17. Mende Nazer - Slave: My True Story

[pauraque]

Content warning: The book depicts rape, beatings, and female genital cutting, but they're not discussed in this post.


This is the story of Mende Nazer, who was abducted from her home in Sudan in 1993 and sold into slavery. Throughout her teenage years she was forced to do domestic work for a wealthy family, before being sent to work for her "master"'s sister, the wife of a Sudanese diplomat living in London. While in London she was finally able to make her escape and successfully seek political asylum. This was a big news story a few years back, some of you may remember hearing about it. Since the book's publication, she has become a British citizen.

The book is well-written and engaging, and tells a story the world needs to hear, a story that is not extraordinary, but rather all too common. The only extraordinary thing about it is that Nazer escaped, whereas most people in her situation never do.

But here's my problem: The co-author, Damien Lewis, who is white. At the time of writing, Nazer had only been studying English for a year, maybe less. She spoke two other languages fluently, but instead of using a translator, Lewis had her talk to him in English, and he interpreted and wrote down what she said in his own style. That it is his own style is obvious from reading his afterword that explains the writing process -- it's the same voice. He says it was done this way because her story was far too "personal" for a translator to come between them. He, and only he, could achieve the "closeness" with her to help her express her thoughts. Hmm. This is my skeptical face.

But it's okay, because Lewis is an "expert" on Sudan, according to his bio blurb. I notice it doesn't mention his age, while Nazer's bio eagerly and irrelevantly informs us yet again (it's mentioned multiple times in the text) that her tribe -- gasp! -- doesn't record exact birthdates. How exotic! It is obvious why she needed this White Expert to render HER story into HIS own words.

Okay, sarcasm off. Sorry. To be fair, several years have passed and Nazer speaks good English now (yay Youtube) and has not, to my knowledge, disowned the book or Lewis. It's up to her how her story is put forth. I just have to be honest about my personal reaction to reading it, which is that I really wanted Mende Nazer's voice, and was frustrated by the feeling of having to dig through layers of Damien Lewis's voice to get to it.

[eta: Note that author Damien Lewis is not the same person as actor Damian Lewis, as Wikipedia believes. Someone oughta fix that.]


tags: a: Nazer Mende, w-a: Lewis Damien, African (Sudanese), Muslim, genre: memoir, subject: slavery, setting: Sudan

Comments

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

There's a film, inspired by the same events, called I Am Slave. It doesn't claim to be Nazer's story, but it's clearly based on her life. By Gabriel Range, a white director (the same director who did The Last King of Scotland)

[pauraque]

Yes, and there was also a play about it called Slave: A Question of Freedom, the production of which Nazer had some part in.

[sanguinity]

I, wait, what? What exactly is so special about their relationship that she couldn't have something of similar quality in a relationship with a translator?

[pauraque]

Ha, yeah, see... While I was reading the book I had a weird feeling about it, which was only confirmed at the end when I read Lewis's note. See for yourself:

Mende only spoke basic English, having spent less than a year living as a free person in London. I spoke almost no Arabic, and my Nuba was almost nonexistent. At first, I considered the idea of working with an English-Arabic translator. But I knew that much of Mende's story was going to be deeply personal, difficult material to talk about. I knew that the key to her being able to tell me her story from the heart lay in the closeness that would develop bewteen the two of us. She would need to trust me with her most difficult, painful memories and fears. I knew that having a translator bewteen us would make that impossible.

He initially came into the picture because he knew the Sudanese-British people who helped her escape, and they wanted him to report on her story (he's a journalist). But it's not explained why he was somehow the ONLY one who could help her write the book. He says that they "talked it over", but since it was just established that they didn't share a common fluent language, how did they do that? From his site it seems that he's made a bit of a second career of co-writing memoirs of people of color... Very interesting.

There was a point where I was like, this feels too fishy, I'm not counting the book. But as I said, Nazer DOES speak fluent English now, and has read what was written and hasn't disowned it. If she's comfortable with her name on the cover, then who am I not to consider it as being a book by her?

But yeah. Weirdness abounds. I'm not rushing out to read any of his other co-authored books.

[sanguinity]

I can see why he, once he had positioned himself as author/co-author, would see a third person in the room as a risk to the process, and potentially more of a risk than a benefit.

I just don't get why he thought it had to be him.

*sigh*

Actually, I can do all kinds of guessing about why he thought it should be him. Meh.

:: If she's comfortable with her name on the cover, then who am I not to consider it as being a book by her? ::

*nods*