Pede Hollist, 2013 Caine Prize Shortlisted Writer, Interviewed by Vitabu
Pede Hollist
Pede Hollist (Arthur Onipede Hollist) is one of five shortlisted writers for the 2013 Caine Prize. A native of Sierra Leone, he is an associate professor of English at The University of Tampa, Florida. His interests cover the literature of the African imagination—literary expressions in the African continent as well as in the African diaspora. So the Path Does not Die (Langaa Press, 2012, Cameroon) is his
first novel. His short stories, “Going to America,” “BackHomeAbroad,” and “Resettlement” have appeared in Ìrìnkèrindò: A Journal of African Migration, on the Sierra Leone Writers Series Web site, and in Matatu 41-12 respectively. Vitabu caught up with Pede online.
first novel. His short stories, “Going to America,” “BackHomeAbroad,” and “Resettlement” have appeared in Ìrìnkèrindò: A Journal of African Migration, on the Sierra Leone Writers Series Web site, and in Matatu 41-12 respectively. Vitabu caught up with Pede online.
Vitabu: What were your thoughts when you first heard you'd been nominated for the Caine Prize?
Pede Hollist: Pleasantly surprised. I had even forgotten I was entered for it. Its significance is only now sinking in as I get
congratulatory messages and read through all that accompanies the prize for the winner and those short listed. Getting this stamp of approval is rewarding; it validates our efforts, especially when over the years the pattern of responses from publishers and competitions has been either to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’ or to not respond at all.
Vitabu: When did you become interested in writing fiction based on the Sierra Leonean immigrant experience?
Pede: Probably in the early 90s, after teaching Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts.” Critics described it as another contribution to America’s immigrant mosaic. And I thought I’d like to write about the African experience since it seems to be lost in the African-American experience. Then I read Alhansan Mansaray’s “A Haunting Heritage,” and Hannah Khoury’s “So Pretty an African.” Both of them are Sierra Leoneans and write grippingly about the Sierra Leone/African immigrant experience. They also inspired me to write. But then the decade of the 90s with the carnage in Liberia and Sierra Leone happened, and I suppose on some unconscious level I shelved the idea.
Like many others at that time, I was mostly focused on ensuring the well-being of my family who became refugees in various countries in West Africa and were later resettled in Europe, America, Australia and other parts of the world. By the end of the war, it seemed to me, a new Sierra Leonean migration pattern had established itself. In the colonial and immediate post-colonial period up to, say, the late 70s, Sierra Leoneans studied abroad and returned home. In the late 80s to now, Sierra Leoneans left home to settle in other lands. The Sierra Leonean immigrant experience is rich with material for any kind of creative undertaking—writing, music, etc.
Vitabu: The editor of BackHomeAbroad and Other Stories, your headline short story published in an SLWS anthology, described the title as "signifying the simultaneity of living abroad and being at home at the same time." Are your stories about displacement?
Pede: BackHomeAbroad is part of a collection titled “The Price and Other Short Stories from Sierra Leone,” but, yes, in a broad sense
displacement, whether through voluntary or involuntary migration, is a theme that surfaces in my stories. It is the nervous condition of first-generation immigrants, and one they must navigate and negotiate every day—at work, at home, in dealing with their US-born children and many other arenas. I try to present it as best as I know how.
Vitabu: Are your protagonists in “BackHomeAbroad” and “Foreign Aid” representative of Sierra Leonean immigrants?
Pede : No, the Sierra Leone immigrant experience is too broad and complex for my protagonists to be representative. Each short story
reflects what preoccupied me at a particular time. For example, there was a time when I heard and read a lot about how foreign aid to Sierra Leone is often misguided or misappropriated because of donor ignorance or arrogance. That inspired “Foreign Aid.” The story is a literary attempt to deal with economic issues without the jargon of the discipline. But the Sierra Leonean immigrant experience is not all about problems, struggles, and wars. There are also many success stories. In fact, there are too many other stories to tell before we ever get close to any representative experience.
Vitabu: Immigration reform is a major issue in America, with the debate about creating a path to citizenship for 11 million people. We hear a lot about the majority groups that make up this number but not so much about people from Africa in general. Do you think your stories are an artistic tribute to the thousands of unskilled, undocumented workers with accents?
Pede: I don’t focus enough on undocumented workers to justify calling the work a tribute to them. But if ever there was a time for their issues to be front and center, it would be now, right? I am concerned about political, social, and economic justice, but first and foremost I want to write enjoyable stories.
This interview was originally published on Vitabu Books and is published by permission. Visit Vitabu to read more interviews with African writers.
Pede Hollist: Pleasantly surprised. I had even forgotten I was entered for it. Its significance is only now sinking in as I get
congratulatory messages and read through all that accompanies the prize for the winner and those short listed. Getting this stamp of approval is rewarding; it validates our efforts, especially when over the years the pattern of responses from publishers and competitions has been either to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’ or to not respond at all.
Vitabu: When did you become interested in writing fiction based on the Sierra Leonean immigrant experience?
Pede: Probably in the early 90s, after teaching Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts.” Critics described it as another contribution to America’s immigrant mosaic. And I thought I’d like to write about the African experience since it seems to be lost in the African-American experience. Then I read Alhansan Mansaray’s “A Haunting Heritage,” and Hannah Khoury’s “So Pretty an African.” Both of them are Sierra Leoneans and write grippingly about the Sierra Leone/African immigrant experience. They also inspired me to write. But then the decade of the 90s with the carnage in Liberia and Sierra Leone happened, and I suppose on some unconscious level I shelved the idea.
Like many others at that time, I was mostly focused on ensuring the well-being of my family who became refugees in various countries in West Africa and were later resettled in Europe, America, Australia and other parts of the world. By the end of the war, it seemed to me, a new Sierra Leonean migration pattern had established itself. In the colonial and immediate post-colonial period up to, say, the late 70s, Sierra Leoneans studied abroad and returned home. In the late 80s to now, Sierra Leoneans left home to settle in other lands. The Sierra Leonean immigrant experience is rich with material for any kind of creative undertaking—writing, music, etc.
Vitabu: The editor of BackHomeAbroad and Other Stories, your headline short story published in an SLWS anthology, described the title as "signifying the simultaneity of living abroad and being at home at the same time." Are your stories about displacement?
Pede: BackHomeAbroad is part of a collection titled “The Price and Other Short Stories from Sierra Leone,” but, yes, in a broad sense
displacement, whether through voluntary or involuntary migration, is a theme that surfaces in my stories. It is the nervous condition of first-generation immigrants, and one they must navigate and negotiate every day—at work, at home, in dealing with their US-born children and many other arenas. I try to present it as best as I know how.
Vitabu: Are your protagonists in “BackHomeAbroad” and “Foreign Aid” representative of Sierra Leonean immigrants?
Pede : No, the Sierra Leone immigrant experience is too broad and complex for my protagonists to be representative. Each short story
reflects what preoccupied me at a particular time. For example, there was a time when I heard and read a lot about how foreign aid to Sierra Leone is often misguided or misappropriated because of donor ignorance or arrogance. That inspired “Foreign Aid.” The story is a literary attempt to deal with economic issues without the jargon of the discipline. But the Sierra Leonean immigrant experience is not all about problems, struggles, and wars. There are also many success stories. In fact, there are too many other stories to tell before we ever get close to any representative experience.
Vitabu: Immigration reform is a major issue in America, with the debate about creating a path to citizenship for 11 million people. We hear a lot about the majority groups that make up this number but not so much about people from Africa in general. Do you think your stories are an artistic tribute to the thousands of unskilled, undocumented workers with accents?
Pede: I don’t focus enough on undocumented workers to justify calling the work a tribute to them. But if ever there was a time for their issues to be front and center, it would be now, right? I am concerned about political, social, and economic justice, but first and foremost I want to write enjoyable stories.
This interview was originally published on Vitabu Books and is published by permission. Visit Vitabu to read more interviews with African writers.