In Conversation with Mubanga Mweemba

It’s a sunny Monday at the start of March and the windows of my room are open with a momentary air of summer, music playing out of kitchens all down the street. I go to Zoom call Mubanga, the founder and first Editor-in-Chief of ENIGMA back in 2019, and it’s daunting until I finally get to talk to Mubanga, who through the screen radiates warmth immediately. We discuss our previous weekends - Mubanga had just returned from a trip to Paris - before starting the interview.

Click here to read Mubanga’s work published with ENIGMA.

Sofie Drew: So, just starting off, you’re the founder of ENIGMA, and so that was back in 2019, and you were also the Editor-in-Chief. Could you tell me how you came about founding ENIGMA and what inspired you to start it?

Mubanga Mweemba: Yeah, so, I think if you go back to 2018, before, when I was in second year, I was an editor for Arts and Lit in Exposé, which was really fun and most of the time I would commission reviews or features and occasionally some creative writing, but due to the limits of the pages I was given on a fortnightly basis, I wasn’t really able to publish as much as I wanted to. But I found it really exciting and really rewarding to share people’s work with the community that we’re sharing as students. And so, on from that, I was like, actually I really want to give a specific platform to the creative writing community in Exeter and there wasn’t really anything that fit that bill - I was surprised that there wasn’t already a sort of journal or a platform that existed, there were some more sporadic iterations - but I wanted to build a place where, whether they were studying English or not, people could just share and post and document their work, and there can be this sort of archive that existed. 

I was a president of Creative Writing Society so part of my manifesto, what I wanted to do, was create a creative writing journal. Due to time limits of my final year, I’m sure - are you in third year at the moment? 

SD: Yeah, final year.

MM: Final year, yeah, it ended up taking more time to get off the ground, so I really only managed to get the journal started at the end of my second term and third term, and through that basically I did a lot of research into how to format it, style it, I looked into different style guides in different outlets, whether that’s a newspaper or a literary journal or other student journals I saw in the UK and abroad, and just tried to figure out how they did it so then I could replicate that. 

Started on Squarespace! Had to figure it out - I mean it’s very intuitive but still trying to figure out how to… make a website? Very long hours, but I always really enjoyed that sort of DIY thing, being able to get that satisfaction of building something myself and seeing the result.

SD: That must have been exciting.

MM: It was a really interesting learning experience. I also did recruitment for that, did interviews with different people for - at that time it was poetry, fiction - and then a couple of assistant editors to help with getting things up and running. That process was interesting, trying to figure out what qualities an editor needs. I got two people for each section, I wanted to make sure it was balanced. I don’t know, just in terms of personality, I wanted to make sure that everyone’s styles of writing or their interests or forms were able to reach the person that sees it.

SD: Yeah.

MM: I mean, it was the first time I ever had to interview anyone, and these people were my peers, and they were all incredible writers - I don’t how I could make that call. But it was also a really fun experience, just getting to hear people talk about how they review, how they edit, what interests them, and why they’re up for this role. I mean, I asked them to edit one of my pieces, which was quite bold of me! But also quite interesting to see all of the different interpretations or notes they gave.

I also had to get funding, our Creative Writing Society budget didn’t really have enough to fund a website, so I wrote for different grants. I can’t remember if there was a… . This is a long time ago now! I had to basically write this proposal, explaining the rationale, the importance of it not just for students here but for career prospects. I mean, we didn’t get tons of money, and I didn’t end up doing a physical journal which is what I wanted to do at that time. But I think at least for me I was like, I created this space where people can submit and it was really quite exciting, rewarding. And bizarre that it’s still going, but it’s a really nice thing to know that it’s still important, and that people are still taking up that mantle and continuing it after all this time. It’s a nice legacy to leave.

SD: I think it’s really impressive you managed to achieve all that in your final year as well.

MM: I was literally just like, I’m not gonna get this much time in my life - and then Covid happened! And then I wasn’t doing anything for like two years! But at that time, I was thinking it was the last time I’d be around so many people who were in that in-between space, wanting to try new things and experiment. So I was just like, I really need to make the most of this time and so I kinda went full-throttle in my second and third term. I was totally single-minded about it, I don’t think I would have stopped even if I told myself I couldn’t do it anymore.

SD: Did you have a specific vision for it or anything? Did you imagine it would be continuing on for a while?

MM: I hoped so! I thought, this has to have a foundation that can continue. It’s hard to think about the future that way. I think even just before I was graduating, I don’t really think I knew where the next few years would take me. I don’t think anyone does. 

SD: I definitely don’t.

MM: You just have to be a bit hopeful about the things that are important, and there are definitely things I’ve done that haven’t stayed as long. I think it’s in recognition of the fact that this was really essential, that there wasn’t really a place where people could regularly submit and showcase their work, so I think I was just trying to problem-solve. We’re never gonna run out of really creative and interesting people who want to share their work. 

I’m not a student anymore, and it feels really distant, but I go back to the website and I’m just like, I remember setting this up! And the first few stories, we were like reviewing and editing, trying to figure out the editing process and timelines, very logistical stuff - I think part of it is just being quite practical and consistent, which I think was probably the hardest thing to do at that time. Versus - I loved reading, and writing, and reading other people’s new work and being like, I get to be one of the first people to see that! I think I would have always loved that, but I think the discipline to be consistent and give people the attention they needed to edit and feedback their work - and that trust as well. For some people who weren’t doing any creative writing classes or hadn’t shown their work to anyone, this would have been one of the first times they’d had that feedback relationship. I felt like it was quite a privileged position for me to be able to encourage people to really explore their talents and creativity, so I’m glad that’s still continuing. 

I think - I don’t think I could have imagined it. It started and then I left uni, so I didn’t know if it would be a flash-in-the-pan and it would fizzle out, or who knows. I have to say thanks to the editors who were part of the team when I started and continued that.

SD: And you’re now a publicist, right? Can I ask you more about that role, the kind of things you do?

MM: Yeah, so, initially I was in publishing and I did a publicity traineeship in publishing, and as I said before, the future I didn’t really think about it - I probably shouldn’t say this to students newly about to graduate! I hadn’t really thought in concrete terms about the kind of work I wanted to do. I mean, I’d studied English, and I’d done this journal, I’d been doing creative writing, so I was just kind of like, this is where I’m gonna end up. But then Covid stalled all that and I didn’t really have to think in concrete terms about where I wanted my future to go. I grew up in Scotland so I went back home to Aberdeen. The creative communities and opportunities there are a bit smaller. I really didn’t wanna move to London, it just felt like another huge sort of step, and I was like, I don’t know, I’d gone all the way to Exeter and done this really big move and I’m proud of myself, and there were challenges to being so far from home, even though Exeter’s quite a small community. So I was like, oh my goodness, I can’t do London! And on my own I kind of closed off those opportunities to see what it was like - and then you get jealous, and fear missing out, and all your friends are there and you’re like, it’s not too bad! 

When I signed up for that traineeship, I didn’t actually apply to be a publicist, they sort of, from your answers you give in that first interview stage, they try and figure out the attributes and skills you have, or interests you have, that might lead you into a certain area. And someone picked out publicist. And I think actually, it makes it more obvious now, because when I was at university what I really loved was sharing other people’s work with audiences and I think that’s a lot of what you do as a publicist, you’re trying to promote an artist’s work - whether that’s a book or a film - to audiences - whether that’s newspapers, or TV programmes, or blogs, or social media. Right now I work for a film company called StudioCanal and I do publicity there. I like how varied it is, I get to work with writers, directors, different craftspeople, so people who work in sound, score, costume design, production design. I get to work with actors and their teams, and so I think I quite like the collaborative element of film-making and promoting a film as well. I get to do so many things in London and across the UK. My day-to-day is facilitating interviews for press, working at screening events, whether that’s signing in press or working at a premiere. The red carpet is insane, there’s so many cameras and it’s so loud, it’s really exciting. Quite a fun job but again most of it is, as before, logistics and planning to get things off the ground, so I think it really satisfies those two parts of my personality. 

So it’s slightly different than publishing, but I think it involves the creative process and I really loved watching films at uni - do they still have the campus cinema?

SD: Yeah, that’s still going!

MM: I loved that, it was so good! Sometimes reading and writing can be quite solitary so I think I enjoyed going to that, getting to see everyone’s reactions, or even just silently sitting together, you can kind of sense an energy of how people are responding, even if there’s no verbal or physical reaction. 

So I think it was always there - sometimes someone can recognise something in you and pull that out, and I’m really grateful for that because I didn’t really have a concrete plan when I graduated. So I think inevitably it all turns out alright, so if there’s any advice I can give to graduates is you’ll know what interests you and I think maybe it’s difficult to see the day-to-day aspects of a job, but once you’re in there you can really understand what makes you excited, what makes you feel really passionate about something, or if there’s something you’re really good at, and hopefully you’ll just keep growing and growing.

So that’s a succinct way of describing a day in the life of a publicist… but I’m off today, so I’m just chilling and having a coffee and a pastry this morning! 

SD: Nice! And I know you’ve got a poem published with ENIGMA, ‘COAX’ which I really enjoyed by the way, and I was wondering if creative writing is something you’re still continuing with, or if it’s something that in the future you’re planning to do?

MM: Yeah, I mean I’d definitely still love to. I mean, I first published ‘COAX’ because we needed one thing to start publishing - thought I’d better take the first bite - and it was the only thing I ended up publishing in the end. No-one really tells you you should write or you should publish, it’s something you sort of have to put upon yourself, it’s very rare that an agent’s gonna come along and pluck you out and get you published. So yeah, maybe I’ve not had that much proactivity in terms of publishing my creative writing but I mean I’m always writing, I always journal - I’ve been journaling since I was like 12 so I think that’s primarily where my writing still continues. But in terms of a structured and cohesive, finished, edited piece - or even showing my work to anyone - that’s been quite some time. So I think I’d need to get back into that to sort of continue towards showing my work to an audience again.

SD: I mean, it’s so difficult to show someone writing if you haven’t for a while.

MM: Yeah, I think I was so fearless at that time! And now - I think I kinda skipped it! I don’t think I had insecurities as a teenager, and then uni was fine, and I think it’s kinda coming into the adult world you’re just like - oh man, actually, no-one’s grading my work, there’s no metric you can judge yourself against anymore. Just very nebulous social markers which sometimes feel really irrelevant, so I’m just like, what’s important? Am I satisfied with where I am, or what I’m doing? Or with the quality of my work? It is nerve-wracking to be like, I just gotta back myself and do it. I’d love to again.

SD: Well I think part of the thing with ENIGMA, and we have you to thank for that, is that it’s a great way for people to share their work, and they get feedback from an editor and they get to share it in a welcoming place - an opportunity to share their work when they might not necessarily have done so otherwise. 

MM: I’m glad.

SD: And so my final question, really, and it might be a bit selfish, but do you have any tips for us involved with ENIGMA - how to keep it going, how we should be doing things!

MM: I don’t know! I mean, in terms of - you’re doing a physical journal right?

SD: Yeah, we are.

MM: Because for me, doing an online thing, I didn’t have to make certain editorial decisions about what we can actually afford to get in, because it’s a certain amount of pages, so I think that kind of decision-making is quite difficult, what you choose to prioritise, and what you might not be able to fit in even though it’s quite brilliant, or people who maybe might need a bit more time to refine their work. And it is about confidence as well, confidence and discipline. And encouraging people so they don’t feel discouraged by having a ‘no’. It’s really hard, even if it’s delicately put, it’s really quite difficult to hear. 

I guess most of it for me was balancing it with my studies, trying to figure out consistent ways to keep that going, so for me I’m always like - even if my classes were all over the place, I was trying to give myself a sort of 9-5! With this extra-curricular as part of that schedule. So yeah, trying not to do too many late nights! I don’t think it gives your work its best chance. And it’s important to be in dialogue with everyone, try not to have individualized decision-making and try and make it collaborative because I think that’s where the best work comes about, so make sure you’re talking with other people and not just the editors who are there but your friends or your family, or people who don’t have the same biases, because I think you can sometimes get caught up in a group.

SD: Yeah, I agree.

MM: And I had that too. I mean like, anything that was similar to the way I wrote, I was like - oh that’s amazing! And I think it’s hard to see outside of yourself with that. So yeah, making sure that people have different tastes and different interests and they’re given a fair chance to make them known. I think in the end it’s just - for the end-product, I would say try and make it as far-reaching in terms of style or interest as possible, so people can really have a sense of what’s happening currently within the campus community - like a little snapshot. 

But ultimately it’s up to you! You guys are stewarding it and things have changed, I mean you’ve expanded it too - there’s scripts, and even these conversational portraits as well. So I think just like - get all your crazy ideas in as fast as possible! Because it’s one of the recent times in my life where I’ve been able to just think of ideas and try and make them happen and not have any other sort of hurdles and limitations other than those I’ve created for myself, and I think that’s a really inspiring and emboldening sort of opportunity, so if there’s anything you’re thinking, ‘I never got to do this,’ try and make it happen before you graduate. And I think you’re all very intelligent and encouraging and creative people so I don’t think you’ll suffer from having to make something really interesting and beautiful. I’m excited! I would love to see it when it’s finished. 

SD: Well thank you so much - inspirational words! It’s been really amazing to talk to you.

MM: Wonderful, thank you Sofie.