Water Baby by Chioma Okereke was published by Quercus on 11 April 2024.
Chioma kindly answered a few of my questions.
1. Tell us a little about Water Baby.
Water Baby is a coming-of-age tale portraying the societal pressures on a young woman trying to escape the confines of her community and explores wider issues including climate change, digitalisation, gentrification, and resettlement. Nineteen-year-old Baby yearns for a different existence in Makoko, the floating slum off mainland Lagos, Nigeria, where she can escape the future her father has planned for her.
With opportunities scarce, Baby jumps at the chance to join a newly launched drone-mapping project, aimed at broadening the visibility of the informal settlement and her community, against her father's wishes.
When a video of her at work goes viral, Baby finds herself with options she could never have imagined – including the possibility of leaving her birthplace to represent Makoko on the world stage. But is she ready to spread her wings beyond the lagoon, or is Makoko where her future lies?
2. What inspired the book?
During the pandemic I came across an episode of The Best Ever Food Review Show, shot in Makoko, in Lagos Nigeria. Makoko is the largest floating settlement in the world. Struck by the beguiling construction of the place, my mind wandered during the show and my protagonist appeared internally. I wanted to find out more about her story and thus began my deep dive into the community where the book is predominantly set.
3. Are you a plan, plan, plan writer or do you sit down and see where the words take you?
I'm definitely more of a see-where-the words-take-me writer, though since I've penned more books than have been published, there is some vague structure of a plan I might be subconsciously working towards at this stage. But for me, it's more a case of following that pinprick of light until it becomes brighter and clearly the way forward, rather than having a fixed direction I'm following from the outset.
4. Is there anything about the process of publishing a book that still surprises you?
Maybe it's naive, but I'm still shocked by how much of the publishing process relies on authors doing self promotion. One could argue that many writers feel those aren't the skills they most naturally possess, which is why one buries oneself in their imagination in the first place in terms of the process of creating a novel!
You're so relieved when it finds a home and hope that the worst is over and you can focus on writing something new, but unless you're a major lead title, there's a lot of extra effort you have to put in to ensure that your book tries to get some attention.
With so many books being published annually, that's a very hard thing to do and there's so much noise on social media. It all starts to feel like a popularity concert rather than a literary achievement, which is what it starts out as being.
5. What do you do when you aren't writing? What do you do to relax and get away from it all?
When I'm not writing, I'm genuinely thinking about writing. I'm constantly brimming with ideas and fretting over which one to follow.
It's become a little more difficult these days as I recently set up a charitable organisation after writing this book, to try and help benefit the inhabitants of Makoko. The community lives with little access to basic social amenities, like healthcare, education, good sanitation, and struggles with all the current climate change challenges. I set up Makoko Pearls to spread the word about the community and to help empower inhabitants to help identify and meet their own needs to be able to participate more fully in society.
My other day job involves writing too, so I get to keep my brain exercised, but I enjoy those moments of downtime when I can curl up on a sofa with a good book. Reading, cooking, travelling are my happy places, as well as any moment shared with my manipulative cats.
6. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life which book would it be?
This is an impossible question to answer, and that answer would depend on what stage I was at in my life. I do reread my favourites though, but I can't even contemplate sticking with just one for eternity!
7. I like to end my Q&As with the same question so here we go. During all the Q&As and interviews you've done what question have you not been asked that you wish had been asked – and what's the answer?
Because my book is set in Nigeria, many questions are inevitably about there, as though that is my only field of interest. It would be lovely to be asked about books —or my favourite authors — generally, without there being an assumption that I'm an authority on African fiction. Cos truthfully, I'm just a girl, standing in front of a bookshelf, asking how many I can ingest before my time is up.
About the Book
She's the Pearl of Makoko and the world is her oyster.
In Makoko, the floating slum off mainland Lagos, Nigeria, nineteen-year-old Baby yearns for an existence where she can escape the future her father has planned for her.
With opportunities scarce, Baby jumps at the chance to join a newly launched drone-mapping project, aimed at broadening the visibility of her community.
Then a video of her at work goes viral and Baby finds herself with options she could never have imagined - including the possibility of leaving her birthplace to represent Makoko on the world stage.
But will life beyond the lagoon be everything she's dreamed of? Or has everything she wants been in front of her all along?
You can buy a copy of the book here.
(This is an affiliate link. You can also purchase Water Baby from your local independent bookshop.)
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