Cameroonian writer Joyce Odera Nwankwo was shortlisted for The Island Prize for her fiction manuscript “Delightful Cage.” The recently launched The Island Prize is a manuscript prize awarded to African writers for their debut fiction.

In the third of a series of Q&As with shortlisted authors, Joyce Odera talks about “Delightful Cage.” She also talks about why she values “scathing honesty” in exploring her characters’ emotional lives. Nwankwo was born and raised in Cameroon. She is fluent in English and French and works as an admin assistant. She describes herself as “a lover of history, art, beaches, fresh fruits, boxing, and conversing with strangers.”

Interviewer

Tell us a little bit about your novel.

Joyce Odera Nwankwo

Delightful Cage is a story about a complex, and in some ways, a deeply troubled young woman in her late twenties on a journey to finding meaning and belonging to herself. Throughout the novel, we listen to her thoughts and watch her deal with the hardships of work, love, friendship, religion, family dysfunction, mental health and her involvement in an extramarital affair, which forces her to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about herself. It’s a story of self-discovery while being caught up in the economic realities and the social-cultural constructs of being a woman in present-day Lagos, Nigeria.

Interviewer 

What inspired it?

Joyce Odera Nwankwo

While living and working in Lagos, I met and interacted with a myriad of people from all over Nigeria, I found myself with bits and pieces of all these people, and my own experiences. That’s when I noticed a pattern, somehow, we were all seeking to understand what shape our lives were taking and even though we were in different careers, age groups and had different interests, we still wanted confirmation that our actions were shaping our lives in the right direction. So, I took that relentless urge and experiences and created characters to allow me to express how seemingly erratic moves can bring greater clarity to one’s life.

Interviewer 

When did you first start writing?

Joyce Odera Nwankwo

January 2021.

Interviewer 

What do you feel are your strengths and/or weaknesses as a writer?

Joyce Odera Nwankwo

I feel my greatest strength as a writer is that I write honestly, I strive for scathing honesty. Also, I have a wide range of raging emotions to tap from. As for weaknesses, I would say I do tend to prefer creating characters who are more complex than usual. I doubt I would know what to do with a character that isn’t complex in some way.

Interviewer 

What problems do you believe writers from Africa face?

Joyce Odera Nwankwo

Visibility and the acceptance of diversity in African storytelling. I think there’s a tendency to assume that one writer can speak for a majority of Africans about being African and/or living in Africa, and/or living in the Diaspora as an Africa. But, that’s not true, we’ve got many, many different stories from different perspectives about largely the same themes, and I don’t think most of our diverse stories are accepted as valid. A lot of the time, only a handful of writers are recognized as true African storytellers, often because they can tell stories that fit certain stereotypes about what an African story should be about.

Interviewer 

How have you found the experience of being shortlisted for The Island Prize?

Joyce Odera Nwankwo

It’s been incredible so far. To be honest, this is the first time I overtly acknowledge myself as a writer. This is huge for me. Also, I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to be working with the organisers of The Island Prize, they are genuinely committed to putting more African stories out there.

Interviewer 

What are your writing plans in the future?

Joyce Odera Nwankwo

To get published. To allow myself to evolve, meet more people and keep writing.