Coventry-based, African horror writer Nuzo Onoh is breaking new ground with her intriguing novel The Reluctant Dead. Steeped in the Igbo tradition, Onoh is championing the genre and believes it’s time for female horror writers to be recognised more widely. Born in Enugu, in the Eastern part of Nigeria (formerly known as The Republic Biafra), she lived through the Biafran War (1967 – 1970), an experience that continues to influence her writing.
Onoh holds a law degree and has an MA in creative writing from Warwick University. Occasionally writing under the pseudonym Alex Stranger-Onoh, Onoh also runs her own independent self-publishing house, Canaan-Star Publishing. She tells Joy Francis why African horror is a new genre, why women readers need to support female horror writers more and why the masculine image of horror writing is changing.
When did you first become interested in horror as a genre, and who are your favourite horror writers?
I became interested in horror as a writer 20 years ago. I’ve always been interested in reading horror, especially Amos Tutuola’sThe Palm Wine Drinkard, a book about ghosts. Although that was my very first introduction to horror books, I was alsoto drawn to the horror genre through my experience of the Biafran War. As a child I was surrounded by death and we were told stories of witches, ghosts, demons and supernatural beings. You would go to bed petrified, not just because of the stories, but because of the dead bodies you would stumble across during the course of the day.
When did you start writing?
I started writing ghost stories in the 1990s. I then put them aside and forgot about them. When I went back to university [Warwick] recently to do an MA in creative writing, we discussed finding your voice as a writer. To do this I went back to my original stories and read them to my daughter [actress Candice Onyeama]. She said, mum this is what you love, and she thought it was a great story. I went through all my old stories and began rewriting and redrafting them. It took me nine months to finish my book, The Reluctant Dead.
Your book, The Reluctant Dead, champions the African horror genre. What is it about?
The Reluctant Dead contains six ghost stories all dealing, in some way, with manifestations, reincarnations and hauntings. They are tales of revenge and unfinished business, hence the title. In Igbo culture we view death differently. Unlike Western culture, where you die of natural or unnatural causes, in Igboculture we have four categories of death: sudden death (murder), natural death, very bad or evil death (suicide, execution) and sad death (dying without having kids, thereby ending the bloodline). The type of death will determine the the kind of ghost that will return, and the kind of haunting you will get. In my book, I try to show all of the deaths. In one story, a wife comes back to do a terrible haunting on her husband and his mistress after her sudden and unexpected death. With a sudden death, the person doesn’t realise they are dead and tend to hang around.
You’ve said that African horror is a new genre, yet horror books by African writers have been around for decades.
I call African horror a new genre as Amos Tutuola, who also wrote My Life in a Bush of Ghosts, was the only African horror writer at the time, in the 1950s. His books initially attracted critical reviews as he wrote in pigeon English. It was felt that he was reflecting Africa in a negative light, with what was seen as bad grammar. What he was doing was being true to the dialogue and the story. His books are now considered African classics. After him, you would find African writers who wrote horror stories, but not about Africa per se. Helen Oyeyemi’s book [The Icarus Girl] is a lovely book but it is not set mainly in Africa. The author is British and her story starts in London. Another writer, Nnedi Okorafor (a Nigerian-American award-winning writer) writes African sci-fi that is absolutely amazing, but my stories are 100 percent set in Africa. As with all regional genres, like the Korean or Scandinavian horror stories, they have to be 100 percent based in the locality or region to be authentic. I’ve set my stories in Igboland. My characters are 100 percent African. The storytelling style is in line with the oral tradition of folktales told in Nigeria. That is what makes my African horror new. It depicts core Igbo traditions, beliefs and practices and they are all ghost stories.
It’s interesting that the horror genre has such a masculine image from Clive Barker to Stephen King, yet the genre has a significant female following and some great women writers. Why do you think that is?
This masculine image is changing. Sumiko Saulson, who wrote 60 Black Women in Horror, shows that black women are contributing to the genre. These days, a lot of women are writing horror, but under a male pseudonym, to get the readership. The fact we are seen as the ‘gentle sex’ means people don’t associate the ability to go down the dark route of horror with women. If you are a woman who writes horror then something is wrong with you, or you are not quite normal. In Africa, they may even say you are possessed. Anne Rice broke the mould with her horror series [The Vampire Chronicles], but we are our own worst enemy as many women would rather read horror books by men than by women. You have to be exceptional for a woman to trust you as a reader. Thankfully, more women are beginning to write horror in their own name. I’m lucky in that I haven’t written a Western horror, which is a more difficult genre to break into. I’m writing in a genre that is unique to me and which only a few people can write.
You are also a publisher. How long have you been doing that and why did you start?
I’ve been a publisher since 2012. When I did my degree at Warwick University, we had literary agents who came in to talk to us. They drummed it into us that we wouldn’t get an agent or get a publishing contract easily, and that it was tough out there. I thought – I’m not going to be held hostage to anyone. Gone are the days of solely traditional publishing when you write a book and have no control. I set it [Canaan-Star Publishing] up to publish my own books, but my writer friends began to ask me to publish their books and now I publish the works of others.
What next for you?
I’m planning my next book. The working title is Our Bones Will Rise Again. It is set in Igboland and focuses on the tragedy that took place in 1803 on St. Simons Island in America, when a group of Igbo slaves opted to drown in the water en masse rather than to be taken into slavery. Their ghosts are said to still haunt the Island. I want to give the story an African ending, to bring the ghosts back to Africa. It is about unfinished business for them as they are still in America, where they drowned. The book should be out in 2015.
What advice would you give to new writers?
Go and take a course in writing. Nothing beats doing a professional course. That way you know exactly how to structure your book and discipline yourself to write. That is why I went back to university. I was almost 50. I thought – I can’t do a full time course, so I did it part time over two years. Write something you are comfortable with. Find your genre, one that you have the passion to write for. Initially, I was writing for the sake of writing and not focusing on what I enjoyed, which is horror. It wasn’t fun as I was writing for other people and not for me. It sounds more natural when your passion is present, and you are more likely to stick with it. Also build an internet profile as you might get noticed. Finally, just get the story out of your head.
The Reluctant Dead is available through www.amazon.com and www.amazon.co.uk and can also be ordered from WH Smith and Waterstones.