Why do you prefer magical realism to other genres?
I am not sure there is a preference. In The Whispering Trees I think there is an attempt to balance magical realism with other genres; it is definitely not the dominant genre in the collection. Most of the stories in the collection, I think, have very strong elements of realism. There are people who simply can’t relate to magical realism and such people have found the other stories in the collection preferable. There are those who favour magical realism and have felt excited by the stories in the collection. If at all there is a preference, as you say, then perhaps it is because of my fascination with the endless possibilities of literature and the fact that Africans are deeply spiritual and superstitious; they read meanings into everything in nature, most times in the most fantastic ways. And to some of these people, magical realism is actually realism because that is the way they see things; for them the line between the spirit realm and the logical is blurred by beliefs and myths and some rather strange occurrences.