Novelist Ben Okri on the childhood trauma that drives his creativity
People shot, kids lying dead in the river, relations killed - Nigerian's searing memories of civil war, of how brave, but also how awful, men can be, and of the injustices of a 'mad' world have influenced him deeply
Our interview with Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri at a cafe in a Wan Chai hotel starts smoothly enough. We talk about Okri's first visit to Hong Kong, his planned visit to a Bruce Lee exhibition later that day - he's a martial arts fan - and the buzz of the book fair that was winding up at the exhibition centre next door, book lovers filling the hotel lobby and many probably oblivious to the fact that there was a literary heavyweight in their midst.
Okri, who wrote his first novel, Flowers and Shadows, in 1980, gained international acclaim when The Famished Road, the story of Azaro, an African spirit child living between the real and spiritual worlds, won the 1991 Booker Prize. Azaro's narrative is also found in Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). His other novels include In Arcadia (2002), Starbook (2007) and The Age of Magic (2014).
Okri's poetry is equally loved, but admitting to having read his poems but not his novels - this was, after all, to be an article about his life story and not a review or feature for the books section - was a regrettable move in hindsight.
What are you working on now? "A novel." Can you give a little bit away? "No, you never talk about novels that you're writing." Noted.
"Do you want to go for a walk?" he says to the British Council representative who had joined us in the lobby cafe. "There's two pairs of eyes on me - it makes it difficult."