By Yeow Kai Chai

Getting to know Anni Domingo is to appreciate the true meaning of the clause "I contain multitudes" from Walt Whitman's poem 'Song of Myself'.

I first met her in Accra in October 2023 at the Pa Gya! A Literary Festival, which was co-organised by Writers Project of Ghana and Goethe-Institut Ghana. I was immediately bowled over by her intelligence, vivacity of spirit, and compassion.

She was there to present her debut novel, Breaking the Maafa Chain (Jacaranda Books, 2021), which chronicles two sisters' struggle for true freedom in the mid-19th century, when transporting slaves from Africa to America was an illegal but lucrative business. The book won the Myriad Editions First Novel competition and was featured in the New Daughters of Africa anthology edited by Margaret Busby. As a speaker, she was articulate and giving, and as a moderator, she did her homework and made sure to engage all panellists and the audience.

But that's scraping the surface of what makes Domingo such a creative force.

Born in London and raised in Freetown, Sierra Leone, she is a highly-in-demand actress and director who has worked extensively in radio, television, films and theatre. She has appeared in numerous shows in the UK including in Inua Ellam's Three Sisters set in Nigeria during the Biafran War, at the National Theatre. She finished touring Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, and was part of a quartet in Swim, Aunty, Swim!, Siana Bangura's play about three west African women dealing with grief while taking swimming lessons. It was staged in Belgrade theatre, Coventry in May 2024.

Besides being awarded a place at Hedgebrook Writers Retreat and at Norwich National Writing Centre's 'Escalator' programme, Domingo ventured into screenwriting with her first screenplay, Blessed Assurance, having been recently filmed.

Currently a lecturer in drama and directing at St. Mary's University in Twickenham, Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), she is now writing her second novel, Ominira, as part of her PhD programme at King's College London.

1. What are you reading right now?
I sometimes read several books at the same time but one that I am enjoying now is Zadie Smith's The Fraud. This is a historical novel partly about an enslaved man on a Jamaican sugar plantation, set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England. It is gripping and quite unexpectedly funny.

2. If you were a famous literary character in a novel, play or poem, what would you be and why?
I would love to be Sophocles' Antigone. She is bold in her defiance, believing firmly that she is right. She is powerful in her love for her brother. She believes the burial rituals are the unwritten rules of the gods and must be obeyed regardless of a ruler's political whim. She could be as stubborn as Creon but I love her strength and her determination to see it through whatever the consequence might be in the end.

3. What is the greatest misconception about you?
The biggest misconception people seem to have of me is that I take on too any things and therefore I am always too busy to meet up, spontaneously, with friends and family. What they do not understand is that I am very organised with my time and know not to waste time on things that are not essential. I might be busy, but I can always find time for what is important.

4. Name one living writer and one dead writer you most identify with, and tell us why.
A living writer I identify with is Bernardine Evaristo. She is committed to the art of writing and has always been encouraging and supportive of other writers. Even after she won the Booker Prize, she made time for others. She continues to teach and share her knowledge, and she is an example of graciousness. The dead writer I identify with is Maya Angelou. She is the kind of artist I aspire to be – a writer of novels, poems, autobiography, a singer, a dancer, an activist.

5. Do you believe in writer's block? If so, how do you overcome it?
I do believe that sometimes the writing does not flow as easily. When that happens, I write something else. Usually I write flash fiction. The discipline of finding the right succinct 250 words seems to release whatever blockage there is in me.

6. What qualities do you most admire in a writer?
Perseverance. Writing is a lonely job.

7. What is one trait you most deplore in writing or writers?
Envy. When you start to compare what you are accomplishing against other people's, it shows a lack of trust in your own abilities.

8. Can you recite your favourite line from a literary work or a piece of advice from a writer?
"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." – Toni Morrison.

  9. Complete this sentence: Few people know this, but I...
…was a magistrate for more than 20 years in Cambridgeshire, UK.

10. At the movies, if you have to pick a comedy, a tragedy or an action thriller to watch, which would you go for?
I would go for a tragedy. It gives one a reason to have a good cry without having to explain the pain that could be lurking inside of you.

11. What is your favourite word, and what is your least favourite one?
My favourite word is "dichotomy." I love the idea of division, creating conflict or tension, finding ways to bring the two parts together in any story that I am writing, I love the fact that I have a word that means that nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts.

My least favourite word is actually a phrase "you know what I mean." If I know what you mean, why do you keep on trying to explain it to me!

12. Write a short-short story in three sentences that include the following three items: sunrise, Elmina Castle, driftwood.
I stood by the water's edge and admired the colours dancing on the walls of Elmina Castle, shining in the sunrise, a place full of promise. Then I remembered the ugliness of slavery that had lived within those same walls and shuddered. I prayed then that the stench of evil inside would pour out, rush by me like driftwood in a storm, and disappear into the underworld of never again, leaving behind just the beautiful shell that was Elmina Castle.

13. What object is indispensable to you when you write?
My notebook. I always have it by my side so that I can jot down ideas, words, suggestions and is a record of my progress on any piece of writing I am working on.

14. What is the best time of the day for writing?
Although I can write at any time, the best time for me is late at night when everyone has gone to bed and there is no danger of interruption. I can let my mind drift and enter the world of my story and go on a journey.

15. If you have a last supper, which three literary figures, real or fictional, would you invite to the soiree, and why?
There are so many writers that came to mind but in the end, I have decided that I would invite three of my favourite writers, Shakespeare, James Baldwin and Maya Angelou. All three have such wise things to say. I quote them a lot already and to sit and listen to them being erudite as they discuss and argue about the world today would be so enlightening and entertaining.

16. Reading your resume is dizzying. You've an illustrious, decades-long acting career which encompasses theatre, radio, television, and film, and includes appearing opposite actors such as Sean Connery, Juliet Stevenson and Susannah York. Remarkably, you found the time and energy to publish your debut novel, Breaking the Maafa Chain, in your 70s. What were some of the challenges you encountered in venturing into creative writing, and how did you overcome them?
The major challenge I encountered as I tentatively ventured into the world of creative writing, was seeing myself as a writer. I have always written, but just for myself or for family. Even after I had a short story and then some poetry published in anthologies, I still did not feel as a though I could call myself a writer. It seemed presumptuous to compare myself to writers like Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Aminatta Forna, Ben Okri and many others whose work I admired.

I only started to overcome my imposter syndrome after I won a competition and had an extract from my novel Breaking the Maafa Chain included in the seminal anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby. To be included in a book that also had the works of writers like Zadie Smith, Malorie Blackman, Yvvette Edwards and many black female writers was thrilling. It gave me confidence and allowed me to feel that I have at last earned the right to call myself as a writer.

17. What would you write on your own tombstone?
Wait, I'm not done.  

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