The Abba Interview 2014

Abba  enjoying Diggi Palace chai with the Glamorous Nomad on opening day

At sunset, I sat down with Abba on our balcony overlooking the Trivandrum zoo to catch up with her travels and her recent experience at the Jaipur Literature Festival. I first asked Abba what she’d been up to since our interview of almost a year ago. “I’m no longer unemployed, and I’m no longer living with my parents, although I enjoyed that (some). After leaving Jaipur last year, I went to Cameroon and visited my family there. I spent the summer living in New York City. Now, I’m living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where my I’m CDC fellow in the field epidemiology training program.”

I asked Abba was like to live in Addis Ababa. She replied, “It has its pros and cons. Pros include a temperate climate (although I do like a little warmer). There are a lot of great restaurants with a good deal of variety in the cuisines offered. The people are nice and it’s generally safe. Also, there are a variety of different cultural centers. On the downside, the traffic can be a problem.

I asked Abba to compare her current experience in Addis Ababa with her earlier experiences living in Africa. She said, “When I lived in Cameroon, it was a small town so that was very different. Dakar (Senegal) is comparable to Addis Ababa. Bamako was lower key. In many ways, Addis Abba is most like Dakar.”

I asked about her experience with the program and Ethiopia. “The students in the program really appreciate the training and seem to enjoy our teaching style. The students are very enthusiastic about the teachers and as learners. The purpose of the program is to build capacity and eventually that it will become self-sustaining.”

About Ethiopia in general, Abba remarked that she’d been told it was unique, but she doesn’t see it as especially different. She noted that Africa is diverse, so that doesn’t distinguish Ethiopia especially. Abba did say she loved the food and that has been a real highlight. The people are friendly, but not as open, at least around Addis Ababa. It’s also harder out in the hinterland because they speak only Amharic, unlike the more widely spoken English within Addis Ababa. 

I turned Abba’s attention to attending her second Jaipur literature Festival and asked for her comments. “It was a real treat.” As a result of what she saw and heard, she bought 12 new books, and she has in mind a number of others. “All of this serves to reinvigorate my reading and really whets my appetite and creates a passion for literature based on what I experienced in Jaipur.” She also noted that the setting of the festival is quite beautiful. On the downside, she didn’t find as many great sessions as she found last year, although she attributed that primarily to the different topics on the schedule this year.

As to highlights, she rated the discussion between Gloria Steinem and Rachida Gupta as exceptional. Abba said their conversation served as a reminder that change comes from the bottom up, and change takes time, so supporters of change shouldn’t stop just because change seems to be coming too slowly. Ms. Steinem recommended shared parenting, that the boys and girls be raised more alike, and that the most important choice a woman can make is a good partner. Steinem reminded the audience that we should share our truths and that those who are more inclined to listen should speak up more, and those more inclined to talk should listen.

Abba reported that she didn’t do much advance reading this year for the festival, although she did do some. As far as panels go, she preferred those sessions with only two or three people because larger panels tended to meander more and some participants dominated the discussion. Abba was disappointed not to have heard more from Ved Mehta on the panel session she heard with him. She remarked that she was now reading one of his books and that he was a new author that she discovered courtesy of JLF.

When asked about her favorite food at the palace, she cited the thin crust pizza.

I asked Abba for her advice to any future JLF attendees and she remarked, “Come prepared”. She recommended that you review the schedule and choose your priorities among the sessions. Be prepared to stand, and if you can, come with others and work in teams. Finally, she recommended that you come with partially empty suitcases, because you’ll buy a number of books that you’ll want to take home.

I asked for her recommendations and she gave me four:

1.       Goat Days by Benyamin. She enjoyed it very much.

2.      Mukiwa by Peter Godwin (about Zimbabwe).

3.      Books by Ved Mehta.

4.      Ghana Must Go by Taiye Salasi. 

Abba reported she didn’t have any special issues with any of the presenters at the festival. 

Finally, I asked, about Jaipur and her return there. She reported enjoying Jaipur because of its good shops and good eating-places. She remarked that the weather was a bit chilly, but she was used to that from Ethiopia. Likewise, the traffic was even a little more hectic than Ethiopia, but tolerable.

From last year, her favorite author was Manu Joseph, and last year’s program help bring around her reading to this year’s program.