In the first of a three part series on African sci-fi, self published author Tosin Coker reveals that she had no plans to be a writer, or to write for the genre. Yet a challenge set by a friend to write 2000 words on random topics led to the creation of her first book in a five part series The Mouth of Babes. Coker explains her unconventional writing journey, why Octavia E. Butler is her role model and why she isn’t wholly comfortable with the label African sci-fi writer.
It seems I was the last to be aware that I had what it took to be an author, let alone one who preferred the sci-fi genre. Yet everyone around me had already taken off with the idea and frequently asked when I would start writing a book. Then, one day in June 2007, a friend texted me a challenge: that I write a 2000 word feel-good short story which included a black panther, a waterfall, mayonnaise and a photograph.
I had a week to complete the task, but for the first five days I merely toyed with ideas. It was only on the sixth day when I actually started to write. I admit to having failed based on the technicality that I exceeded the word count, but the story became my author debut: The Mouth of Babes.
I didn’t start out with the intention of writing sci-fi. In fact, as my book unfolded to reveal its identity, I became frozen by anxiety. I held the genre in such high regard I didn’t feel like I had the right to submit to it. So I searched for the permission of another black female who had already done it.
The name my Google search revealed was Octavia E. Butler. That was all I needed to know. I hadn’t read any of her work, but she existed. That was enough of an incentive for me to push forward. It could be said that she is my role model, more so now I have read some of her work.
The world has defined my work as Afrofuturism, or African sci-fi, but I don’t think of either of these things when I write. Yes, I am an African who writes sci-fi, but the scene of my writing is not set in the Motherland. I simply write science fiction with characters I recognise and relate to. In short, they look like me and share in my experiences as a black African woman, born and raised in the diaspora.
I don’t write about people like me being adversely affected by racism, sexism, financial or social class. I write about the potential expressed when they cease to be a prevalent issue. I write about the world I see when I close my eyes and dare to dream. That equates to empowered characters. Sure, they have their own shortcomings and personal nemesis which hold them captive, but ultimately they are free of, or have overcome the issues which continue to be factors in our societal progression as a people today.
Science fiction allows me to freely express a cross between my existential view of the world, and my position in it. As a result, my books are also metaphysical in nature. For example, one of my characters – Maya Kingsley – is a relationship therapist who, after hearing so much about failing marriages through her clients, inadvertently self sabotages her own, leaving herself to become a single mother to a daughter whose destiny relies heavily on being raised by both parents.
Due to the destruction of her relationship, her late mother takes matters into her own hands and sends the child, whose name is Destiny, a virus which forces her into a coma so she can transported to the spiritual realm to remind her why she incarnated.
The biggest impeding issue is fear. Fear of not being enough or even being deserving of having that which seems so difficult for others to obtain. The concept of fear being a paralysing contagion is explored within almost every character, while Destiny Kingsley’s true identity and origin is slowly unravelled.
While writing The Mouth of Babes, I faced many of my own fears. I expected to be shunned for the expression of my views, and my humble attempt at sci-fi. So much so that although I published my book in September 2007, I didn’t make it available for purchase until May 2009. And that was only after being threatened with a fine by the Legal Deposit Libraries.
Naturally it astounded me to have readers comment on how much they related to my book; some even viewed it as a form of self help. One reader said that my book had become like her second bible, while another refuses to accept that after five books in the series, I feel I have completed that story arc. He has given me suggestions on how to continue it further.
In terms of producing my books, my journey led me to opt for self-publishing. Things have changed a little now, but the method of submitting to agents for them to then submit your work to publishers, seems tedious. And after the rumours of what had befallen Sophia Stewart [who it is alleged wrote the original manuscript on which the Matrix movie is based], I was less than trusting of sending my novel out to the relevant parties.
As for reaching my audience, I can’t say whether or not I have experienced hindrances based on being a writer of colour, because unfortunately self-publishing comes with a stigma of its own.
My marketing efforts have been extensive, though haphazard at times, and pursued without professional assistance until last year when I decided to do something different for my latest release, Chronicles of Zauba’ah.
I sought professional PR assistance, albeit on a limited budget, but I guess you get what you pay for. I had hoped for an outcome which would overshadow my personal efforts, but I’d say the results were similar, if not less productive.
This is where I believe the terms ‘Afrofuturism’ or ‘African sci-fi’ become necessary, even though I dislike the former and feel like a bit of a charlatan by claiming the latter. It enables people to have a term they can use to search for sci-fi authors of colour, whereas the term ‘black sci-fi’ generates a very different response, totally unrelated to race.
In part two of the series, Ronke Lawal will review Tosin Coker’s latest book Chronicles of Zauba’ah.