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We are delighted to interview Ayesha Harruna Attah, an exceptional literary talent from Ghana. Ayesha holds a biochemistry degree from Mount Holyoak College and a Journalism degree from Columbia University.

Ayesha Attah’s book Harmattan Rain has been nominated by the Commonwealth Writers Foundation for best first book from Africa 2010.

One of Africa’s most celebrated writers, Uwem Akpan, won the Commonwealth Writers Foundation best first book prize last year with his acclaimed novel say you’re one of them.

Excerpt from Harmattan Rain

MyWeku: First of all congratulation on your nomination for the “Best African Writer” category for the commonwealth prize. How do you feel about being on the same trail blazed by Uwem Akpan and Mandla Langa, who have gone on to greater things?

AHA: Thank you! It’s really humbling to be on the same path as Uwem Akpan and Mandla Langa. It also makes me very excited about the future.

MyWeku: How does a biochemistry major make such a transformational change to become a writer?

AHA: I don’t think I had to make a huge transformational change. Being biochemistry major didn’t stop me from taking writing classes and sometimes the two worlds came together: I needed to write well to talk about the work I was doing in lab. At some point, though, I felt a stronger pull toward writing and things started to fall in place to set me on the path of writer.

MyWeku: Harmattan Rain weaves the lives of three generations of women in a seamless way. That requires real craft to do. How did you come by that idea and how did you “enter” into the worlds of each generation to capture the essence of each?

AHA: I had wanted to write about a multi-generational story for as long as I could remember, so when I got the chance to write a book under the tutelage of Ghanaian writer, Ayi Kwei Armah, I knew that it would be the story of three women. Both my paternal and maternal families are rich, complex and bursting with history and personalities, so I was never short of inspiration for Harmattan Rain. Once I figured out who my main characters were, the story almost wrote itself. I was constantly living the lives of these women, to the point of having dreams about them!

MyWeku: What was the inspiration behind the choice of title?

AHA: I really struggled with the title! After writing the book I needed to find some theme or thread that connected all three women’s stories. When that was not forthcoming, I gave up and decided to work with the plot, which turns on a sudden, unexpected violent event, sort of like the rain in the dry season.

MyWeku: Harmattan Rain was partly “raised” in Senegal at a writers workshop. What was that like and is that something that can be replicated more often to get Africa’s budding writers to the fore?

AHA: Harmattan Rain was written and published at the Per Sesh Writers’ Workshop in Senegal, from start to finish. The Per Sesh Workshop was a nine-month long program for budding writers of African descent, funded by the TrustAfrica foundation.

In his literary memoir, The Eloquence of The Scribes, Ayi Kwei Armah (who coordinated the program) writes in great detail on the workings and curriculum of such a workshop. During our workshops he’d tell us he hoped that we’d be able to replicate what we were learning in our different parts of Africa. So, yes, I think these should be happening all over the continent.

MyWeku: What are your hopes as an author?

AHA: To just keep writing and telling our stories.

MyWeku: What would your advice be to young writers across Africa looking for that big break?

AHA: Don’t get discouraged, because you probably will meet a lot of that along the way (among other things I once was told to find a real job!). Pick up your pen, pencil or computer and just write. Try to write everyday, and take advantage of all the media there is today to get your work seen. You just never know who might be reading.

Harmattan Rain is stocked here