Efua Traoré
About Author
Efua Traoré's latest novel Spirit Sister draws on her years growing up in Nigeria, as well as the mythology and supernatural beliefs of the region.
Efua grew up in a small town in Nigeria and, for as long as she can remember, her head was filled with little stories but it was not until much later that she began to write them down. Then she won the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa with her short story True Happiness and she is a literature-grant-holder of the Munich Literaturreferat. Children of the Quicksands, her debut novel, won the Times/ Chicken House Fiction Competition in 2019. She now lives in Munich with her family.
Connect with Efua on Twitter: @efuatraore
Interview
Sister Spirit (Zephyr Books)
April 2024
Efua Traoré introduces her new book for teenagers, Spirit Sister, which draws on Efua's mixed heritage and years growing up in Nigeria. A haunting, gothic-inspired mystery, Spirit Sister reaches out across time to put right a terrible wrong, and end a family curse.
Review: 'A fabulously gripping journey of self-discovery.' Read a Chapter from Sister Spirit
Efua Traoré introduces Spirit Sister in this short video, and tells us how her dual heritage, teenage years in Lagos, Nigeria and the call of a mysterious landscape helped inspire the story:
Q&A with Efua Traoré, introducing Sister Spirit
"Growing up in Nigeria as a child of Nigerian-German heritage, then moving to Europe, often had me musing
over identity and the meaning of home..."
1. How has life as an author been since winning the Times / Chicken House Fiction Competition in 2019 with Children of the Quicksands? What else have you written since then?
I wrote The House of Shells and One Chance Dance since then and it has been an absolutely exciting experience so far. Being an author has felt so fulfilling because readers share so much love through social media, school visits or festivals. I love being a children's author, young readers can be so enthusiastic and writing stories for them is so much fun. I also got to travel a lot, going to new places to talk about my books, which has been very exciting.
2. Can you tell us about your new book, Sister Spirit, and what happens?
Sister Spirit is a supernatural thriller, blending Nigerian myth, friendship, romance and self-discovery. 16-year-old adopted Tara has never felt like she truly belonged and she has questions - about who she is, where she comes from, why she dreams...
When her nights become haunted by terrifying dreams of a distant past, she traces her visions to Olumo rock in Nigeria and her parents agree to take her there to visit. Olumo turns out to be a sacred place, that feels magical, full of myth, and where whispers of the past linger. Tara is determined to find out why she is drawn to the rock. With some help, she manages to convince her parents to let her join the boarding school at the foot of Olumo for a school exchange year.
As the dreams begin to take over Tara's real life, blurring her senses, the net around her tightens. She unravels the connection between herself, grim events at the school, and the past. As Tara uncovers the truth about her roots and the spirits that pursue her, she must soon face the terrifying certainty of her true identity and make a choice that could cost her life.
"I hadn't ever read or heard about a gothic boarding school mystery set in Nigeria or even Africa
and was super excited when the idea for this story came to me."
3. What inspired this story about a family curse?
Sister Spirit grew out of a vision I had of someone standing on a high rock with outstretched arms, calling out desperately. The story began with the idea of a deep painful longing. An all-consuming hurt inherited over generations and across the ocean, a feeling that those who bear cannot explain or understand - a haunting family curse.
I have always loved mysteries especially the dark, gothic ones. I hadn't ever read or heard about a gothic boarding school mystery set in Nigeria or even Africa and was super excited when the idea for this story came to me. I particularly enjoyed exploring and building up my gothic setting around Olumo rock.
4. Having drawn on your own childhood in previous books like Children of the Quicksand, have you turned to your own teenage years for inspiration in Sister Spirit?
I guess to some extent, yes! I'd always wanted to go to boarding school. When I was 14, my school became part boarding and I begged my parents to let me join because my best friend did. Unfortunately, they didn't allow it. So, I visited my friend there whenever I could and loved to hear her stories of a boarder's life.
In Nigeria there are lots of myths around boarding schools, dark, scary stories like the one about the famous Lady Koi Koi, which I of course included in Sister Spirit.
"Very often the portrayal of Africa in the media and in books is negative. It's often about poverty, people fleeing Africa,
taking refuge elsewhere. In my books I love to show the other perspective."
5. A major focus of Sister Spirit is a teenager's dual heritage; Tara is drawn to her Nigerian roots, through her dreams. Why did you want to explore this in your new book, and also the experience of a young person visiting Africa for the first time?
Growing up in Nigeria as a child of Nigerian-German heritage, then moving to Europe, often had me musing over identity and the meaning of home. Being brown in a world of mostly black or mostly white people, not looking like your parents, means you are constantly asked - where do you come from? Where is home? As if you don't belong... So writing this story about Tara's journey in search of her roots and, ultimately, herself, felt close to my heart.
And yes I definitely wanted to show the perspective of someone visiting Nigeria for the first time. Very often the portrayal of Africa in the media and in books is negative. It's often about poverty, people fleeing Africa, taking refuge elsewhere. In my books I love to show the other perspective. The friendships, the adventures, the fun but also the fears or sadness and complications that are part of a childhood in Nigeria, and universal to any other place.
Showing Nigeria through the eyes of my foreign teenage protagonist was an interesting process for me and had me reflecting a lot on my own experiences. I moved to Lagos as a teenager, leaving my small-town home behind and felt quite lost in my new school with cool, savvy teens all around me.
Last year my youngest daughter went to a summer camp in Nigeria. And her older sister is currently in Nigeria doing a school exchange just like Tara. It's fun to hear their stories and yes, some of their experiences are very much similar to Tara's.
6. Why did you decide to focus on the supernatural and superstitions in this story? How much of what we hear in Sister Spirit is based on traditional stories of nature spirits, and how did you go about developing this layer of mystery in your book?
I have always loved how juju and superstitions still drift around modern life in Nigeria like whispery spirits that refuse to move on. The air bristles with the possibility of the supernatural. Spine-chilling tales about night creatures, haunted rivers, vengeful Lady Koi Koi visiting boarding schools or evil spirits like the abiku, trigger my imagination and have me scrambling for a sheet of paper. These have always been the kind of stories I loved best, so I'm not at all surprised that I often write stories that include the supernatural.
However, this was my very first time of writing a mystery and it was quite interesting building up clues and suspense to make it work. For the first time I worked with index cards which I spread out all over the floor to try to get them into the best order. Each card contained a new nugget of information or red herring which I wanted to disclose at a certain point in the story. It was a lot of planning and I had a great time.
"I remember how fascinated I was by the ancient rock ... Sitting high on one of its boulders, I had sensed its
magical presence, as if the rock wanted to tell the things it had seen."
7. The mysterious Olumo Rock is central to the landscape in this story; did you see it as a character in itself? How did you discover it and why did you want to use it as the focus of what happens in the past and present in this story?
Yes, Olumo rock is very central to the story and it did end up taking on a life of its own. The setting was inspired by a visit I made to the rock many years ago when it was still quiet and in its natural state with few tourists.
I remember how fascinated I was by the ancient rock and to hear about its priestess, Iya Orisha Olumo (mother goddess of Olumo), who lived there until the age of 136, witnessing the coronation of four kings. Sitting high on one of its boulders, I had sensed its magical presence, as if the rock wanted to tell the things it had seen.
Olumo rock protected the Yoruba for centuries, witnessing inter-tribal wars, invasions by the female Dahomian warriors, missionaries and colonialists. I included a lot of these true facts into Sister Spirit, embedding Tara's story between some of these historical milestones.
8. If you were to take us, the reader, to Nigeria in real life, where would you want to visit and what would you want us to see?
I guess I would want you to see and do the things that I usually like to do when I'm back home in Lagos, like an early morning trip to one of the many colourful, beehive markets to look for beautiful fabrics to sew dresses. Or maybe an afternoon adventure through the Lekki conservatory park, pulling yourself across the long rope bridge, breathing in the heavy, damp air of the swampy rain forest beneath. Or maybe an evening stroll beneath palm-trees at the beach while sipping cool, spicy zobo or a night out at with live music, lots of drums and fish pepper-soup.
9. Are you writing or planning other stories set in Nigeria? And when you're writing books set in Nigeria, do you like to visit before you start the book?
Every trip to Nigeria, triggers new story ideas, so it's definitely very likely that there will be more stories to come. If possible, then yes, I do like to physically absorb myself in my settings, but the internet can also be a great help since that is not always possible.
10. What are your favourite escapes from your desk?
Going on long walks or running, while listening to audio books. Putting on my playlist and dancing to afro-beats. Sometimes I try to learn new afro-beat dance moves I've seen on social media.
Discover Children of the Quicksands (Chicken House Books, June 2021)
Efua Traoré's earlier novel, Children of the Quicksands, is a compelling story set in Nigeria and weaves the region's mythology and culture into a contemporary magical adventure. She introduces the story in this short video:
Sister Spirit
Children of the Quicksands
