For years, I endured people attacking me because my first audiobook was narrated by a white woman with pretty bad “African” accent. This was WHO FEARS DEATH and this was back in 2010.
Let me explain something:
Back then (I guess it’s a long time ago now), name another person who was publishing specifically African science fiction with the major publishers and getting audiobook editions.
I’ll wait.
Exactly. And the fact was that there were ZERO “authentic” voice actors who could do the job. All we could find was Anne Flosnick, who could do a vague “Indian” accent. That’s all I had. So she and I tried to make it work. I wrote over two hundred pronunciations for her, even did some audio versions for the more difficult ones and she did her best. It was a LOT of work.
The result was…😬 and then years of people tweeting and talking shit at me. People who did not know the struggle.
With the next audiobook, I found a better reader, I demanded more involvement. Now, I work with my publisher and I choose my readers and you can tell. And more black readers who can do the accents have come along. I have audiobooks with black readers whom I’d have chosen differently because I needed a better accent, but at the time, there were none available.
It’s called progress, learning, growth.
What I really don’t like is the judging and shit talking of people who don’t know what it is to be a first. So while they complain and laugh, there’s a lot more to the story. And to those of us firsts who fought our way through and paved paths for those after us to have it a LOT easier, it’s hurtful and infuriating to hear.
It’s a tough road when you pioneer; you do not have as many tools and you have to be creative with what you have! And then a few years go by and no one even knows you did all that fighting and pushing and maneuvering and changing and creating… they might sneer and talk shit about how you didn’t do it well enough…like the rando last night on Twitter that I happened to see right before I went to bed.
Who Fears Death’s audiobook has since been redone by Yetide Badaki (one of my favorite audiobook readers) and she also reads She Who Knows: Firespitter and she read Akata Witch, Akata Warrior and Kabu Kabu. When she recorded the audiobook of She Who Knows: Firespitter (I had specifically and *personally* asked her to do it), she texted me to tell me this one was her favorite, 😊.
She said “I just read SHE WHO KNOWS and LOVED it!!!! Ate it up in one sitting, in mere hours! Anxious to learn more of Najeeba’s journey. Always a fan of your work but this one resonated so very deeply.“
We text. I can reach out to her. I know other readers, too. Etc. It’s been a long road to get here and I had to build a lot of that road because before that, there was nothing but wilderness. I’m putting words to these facts because it’s time …and who else will or CAN speak on this but me?
Nnedi
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