#20: ‘The Final Strife’ by Saara El-Arifi
This content is free, but it takes time to create and upload each piece. If you enjoy this project would like to support it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber of ‘She Dares to Say’. If you would prefer to make a one-off donation, feel free to send a contribution via PayPal. You can also show your enjoyment without spending £££, by liking, commenting or sharing 😃 [Image description: Text ‘‘The Final Strife’ by Saara El-Arifi’ on a navy blue background with a lilac paintbrush stroke highlighted segment] [Image description: Author Saara El-Arifi wears a brightly coloured zip-up shirt and is looking out into the distance] It’s UK publication day for Saara El-Arifi’s debut fantasy novel The Final Strife. Last month, I interviewed Saara for a profile for The Bookseller. Since Saara and I spent our late childhood and teens growing up together in a small northern English town (which was exceptionally white), as both of our families had settled there from abroad, and additionally, our mothers grew up together in Accra, Ghana, in the 1950s and 1960s, it means that, up to a point, we have a unique shared history. The two of us hadn’t seen each other for a number years, and so when we saw each other’s faces on our video call we were excited. Saara peered hard into her screen to get a better look at my surroundings. “Ah the room!”, she exclaimed. I was doing the interview from my childhood bedroom, where during our tween- and teen-hood, we’d play games like, ‘Monopoly’, ‘Cluedo’ and ‘Dream Phone’ (for those who might not have heard of ‘Dream Phone’, the game came with a large pink phone and the object of the game was to find out which boy had a crush on you by dialling numbers and ‘talking’ to the boys to gather clues.). [Image description: Vintage board game box for Dreamphone on a faux animal-skin throw] The audio recording (above) and transcript (below) represent eight minutes from the middle of the interview I did with Saara where we painfully remembered our secondary school days in the noughties where we were both one of about three non-white folks in our respective year groups which housed of around 350 pupils. I gushed about the breadth and depth of Saara’s imagination and the extract I’m sharing below picks up a thread about the horrors of colonialism that Saara has woven throughout her novel. Almaz Ohene – 23:21mins Saara El-Arifi – 23:26 And so I took that, and I put it in the story. And I think that’s because I’ve had a few people – my mum – be like “Oh it’s very violent, the book”. And, you know, it’s all based in truth. There’s nothing, no suffering that I’ve represented on the page that actually doesn’t come from that history. Almaz Ohene – 24:33mins Saara El-Arifi – 24:33mins Almaz Ohene – 23:46mins Saara El-Arifi – 23:46mins Almaz Ohene – 25:08mins Saara El-Arifi – 25:12mins Almaz Ohene – 25:13mins Saara El-Arifi – 25:21mins [Saara chuckles] Almaz Ohene – 25:24mins Saara El-Arifi – 25:30mins Almaz Ohene – 25:31mins Saara El-Arifi – 25:34mins [both chuckle] Saara El-Arifi – 25:34mins Almaz Ohene – 25:49mins Saara El-Arifi – 25:49mins Almaz Ohene – 26:02mins Saara El-Arifi – 26:02mins [Saara chuckles] Almaz Ohene – 26:18mins Almaz Ohene – 26:22mins Almaz Ohene – 26:29mins And then also the framing of the whole novel, which, when you get to the twist, you’ll understand a little bit more. But the novel is framed into five parts which are based on phases, of colonisation. Almaz Ohene – 26:56mins Almaz Ohene – 27:12mins Saara El-Arifi – 27:14mins [Both chuckle] Almaz Ohene – 27:19mins Okay, so, please can you describe your writing process. Which bits do you love the most? And which bits do you find a drag? Saara El-Arifi – 27:33mins I don’t know what’s coming next. In Book Two there was this character who had a glove on for, like, five chapters. I was like “I don’t know why he’s got one glove.” I was like “Jim [Saara’s husband], I don't understand why he’s got one glove.” Almaz Ohene – 28:01mins Almaz Ohene – 28:07mins Almaz Ohene – 28:10mins Saara El-Arifi – 28:10mins What was gonna be there. And that’s, kind of, my process. Like, I actually don’t know These characters, it sounds so douche-y, but they, like, talk to me [scoffs]. And I’m just like “Oh my gosh, you wouldn’t believe what she just did”. And Jim will be like “You wrote that.” So that’s definitely the funnest bit. I think editing the first book was much more difficult than editing the second book, which I’m sick of now, because I’ve grown as a writer so much more. The first draft of The Final Strife was 70,000 words. It’s now 170,000 words. So in edits it grew a huge amount. So that was a slog for me because it was, like learning how to write, whilst also expecting to be a published author. Almaz Ohene – 28:50mins Saara El-Arifi – 28:50mins Actually, the hardest bit is just knowing when the books out there when people are reading it, that’s, like… I honestly want to peel off my skin. Almaz Ohene – 29:08mins Saara El-Arifi – 29:08mins [chuckles] Almaz Ohene – 29:15mins Saara El-Arifi – 29:22mins Almaz Ohene – 29:30mins Saara El-Arifi – 29:30mins And so when I did start writing, it was always for her. Like, how can I make her happy? Now she’s happy so [chuckles] Now it’s very much like The Final Strife was very much like an ode to me more than anything. For me it was, like, finding my identity. It was finding own feet in a world outside of this one. In terms of, like, the legacy, gosh, I just hope that other authors out there who are like, “as a woman of colour, I’m never going to be able to do this”. Really find out that they can. Like, they can just read this book and go actually “A-ha, I can do this. I can just go batshit crazy. Build an entire totally different world.” And we’ll buy it. They won’t buy it quickly, but they will buy it. And I’m just so hopeful. You know I’ve had early readers, contact me and say, you know, “This has meant so much.” Like it’s very rare that I’m gonna find someone from my exact heritage, West Africa and Sudan and Britain. But there are people from different parts of the world who have been like, “Wow, this has been amazing”, “This has meant a lot to me”. And it’s proved to me that I can write about my own heritage in different ways. So yeah, I don’t necessarily want to be a wave-maker. I don’t think I’m gonna be, but I think just giving people the opportunity to see there’s so much more out there. [CONVERSATION CONTINUES FOR ANOTHER 15 MINUTES] Below image: Almaz and Saara hanging out in a central London cafe in May 2022. [Image description: Almaz (L) and Saara (R) are wearing glasses, have their afro-textured hair tied up and are looking at the camera. A digital image of Saara’s novel, ‘The Final Strife’ has been photoshopped into the image between them] [Image description: composite image of UK and US editions of ‘The Final Strife’]
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