The Bad Immigrant. I
wrote it from the perspective of a Nigerian man
who was reluctant to migrate to America, but
ended up doing so for the sake of his family. As
the book description states, the novel exposes
the realities of migration, such as the strains of
adjustment and the stifling pressure to conform
without loss of identity. It covers a wide range
of issues, including interracial and interracial
tensions, and familial stresses exacerbated in a
new environment. With every novel I’ve written, I
would like readers to think they’ve spent time with
people, rather than fictional characters. This one
will be published in the US in November 2021.
What is the subject of the monologue? What is
your intention for it?
I drafted Ikoyi Girl in 2019, with the intention
of staging it in Nigeria. It is set in contemporary
Lagos, before the COVID-19 pandemic and
SARS protests, and it introduces a new voice
to Nigerian theatre – a millennial who is a selfconfessed
product of her elitist society. She gives
an account of unhappy events in her life, at the
end admitting that she is fortunate nonetheless.
Her ability to satirise Lagos society makes for
comedic moments, but her failure to admit
her complicity in the problems of that society
is tragic. It’s a work-in-progress. I’m hoping it will
eventually be produced for the stage, but in the
meantime a fellow writer, Chibundu Onuzo, has
read it online.
You had said in one interview that you were no
longer going to explore the African woman/
girl crafting her own liberation from social
expectations. Is The Bad Immigrant a deviation
from feminist narrative?
I was referring to Everything Good Will
Come, which has a feminist narrative. I have
revisited the girl/woman conflict in other books,
but my stories are not feminist stories. I’m not
consciously bound to ideology while I am writing.
My characters say whatever they want to say
and do whatever they want to do. I choose my
narrators carefully, though, as I have to be able
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