Literary Safari

Read Literary Safari’s review of “Child of Dandelions” here.

Literary Safari: As a child growing up in Mombasa, you visited family in Uganda on many occasions. How did your childhood experiences influence or inspire the writing of this novel?

Shenaaz Nanji: I may have learned a little through osmosis. My father, despite his lack of schooling, wrote great articles as editor of a community magazine and signed articles with his initials, K.Z.A. popularly known as Kaza. My older brother, a voracious reader who devoured books, wrote 100 page-stories since he was 12 years old. I used to tag behind him, color his illustrations, read the books he’d recommend. Our best outing was a visit to the used bookstore. (There were no libraries at that time.) Then we’d trade these used books with friends.

When I grew up, Kenya & Uganda and Tanganyika was one region, called the East African Community with a common currency - similar to the states in the U.S.A. Initially, my parents lived in Uganda and then moved to Mombasa where I was born. Every year for two months, the maternal side of my family had a grand re-union - all the siblings gathered in Fort Portal in Uganda where my Bapa managed four farms. In fact the very day Idi Amin took power I was in Kampala and to my embarrassment cheered him at a rally, waving the Uganda flag, not knowing what was to follow.

LS: Were any of the characters in the novel or events inspired by true events?

Nanji: The story is Faction, a mix of facts and fiction. Some characters are real, some fictional. But every event in the story is based on history. We did have a one-eyed, very clever servant, Katana who left and rose to become a prosperous farmer. My Bapa owned farms in Fort Portal, one of which was Kasenda coffee farm. I visited my relatives in Uganda every year. And one of my uncles died mysteriously in the crises. We were told he had committed suicide. At that time there was such a mad rush to leave the country there was no time to investigate who’s and why’s.

LS: What were the challenges of writing this story? Being so close to it, did that make it more difficult or easier?

Nanji: Writing in general is as Sabine discovers like eating a golden ladhoo.

If you eat the sweet, you will regret it. If you don’t eat it, you will also regret it. (page 209)

Earlier versions of the story showed the military regime was wholly responsible for the crises. Later upon reflection, I learned that no one group of people is evil. There were many factors – poverty and class distinction, legacy of the colonial powers who carved up Africa like a pie, some Indians engaged in magendo, corruption, and Indians living in close-knit communities, refusing to integrate with ethnic Africans.

Ah! It would have been a totally different story if I had written it soon after the crises in Africa. Both the geographic distance and time have helped me view things with a different pair of glasses.

LS: The main character Sabine is a 15 year old who shoulders many expectations and worries. She is also gutsy - mustering up the courage to hire two undercover detectives to track down her missing uncle. Would a girl in 1970s Uganda really have been able to do this?

Nanji: Probably not. An Indian girl in 1970s in Africa would not hire detectives especially at the time of political crises. But what if she had? That’s what I wanted to find out.

LS: Sabine’s best friend Zena is caught between her loyalty to her Indian friend and to her uncle, an army general. As the political events unfold, their friendship unravels. And yet, their close friendship — we find out — is a rare occurrence in a country where communities tend to self-segregate. What were the challenges of writing about race relations and prejudice?

Nanji: In any close-knit community in any country, close friendship with ‘outsiders’ is a rare occurrence.. Take my example. I was born in Aga Khan Community hospital, lived at Aga Khan flats, went to Aga Khan school & attended Aga Khan prayer house everyday. How would I get the opportunity to integrate with ethnic Africans? It is only when I finished high school and attended the government public school that I made African friends and began to understand the African perspective better.

In writing the story, once again, I dwelt on the what-if factor. I wanted to explore what if Sabine had an African friend - would the dynamics of the crises change?

Does real friendship go beyond skin-color? After all, it is only through the friendship between Sabine and Zena that I could show the African perspective.

LS: One review I read online said the following about “Child of Dandelions”: “[The book] gives insight to the atrocities in other parts of the world that students here in the U.S. aren’t aware of. I really liked the book, as it gives a good idea of what people face in other countries who do not have the freedoms enjoyed in the US.” When it comes to multicultural literature, I often come across such sentiments — where readers (teachers, librarians) using a book to teach students about their own freedoms and the benefits of living in a democracy. Was that your intent in writing this book? If not, what was your motivation? Why does this story need to be told, and why through the voice of a young adult?

Nanji: I had no grand intentions to teach anyone. On the contrary, I wrote the story because I was searching for answers. When my children were growing up in North America, I told them about my life in Africa and why we left. My mind began to spin with questions I struggled to understand: how could an entire community that had lived for three generations suddenly be uprooted like weeds and expelled just because they were brown. Why was the rest of the world silent?

I searched for books in the library on such issues but came back empty handed. So I began to write to find the answers. I used the voice of a young adult because I was a teen at the time of the crises and also because I wrote for my children not knowing that they would grow up faster than the book. Then came the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and the massacre in Rwanda and I knew the story had to be told. Yes, the story takes place thousands of miles away in Africa, but the emotional experience of Sabine may transfer to the American readers as part of their own reality.

LS: You also explore themes of class in “Child of Dandelions.” For example, in one particularly poignant scene, Sabine’s driver Mzee takes her to a shantytown to visit her best friend’s brother. On this occasion, Sabine realizes how she has never known anything about Mzee’s family, or even his real name. How did your understanding of race and class dynamics change as you were writing this book?

Nanji: North America is different. Anybody here can achieve anything if they work hard. Meritocracy rules. In East Africa at that time, the challenge was not only race relations but the multiple levels of hierarchy. On the horizontal level, the whites (colonials) were masters and first class, Indians were middle class, ethnic Africans were third class and considered inferior. The second layer showed prejudices within the multiple Indian communities - like an Ismaili would rarely marry a Hindu. Diving deeper and zooming on any Indian family highlighted the importance of male chromosome and the presence of male dominance. It was so important for every Indian family to have a boy since girls were given away, boys carried the family name and legacy.

LS: Tell us about your research and writing process.

Nanji: I wish I had a formula. In the early phase, the process was random and chaotic, mostly trial and error and intuitive; not at all linear. Hmm I wonder how many trees I destroyed writing so many versions – when Sabine was 12, when she was 15, from the 1st person perspective then from the 3rd person, then from the Voice of Uganda – the radio’s point of view. Some versions detailed the 9 emotional states of Bharat Natyam because my daughter took dancing. Ah! I have piles of files with different features and focus. I learned that the best writing may be the bottom of the crap and that the power of a story sometimes comes from withholding information. What helped were real life experiences endured by my family & other exodees, feedback from my advisors (the story was my creative writing thesis in M.F.A. program), my writing group and family. Every setback made me more determined to succeed in conveying the message.

LS: Are there plans for a UK publication of this book?

Nanji: So far audio rights to CHILD OF DANDELIONS have been sold to Brilliance Audio. Second Story Press in Canada will publish it soon and Quebec is looking into translating the story into French. Publishing in U.K. would be great for the Indian diasporic community; it may help the youths deal with issues of home and identity and know what their parents endured. After all, to go forward, we must understand the past.

Related: Read School Library Journal’s interview with Nanji here.