In early 2006, I saw the call for applications-seeking aspiring writers from across Africa. We kept in touch after I returned to Uganda. At the time, I was writing a novel and imagined what a great opportunity it would be if I was a successful applicant for his mentoring program. He told me that he was in the process of establishing an African writers’ residency in Popenguine, Senegal, where he lives, and he would mentor young writers in the art of novel writing. During coffee break, I could not contain the wellness of joy babbling all over my body, so I approached him, and the curious journalist in me started asking questions. I was enthralled to see him, couldn’t believe how lucky I really was that I got to be in his presence and hear him address us calmly and eloquently. In person, we met in early 2005 at a Kwani writers’ conference organized by the late Binyavanga Wainaina in Nairobi, Kenya.
His first novel, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, had a profound impact on me and is still regarded by many as one of the finest books to tackle the predicament and complexity of the post-independence era in Ghana and Africa at large. MB I first "met" Armah on the pages of his books. Can you describe how you met him and give us some sense of the experience of working with him? What kind of mentor was he? MH You’ve told me that your earliest serious mentor in creative writing was Ayi Kwei Armah. This interview was conducted by email during the months of March & April, 2021, while Mildred was busy with her teaching duties at the University of North Carolina/Asheville. I proposed the following interview for precisely those reasons. But I knew little about her background as a person and her practice as a writer, among other things. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to one of her classes and of presenting my work for the reading series she curates. I was moved deeply by her reading, by the gentle clarity of her responses to audience questions, and by her forthright commitment to environmental and social justice. I met Mildred Barya a little more than two years ago, when we read together at Asheville Wordfest.
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