What was the young Chris Abani like?
I spent a lot of time playing with my brothers, reading, watching television and just being a regular child. We traveled a lot and lived in lots of places because my father’s job took us all over Eastern Nigeria. Jamati: Where does your love for words come from? What is your earliest memory of writing? My earliest memory of words comes from reading. My mother says I was reading by 4. But my first attempt at writing was a short story for school at 6, and then a short story at 10 which got published. I never looked back from then. Jamati: It was the words in your first book, Masters of the Board that ultimately got you in trouble and landed you in prison the first time and the other two times after that for Sirocco and Song For A Broken Flute . Was there ever a time that you were too afraid to write because of the power and consequences of your words? Of course. I am still afraid, in a way. Not necessarily of what will happen to me but of the ways in which my works can be misconstrued an
