---
title: "#TheFlap: Ten questions with author Chibundu Onuzo"
description: "Nigerian author Chibundu Onuzo’s third novel, Sankofa, is the funny, gripping and surprising story of a mixed-race British woman who goes in search of the West African father she never knew. (It also has a single, ‘Good Soil’.) The Reading List spent a few minutes chatting with Chibundu about her writing life."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "BOOKS"
author: "The Reading List"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/the-reading-list/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-08-23-theflap-fire-questions-with-author-chibundu-onuzo/"
published: "2021-08-23T20:15:22"
updated: "2021-08-23T21:13:19"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 480
---

# #TheFlap: Ten questions with author Chibundu Onuzo

> Nigerian author Chibundu Onuzo’s third novel, Sankofa, is the funny, gripping and surprising story of a mixed-race British woman who goes in search of the West African father she never knew. (It also has a single, ‘Good Soil’.) The Reading List spent a few minutes chatting with Chibundu about her writing life.

By The Reading List · Published 23 August 2021, 22:15 SAST · Updated 23 August 2021, 23:13 SAST

## Content

**The Reading List:** Hello Chibundu, and thank you for your time.

We call this interview #TheFlap, but it is based on the Proust Questionnaire, a parlour game made famous by the French writer Marcel Proust, who believed that the answers would reveal a person’s true nature...

So here goes!

What’s the first book you can remember having read to you?

**Chibundu Onuzo:** A series about a character called Poldy. He was a stick man I think and sometimes he could fly. I might be making up some of the details but his name was definitely Poldy.

**TRL:** Do you have an ideal reader in mind while you are writing?

**Chibundu Onuzo:** Not really. I’m my first and most important reader although sometimes there are some trusted secondary readers that I share things with. I also read my work aloud to check its rhythm and I skim read as well, to make sure nothing is sticking out.

**TRL:**What were some of the unexpected challenges that came up while you were writing? What was unexpectedly easy?

**Chibundu Onuzo:**I was surprised by how easy it was to write the London passages of the book. I’ve lived in London for about a decade now and all my observations about the city just flowed into the novel. But once I moved Anna to West Africa, it was very difficult to conjure up the fictional country of Bamana. I think because when I do write things set in West Africa, my default setting is Nigeria and in particular Lagos.

**TRL:** What are some of the key ideas that inform what you’ve written?

**Chibundu Onuzo:** I don’t know. I don’t really think about ideas when I start off on a project. I’m thinking more about the characters. But readers always tell me there’s a lot of politics in my books. I am interested in African politics.

**TRL:** What was the most difficult scene or chapter to write?

**Chibundu Onuzo:** The end. I’m not good with endings.

**TRL:** What question do you think readers are going to ask you the most?

**Chibundu Onuzo:** What happens to Anna after the ending. I ended the book on a question mark on purpose. I don’t know the answer myself.

**TRL:** If you could co-author a book with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose and what would it be about?

**Chibundu Onuzo:** I don’t like co-authoring.

**TRL:** After readers have read your book, what should they read next?

**Chibundu Onuzo:***Segu* by Maryse Condé and *Everything Good Will Come* by Sefi Atta.

**TRL:**What habit distracts you most from writing?

**Chibundu Onuzo:** Reading.

**TRL:** What’s the best music to write to?

**Chibundu Onuzo:**I don’t write to music. I always find it distracting.**DM/ ML**

*Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo is published by Virago (R335). Visit*[*The Reading List*](https://readinglist.click/)*for South African book news – including interviews! – daily.*