Sarah Ladipo Manyika


Sarah Ladipo Manyika is a British-Nigerian writer of novels, short stories and essays. She is author of two well received novels, In Dependence and Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun, and has had work published in publications including Granta, Transition, Guernica, and OZY, currently serving as Books Editor of OZY. Manyika's work also features in the anthology New Daughters of Africa.

Early life

Sarah Manyika was born and raised in Nigeria. She has also lived in Kenya, France, and Britain. Her father is Nigerian and her mother is British. Manyika inherited her birth name from her father who was born in Ibadan in the late 1930s. Her father met and married her mother in the UK in the 1960s. Sarah spent much of her childhood in Lagos and the city of Jos in Plateau State. As a teenager, she lived for two years in Nairobi, Kenya, before her family moved to the UK.

Career

Manyika studied at the Universities of Birmingham, Bordeaux, and California, receiving a Ph.D from the latter. She was married in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1994 and now divides her time between San Francisco, London and Harare.
Her writing includes published essays, academic papers, book reviews and short stories. Her short story "Mr Wonder" appeared in the 2008 collection Women Writing Zimbabwe. Her first novel, In Dependence, was originally published by Legend Press, London, in 2008, and was chosen by the UK's largest bookstore chain as its featured book for Black History Month.
In 2009, In Dependence, was published by Cassava Republic, a literary press based in Abuja, Nigeria, with a stable of authors that includes Teju Cole and Helon Habila. Speaking of her decision to sign with an African publisher, Manyika has said: "I realized that by granting world rights to an African publisher I could, in a small way, attempt to address the imbalance of power in a world where the gatekeepers of literature, even for so-called African stories, remain firmly rooted in the west." In 2014, In Dependence was published by Weaver Press in Zimbabwe, where it is a set book for the Advanced-Level English Literature examination. In Dependence has also been introduced by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in Nigeria for candidates sitting for the 2017 UTME.
Manyika's second novel, Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, on publication in spring 2016 was endorsed by many other writers, including Bernardine Evaristo, Aminatta Forna, NoViolet Bulawayo, Jamal Mahjoub, Peter Orner, E. C. Osondu, and Brian Chikwava. It was shortlisted in September 2016 for the Goldsmiths Prize, "the first African novel to be considered for this prize", which was set up to reward fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form. Of the genesis for Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun Manyika has said: "I’ve met many older women who have lived colourful lives, and yet when it comes to fiction I don’t find many stories that mirror this, especially so when it comes to the lives of black women. When I cannot find stories that I'd like to read, I try writing them for myself." The novel's title is an acknowledged line from a poem by Mary Ruefle called "Donkey On".
Manyika serves on the boards of Hedgebrook and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. She has also hosted OZY′s video series, Write, and is currently the magazine's Books Editor.

Works

Novels