Ten years ago, when Arthur Japin began researching a historical novel, the true story of two 10-year-old West African Ashanti princes who were given as a present to the Dutch king, he had no idea what he was getting into. But from the time he first heard the bare outlines of the story, it gripped him.
For him, it was not a story of black and white but a very human story that explores friendship and belonging. One of the boys tried to adapt while the other rigidly held onto his roots.
In an interview with the Deseret News, Japin, a native of Amsterdam, explained how he came to write his first novel, an impressive work titled "The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi." Allegedly, Kwasi's African heart is black, while his European one is white.
"It was only when I finished that I realized how much of myself was in the life of these two boys," said Japin. "I grew up in Holland, an only child. I led an isolated childhood. I thought I was a grown-up. I had no idea how to behave with a
group of children. You get your realization of your identity from the people around you."
As an adult, Japin became an actor and an opera singer.
"I wasn't a writer, but I knew I wanted to stop acting," Japin said. "My father was a theater critic, and when he took me to a play as a child, I saw this dream world. I thought that for a couple of hours every night, I'd like to disappear and become another character. When I got into acting, I found it is just work and the dream is something for the audience. When I started writing, I found what I was looking for — I could disappear into the story."
But because his writing project took so long, he continued to act to pay the bills. His last acting role was a minor part as a head waiter in a 1999 Dutch film set in Amsterdam, "Do Not Disturb." Japin took the role partly to say goodbye to his acting career and partly to be able to play a few scenes with the star, William Hurt, whom he greatly admired. As he watched Hurt act, he felt that he could never compete.
"Now that I've started writing, I've found what I was looking for," Japin said. "When I sit down to write, something wonderful happens. When I have a question, a voice in my head answers it. It is my own voice, I know, but it gives me the confidence to make the material my own and go with it."
One thing that sets his book apart is that even though Japin speaks five languages, he wrote it in Dutch, then Ina Rilke translated it into English. Considering how difficult is it to maintain an author's voice and style in a translation, wouldn't it be better if the author translated it himself?
"I don't have the command of all the words in English," said Japin. "I needed someone with a wider range, but I worked very closely with the translator. We went over every line together. You have to be careful not to lose the rhythm in translation. I think we achieved as much as we could in duplicating the style."
The first thing Japin found in researching the African story was a daguerreotype of Kwasi Boachi. It had a white-and-black background that interchanged visually. "So I thought maybe the story had to be a movie, because it was so visual. Or it could be an opera, a story of fate. Actually, it will be an opera in 2003 in Rotterdam. I've had some movie offers now, too, but it would be a very expensive movie."
Japin's research was extensive and exhausting. He traveled in Europe, Asia and Africa, searching through documents and getting the feel of the places. He wanted to be as certain as he could about the facts before he filled in the rest with his own imagination.
While in Ghana, he gained unexpected empathy for his subject when he was kidnapped. "I met a man on the beach who wanted to introduce me to his mother and sister. So I went with him, then he wanted to show me his home. By the time I got into his hut, he said, 'Now you're my prisoner and I want money!' Well, I didn't have any money."
Eventually, they agreed to take him to the guest house where he was staying so he could get money. Foolishly, the captors waited outside while he went inside the guest house, where he was protected by armed guards.
Fortunately, his captors had no knowledge of his writing project, so he escaped with his papers intact. Japin found Boachi's personal effects in the municipal archives of Delft, including his "book of friends," the daguerreotype, photographs and silhouette portraits, his notes and sketches, numerous letters and a speech he delivered at the Five Columns student club.
In The Hague, Japin found a number of official documents relating to the story. When there were gaps, he filled them in, as he did with a series of letters allegedly written by one Prince Kwame. He was deeply into the story by then, and he was able to imagine what Kwame might have said, had he written from Africa to his brother, Kwasi, in Holland.
The "Five Columns" speech delivered by Kwasi turned up in a notebook, and it become the most important single ingredient in the story, because it was the breaking point in the two princes' relationship. In the speech, Kwasi, in a desperate effort to be accepted by his Dutch compatriots, severely criticized his own African culture, which infuriated his cousin, Kwame.
"This was just what history offered, in this case," said Japin. "If I had dreamed it up, I might have thought it was too much. There was also an enormous painting of the two boys which showed that real life is weirder than the imagination."
Japin, who writes every day, is halfway through his second historical novel. Will he always remain a novelist? "With me, you never know. I've done so many strange things. But I have three more books in mind. I've finally found a way to disappear into another character."
E-MAIL: dennis@desnews.com