25 years ago, Bernardine Evaristo wrote on a small card a “happy statement,” as she calls short, passionate positive statements about what she wants to achieve, which she uses as a mechanism for developing positive thinking, as she learned in personal training. seminars, the development of which he followed at that time. “I will win the Booker Prize” are the words she cut out on this piece of paper, describing the wild fantasy, as it seemed to her at the time. It took more than two decades to realize what at the time seemed like an unattainable dream. On October 14, 2019, the British-Nigerian writer became the first black author to share the award with Margaret Atwood for Girl, Woman, Other.

He was 60 years old at the time and had been in the arts for almost forty years, first as an actor and troupe leader, and then as a writer. Forty years in which she worked tirelessly to ensure that her voice was heard, recorded and her work was celebrated alongside that of other underrepresented or underappreciated British artists.

Born in 1959 in south London, the woman, a member of a mixed working-class (Nigerian immigrant father and English mother) family (eight children in total) and black, learned early that she was destined, as she writes in her memoir entitled Manifesto ”, “to be considered a subhuman: a subordinate, inferior, marginal, insignificant – a truly inferior person.” Her family was subjected to racist attacks that deeply hurt her as a child. At that time, having the example of her father, who, like a warrior, repelled all the blows he received, she learned not to bow to anyone. He developed resilience and inner strength, which played an important role in his creative survival. Likewise, the politics and activism of both her parents inspired her artistic career as well as her own activism. At the age of 12, she began attending a local youth theater troupe, determined to pursue an acting career. She graduated from the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama with a BA in Theater Arts and, with two fellow students, Paulette Randall and Patricia St. Hilaire, founded the Black Women’s Theatre, the first such troupe in the UK, with which they staged plays in various cities. UK and Europe. He was writing plays at the time and gradually discovered, he tells me, as he sat facing me in the restaurant of a central Athens hotel, that finally “what I loved most was writing. It was the sweetest way to express myself. I could do it alone, quietly, usually at night when I was usually drunk and smoking one cigarette after another. But I communicated very productively with my art, it was the ideal art form for me.” And he devoted himself to her.

Changing homes and professions, experimenting with her sexuality, choosing romantic partners of both sexes, she always tried to stay true to her need to write. Today, he says with conviction, “writing is part of my DNA, it is who I am and how I express myself. This is what gives me the most creative food and the best way to communicate with the outside world.

– When I started, in 2013, there were very few books about black British women, and I was already indignant. So I thought I’d put as many black British women as I could into one book – I ended up with twelve. I felt that in this way I could broaden the picture of who we are. These women are not me, they are not fictional versions of myself, they are fictional characters. Two of them are based on my younger self, but that’s not me.

– Open mind. And so that they understand that although I am writing about black British women in this book, many of the issues that I talk about are global, about who we are in the world as women or as people, about social stratification, about how you something succeeds in how we build relationships and friendships.

Yes, and that’s partly why I write. Because I feel like I have something to say and I want to speak to as wide an audience as possible. Now I have this big audience, but I haven’t had it in a long time. But then I spoke, wrote and researched everything that was important to me.

“Society is structured in strong hierarchies, and the people with the largest audience run the society. Therefore, the world needs to be more open to provide more opportunities for people from a wider range, including women who have been and still are being silenced in many parts of the world.

“I focus on what I think I can change, not on big geopolitical issues. I focus on Britain, the black community in Britain and sometimes especially women. I am very active in supporting underrepresented writers.

I am so optimistic that I do not feel disappointed. Wait a minute… I need to think if this is true or if I’m just saying something right now in the conversation. I think even though I’m optimistic, part of me is cynical. I know that it is very difficult for the establishment to transfer power, to divide it. Therefore, I am optimistic and expect the best, but when the best does not happen, I am not surprised. Even when we make progress as people of color or as women, there is always a backlash. But if I got upset, if I let it affect me on a deeper level, it would weaken me. My activism comes from a source of optimism and belief that things can change and I need to have the energy to do what I can in the society in which I live.

– An absolute pragmatist.

Society is structured in a strong hierarchy and is run by the people who have the largest audience.

– Yes, 100%.

– Equal participation in our society on our terms.

“We women are always confronted with sexism. Even on the plane in which I flew to Athens, the flight attendants addressed the men as “sir” and the women as “ma’am.” And that’s what I see everywhere. Sexism works on all levels, and the truth is that most people don’t even notice it. Patriarchy exists in all areas of society. This is what I know and I fight it when needed, but I focus on how I can make a difference, not on being paralyzed by the difficulty of the enterprise.

– It depends on situation. Sometimes you have to hold back and record but not start a fight because it won’t be good in the long run. I have learned to act strategically. I choose my battles and sometimes it’s better to keep quiet. If you want to move in certain establishment circles, you can’t go in there brandishing a sword and taking off heads, that won’t work, you have to be very diplomatic and careful in what you say, but without losing your principles. and knowing that you have a goal and a plan to achieve it.

– No. You can’t regret what’s done is done. How you see it matters most. If you see that your life is full of things that you regret, you are creating unhappiness for yourself. Who wants to live in poverty?

“I feel this is the most incredible confirmation of the career to which I dedicated my life and which I wanted to be widely recognized. Winning the Booker Prize satisfied my need for the attention and readership that I now have.

I can’t say that I don’t feel it. So yes, I feel successful. I have 66 translations of my books in 41 languages, this is amazing for me, I love it.

“I was happy anyway.

– I won’t tell you. If you say this, people may make fun of you and your confidence will be undermined and you will have to deal with others’ distrust of you. When only you know it, you can focus on it, and maybe one day it will happen.