“Understanding culture and the world beyond is a task that writers have mastered…”
Digital illustration by Giovana Fleck for Global Voices.
When was your first time experiencing a different culture beyond your geographic location?
My first encounters were with Peter and Jane in the Lady Bird series as a child, then I moved on to Goosebumps and Sweet Valley High where I encountered characters like Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield navigating the dynamics of American teenage life, then at school, Chinua Achebe broadened my view of Africa through the way things fall apart in Okonkwo in Igboland and introduced me to the existence of pidgin languages.
I often feel and learn about new cultures through books. When I first boarded a long-distance bus to Uganda in 2014, that is, when I left my home country, Kenya, for the first time, I realized that the outside world was not a stranger to me because I learned about many dynamics between humans and humanity through books. I was seeing the world through words.
There are many places in the world that I have intricately related to and empathize with, particularly with different social, political and economic structures. Books take me to worlds past, present and future, like Adebayo's Stay With Me set in Nigeria, Min Jin Lee's Panchiko traversing Asia and America, or Wangari Maathai's Unbowed, which captures Kenya's political history in vivid detail.
Understanding a culture and the world outside of it is a mastered task for writers. This huge responsibility of bringing any form of fiction or non-fiction to the world is no mean feat. In my world, writers are geniuses who create other worlds in our minds, who take on the mission of representing cultures and issues, and who tell stories with authority that impact our emotions.
Faith Mwangi, a senior strategic communications professional and avid reader based in Nairobi, Kenya, is a member of a book club called Books and Beyond. In our WhatsApp conversation, Mwangi tells me that each book offers a unique perspective and allows her to explore the nuances and diversity of different societies. Mwangi's literary journey has broadened her horizons, deepened her empathy, questioned her own preconceptions, and made her more aware of the complexities of human nature. I agree.
Reading has always been a window into a world beyond my immediate environment. As a Kenyan woman with a lifelong fascination with diverse cultures, my passion for books has deeply enriched my understanding of the vast tapestry of human experience. I am particularly drawn to African authors whose stories resonate with my own experiences, and to authors from far-flung lands whose lives and cultures are beautifully unfamiliar and sometimes surprisingly familiar.
As our present lives evolve, we seek to find answers to the question, “How did we get here?” Fiction and non-fiction, especially books set in Africa, such as Francis Imbuga's “Betrayal in the City,” Yaa Gashi's “Homegoing,” and Margaret Ogolla's “River and the Source,” have helped me understand the current situation and why colonial legacies are still alive in our socio-economic systems. At the same time, literature has also created spaces of opportunity for us to consciously inspire and promote our ideals and shape a history that is sustainable for future generations.
Each book allows you to see the world through the eyes of the author and witness the experiences of the people you are reading about. Abdi Latif, East Africa correspondent for The New York Times, spoke to me over WhatsApp about how important books have been in helping him understand his culture through the words of his fellow ethnic authors.
Books have made me value not only other cultures, but myself, my environment, my family and friends. Sometimes I read books by authors who share my Somali background, and I learn a lot about my culture from them. For example, Nurdin Farah’s 1980 book Sweet and Sour Milk explores Somalia’s oppressive political system through twin brothers. Meanwhile, Nadifa Mohammed explores her roots in her semi-autobiographical book Black Mamba Boy, depicting her father’s journey across Sudan, Egypt, Palestine and the Mediterranean. These two and other Somali authors have helped me understand that there are diverse experiences within every culture, and that we need to value all of those experiences. The best books do just that: they help me navigate the world of others, but also the world I’m in.
In life, we experience triumphs and witness injustices at the same time. These are told through our own experiences and those of others. Chimamanda Adichie, one of Africa's most insightful writers, put it this way in an interview with the Financial Times:
When we think about war, non-fiction and fiction are equally important. The role of a fiction writer who deals with the subject of war is to use their imagination to excavate emotions, feelings, and what I call humanity. I think fiction should tell you how war felt, and non-fiction should tell you what happened. I don't know if I would have been able to write Half of a Yellow Sun if I had lived through the Biafra war in Nigeria. I think there is a gap not only in time but also in not having experienced the war firsthand, so in a way I am carrying on the memory.
Whether we are trying to understand history, human behavior, socio-economic and political structures, books open up a world of knowledge to us.
Corazon Kisil (@corriemwende) is a climate communications professional based in Nairobi. When not working, Corrie enjoys reading and keeping up with the latest happenings in the world of basketball.
