Introducing Readers on Writers – the series where our shadow judging panel interview the shortlisted authors for the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award.
In this interview, shadow judge Zubs J. Malik (@zubscovered) speaks to Moses McKenzie (@eastsidemoses) about his shortlisted novel Fast by the Horns published by Wildfire Books. Their conversation explores focusing on the audience you’re writing for, faith as a guiding force and tending to your local and wider community.
1. Why did you choose to write your book entirely in patois? What was the significance of that decision?
The book isn’t written in patois, more an anglicised version of the Jamaican language. In An Olive Grove in Ends I felt, with my spelling and grammatical choices, that I diluted the sincerity of a language which is in the process of being standardised. This time around, in keeping with writers like Lamming and Levy, I write in English, my first language, rather than Jamaican, my second, but attempt to capture the latter’s rhythm and humour. Anything else would’ve catered to an audience that I’m not writing for.
2. How would you describe the central message or theme of Fast by the Horns?
Right now I would say that it’s anti-capitalist, writing against certainty and dogma, celebrating difference — acknowledging that we aren’t in fact equal but are complimentary. It’s a promotion of Love, and God as Love. Solution in Love. Written, successfully or not, with purpose and intent.
3. Jabari grapples with the idea of justice and his emotions about the societal systems that oppress him. How does the story explore the complexity of seeking justice in a world that often seems unjust?
I think it asks that we do and encourages us to seek justice. We all have a sphere of influence, however small, and I intended for the novel to advocate that we exercise agency within that sphere. Radical change often begins with the small acts of love that allow for the bigger rebellions. The belief in the possibility of change from within the system is a myth people use to enable their apathy and desire to emulate what is oppressive. The system keeping us, as black people living in Britain, anti- establishment, but changing us from the socialists we often were in the 50s through 80s, into ardent consumers and capitalists, was incredibly effective. I wanted to look at a time where our needs were still unmet, as they are now, but we were perhaps more political. What was it about then? What is it about now?
4. Jabari’s relationship with his father, Ras Levi, seems central to the story. How does Ras Levi’s role as a community leader shape Jabari’s worldview and sense of responsibility?
The Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac always interested me as a child attending Sunday School. Abraham’s willingness to murder his son. How their relationship would’ve changed after Isaac realised that his father’s love was conditional and that he was capable of such a thing. It felt the natural framework for a novel that explored one’s commitment to the community and to God, and to one’s own family. Then telling it from the perspective of the child, Jabari as Isaac, or from Miss Nefertari’s perspective, which would’ve been an interesting alternative, felt right, as it is Jabari who experiences Ras Levi’s commitment to change and to God as an absence, or as rejection.
5. The novel is set in the tight-knit neighbourhood of St.Pauls in1980.Howdid you approach capturing the essence of this community during that time?
Both my approach to history as a novelist and the fact that the history is alive and still with us made it a relatively simple task.
6. Jabari’s Rastafari faith offers him hope for a better future, with a vision of repatriation to the motherland. How does his faith influence his actions and decisions throughout the novel?
It’s his North Star.
7. Jabari’s journey seems to be one of self-discovery, caught between his father’s legacy and his own desires. How do you explore the tension between generational expectations and personal growth in the novel?
I think it would be hard to distinguish between generational expectation and personal growth, especially within a collectivist culture. I suppose that’s partly why the novel ended the way it did.
8. How would you describe the dynamics between Jabari and his peers, particularly within the context of the political and social environment of St. Pauls?
Those with a politics, those who move with hope, and those without.
9. How do you deal with the emotional impact on yourself, as a writer, when you are writing these themes and quite frankly real lived experiences?
I would say that writing is one of the ways in which I deal with, and come to understand, the emotional impact of living these experiences myself and seeing them in those around me. It’s one of the ways I attempt to contribute to my community, both local and wider.
10. Are you working on anything right now?
Three or so films, an adaption of An Olive Grove in Ends for television and my third novel.