BOOKS THEY READ: Kampire Bahana

How did you fall in love with books?
I cannot remember not loving books. My mother was a teacher of history and literature and she passed on her love of reading to all of her children through genetics, nurture and perhaps osmosis. We always had a well-stocked library at home and she never really placed any limitations on what we could read. I remember having an immense amount of pride when I first learnt how to read and wanting to read the entire children’s version of Heidi by Johanna Spyri on video camera. Thankfully for everyone involved, my father and the cameraman got bored.

Which book have you struggled to read but glad you completed it?
I am glad I read The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. I think that anyone with an interest in African nationalism should buckle down and read it because it is an important and inspiring text that covers philosophy, race, history and so much more. I almost gave up on the Lord of The Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien, the first one hundred pages are excruciating, but I really enjoyed it in the end.

Which books are memorable?
Memorable… hmmm, Flowers in the Attic by Virgina Andrews and The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry (though perhaps not for the right reasons… and I can’t say what reasons, you will have to read and be horrified for yourselves). Ousmane Sembene’s God’s Bits of Wood for having a surprisingly emancipated view of women for its time. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams for sheer hilarity.

Which books made you sad but you can read again?
I like a good sad book. Life doesn’t always have happy endings and neither should literature. Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions is poignant and excellent. I enjoyed The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion who writes about losing her husband. The dystopic vision in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower was incredibly sad, deeply beautiful, and inspiring in so many ways and I had to put down Cormac Macarthy’s The Road to have a good cry but I will read it again… eventually.

What kind of books do you give to people as presents?
People give me books as presents, it’s great!

Which books have you read several times?
The ones on the bookshelf at home, just because they have always been there when I had nothing else to read; the Harry Potter books and chicklit like Drop Dead Gorgeous by Katie Agnew. I have read and reread a lot of Roald Dahl, both children’s literature and adult short stories, not just because they are on the bookshelf but because I fall in love with them again every time.

Which writers have influenced your writing?
I love Douglas Adams and Hunter Thompson’s way of translating humour to a page. I love the magical realist style in third world settings, so Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Ben Okri are big favourites. Ama Ata Aidoo, Zora Neale Hurston and Zadie Smith are kickass black chicks. Octavia Butler and graphic novelists Warren Ellis and Allan Moore taught me to imagine bigger!

Which are some of the books that you think you must read?
I am dying to read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, which I have heard is amazing and none of the people who have it will lend it to me! Whenever I read about a new African author I want to read their books, as much Ben Okri as I can get my hands on especially the rest of his Famished Road trilogy.

Which books are you reading?
The Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen which had me at the blurb “This classic erotic tragedy…” and Fela: This Bitch of a Life by Carlos Moore on the life of Fela Kuti. Fela is one of my heroes and I read everything about him that I come across.