Author Archives
A series of Guest Author posts that open our conversations.
For more info, bios and links about each of our AiW Guests, scroll to the foot of their individual posts.
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Q&A: Koleka Putuma -Revolutionising the archive and (backspace) dancing… ‘Hullo, Bu-Bye, Koko, Come in’
AiW Guests: Koleka Putuma Interviewed by: Siobhan Bahl, Freya Moulton and Tessa Rhodes On 22 February, 2022 “This is what it is, or what it was, this is the evolution of it all…” Koleka Putuma is an esteemed South African… Read More ›
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Review: Connection and Legacy – Remembering ‘Before Them, We’ (2022)
AiW Guest: Virginia Kelly Before Them, We (flipped eye, London, 2022) is a beautiful anthology of poems and collection of photographs curated by Ruth Sutoyé and Jacob Sam-La Rose. Part of a longer interdisciplinary project to excavate the lives and… Read More ›
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Review: Tragedy and Resilience in Lagos – The Truth About Sadia by Lola Akande
AiW Guest: Ademola Adesola. Lola Akande’s latest novel, The Truth about Sadia (Tunmike Publishers, 2023), follows Sadia Onaolapo Oyelowo’s journey from childhood to adulthood. Set in a recognizable Lagos, Nigeria, so crucial is Sadia to the novel that every “truth”… Read More ›
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Spotlight on… Die Antwoord: the artifice of art, the art of artifice
AiW Guest: Sanya Osha …with a longer form read for us, at around 2.5k words… The recent ‘cancellation’ of Die Antwoord – the South African ‘zef’ subculture-proclaiming, alternative hip hop duo – and their subsequent withdrawal from the public eye,… Read More ›
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Review: Between Self and Selflessness in Protest – ‘Taduno’s Song’ by Odafe Atogun
AiW Guest: Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè. Odafe Atogun’s début novel, Taduno’s Song (2016), is an extended allegory about a people living through the tangle of social oppression and its attendant anxieties. Through a focus on music, specifically voice and song, it explores… Read More ›
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Q&A: Serawit Bekele Debele —Literatures of the Horn of Africa, a conversation series
AiW Guests Interviewers: Farida Elshafei, Ilana Graham, Lauryn Jenkins, Noha Choudhry. Interviewee: Serawit Bekele Debele. Interview Date: 14th December 2021 AiW note: This is one in a series of interviews carried out by undergraduate students as part of the module… Read More ›
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Reviews: ‘The porousness of cultural boundaries’ — Thoughts on the publication of Karin Barber’s A History African Popular Culture (2018)
AiW Guest: Pernille Nailor. AiW note: this is one of two linked reviews of Emeritus Professor of African Cultural Anthropology at the University of Birmingham, Karin Barber’s latest book, A History of African Popular Culture (2018, Cambridge UP), with our thanks… Read More ›
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Reviews: ‘Everyday life’ — Karin Barber’s A History of African Popular Culture (2018)
AiW Guest: Elizabeth Olayiwola. AiW note: This is one of two linked reviews of Emeritus Professor of African Cultural Anthropology at the University of Birmingham, Karin Barber’s latest book, A History of African Popular Culture (2018, Cambridge UP), with our thanks… Read More ›
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Q&A: Eyob Derillo– Literatures of the Horn of Africa, a conversation series
AiW Guests Interviewers: Jiali Chen, Josephine Stanton, George Ackerley, Natalia Bielecka Interviewee: Eyob Derillo Interview date: 12 January 2022. AiW note: This is one in a series of interviews carried out by undergraduate students as part of the module “Ethiopian,… Read More ›
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Review: The Renegade Poet, ‘Femi Morgan, coming through ‘The Year of Fire’
AiW Guest: Ugochukwu Anadị. ‘Femi Morgan’s most recent collection The Year of Fire (Baron’s Cafe, 2021) is a poetry of lamentations, of anger, and of defiant resilience. Forming itself around (re)negotiations, of the self and space, the slim volume of… Read More ›
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Q&A: Professor Ghirmai Negash – Literatures of the Horn of Africa, a conversation series
AiW Guests Interviewers: Mollie McGing, Julia Karpinska, Abolaji Oshun, Alsadiq Suliman Interviewee: Ghirmai Negash Interview Date: 14th December 2021. AiW note: This is one in a series of interviews carried out by undergraduate students as part of the module “Ethiopian,… Read More ›
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Q&A: Dr Fiori Berhane – Literatures of the Horn of Africa, a conversation series
AiW Guests Interviewers: Emily Bhanu, Madeleine Butler, Madeeha Sharief, Eleanor Walker Interviewee: Dr Fiori Berhane Interview Date: 7th January 2022. AiW note: This is one in a series of interviews carried out by undergraduate students as part of the module… Read More ›
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Q&A: Professor Nadia Nurhussein – Literatures of the Horn of Africa, a conversation series
AiW Guests Interviewers: Kyra Webb, Sophia Dermetzis and Kal Harris Interviewee: Professor Nadia Nurhussein Interview Date: 7th December 2021. AiW note: This is one in a series of interviews, carried out by undergraduate students as part of the module “Ethiopian,… Read More ›
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Review Q&A: with author Ever Obi – Some Angels Don’t See God (2022)
AiW Guests: Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè with author Ever Obi. This Q&A and twinned review, “The Past Is Never Dead” – both by our AiW Guest, traveller, literary critic and writer Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè – may contain spoilers, but these are kept to the… Read More ›
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Review: The Past Is Never Dead – Ever Obi’s ‘Some Angels Don’t See God’
AiW Guest: Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè. AiW note: Our Guest Reviewer,Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè, reviews Ever Obi’s second novel, a book which tackles the difficult and taboo subjects entangled around incestuous child sexuality in the home. Accompanying the review today is Adégòkè’s Q&A with… Read More ›
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Spotlight on… Afrobeats ascendant – into 2023
AiW Guest: Sanya Osha. Afrobeats is arguably a musical genre that initially evolved tied to the apron strings, albeit tenuously, of the magnificent legacy of Nigeria’s Fela Kuti – but one that has nonetheless managed to find its own direction… Read More ›
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Q&A – #ReadingAfrica: African Literary Magazine Editors on Curating for the Continent
With AiW Guests: Nzube Nlebedim – The Shallow Tales Review, Mazi Nwonwu – Omenana Magazine, and Kenechi Uzor – Iskanchi Magazine, interviewed by SarahBelle Selig of Catalyst Press. AiW note: #ReadingAfrica Week is an annual celebration of African literature held the… Read More ›
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Refocusing Le Retour: Three Franco-Senegalese Works
AiW Guest: Sebastian Boivin. In an increasingly dynamic and interconnected geopolitical and socioeconomic landscape, so many of us think about the journey of migrants; fewer about their return. Work regarding the topic, including in francophone text from Africa, has focused… Read More ›
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Review: “Growing up lesbian in Nigeria”: Unoma Azuah’s “Embracing My Shadow”
AiW Guest: Pernille Nailor. Written in a clear and powerful language that commands our immediate attention, Unoma Azuah’s latest publication, Embracing My Shadow, is a moving and powerful memoir focusing on the author’s experiences of growing up as lesbian in… Read More ›
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Q&A: Mukoma Wa Ngugi – teasing out the Tizita, and probing poetry and prizes
AiW Guests: Meriel Clode, Lisa Walker, Antonia Cheema-Grubb & Harriet Lewis. Mukoma Wa Ngugi is a US-based Kenyan writer, who was born in Illinois and grew up in Nairobi. He is the author of eight books including crime novels Nairobi… Read More ›
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