Ayesha Harruna Attah
Ayesha Harruna Attah is the author of the novel The Hundred Wells of Salaga.
From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: You note that you were inspired to write this novel by your own family history. How did your great-great-grandmother's story lead to your writing the book?--Marshal Zeringue
A: While drawing up our family tree with my father, I learned that my great-great-grandmother had been enslaved in West Africa. I didn’t know much about slavery within the African continent at that point and I wanted to find out more about what that could have looked like and what my ancestor would have gone through.
Q: How did you come up with your characters Aminah and Wurche?
A: Aminah was inspired by my great-great-grandmother, so her spirit was modeled on the closest person to her that I got to meet: my father’s mother. She was a quiet woman, but one could tell that she had a strong spirit.
Wurche was inspired by a line I read in a book called Salaga: The Struggle for Power, by J. A Braimah, which said that princesses from this particular region could choose whomever they wanted to be their lovers, even if the man were...[read on]
