INTERVIEW WITH TIMOTHY MBOMBO

WHEN DID YOU START WRITING?

I started writing fully in 2012. But before then, I had scribbled a few poems and two manuscripts which are still to be revisited.

Who are your biggest inspirations/your biggest writers?

Many writers have inspired me. More continue to do so. Some of the writers who readily come to mind are Chinua Achebe, Can Temba, Buchi Emecheta, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Dennis Brutus, Ola Rotimi, Doris Lessing, Cyprian Ekwensi, Linus Asong, John Nkemngong, Ayi Kwei Armah, Thomas Hardy, William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Geoffrey Chaucer, Richard Wright, Edgar Alan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

What time of day do you do most of your writing?

Even though I usually do not have a specific time to write, experience and records show that I do most of my writing early in the morning and late at night when I am all by myself. I am usually inspired when writing in my library.

Why do you write?

There are many reasons that keep my ink flowing. Besides the joy of it, I like the world or a wider audience to feel the way I do and to be influenced by my ideas. I like as many people as possible to see things the way I see them and to share in some of life’s ups and downs as experienced by my characters. Though my stories are richly entertaining, most of them carry the dystopian tone, which, according to me, is just the reality of life. I therefore write to entertain, philosophize, and teach the world.

 For example, in my latest novel The Last Bush Faller, I focused on wanton immigration of Africans to America or the West in general. My intention in this novel is to paint the true gloomy picture of what Africans in the Diaspora do to eke out a living. I think that the mass exodus of young and talented Africans to the West in quest of “manna” is illusory. With some focus, hard work, and commitment back in Africa these dreamers, who only think the pasture is greener on the Other Side, can make it too. This will safe them the heartaches of debts they accrued to cross over, the mean and multiple jobs they do to survive, and the falsehood they relay to others in Africa to maintain a certain echelon and aura.

In Natasha, My Love I took on the doctrine of free will and destiny; arguing that even when we cross our T’s and dot our I’s, misfortune will still be lurking around. Even Shakespeare contends that “as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.” The gods play around with us as heartless schoolboys incapacitate insects.

Do you have any favorite quotes from writers?

I have a bunch of favorite quotes from writers. Some of these quotes serve as background or premise to my works. Some of the quotes that readily come to mind are: “Happiness was an occasional episode in the drama of pain” by Thomas Hardy, “Call no man hardy until the day he carries his happiness down to the grave in peace” by Sophocles, “For whom is it well? For whom is it well?” by Chinua Achebe, “Life moves on” by Robert Frost, “Joy has a slender body that breaks too soon” by Ola Rotimi, “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans” by Thomas la Mance, “Some of the worst things that happened to me never happened” by Mark Twain, “Man is a little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth” by Jonathan Swift, “Woman is man’s ruin” by Geoffrey Chaucer, and “A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people” by Thomas Mann.

What is one piece of advice you would give new/aspiring writers?

I would tell them to keep writing, and writing, and writing because perfection, fame, and maybe fortune come with constant writing.

Do you have any collections, chapbooks, or other books available for people to purchase?

Some of my novels that could be purchased at Amazon and other outlets are Till Date Do Us Part, Natasha, My Love, and my most recent novel: The Last Bush Faller. I have just reduced the price of The Last Bush Faller so as to attract a wider readership. I remember when Achebe was asked which of his books did he like most; he replied that it would be sheer invidiousness for a father to classify his children in order of importance. However, Achebe pointed out that the book he would be caught reading most often is Arrow of God. I think the novel I will be caught leafing through again and again is The Last Bush Faller.

Since the ink of my pen is so eager to flow, my audience should be expecting to hear from me soon!