In Conversation with History: An Interview with M. NourbeSe Philip

This interview with acclaimed Trinbagonian Canadian author M. NourbeSe Philip offers an insight into her creative process, particularly in relation to Zong! As Told to the Author by Setaey Adamu Boateng. It delves into the critical querying and ethical concerns guiding this work and others and features a unique and rare insight into Philip’s recordkeeping of her literary papers, as well as her long-time engagement with African diasporic histories and the archive of the slave trade. Philip also discusses the Black Lives Matter uprisings in the summer of 2020, following the killing of George Floyd, and the profitability of amnesia in our capitalist societies. In this interview, readers can also access a recent poem, “When the looting starts . . . ,” which Philip dedicates to African American activist Tamika D. Mallory.