Meeting Places
Soyinka chose Winch to be his protégée because of her “sure hand [and] observant eye”. Even at the beginning of their mentorship, the differences between Winch and Soyinka – age, gender, nationality – did not matter, particularly as they discovered their real-life and literary predilection for travel.
During their first period of work together, a month in Nigeria, Soyinka was pleased that his protégée adapted quickly to the country, not in a patronizing manner but in the spirit of an experienced traveller who takes in far more than the superficial details of a place.
He says: “I’m very glad that our first place of working together is here in this very environment, because she took to it from the very beginning.” She in turn comments: “When I came here the first time, I thought it was a place that I’d been before, even though I knew I hadn’t. The people made me feel at home and at ease – it was a strange kind of comfort that I’d dreamt the place before. I thought it was beautiful and volatile and loud and dusty and hot and angry – all those things.”
Winch almost always travels with her young daughter, Lila. Far from regarding the child as a barrier to the life of an aspiring writer, Winch proclaims that Lila and single-parenthood are an essential and fulfilling aspect of her work. Winch says: “Lila’s travelled a lot, spent time in China, she’s been in Indonesia, and she’s travelled lots in the desert. She’s an inspiration to me. She’s not my extension or something, but she’s my best friend. I’m like Wole, I think we’ve both got gypsy blood, we move around a lot. So I find that my home has become my daughter, and I’m her home.”
During their Rolex partnership, Soyinka urged Winch to read widely – ancient Greek writing, Shakespeare, Kafka, Hemingway and African authors. And they discussed traditional African festivals that he asked her to watch and Western operas and African music that he encouraged her to listen to. Winch was thrilled with this tutelage compounded of strands and currents from so many diverse cultures.
Those remarkably positive initial feelings on both sides remained, deepening in the months that followed the time in Nigeria, as the pair met again abroad, in London and then, more often, in the United States, where Soyinka spends much of his time. Winch spent several months in New York, to be closer to her mentor and to pursue her writing. In the long run, the relationship proved to be as amicable as the first contact had promised; and also productive, despite Winch’s diffidence about showing Soyinka some of her ongoing work until, in her opinion, the texts were polished enough.