Edwidge Renee Dro is a writer, literary translator and literary activist from C’ote D’Ivoire. She is a 2021 Writing fellow of the Iowa International Program and founder of 1949, the Abidjan-based library of women’s writings from Africa and the black world. She spoke to Toni Kan on the sidelines of the Ake Festival 2023.
Edwidge Rene Dro: What kind of question are you going to ask me, Oh God…
Toni Kan: (Laughter) Tell me your name first
ED: My name is Edwige Renee Dro
TK: Where are you from?
ED: From Côte D’ivoire, I live in Abidjan
TK: Do you consider yourself a writer?
ED: Hm Do I consider myself a writer- yes, I consider myself a writer
TK: Why?
ED: In a sense that, well, what else do I know how to do when I don’t grab onto this writing thing. (Laughs) But I… you know I translate literature.
TK: Ehen…
ED: And…I also think that’s a form of writing
TK: Ehen
ED: That is actually a form of writing.
TK: I mean right now, the Booker says the translator gets part of the price too if you win
ED: Yes, I know so I need more writers to get into the competition. (Laughs) So yeah, in that sense, yes. But I’ve then been doing more of writing and I’ve been doing a lot more translations of literature recently like I’ve just finished translating Marguerite Abouet’s book, This Ivorian graphic writer
TK: How do you spell Abouet?
ED: Abouet, A-B-O-U-E-T. You know the writer who writes the Aya series
TK: Oh really?
ED: I’ve translated it and some children’s writing from Mauritius. So, I’ve been doing a lot more translation. And also, you may know this, because you are a cultural producer but I set up a library in 2020, 1949. The library of women’s writings from Africa in a black world (Laughs). So that has been…
TK: In Abidjan?
ED: Exactly, in Abidjan
TK: How’s that going?
E: You know, that’s going well, but as I was chatting with Obii earlier on, this takes a lot of time o. You said how is it going to me as a joke thing and before you know it.
TK: I run three companies, so tell me about it.
ED: Exactly, you are like, who sent me?
TK: Yeah
ED: (Laughs) Who sent me to do this wahala?
TK: So, when did you realise you wanted to be a writer?
ED: Well, a published writer I don’t know, but I started writing when I was eight. We were living in the north of Cote d’ivoire, which is quite under developed if you went today. There was not enough books, I had finished reading the books in our family library so Ichose to write so that I could read.
Edwidge DroTK: (Laughs) You wanted to read yourself
ED: (Laughs ) Yeah, well, at the time. Well there were some other books but the books were not finished. My father, who was a mathematics teacher, told some of his colleagues that, you know, my daughter likes to read and at that time his colleagues were all French people
TK: Ehen..
ED: You know, from France. We did have a lot of mathematics teachers in the country then, and they gave him a lot of these books, all for, you know…
TK: So you had a big library or a bigger library
ED: All of these white children stuff, but I was in the north, 900 kilometres from Abidjan, where children didn’t have bicycles and didnt go on adventures
TK: (Laughing)
ED: So I was like what are these stupid books. So, I tore the books, many of them. Thankfully, I didn’t tear all of the books because my father saw me
TK: Wow
ED: And he gathered, like, the remaining and all of these pages that he had found in our compound (Laughs). So that’s when I started writing when I was eight, then when I was fifteen, I wrote what I called a novel just because it filled much of a three hundred page notebook, yeah. So, that’s when I knew that I wanted to write
TK: To express yourself
ED: Yeah, and then when I was seventeen I was like, yeah, this is nice, nice
TK: So what have you written now? Books? Short stories?
ED: So I’ve written mostly short stories
TK: Ehen
ED: And essays, a couple of essays, but really, I’m trying hard to write..
TK: A novel?
ED: A novel, yeah to have it out. It is written but I’m kind of doing the hard slugging work of editing
TK: What’s it called?
ED: I don’t wanna say because the title is so shit.
(General Laughter)
TK: So do you consider yourself a full time writer?
ED: I’m not a full time writer. I suppose a full time would be like devoting forty hours
TK: Ehen
ED: I do not devote forty hours. For my own writing I only devote two days. Mondays and Tuesdays are my writing days
TK: So you prioritise those two days for writing
ED: Yeah, for my writing, writing that is not going to pay any money now. It’s not the writing that you go like – ‘do this because you have a contract, do this’.
TK: So let’s forget the essays and the translations, if you want to write a short story for instance
ED: Yeah
TK: What is the trigger for it, is it like smell? Something somebody says, some traumatic experience, what triggers your writing?
ED: No, what triggers my writing are mostly things I’ve been thinking about; things that I’m wondering about; why is this like this, or you know?
TK: The ‘why-ness’ of it.
ED: Exactly, it is the ‘why-ness’, and it is me writing this little to engage in conversation
TK: Hmm
ED: Yeah, so that’s what I do
TK: Alright. So when the idea comes how do you tackle it, so you say you write on Tuesdays and…
ED: Mondays
TK: Mondays. So, when do you write? Mornings, afternoons, nights? What is your process?
ED: No no no, that’s when I get out of my place. I drop my daughter off somewhere, I do not eve exercise on those day because I noticed that exercise , like, you know, is another procrastination.
TK: Your brain, you say to your brain we have to work
ED: (Laughs) Exactly. And all of these gives fresh air to your brain. So I drop off my daughter at school, then I go and sit in a cafe somewhere
TK: Like J.K Rowling
ED: And I write from like 8:30am until 2:30pm and then I go back. Oh, yeah, those are like my hours.
TK: So, you pick her up and then you go back home? Wow.
ED: Yeah then I go back home. On Tuesday I repeat the same process, because if I go home there is no point, I’ll just be engaged in other things so I don’t
TK: So, let’s say I meet you at the airport, I’m eighteen years old and I say “Ah, Dwidge, I want to write.” Advise me.
ED: Advise you? I mean, like ok – what books have you been reading that you want to write so much? You know? I do get people who want to write who come to me, then I ask what book are you reading? And as I was telling somebody this morning, don’t just tell me you’re reading the The Dark Child by Camara Laye. As much as I love Camara Laye, he’s well dead. What newer writings are you…you know, are you reading? Are you reading for pleasure?
TK: That’s L’Enfant noir, yeah?
ED: L’Enfant noir, exactly. L’Enfant noir. So, Im like, yeah just read for pleasure, read so much that you’re saturated.
TK: Sorry, what was that other book of his, The Radiance of the King?
ED: Le Regard du roi
TK: Yeah, that’s french
ED: Exactly, The Radiance of the King. That’s how they translated it
TK: Yeah
ED: And I’m like, yeah, read until you’re so full, so that it overflows. I think you write from overflow-ness, you know, where the overflow comes from…
TK: …what you’ve read and…
ED: Yeah, what you’ve read
TK: …and what you’ve experienced…
ED: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
TK: Thank you
ED: Thank you so much
