The International Futures event, chaired by Kamila
Shamsie, featured three young writers who all expounded upon the theme of
‘identity’. Identity seems to have been the thread that tying together
heaven and earth throughout all of the Free the Word discussions. The word is a definer, a divider,
something that separates what it signifies from the adjoining world; and yet it
also makes the conceptualization of individuals available to the outside
world. It makes one person’s
definitions and dramas, and thus identities, available to another.
Petina Gappah, a native of Zimbabwe currently residing in Switzerland, is a human rights lawyer and an author. She read from her collection of short stories, An Elegy for Easterly, (an excerpt of which is available in the PEN International Magazine) that involve dramatic vignettes about transcontinental life between Africa and Europe. What happens to the folks left at home, those making a new life far away, and most intriguingly the relationship that continues to perpetuate between these places through letters, phone-calls, and other exchanges, like time and money.
Bertrand Besigye is Norwegian poet, originally from Uganda, and as he stridently informed the audience, he was the first poet of African origin to write and publish a book in Norwegian, and his book And you die so slowly you think you are living was the most sold book of poetry ever in Norway. His interest in poetry was very much inspired by Walt Whitman’s enthusiastic celebrations of life, and he wanted to bring this lyrical energy to Norwegian poetry.
Kynpham
Sing Nongkynrih is a Khasi poet who writes about where he grew up, the English
translation is “Abode of the Clouds”. Indeed, he spoke about the prominent role the English
language, which used to be the official state language in Meghalaya, has in his
culture – native speakers of Indian languages often have an English
accent. As a translator, his use
of English is flavoured by the development of the use of English alongside that
of Khasi. He writes in both languages
and translates between them – especially Khasi folk
tales.
In world literature, you may be exposed to a tale from a place from which, previously, you had never heard a tale, or maybe, you never even knew this place existed. And then you hear one person’s version of events, of psychological dramas, of this place’s problems and beautiful moments… Writers, for the most part, are not elected political representatives; in fact they often tell the marginalized story, the tale of the unrepresentative, the odd and the misfit. All of these authors’ work relate multiple cultural identities that exist simultaneously within individuals, an increasing occurrence in our collective “International Futures”.
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