'I write for my inner child': Asha Ashanti Bromfield tells stories to explore family, culture & coming-of-age

The Next Chapter13:55Riverdale's Asha Ashanti Bromfield talks about her new career in writing

The Canadian actress and author talks with Ryan B. Patrick about her new novel Songs of Irie, which takes place in 1970s Jamaica.

Originally aired on Oct. 14, 2023.

After learning of stories her parents lived through during a tumultuous time in Jamaica's history, Asha Ashanti Bromfield was inspired to write her newest novel, Songs of Irie.

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The historical coming-of-age YA novel is set amidst the Jamaican civil unrest of the 1970s. Irie and Jilly are from completely different worlds Jilly lives safe in a mansion in the hills, while Irie is from the heart of Kingston, where fighting on the streets is common.

As tension rises on the streets in the lead-up to an important election, so does the budding romance between the two girls. As they bond at Irie's dad's record store over their love of Reggae music, they must fight for their friendship and romance to survive.

Bromfield is a Black Canadian writer, actress, singer and producer from Toronto. She is best known for her role as Melody Valentine, drummer of Josie and the Pussycats in the television show Riverdale and as the Netflix show Locke & Key's Zadie Wells. The actress is also the author of the YA novel Hurricane Summer.

Bromfield spoke with The Next Chapter's Ryan B. Patrick about Songs of Irie.

In Songs of Irie, you include two epigraphs from the beginning. One is from Bob Marley, the other is a Jamaican proverb. Can you share those words in the Jamaican patois and explain why you wanted to begin the novel with that?

Yeah, you know, it's such an interesting thing. It's "If ah nuh so, ah nearly so."

That's a Jamaican saying, and it pretty much means that if it didn't go like this, it went something like this. And for me, what was interesting about this period in Jamaica is that I had no idea about it. It wasn't until I started talking to my parents that they started opening up to me about these stories that happened, that were just so crazy to me that this was such a time in Jamaica that they lived through.

In the beginning, I dealt with [the question of] who am I to tell this story? I wasn't there. I didn't live in the 1970s. And I just realized that's all an illusion. These are my stories. They're my people, my family, you know? And if I don't tell them, who will? So that was my saving grace of like, what if it didn't go like this? It went something like this based off the research that I did, and if I were living in that time I feel like these are characters that would have existed. I also feel like a lot of the political history that happens in it is pretty on the nose.

So, "If ah nuh so, ah nearly so."

These are my stories. They're my people, my family, you know? And if I don't tell them, who will?- Asha Ashanti Bromfield

In the acknowledgements, you thank your father for teaching [you] about this important critical time in our history. What did your father teach you?

Everything. My dad is my complete consultant on this book. I mean, I had so many questions. My mom lived in Kintyre when she was younger and a lot of Irie is based on her story. My dad lived in Kingston at the time and he would tell me stories about old folks' homes being burnt down or babies being killed, or bodies in the streets. It was a very crazy time and so many people in Jamaica survived this time and it's just kind of seen as normal.

It's not talked about and the more that I spoke to my dad, I just kept getting little pieces of information. I think the biggest thing he taught me was about Michael Manley, who I think throughout my research has sort of become like a spiritual grandfather to me in some ways because I had to watch so many of his speeches.

Michael Manley was the Prime Minister for the party that was fighting a bit more for the People's Liberation Movement. They say he was like the poor people's prime minister because he believed that poor people deserved a fighting chance in Jamaica. So he did things like open up education in the schools and allowed for girls like Irie to go to school with girls like Jilly. He believed in democratic socialism and I feel like he used his privilege to try to make change in Jamaica.

How did you convey that class conflict and struggle in the book?

We see it in so many different ways with Irie and Jilly, the number one being that Jilly has this future abroad that's being promised to her. But her best friend Irie gets into a bit of a bind when things at the shop start to heat up. Also, Irie is a budding musician and she loves to sing and she wants to be a star. Irie and Jillyare making plans for Irie to perform at a really big reggae jam that's happening. And so that's the trajectory: that they go on this journey together and have to decide what side of the revolution they want to be on.

Songs of Irie is your second book, but it's also the second time you've written about a strong female character who's in her teens. What did you want to say about young women, coming of age and coming to womanhood?

It just is the struggles of being a Black girl in the world. Acting was my background and I felt completely limited by that. All the scripts I was getting for over a decade were so one-dimensional and I just kept thinking like, if I keep reading these scripts, I'm going to start thinking that I am that, the box that they're trying to put me in that they try to put Black girls in. I feel like oftentimes our humanity is just so stripped. Black women and men were not given the full universal three-dimensional humanity in terms of storylines and scripts. So I'm passionate about that because I faced it. I know what that's like to be a young person and be like, 'I have so much to say and so much to offer,' but people are just like, 'No, we don't see that, we're going to put you right over here in the sassy Black girl box.' It can just feel so stifling and hurtful.

I write for my inner child, that part of myself that didn't fully get to play make-believe the way that we see other white characters do. I hope that through my stories, Black girls find a bit more humanity and a bit more redemption, like their struggles aren't in vain [and] that they're not alone, because I think sometimes that journey can feel very lonely. And I hope that my books also inspire young girls to tell their stories and know that they have a story worth telling.

I hope that through my stories, Black girls find a bit more humanity and a bit more redemption, like their struggles aren't in vain [and] that they're not alone.- Asha Ashanti Bromfield

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The last time you were on The Next Chapter with your novel, Hurricane Summer, you mentioned that it was like a love letter to Jamaica. So what is this book, Songs of Irie, all about? What do you want readers to take away from it?

I want people to know how colonization has really left Jamaica: an island of haves and have-nots. I just want people to be aware of how slavery affected us, I think that's something that'sbig. It's like when we talk about the ghosts of colonization and the chains and all this stuff, it's not metaphorical. It's a literal generational trauma that we still deal with and we still see the impacts of in Jamaica right now.

I mean, one of my favourite quotes in the book is when Irie says to Jilly, the Jamaican mottois "Out of many, one people." And she asked her,'Are we really one people? Are we experiencing the same war, the same poverty, the same crime? Is it really one island?' And I think that's incredibly important.

Interview produced by Sarah Cooper. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.