Realization of passion: An interview with Children’s book author Wende Luvinga

By: Myriam Munezero

Not everyone who has a dream, has the ambition to pursue it. Wende Luvinga, a Tanzanian living in Finland, has shown that it is possible to make her dream of writing children stories come true. So far she has published two books, one in English and the other in Kiswahili. Her first book, Hamisi the complaining Lizard, tells the story of a beautiful and talented lizard, who does not understand and appreciate his charm and uniqueness until he encounters the danger in the African wilds and discovers his true potential.

A few weeks ago, during the Helsinki World Village Festival, Wende, under the banner of our Think Africa platform conducted a fun and interesting storytelling workshop to give children an understanding of the effects of climate change on the habitats of wild animals. With the support of supporting artists, Wende used relatable characters and drums, songs, and dance. The workshop session was filled with parents and children excited to join, Hamisi, the lizard and lead character in her story.

I caught up with Wende after the event for a brief interview:

Q: Watching you at the World Village Festival, you seemed to be in your element and your passion for storytelling and your natural touch with children truly really comes through. When did this love for writing books begin?

Wende: Since I was young, I loved listening to stories. My mother was an English teacher and she brought home story books such as  Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.  But my favourite stories were those not from books. Every evening we would gather  for moments of storytelling with our family, very often together with the children in the neighborhood. It was an adult who told the stories – the older the person the more captivating the story was. So naturally stories from grandparents were more popular. I remember at times when we would even sneak out to our neighbour’s house, if we heard that their grandmother was visiting. Most of the stories I grew up listening to were animal stories (where animals accorded human attributes) and  folk tales (old stories that have been told again and again, often for generations). The setup was an elderly narrator and the children as listeners participating in the story through chants and choruses; songs and imitation of sounds.

One of the lessons that I learned very early on was that, there are a hundred different ways of telling the same story; and when you tell it, own it and make it your own. With this message in mind, I started writing and telling my stories. The African way of storytelling  as a narrative performance is so powerful, it has the ability to place the storyteller and listeners inside the story. This is what I attempted to achieve with the storytelling workshop at the recent Helsinki World Village Festival.

Q: For those who do not know your books, what would you say you write about?

Wende: I write contemporary Children’s stories inspired by African proverbs and folktales. I write animal stories with human characters.

Q: What is your source of inspiration?

Wende: Kids in general, especially my kids. When walking my son to the daycare, we usually create all kinds of funny stories. We usually start with Good morning birds, trees, stones, butterflies, rabbits and whatever we see outside along the way. Then we spin a story from there. It makes the walk to the daycare shorter and it also lightens up the mood, especially when it is very dark outside during the autumn. Most of these stories do not evolve as we forget them immediately.  Some of the ideas remain and some I have incorporate into my collection of short stories. With my daughter, we also have  a story together, although it’s not yet finished. I am often inspired by the innocence  and intelligence of my children. The best rewarding feedback I have received on my book was from the pupils of Maunula primary school, where I facilitated a storytelling session.

Q: What was the feedback?

Wende: After reading my story, the students had a discussion and reflection about it. Some kids said that the story showed them that they are beautiful, strong, skillful, and that we are all connected; one cannot be without others.

Q: It must be rewarding to hear such feedback. Could you share with us, how you went from the interest of writing to actually getting published in Finland?

Wende: When my daughter was born, I started reciting to her some of the few stories that I remember. I couldn’t remember much. However, different versions of the same story recurred and that inspired me to begin writing my own. I did not contact any publisher in Finland. I contacted publishers in Tanzania, because somehow I wanted my books to reach and inspire children in Tanzania. I was unsuccessful with Publishers in Tanzania so I contacted one organisation in the USA and they agreed to publish my book; we then agreed to donate the books for free to selected schools in Tanzania.  I have co-authored a story together with a Finnish Author and we are currently waiting for a response from publishers here in Finland. If successful, our book will be published in Finnish and English.

Q: At the World Village Festival, you combined storytelling with a serious topic such as climate change. What do you see is the role of stories in making children aware of climate change or other important topics?

Wende: Throughout generations, stories have been recognized as the most powerful means of communication and connecting people. Stories can be used to entertain, to inform, to educate and to instruct. Children love stories. Therefore, storytelling is a great way to get across complex messages such as climate change. My approach of telling climate change stories to kids have been to make it entertaining through the use of gestures, songs , facial expressions, and impersonations. Generally, I break the facts about climate change down into smaller stories that Children can relate to and let them know that it is happening and when one is affected; we are all indirectly affected. My interest is to show the connection and dependence between the characters in the stories and the children. I usually end by showing  that there is something Children and indeed all of us can do.

Q: You did this event under the Think Africa platform, as a member. How did the platform support your passion to make this event successful ?

Wende: Think Africa supported and encouraged my passion from the beginning. I worked with a  team of other members, who worked with me from the writing of the concept note; which was submitted to FINGO, the World Village Festival organisers, up to the facilitation of the event. Most importantly during the event several Think Africa members attended  in support and that gave me extra strength, thus boosting my performance.Think Africa provided a bigger platform for me to showcase my passion.

Q: Glad to hear that and we will continue to support you. What is next for you? Any new books coming out soon or other live appearances?

Wende: I have a number of  writing projects in the pipeline. First our book for preschoolers with a story highlighting the impact of climate change will be published this year. Lately I have been motivated to write stories that will contribute to the diversity of stories in Finland. I once read that “good stories take us on a journey, in that journey it is our own stories we hear.”  So  I have been asking myself recently, do the children and youth from the African diaspora in Finland get to hear their own stories, or stories of their communities in the books they read? Do we have diverse literature for our children? The answer is not yet.

There is room for improvement. So I am at the moment writing a story about a girl with huge Afro hair, who is living in a town where there is nobody else that looks like her. In preparing for this story I interviewed few adults of African descent, who grew up in Finland as to what and how it was growing up in Finland standing out from the rest? I have received very good  inspiration feedback for this story. If all goes well, I am planning to publish next year. In the near future, I hope to write a novel (just started) for young adults/teenagers. This is my most challenging project thus far and somehow it is easier for me to reach my ‘inner child’ but not my ‘inner teenager’. Times have changed a lot since when I was a teenager myself. So I am reading books targeting young adults just to understand what are their worries, concerns and also what makes them happy and which themes are relevant to them.

Q: That is interesting indeed. I think it is because teenage hood is filled with so many new experiences. One last thing before I let you go! Do you have any advice that you you would like to share with other aspiring writers?

Wende:  I am still at the stage  “work in progress” and my advice is based on what worked for me. But I would like to  encourage aspiring writers with a quote from Toni Morrison saying “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Of course passion is one thing and skill is another. So I would say: first thing get a book or take a course on creative writing, which would in turn help develop your skills as a writer. Read books from other writers, because through this you will learn what works, what doesn’t;  absorb new words, trigger new ideas, and above all, immerse yourself in the world of writing. Everyone has ideas for a great story but very few actually make it. So the most important advice I can give to other aspiring  to write is to have a goal of how many words you should to write per day. Be disciplined and start small for instance with short stories. Revise and seek assistance and advice from other writers.

Q: That is very good advice, to begin by taking small steps. How can people get in touch with you?

Wende: By email storytreasure@gmail.com. Also I am planning to have a website before the end of this year. My books are available at Amazon and several hard copies are available here in Finland. Kindly contact me and I will post you your copy.

That’s it :). Thank you very much Wende for sharing with us. Wishing you success and many more publications ahead!

The end!