Nature as Resistance : A conversation between Akal Mohan & Emily Pensulo
An interview by Akal Mohan in Kenya with Emily Pensulo in Zambia.
Akal: Hi Emily, you are the first fiction writer in the 2024 Ubwali Hope Prize shortlist that I am interviewing, so you have the honour of teaching me how to say ‘Hello’ in any Zambian language.
Emily: First, I am honoured! Really, it’s amazing and exciting to be on the shortlist. Haha, yes! So ‘Mwabayumi? Muli bwanji? Muli shani? Muli uli? Muli tyani? Muzuhile chwani?’
This is how we greet in Soli, Nyanya, Bemba, Tumbuka, Chewa and Lozi.
Akal: I’ll go with “Muli bwanji?” Congratulations on making it to the shortlist.
Emily: Thank you so much.
Akal: Your story––Let’s talk about it.
I must say that after reading your story, I envied how you infused orality in your narration. It felt like I was listening to a story around a fireplace, just like in the ancient days. Tell me about this technique, how did you get to it?
Emily: I think I sort of evolved into it. It’s like for every story, I am a different person and have a different mindset and the technique follows my thoughts. This technique felt right for this story since it was set in a bygone era, and also, I was in this place where I felt I had something I really wanted to say.
Akal: In my opinion, you did this technique justice. In my country, one of the largest tribes - the Kikuyus, have/had the Mugumo tree. They believed that if anyone went around the tree seven times, their gender changed. Similarly, the Mofwe tree carries a myth of its own. I don’t want to give spoilers, but tell us more about this tree. How did it come to you?
Emily: Thank you!
I guess the inspiration for me really started when I took a trip to the Southern province years ago. I visited an archaeological site called the Ing’ombe Ilede which means ‘a sleeping cow.’ It’s a fallen baobab tree which looks like a sleeping cow. What amazed me about the tree was how it had existed for thousands of years. Since then, I always wanted to write something about a tree.
So when I started the story, the Mofwe tree felt right for it. It’s a native tree which can sometimes grow as long as 35 metres and have a girth of at least 3 metres.. There is one that stands in the Kasanka National Park. Legend has it that it was a burial place for Chiefs and Headmen. Not sure if axes ever cut arms and feet but it is said that this is the reason the tree has never been felled.
Akal: Did you find any anthropological accounts of this tree during your research? What made you choose the years you use in the story? I mean, why 1964 or 1970 and not 1965 or 1969?
Emily: Yes, a little. In Zambia, there is a Mofwe tree in the Kasanka National Park that is said to have been used as an ancient burial ground for royal Chiefs and Headmen. Usually, such places are considered sacred, which is to say, there are paranormal activities around the area.
There is also a Mofwe tree in the city of Ndola which was declared a National Monument by our first Republican President, Kenneth Kaunda. This was in 1976, and it was to commemorate the first year of our participation in World Forestry Day. Legend has it that this tree is a ‘Ngulu.’ A spirit house where the spirit of a dead chief lives.
The years in the story were chosen to coincide with significant times in Zambian history. Of how life changed for many Zambians. For example, 1964 is when we got our independence. By the early 1990s, there was a big disparity between the rich and the poor.
Not sure if this is a spoiler or if I’m getting ahead of myself, but the inspiration for the story was Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. I remember reading this quote in a local newspaper commenting on the book. It said, ‘When the values that hold society cohesive can no longer hold, things fall apart.’
The Mofwe tree is symbolic of the values that hold society cohesive. How, with time, values can corrode, and the corrosion of these values can harm a community. In the story, in one way or another, many of the gardeners were hired because of the Mofwe tree. When it fell, many of them lost their jobs.
Akal: Before they lost their jobs, before they were hired, before everything else, there was the beginning, and this is how you open your story. “The Mofwe Tree” is ‘set’ on the third day (interesting that you used set and not any other word). In your second paragraph, you reveal to us that the British tried cutting it down. A depiction of land grabbing. Their greed, really. They did not realise that their greed destroyed our values.
If the Mofwe tree is symbolic of values, what do you have to say about them trying to upset our values?
Emily: I opened with the beginning of time and the Mofwe tree being set on the third day to illustrate how values have existed since the beginning of time or at least for as long as societies have existed.
Yes, the British trying to cut down the tree symbolises the land grab (scramble for Africa) and also them trying to take away African values and culture and impose their own. In Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The River Between, he gives a good illustration of how the British tried to and could not completely succeed in imposing their values.
What do I have to say about them trying to upset our values?
I think that as we do not have the moral right, they, too, did not have the moral right to decide what values our societies should be governed by. This is not to say we cannot learn from them or them from us, good values that can help our societies flourish for the betterment of all. In our modern times, this refers not just to the British but to the West in general.
Akal: True. Absolutely. Values stand, they flourish just like in your story when the Mofwe tree refuses to be cut, and instead, it cuts their arms and feet. I recently read this essay by the Nigerian writer, T.J Benson, and basically, he was talking about the magical impact nature has on him, us. Part of the magic of nature is resistance. Time and again nature has proved to be greater than humans. The Mofwe tree resists cutting to further affirm the same. Why was this resistance significant in the story? For a minute I thought you were going for a magical realism piece, but then I had to hold on and think of what really is magical realism in the African context. This is a truth. A truth that has a historical backing. My question to you is on writing nature. Men keep forgetting that nature is eternal. Why can’t man let nature be? See climate change. See global warming. See deforestation. But still, nature stands.
Emily: Oh, T.J Benson––top guy. I had the pleasure of learning from him during a writer’s workshop. He has a unique perspective and a way of putting it into a short story or an essay.
The resistance was significant in the story to affirm a truth about mankind and nature. Once men are sold on an idea or value, it’s always difficult to make them change their ways. For example, a man or woman who is a thief (definitely a bad value system) will continue to steal despite hearing of thieves who were caught or killed while stealing.
Likewise, the earth has stood for trillions of years to make sure we can live on it. The fact that we are able to breathe today shows that the earth has been resilient through all this time.
I guess in this time of climate change, the resistance of nature gives me hope. That the earth will, with our efforts, repair. That it will continue to exist for many years. That we will not wake up tomorrow and have our way of life completely altered because the earth has ceased to exist as it is.
Akal: May the earth repair!
It has been nice talking to you, Emily. Sadly this has to end. We both have to return to our desks and face blank pages. But before then, as we part, what is your hope for Zambian literature? Are writers doing their creative duties? If they are, which writers would you recommend we look out for?
Emily: It’s been a real pleasure. I have enjoyed myself. Thank you so much.
I’m really hopeful about Zambian literature. If you had asked me this some years back, my answer would have been different.
I think Zambians and Africans have a lot to offer the global literary scene. My hope is that we will have more internationally acclaimed writers.
Are writers doing their creative duties? I think we are beginning to do so. The writing craft requires practice and perfection. Honestly, I am guilty of having been one of those who did not put in the effort to hone my craft. But I’m a changed person now. There is value in committing to writing even when you don’t want to, and also in learning from the best.
I see more and more work from Zambian writers that is world-class. I would say Mubanga Kalimamukwento, Namwali Serpell, Bwanga Kapumpa, Mali Kambandu, Mukandi Siame, Jacob M’hango, Peter Nawa. There are others, but I guess these are the ones I can get off the top of my head.
AKAL MOHAN is a Kenyan short story writer, essayist and poet. He has previously been shortlisted for the Africa Writers’ Award in poetry. Akal is also a 2023 Idembeka Creative Writing fellow and Ibua Novel Manuscript workshop attendee. In 2022, he was a recipient of two digital residencies organised by the University of East Anglia, one of which resulted in a short story collection that he contributed to. Akal reads in trust and writes in faith. He is an editorial assistant at Ubwali Literary Magazine.
EMILY PENSULO is a Zambian writer and economist. Her writing has appeared in the Bulletin and Record, Zacci Journal, Down River Road and Ubwali. In 2018, Emily was longlisted for the Kalemba Prize for her short story, Dowry. In 2022, she was a scriptwriter for Lifeblood, directed by a BAFTA-nominated director. She was a fellow of the inaugural Inkubator program in 2022, and three of her short stories were published in May 2024 in Captive: an anthology. In early 2024, Emily was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her short story, Celebrity. She is shortlisted for the inaugural Ubwali Hope Prize for her short story The Mofwe Tree.
