Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu interviews Bridget Pitt

Tune into this conversation between two Catalyst Press authors: Bridget Pitt, whose North American debut novel Eye Brother Horn released this January, and Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, who was recently awarded the Windham Campbell Prize for her City of Kings trilogy, the third book of which (The History of Man) will be released by Catalyst Press in September. Books 1 and 2 are available now worldwide.

Siphiwe is based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and Bridget is based in Cape Town, South Africa. 

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Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu: You’ve written about interestingly disparate topics – the birth of a nation in your debut novel Unbroken Wing; brain injury and dementia in the wonderfully titled Notes from the Lost Property Department; genetic engineering in The Unseen Leopard and Christianity and colonialism in your latest novel Eye Brother Horn – which makes me wonder, do you find the story or do you let the story find you?

Bridget Pitt: So far, all my stories have found me, and once they have taken hold of me, they are extremely persistent. I was especially apprehensive of the story that found me with Eye Brother Horn. I was not sure that I was the right person to tell this story, yet it simply would not let me go. But the stories never come fully formed. Some spark, or sense of the story captures my attention, but once it’s grabbed me, it can become quite elusive. It’s like hearing a bird call, and you try to see the bird clearly, but it keeps flitting away just out of reach, or behind thick foliage. The harder it is to pin down, the more resolved I am to capture its essence, which basically means much rumination, much angst, and much rewriting. And accepting that, as a writer, I can only do half the work of capturing a story. The reader does the other half, and each story will realise itself a little differently in each reader. I think that learning to trust your reader to complete the story is an important lesson for a writer, which I am still learning.

SGN: Your previous novels were mostly set in contemporary South Africa. What was it like venturing into historical fiction territory? How were you able to make the 19th century come alive for 21st century readers?

BP: I really enjoyed doing the research for this. I learnt so much about my country’s history. I’d tended to view it in quite a binary way… thinking of the colonialists as being the evil ones, the indigenous people the innocent victims. While that is broadly true, as you say history is knotty and messy, with most people just trying to survive and/or being used as pawns by more powerful entities. I used diaries and historical records to try to ascertain the tools used, the kinds of foods people ate, the clothing, the cultural reference points of my characters, I would scour etymological dictionaries to ensure that a phrase I was using was not anachronistic. I think paying attention to these details helps to make your characters real for your readers. And showing that while much has changed, humans are still driven by similar emotions, passions, and fears in any era. The ongoing relevance of Shakespearean dramas teaches us that.  

SGN: You’ve also explored a number of genres and mediums—nonfiction, short stories, poetry, prose. Do you have a favorite?

BP: I enjoy all of them. I don’t write many poems, but I love it when one comes to me, I love the economy of the form, how you can spend a week gnawing over a single line. I enjoy short stories, but usually need to be nudged by calls for submission to a particular journal or competition. Once I get into it, I really enjoy writing short fiction, because it is contained, although I am intimidated by trying to convey a whole story in a condensed form. Non-fiction can be a relief after fiction, because it is so boundaried, but I can also find that constricting. Novels are wonderful, but I am absurdly slow at them because I do way too much research and rewrite them so much. I think I’m getting better though. I’ll check how long my next one takes me. 


SGN: When you’re busy writing, do you imagine a reader? Who are you writing to, or for?

BP: With some stories, I have had a person in mind – my last novel was really written for my mother, but she never read it, sadly, as I wrote it after her death. But I think that, like you, I write for my characters. I write to honor them, to manifest them as authentically as I can, to tell their stories faithfully, to bring them to life. And, yes, fully agree that stories come through me, not from me.

SGN: Are you part of a writers’ group? 

BP: I have been part of various author groups at different stages – it’s been really helpful to learn that others are also going through some of the angst and insecurities, the highs and lows of writing and publishing or not publishing. Like you, I have been incredibly grateful for feedback from critical readers, editors, agents and publishers. In some cases the agent or publisher has declined to take on the manuscript, but their feedback has been instrumental in enabling me to improve it. I have a small group of trusted readers for early drafts – a couple of friends, my daughters are both brilliant at offering insights and calling me out on any missteps. With Eye Brother Horn, I also drew on fellow Zulu writers and friends to guide me on authenticity and cultural sensitivity issues. 


SGN: Are you reading many women writers recently? Any in particular you’ve enjoyed?

BP: Wow, so many! I have loved your City of Kings Trilogy, and love the work of your Zimbabwean contemporaries such as Petina Gappah, NoViolet Bulawayo and Tsitsi Dangamrembga. I’m not a crime fiction fan but I loved Margie Orford’s recent novel. I have loved Yewande Omotoso’s work, especially her latest book. I recently read a brilliant novel by Okwiri Odour, a young Kenyan author, and an extraordinary short story by Kenyan Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor.  Further afield, I have been inspired by recent works from Louise Erdrich, Ruth Ozeki, Aminatta Forna, Shubhangi Swarup, Barbara Kingsolver, Sarah Moss, Sarah Winman and many others.

SGN: I’d love to hear about your decision to write Eye Brother Horn from the male perspective. 

BP: This is my first novel where the entire story is narrated from a male perspective. Early drafts did hold a female viewpoint, but I found it a distraction. What guides my choice is considering which character is best placed to carry the story. In Eye Brother Horn, I wanted to explore the experience of masculinity, because notions of masculinity were a big driver of the colonial project, underpinning the impulse to conquer, to show mastery, to take control. Masculinity was also strong in Zulu culture at that time, with a focus on militarisation, conquest and manhood. Narrating from the perspective of Moses and Daniel enabled me to explore their experience of the pressure to be ‘men’. For Daniel, the prevailing notion of manhood went against everything that defined him, his empathy with other living beings, his tendency to be moved rather than to move. Moses was given such mixed messaging, being expected to show leadership towards Zulu converts, but to be submissive to English authority; to repudiate Zulu notions of manhood, but while being excluded from English ones; to simultaneously be a man and a boy. I could not have explored these issues without writing from their perspective. 


SGN: Readers often comment on your beautiful evocation of the South African landscape – the Drakensburg Mountains, the Karoo, Zululand in the 19th century – how does your work as an environmental activist inform how you write about space and place?

BP: My work as an activist and as a writer are borne of the same passion. I’ve always felt deeply connected to landscapes; I remember at the age of five going to the Drakensberg, and being filled with almost painful wonder at the beauty of the mountains. Whether I am writing a story about a landscape, or taking action to protect it, it’s a way of honouring earth. Both are acts of love, I guess. I believe it’s a natural human response to feel a deep connection with the landscapes around us, but we’ve become alienated by commodifying nature… for me, both activism and story telling are ways to reknit those connections.

SGN: Where do you find the intersection between human rights and environmental rights?

BP: For me they are inseparable. Humans have a fundamental right to live in a healthy environment that can sustain them, and to experience the wonder of the natural world, as do all living things. Those who have grown wealthy by exploiting and destroying nature are cushioned from the consequences. Their wealth enables them to live in areas of natural beauty, far from the air and water pollution that their lifestyles and profit generation have caused. This inequality is becoming more acute as the planet’s resources are plundered. Climate change, like all environmental destruction, is hitting poor communities much harder, bringing displacement and food insecurity and all the other issues that flow from a state of precariousness. 

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Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu is a writer, filmmaker and academic who holds a PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University, as well as master’s degrees in African Studies and Film. She has published research on Saartjie Baartman and she wrote, directed and edited the award-winning short film Graffiti. Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, she worked as a teacher in Johannesburg before returning to Bulawayo. Her first novel, The Theory of Flight won the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize in South Africa. In 2022, Siphiwe was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. Catalyst Press is set to release the third book in Siphiwe’s City of Kings Trilogy, The Quality of Mercy, in September 2023. Books 1 and 2 in the series, The Theory of Flight and The History of Man, are available now at www.catalystpress.org. 

Bridget Pitt is a South African author and environmental activist who has published poetry, short fiction, non-fiction and three novels (Unbroken Wing, Kwela, 1998; The Unseen Leopard, Human & Rousseau, 2010; Notes from the Lost Property Department, Penguin, 2015). Two were long-listed for the Sunday Times Literary Awards. Her second novel was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize (2011) and the Wole Soyinka African Literature Award (2012). She has recently co-authored a memoir of the spiritual wilderness guide, Sicelo Mbatha (Black Lion: Alive in the Wilderness, Jonathan Ball, 2021). Her short fiction has received a Commonwealth nomination and has been published in anthologies in South Africa, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Eye Brother Horn is her North American debut and is available now at www.catalystpress.org. 

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EYE BROTHER HORN

A Zulu foundling and a white missionary’s child raised as brothers in a world intent on making them enemies. A sweeping tale of identity, kinship, and atonement in 1870s South Africa, from Commonwealth Book Prize shortlisted author Bridget Pitt.

Moses, a Zulu baby discovered on a riverbank, and Daniel, the son of white missionaries, are raised as brothers on the Umzinyathi mission in 19th century Zululand, South Africa. As an infant, Daniel narrowly escapes an attack by a rhino and develops an intense corporeal connection to animals which challenges the religious dogma on which he is raised. Despite efforts by his adoptive mother to raise the boys as equals, Moses feels like an outsider to both white and Zulu society, and seeks certainty in astronomy and science. Only through each other do the brothers find a sense of belonging.

At Umzinyathi, Moses and Daniel are cushioned from the harsh realities of the expanding colony in neighboring Natal—where ancient spiritualism is being demonized, vast natural beauty faces rampant destruction, and the wealth of the colonizer depends on the engineered impoverishment of the indigenous. But when they leave the mission to work on a relative’s sugar estate and accompany him on a hunting safari, the boys are thrown into a world that sees their bond as a threat to the colonial order, and must confront an impossible choice: adapting to what society expects of them or staying true to each other.

With elements of magic realism, Eye Brother Horn is the heart-wrenching story of how two children born of vastly different worlds strive to forge a true brotherhood with each other and with other species, and to find ways to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the colonial expansion project.

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Category: Interviews, On Writing