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Chioma Okereke
9 quotes
“Makoko is what the outsiders had originally called our settlement hundreds of years ago, due to its abundance of akoko leaves, and the name stuck for the community on the Lagos coast just across from the Third Mainland Bridge. To strangers, it’s a slum, a metallic and wooden eyesore built over a stinking bed of ever-mounting sewage, spreading out across the smoke-filled horizon. For the government, it’s the impediment between even larger coffers for them and prime waterfront real estate. But to us, who are from here, Makoko is simply home.”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Nigerian government likes to pretend that we don’t exist, but we’ve been here for hundreds of years, our wooden houses resting proudly on their stilts above Lagos’s charcoal-coloured lagoon. We’ll remain here for some time, no matter how many attempts they make to push us out.”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A person must have many other lives on Makoko in order to eat and sleep.”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Parents dream of us leaving Makoko and doing better than they did for them- selves, and eventually we dream it too, all the while knowing it to be an elusive fantasy.”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...Not many of us have done it, yet that hope pulses within us like a beacon.”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At some early stage in school, I figured out that it was hard to get a bad grade in English, especially where poetry was concerned because it was about expressing yourself! However, I ultimately cultivated some enjoyment from it and from writing short stories to entertain my friends. I was also a voracious reader so my interest in storytelling undoubtedly grew from there.”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m not sure my trajectory fitted the perceived profile of an African author. I was born in Nigeria but raised in the UK. My origin story wasn’t compelling or perhaps ‘ethnic/diverse’ enough. I also didn’t really have many publishing credits early on, so there were many years of ‘no’s before I found my first agent, and very swiftly after that (within months) I received two offers for my debut Bitter Leaf.”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like to make time to write in the mornings. That way, you have banked your words for the day and typical distractions that happen throughout the course of a day are less likely to interfere with your progress. I also find setting a daily word limit really encourages me to try and keep pushing to meet that goal. At the end of the day, it’s all about having that rough draft that you can polish into something better!”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was captivated by the atmospheric settings portrayed in the documentary, witnessing an American navigating through Makoko sparked a realisation of my ignorance, prompting extensive research about the community. It was during this process that the character of Baby emerged vividly in my mind, compelling me to tell her story.”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source