OBT Black History Series: Hassan Ghedi Santur

As part of the Black History Author Highlight Series, Open Book: Toronto sits down to speak with Somali-Canadian novelist, Hassan Ghedi Santur.

Open Book:

When did you first discover the power of words? Did you write as a child?

Hassan Ghedi Santur:

Unlike a lot of writers, I didn’t write little short stories or imitations of famous fables as a child. In fact, I didn’t write anything until I was a freshman in high school and my ESL teacher asked us to write about our journey to Canada and I remember writing, in my broken English, a dramatic but completely fictional account of my family’s trip to Canada. In a way, this was my first introduction to the power of words, albeit untrue words, because I ended up getting an A on the assignment.

OB:

What initially prompted you to write Something Remains?

HGS:

I had no intension of writing a novel at first. Although I loved novels and dreamt of writing one some day, I was far too intimidated by the form. I had this false notion that people like Henry James and Edith Wharton wrote novels. A young man from Somalia who learnt English at fourteen had no business writing novels, I thought. I was working on a book of short stories and I started deleting stories that weren’t central to the major characters and without even being fully conscious of it, I ended up with four stories that were so connected they started to read like a novel. So I went for it. I am glad I did because I was able to overcome that intimidation factor.

OBT:

How has the experience of moving from Somalia to Canada factored into your work?

HGS:

I think most writers become writers because they were readers and that was definitely true for me. To learn English, I pretty much devoured any book I could get my hands on which eventually inspired me to write. So most likely, had I not moved from Somalia and come to Canada, I would never have become a voracious reader and most like never write. All the major decisions of my life seem to have an origin in my leaving my home country and settling in a foreign nation whose culture I tried to make sense through the act of reading and writing.

OBT:

To identify with a particular Diaspora might offer a writer a sense that they can cross multiple barriers, aesthetically and culturally, in their craft. Yet, in many cases, books that explore diasporic identity seem to be accented by a sense of loss. Do you feel this to be true? How do you read diasporic identities?

HGS:

This is definitely true of my novel as well. If I had to pick a single theme of my novel, I would say it is the theme of loss and in particular our often futile attempts to get over loss. All of the four main characters of my novel are all undone by a huge, life-altering loss, be it the death of a child or a mother; the death of a lover; and the break up of a marriage. Diasporic identities are indelibly marked by loss. Loss of a home country, of a culture and in many cases loss of a loved one in a violent manner as is often the case with many immigrants fleeing violence and war.

OBT:

From what has been gathered about Something Remains, there is a sense that we are all haunted by the past, that the past is always on the cusp of coming into view. Is there anything productive about being haunted by the past?

HGS:

One of the saddest truths about the human condition is our inability to not let the past to sully our present. No matter how hard we try, our past has a way of seeping into our present and more often than not sabotaging whatever joy and happiness we might experience in the present moment. Whether or not I think this is productive depends on which day of the week you catch me. On good days when I feel fortified by hope for the future then I would say yes, go ahead, use your past to inform and even inspire your work. But on bad days, I feel the past is this giant storm whose sole purpose is to rain on my parade.

OBT:

Did setting your novel in Toronto bring you to see the city differently?

HGS:

It actually did. I walked around a lot in the various neighbourhoods the characters were living in or visiting which made me realize for the first time that this is a city of many wonderful, distinct neighbourhoods full of eccentric details and people. The final scene of the book was born straight out of one of those long walks I took.

OBT:

You are a freelance producer at CBC. In honour of this special Black History interview series for Open Book, how do you see the role of broadcast journalism within the larger project of recognizing, preserving and promoting the contributions of peoples of African ancestry and their collective histories?

HGS:

Wow, that is a tough question. CBC has over the years made a concerted effort to celebrate Black History month with special programs that showcase the stories of African Canadians and well as events at its Toronto broadcast centre and I am sure at other locations across the county. Having said that, there is always room for improvements in not only in the quantity and quality of African Canadian stories in mainstream broadcast journalism but also improvement in the creation of shows and other platforms in which Canadians of African ancestry can celebrate their heritage and tell their stories not just one month out of the year but all year long. My dream is that someday in the near future we won’t have just one month in the year to remind ourselves of the value and contributions of African Canadians to our country.

OBT:

Who are your favourite writers?

HGS:

I’m all over the place when it comes to writers whose work I love. James Joyce, Toni Morrison, Virginia Woolf, Zadie Smith, Edith Wharton, James Baldwin, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Michael Cunningham and Helen Humphreys are a few of the writers whose work I love as a reader but who also inspire me as a writer. The structure of my debut novel, for instance, is my homage to Cunningham’s brilliant novel, A Home at the End of the World.

OBT:

What are you reading right now, or planning to read in the near future?

HGS:

For the past several months I have been reading a lot of books about Islam for work, books such as Reza Aslan’s wonderful No God but God and How to Win a Cosmic War. But on the fiction front, I recently finished reading James Baldwin’s novel Another Country which has wetted my appetite not only to reread Go Tell on the Mountain and Giovanni’s Room but also make a dent in his mammoth collection of essays.

OBT:

Are you currently at work on any new projects? Where can we go to hear or find your work?

HGS:

I am currently working on a book of short stories titled Home/Stories. It’s a collection of seven linked stories about Somali Canadian men who live in Toronto and are in search of that elusive sense of home. People can find my novel at all major book stores across the city and my radio work can be found on the websites of CBC shows such as IDEAS and TAPESTRY.