Perhaps, since the publication of Margaret Busby’s Daughters of Africa Speak for Me, there hasn’t been such an explosion of female writing talents as we have in your generation, particularly in Nigeria. What accounts for that surge in female writing?

I think it is a function of opportunity. Even in the generation of Soyinka and Achebe, if you look at the ratio of men to women writers at the University College, Ibadan, you will see that that the women were way outnumbered. Writing and expressing one’s self creatively was not always this open to women. I think what has happened over the two decades is that women have become more savvy, with many more engaging with writing as a career, less bogged down by society’s expectations. Of course, being at the right place also helps. A lot of the women writers also have access to publishers in the West who provide the necessary editorial input.

This is an excellent metaphor for what’s going on on the continent. Imagine the economic explosion we would witness if women had the opportunity to fulfil their potential with education and opportunities. It is mind-boggling that anyone in this day and age would limit a woman to ‘the home front’.

How do you present your own culture completely independently, if you have to depend on someone else for material support or editorial aid when you need to say something that may not be pleasing to the person offering the help?

As a new writer publishing in the West, if your editor he says this is what you have to do, you have to give it some serious thought. I have to say that I was very lucky with The Secret Lives of Baba Segi Wives. I was given a free hand to write exactly how I wanted and what I wanted. My editors supported me; I never felt like the Africanness was being beaten out of my work.

You were in Germany recently for the presentation of the German edition of your book. What does it mean to you?

It’s always amazing each time the book comes out in a new language, in a new market. I have the UK and US edition but then there is the Dutch edition, Italian, Hebrew, Turkish, the German and the French is coming out next year – I know I’m forgetting some. But it’s amazing. I remember looking at the Hebrew edition of my novel and not even being able to recognise my own name. It’s another pat on the head, it makes every bump, every pothole of the journey worthwhile.

Your generation appears to be silent about language; how it should be used. Is it that you are busy with the writing not talking about how the material travels across boundaries.

One of my big projects for 2016 is to see my novel in Yoruba. For commercial and economic reasons, it does not make much sense to write in indigenous languages. It’s like restricting the market for your books. But preserving our culture and language through the written text is important. Ake Arts and Book Festival is also launching ‘Friquelit next year. As a start, we are with a couple of organisations to translate the work of one Francophone writer into English. We need more cross-fertilisation across the continent.