Luck has played an important part in my life, being at the right spot at the right time…
Now marking its 25th year in existence, The Caine Prize for African Writing is arguably the most coveted literary prize for African writers of short stories. Since its inception in 2000, only a handful of writers have appeared more than once on its hotly-contested annual shortlist. A quick search identifies them as Elnathan John, Monica Arac de Nyeko, E.C. Osondu, Segun Afolabi, Tope Folarin, and Lesley Nneka Arimah (shortlisted three times).
At first glance, Rory Kilalea does not appear to be in that exclusive group because in 2000, when he first made it to the shortlist of five writers with his short story, “Whine of a Dog,” it was published under his pen name, Murungu, meaning Caucasian. Among the finalists that year were familiar names like Charles Mungoshi and Shimmer Chinodya, fellow Zimbabweans. Leila Aboulela went on to win that edition.
Two years later, in 2002, Kilalea wrote his way back on to the shortlist with his story “Zimbabwe Boy,” competing this time with the likes of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Florent Couao-Zotti. Binyavanga Wainaina won that year, but it was a clear validation of Kilalea’s robustness as a writer of fiction.
When it comes to all things Rory Kilalea, any door you open could lead anywhere. The question is no longer “What has Kilalea done?” but rather, “What has he not?” With a wide educational background spanning linguistics, literature, drama, education and scriptwriting from a diversity of institutions around the world, he has written books, produced and directed feature films, television, theatre, commercials, radio, animation, and documentaries. As an educator, he has mentored and taught students in filmmaking, creative writing, acting and theatre at universities globally. He has also led workshops in Nigeria, Dubai, London, and beyond. He has written and edited fiction, stage plays and radio plays. A passionate advocate of causes, he has produced documentaries on HIV/AIDs for agencies like The Ford Foundation and UNESCO.
Kilalea has worked in major Hollywood feature films like Allan Quartermain, King Solomon’s Mines, and Congo. Significantly, he worked as Production Manager, Line Producer, Second Unit Director or Producer on just about every major anti-apartheid film shot in Africa during the 80s and 90s, under directors like Richard Attenborough, John G. Avildsen, Chris Menges, etc. These films, including Cry Freedom, The Power of One, Mandela, A Dry White Season, and A World Apart, featured stars such as Denzel Washington, Danny Glover, Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone, Donald Sutherland, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Kline, and Morgan Freeman. These are the films that brought the anti-apartheid cause to a global audience, flashing the haunting horrors of the regime in widescreen to a mass audience and thereby helping to accelerate its demise.
This conversation with Sola Osofisan has been condensed and edited.
SOLA OSOFISAN: I want to talk about the films first, if you don’t mind. Cry Freedom, Mandela, and one in particular that shook me to my core, The Power of One. And then there’s Windprints, A Dry White Season, A World Apart… It can’t be a coincidence that you’ve worked at different levels in maybe six or seven Hollywood anti-apartheid films within a span of ten, fifteen years. Is there a story behind how you joined these specific productions?
RORY KILALEA: I was in Zimbabwe Radio and Television after Zimbabwe’s Independence. We opened a new radio station, Radio 3, to celebrate the cross-cultural and multiracial nature of our country. That allowed me access to many in the media world, and led me to my first feature film, The Leopard, produced by Michelle de Broca. My boss at the radio station had advised her that I would be a good organizer for her French film. And then, after the film was over, I was telephoned by the office of the Minister of Information to have a meeting. The Hon. Nathan Shamuyarira was the Minister, and he asked me to represent the country in a series of films coming to the country. They were the Cannon films; King Solomon’s Mines and Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold. Zimbabwe was chosen to be a location country as South Africa was still ruled by apartheid, and so films would be banned if they filmed there. In a cunning business strategy, producers hired film equipment from South Africa and filmed in Zimbabwe. So…the film was produced in Zimbabwe but supplied by South Africa. Many companies adopted this suspicious tactic after Zimbabwe gained independence and became a free country.
I got to know the Minister and the Head of Film Permissions, Bev Tilly, very well, and it was they who, (after I didn’t mess up on The Leopard and the Cannon films), recommended me for Cry Freedom and the string of anti-apartheid movies that came after the Cannon pioneering productions. Eventually, I began to get the calls directly from the producers as they had heard that we were efficient at organizing films. A World Apart was one of the best films to work on. We had Caroline Hewitt and Sarah Radclyffe as producers and it was a pleasure to work for these women who broke the mould of mainly male people in charge.
I was lucky to be at the right time and place when the anti-apartheid films came along, and thank the good Lord that we changed the world, encouraging the end of African white supremacy. I knew that I was part of the history of Africa and I am proud of my contribution. I have always been anti-apartheid as I think it is immoral. Like the reprehensible chasm between Palestinians and Israelis, I wish there was open dialogue between the different sides so that the cruelty – social, mental, and physical – can stop. It is all darkness in these situations, but to embrace the brighter side of life, I have written a wry memoir of humour, from my experiences in the anti-apartheid films. Much of it is based on the funny reactions of international film crews to working in what they regarded as ‘Third World Africa’, where we have different standards and lifestyles. The crew were very confused and very funny. The book is called Out Takes of Africa, providing a comical ‘take’ on making anti-apartheid films. The book is at various publishers now…hopefully it gets picked up.
SOLA OSOFISAN: Were all the film locations in Zimbabwe, or did some other African countries substitute?
RORY KILALEA: Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe were our main locations. The beach scene in Cry Freedom was in Lake Kariba. We had to be adaptable, too, choosing countries that matched the script, based on Lauren Van der Post’s novels. For example, we had to make a collapsible Baobab tree for a scene in A Far Off Place so that we could erect it near a salt pan in Botswana; there were no suitable salt pans in Zimbabwe. The low loader with a jigsaw of a Baobab was a customs nightmare! But it all went through in ‘one piece’! The deserts of the SossusVlei in Namibia were the locations for the dry and arid scenes for A Far Off Place. Spectacular sand dunes that changed their colours at sunset or dawn as they have minerals in the sand; sometimes red, sometimes purple…glinting in the light- a miracle to see in reality and in the film.
One of my rules was that we employ local people wherever possible and we achieved that in every one of the films. That is why it is a sadness that the film industry has died in Zimbabwe. It could have offered many people employment.
SOLA OSOFISAN: You worked as the Location Manager, Location Director, Production Manager or Production Supervisor on these big films. What was that like?
RORY KILALEA: The first film, The Leopard, was not scary at all. It was simply organizing transport and locations. As the films got bigger and more complex, I really had to work hard at expanding my mind to organize scenes of massive scale, e.g. over 2000 extras for the funeral of Steve Biko (in Cry Freedom). I sort of ‘grew into the jobs’ as they expanded. And being in charge of hundreds of thousands of dollars became less frightening. It is also a credit to people like Sir Richard Attenborough to put me in charge. I also was very aware that I was in an international market- there were many people who could have done my job and would have jumped at the opportunity to work on these world-changing films. Kept me on my toes!
SOLA OSOFISAN: It is undeniable that the immense reach of these major films and television dramas amplified the anti-apartheid voices and attracted worldwide attention, thereby contributing to the crumbling of apartheid. How does it feel now to look back at that period and consider the part you played?
RORY KILALEA: Proud. Very proud. Although I despair at the corruption that has taken place in Zimbabwe and South Africa since freedom came, but I still hold the view that from my arrest as a student at university for demonstrating against Ian Smith, we were an important cog in the wheel of racial equality in Southern Africa.
SOLA OSOFISAN: I’m sorry, but you can’t just casually say you were arrested, and not expect a push for more information about it. So, what happened?
RORY KILALEA: I was at the multiracial university in Salisbury and Lord Soames came to discuss the future of Rhodesia with Ian Smith. We students decided to demonstrate outside Ian Smith’s office to let Lord Soames know that we wanted Rhodesia to become Zimbabwe with equal votes for all blacks and whites. The talks were not a success politically but many of us were arrested, and owing to interventions by the Brits, we only stayed arrested for a day!! They had no grounds to arrest us really, and also, there were too many of us to fit into a prison, I think… I recall being chased by a policeman through the crowd of demonstrators until the long arm of the law caught me! I was known to the police and the authorities as I was the editor of a student newspaper that was highly critical of the government of the time. It was a frightening, and at the same time, a proud moment. But it was a statement.
SOLA OSOFISAN: At the end of many of the anti-apartheid films of that era… spoken or merely implied, we had promises that the future would be better. Those stories left us with hope for a certain kind of tomorrow… It’s been thirty years or more since those films. Is it tomorrow yet? Did it pass and we missed it? Or are we still on the cusp of attaining it? Do you see it?
RORY KILALEA: I am still hopeful – and I’m a firm believer that both Zim and South Africa will return to a truly honest (is there such a thing in politics?) form of democratic government. I may have been naïve, or may still be naïve, but I believe that in the days of Minister Nathan Shamuyarira, we had a more honest form of government. We did not have to offer bribes to get locations, for example. When he left the ministry, and the seeds of corruption flowered, so did the number of movies dwindle. Many went to South Africa and, with an already established local industry, places like Cape Town took off as being the hub of moviemaking in Southern Africa. The future is dim for the kids who do not have educational opportunities (as in Zim) but I fervently pray for that to change. It needs another charismatic leader to brush away corruption and self-interest.
SOLA OSOFISAN: You said in an interview available online that you grew up as ‘a poor white person in a black country.’ While you worked on the set of The Power of One, did you get the impression that aspects of your childhood were similar to that of ‘PK’, the film’s key protagonist?
RORY KILALEA: I identified a great deal with ‘PK’, especially as my family was (what was then called) ‘liberal’ – and so the views that all people were equal were not universally condoned or accepted by my contemporaries. It was at university in what was then Salisbury, that I could feel more relaxed and finally at home in a mixed-race environment. I learned how to operate for real in a mixed-race milieu. Today is different, though, racism has gone interior – I have noticed that there is an invisible racism (not too hidden at times), both from black and white in Southern Africa. It is often ethnic based and perhaps someday, there will be films talking about this sadness. At its root, racism is selfishness and our modern world seems to applaud it.
At its root, racism is selfishness and our modern world seems to applaud it.
SOLA OSOFISAN: A story you narrated has stayed with me, probably because it is so visually striking, haunting and sad; you and another kid on opposite sides of the street, watching a construction vehicle pour tar, the road and a fence between you… You’re no longer that kid, but I can imagine why that moment meant so much to you. Has it played a part in you emerging the man you are today?
RORY KILALEA: I was thinking about that experience the other day. It was my thoughts that the little specks of tar on my face could cover me completely, and I would be black, and would not be able to sleep in my white bed that night; that a fence had been put between me and the whites- I would have nowhere to go…
My youth certainly affected my writing and life as an adult. I tend to still write about the oppressed and marginalized. My novel (yet to be published) is called HuKaMa (Togetherness), a story of street kids and the fears they have living on the streets in Harare. I researched the novel in Harare and these kids are there because of poverty, some of which is due to corruption in the higher echelons of business and politics. It makes me still wonder at the morality of power. And the effect of untrammeled social media sites, which do not have the values of fairness and goodness at their base.
I write from the point of view of one favoured with education, and many, particularly now in Zimbabwe, do not have that luxury. It is the future that will suffer if this is not changed.
SOLA OSOFISAN: You’ve been teaching for decades, associating with and grooming a new generation of writers and thinkers and filmmakers. Have you formed an opinion on the way they think and interact with the world, creatively and philosophically? How different are they from the generations preceding them? Is there an impending revolution, or we’re headed for more of the same?
RORY KILALEA: Amongst the youth, I have found that there is a growing lack of respect for kindness and the plight of an individual who has less. Materialism, social media and the cell phone seem to be the Gods of the young today. Selfies provide a never-ending loop of egocentricity. Norway is leading the way on cellphones, limiting their use at schools. More emphasis should be placed on teaching/broadcasting philosophy or morality, so that at least we have a rounded education. I am not talking about the kind of Born-Again type of Christianity. I am talking about base values of truth, goodness and kindness. Lies and dishonesty are no longer the ‘sins’ they were before. I am not surprised that Donald Trump was voted in as President; we seem to have lost (for a moment, I hope) an honest anchor by which to judge actions and people. We are lost in a sea of encouraged selfishness. I realize that I sound old-fashioned, but the future for the young is a worry. They have no handlebars to hold on to.
SOLA OSOFISAN: Let’s go back to Zimbabwe for a bit. When was the last time you were home? Are you happy with the movement you see on ground, or you think stagnation persists?
RORY KILALEA: I was there last year and while most of my friends are coping with the effects of malfeasance and corruption, they are corralling themselves into safe units. With their own solar power and electric fences, they represent a sad indictment of the war for freedom, which promised a better world for Zimbabweans. The middle class now live in a materialistic prison where the wealthy use their positions to make even more money. The poor remain poorer.
SOLA OSOFISAN: Tell us about your childhood.
RORY KILALEA: I always felt isolated as a child. Also, as an adult. I had one good friend at school, who outgrew me and my strange ideas. I think that is what made me write and make films- I saw things differently from others. I swam; that is what I did as a sport – competing against others sometimes, other times beating my own record. I wrote because I could not talk to other kids about my thoughts- they would have thought me insane! So, I wrote, and in school exercises, I wrote essays about butterflies emerging from a chrysalis. Heavy symbolism from the youngster that I was…
SOLA OSOFISAN: I know you started writing before age 11 when you read a story to your classmates. But what spurred you to pick up the pen in the first place? I mean when did your love of stories shift from reading them to wanting to create your own?
RORY KILALEA: My mother introduced me to the world of the book. She was an avid reader who introduced me to the ‘classics.’ She was my ardent fan when my plays or stories got a broader platform. I cannot recall the first time I wanted to write my own short stories. I have always written my reactions to life around me.
SOLA OSOFISAN: How do you think your formative years in Zimbabwe shaped the way you view the world today?
RORY KILALEA: I learned what discrimination was. And confusion about why it was happening. My aunt had a dairy farm outside Gwelo (now Gweru) and we often went there on holiday. I was very young and became friendly with the black kids and always wondered why they were poor, why they did not go to school. Yet I did. I was aware that even coming from a poor family, I still had many advantages which black kids did not. My family were very Catholic and could not afford school fees for three boys. My mother did a cut price deal with the Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo; it was to give a discount – reduce the fees so that she paid for two and we got the education for three! I wish I had her business acumen! But… I was still at school and the kids of the next-door neighbors’ gardener or housekeeper could not. You carry these shadows with you throughout life.
I have found that there is a growing lack of respect for kindness and the plight of an individual who has less
SOLA OSOFISAN: Rory Kilalea is an actor, educator, writer, workshop facilitator, film and TV producer, playwright, scriptwriter, film-TV-documentary-theatre director… and I’m sure that doesn’t cover it all. Oh yes, you make advertising commercials and radio plays, too. Some people are contented doing one of those things for a lifetime. I wonder what drives a man like you to do so many things, to be so many different things?
RORY KILALEA: Haha… I would love to change the world!! As I have got older, I have become a little more benign and don’t want tomorrow today, but I would like to see more honesty in government and daily lives. Luck has played an important part in my life, being at the right spot at the right time…
SOLA OSOFISAN: How do you situate your mind within the form you’re working on/in without letting seepage from elsewhere get in the way? For instance, the word economy that’s the staple of the short story may cramp your attempt to write a novel. A radio play may require you to write for the ear while the stage demands you fill a limited physical space, but a screenplay sets you free to do all things. How do you compartmentalize?
RORY KILALEA: I separate the ideas after the initial attempt at outing them on the page. I get the feeling of the character, then I find them in the story. Then I begin work – the technical method of sharing the idea is different; for example, a play has a format; a short story has a template of sorts. There is seepage- there has to be- and I often wonder whether I have got it right; for example, will my current novel HuKaMa be published? It could strike some as being a series of connected short stories? These thoughts spur me on to a tighter discipline of editing and self-critique.
So, the skillset does seep into other forms – and it means editing…editing…editing…
SOLA OSOFISAN: Is it fair to say the fictional worlds you build are kind of grim, even when it is full of humour? You write about racism, AIDs, war, poverty, apartheid, homosexuality, and much more… Do you find yourself drawn to issues? Or do the issues creep into your writing unplanned?
RORY KILALEA: I think my brain and heart are hardwired into the ‘underdog’ blotting into my writing.
SOLA OSOFISAN: There’s been chatter online about African literature being too issue-focused, and dwelling so much on trauma. Some argue that’s just the kind of writing that gets amplified by the gatekeepers; that there’s a sunny side to writing from the Continent, but it’s not receiving equal attention. I wonder what your thoughts are on this debate?
RORY KILALEA: I think that we need more humour from Africa. It could be the gatekeepers who are controlling the traffic- they are the ones seeking a monetary audience. Lack of African humour is one of the reasons I wrote Out Takes of Africa. It is a humorous ‘take’ on making anti-apartheid and feature films. Let’s see if it gets a publisher! Will the gatekeepers let it through?
I think that we have grown into a world where everything that is not the West is considered inferior in some way, needing assistance, where issues needing to be addressed. Africa is seen as the poor man of the world. I mean not even wars are being fought there so it is not news-worthy! It is time for a Steve Biko to rise up from the media morass and show Africa as a proud continent above the issues of being a failed continent. We need to rather sort out the issues than write about them.
SOLA OSOFISAN: Your short stories are a visual feast, like micro-movies, with dialogues and descriptions that draw out the suspense – especially with those one-sentence paragraphs dropped like bombs in places. I think the word for it is cinematic. Is that your screenwriter and director side influencing your prose fiction?
RORY KILALEA: Yep!! The ‘Less is more’ rule. I hope that the one word ‘bombs’ have been set up by the previous descriptions.
When I filmed commercials, I learned that what is in the background in your scene informs the message, so perhaps that is why I found shooting commercials so satisfying, even though their content was not mind-blowing. They were a practice of setting up the scene and then reinforcing it with a reminder word or phrase.
SOLA OSOFISAN: You’re also a poet, and writing poetry is often a punishingly painstaking process. In your short fiction, your imagery and those one-sentence paragraphs again shout poet! Does the poet in you perhaps prolong your prose writing process? How long does a story typically take you from idea to finished manuscript?
RORY KILALEA: I am going through a drought at the moment. I have been editing the two books – but normally a short story takes a month, after I have been editing and paring down the number of words. Poetry is tough; it demands ruthless honesty and practice of structure. I often rubbish many attempts as they do not gel on the page. Self-criticism is essential. Truth is vital.
SOLA OSOFISAN: You’re an actor. Do you play all the parts in your head as you write your plays? Does it get loud inside your head? How does it work when you write prose fiction?
RORY KILALEA: I see the people in my head and heart and then write. I have not acted in some years-except when I am teaching drama-but my most convincing roles were when I was immersed into the character. Stanislavsky style. Immersion.
SOLA OSOFISAN: When you’re done writing a play or story, do the characters stop talking, or they linger if they have unfinished business?
RORY KILALEA: If they are still talking to me after I finish, then I have more work to do!! I recall the characters like old friends in my memory.
SOLA OSOFISAN: What kind of characters fire you up and get you all eager to write? Do you have a type of character you revisit often in your writing and productions?
RORY KILALEA: The underdog, the misunderstood. I wrote a short story called ‘Zimbabwe Boy’ and it is not the lead character that comes back to me – it is the character of the female sex worker. She reminds me as an example of how sometimes you have to barter your most valuable goods to survive.
SOLA OSOFISAN: Let me play Devil’s advocate for a moment: why does someone like you who has experienced the world-altering powers of television and the big screen still bother writing stage plays?
RORY KILALEA: I write them because they have a different audience – a more visceral experience. Also, a stage play has the ability to enhance some of the writing – it can alter each night with actors’ interpretation. That is exciting. And they are live humans acting out your words in front of you.
SOLA OSOFISAN: I’m a big fan of Danai Gurira. You knew her as a writer before she exploded as an actress in The Walking Dead and The Black Panther. How did the collection of plays you edited featuring one of her plays, “In the Continuum,” come into existence?
RORY KILALEA: The editor, Irene Staunton, phoned me and said she had a collection of writings she would like to put together…and would I edit? And In the Continuum came to be. I also met Danai in the theatre set she knew, and she is charming and charismatic. I was totally unsurprised when Danai made it internationally- she is a perceptive and very bright lady. I loved the experience of editing the book.