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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2022
Born in Akure, Nigeria to Igbo parents, Chigozie Obioma's writingdraws on the rich cultural heritage of the Yorùbá town he grew upin, his Igbo ancestral home and the English language he writes in.His novels The Fishermen (2015) andAn Orchestra of Minorities (2019),both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, immerse the reader in arecognizable, yet mystical world. It is this combination ofrealistic portraits of places and historical episodes, layered witha palpable spiritual dimension, which has led Obioma to describe hiswork as ‘mystical realism’. Obioma introduces his reader toparticular ways of seeing the world, rooted in Igbo and Yorùbábelief systems and worldviews. Rather than narrate details of thesecultures, Obioma immerses his reader into worlds in which thespiritual realm and the land of the living, coexist on the sameplane. For Obioma, his writing seeks to present the world as thecommunities he writes about experience it. His acclaimed debutnovel, The Fishermen, set during theturbulent years of General Sani Abacha's rule in Nigeria, followsthe story of four brothers who receive a devastating prophecy, thatthe eldest brother, Ikenna, will be killed by one of his youngerbrothers. The mythic and the real merge as the brothers’relationship breaks down and their lives are forever altered.An Orchestra of Minorities isnarrated by the ancient chi1 of theprotagonist, Chinonso, who must make a case to Chukwu, the SupremeBeing, following a series of tragic events involving Chinonso.Chinonso risks everything he has for Ndali, the woman he loves, andis left with the trauma of losing it all – including Ndali.
This interview opens up conversations on the generic category,‘mystical realism’, created by Chigozie Obioma in an effort toremedy misreading of his work. It considers the paradoxes that areat play in Nigeria, the intersections of the ‘real’ and the‘imagined’ and Obioma's current and future writing projects.
LE: One of the first questions I actually wanted toask you emerges out of a conversation we have had before when Iremember you discussing your work and calling it ‘mysticalrealism’. I wanted to ask you for a definition of ‘mysticalrealism’.
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