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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Book Review: Teju Cole’s ‘Every Day Is for the Thief’
AiW Guest Kristen Roupenian The back matter of Teju Cole’s novel Every Day Is for the Thief refers to an ‘unnamed narrator’, but if this is not meant to be the same character as Julius, our guide through 2011’s Open City, then Cole… Read More ›
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Event: Sussex Africa Centre. Peter van der Windt, ‘Local institutions and Cooperation in the Presence of Migration: Evidence from the Democratic Republic of Congo’
AiW Guest: Daniel Watson. At the most recent Sussex Africa Centre event, Peter van der Windt – PhD candidate at Columbia University – presented his research on ‘Local institutions and Cooperation in the Presence of Migration: Evidence from the Democratic… Read More ›
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Musing On The Etisalat Prize For ‘Fiction’ – Sorry ‘Literature’
AiW Guest Toni Kan Literary prizes are strange animals. As subjective as they often are, they usually confer immediate entrée into the rarefied heights of the literary canon. And because they are strange animals, one is almost never surprised when… Read More ›
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Words on Teaching – “The Image of Africa in a Survey Course”
Africa in Words Guest: Bronwen Everill In my three years of teaching African history at a variety of levels (first, second, and third years; MA students), I have continually been pleasantly surprised by the quality of debate that African history… Read More ›
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‘Diaspora [still] Writes Back’. Africa Writes (RAS).
AiW Guest: Ben Verghese. Africa Writes is the annual literary festival from the Royal African Society – a celebration of contemporary African literature from across the continent and the diaspora, held in early July. Last year (2013), AiW were at the festival covering… Read More ›
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Event: Sussex Africa Centre. James Esson, ‘Entrepeneurs of the body? Ghanaian youth and football trafficking’
By AiW Guest: Ross Wignall. First, from us at AiW, a quick intro to the Sussex Africa Centre, a new initiative in its founding year, celebrating the University of Sussex’s history of international scholarship and engagement with the African continent…. Read More ›
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Words on Teaching – Sipho Sepamla, literary realism and ‘A Ride on the Whirlwind’
By AiW Guest: An anonymous academic labourer, somewhere in the South-East of England. Recently I helped teach a course on South African protest and resistance literature. We looked at fiction and poetry from the late 1970s to the late 80s,… Read More ›
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African Study Classics – Walter Rodney
AiW Guest Amber Murrey An influential Pan-Africanist and historian, Walter Rodney’s work provides guidance, invigoration and sustenance to PanAfricanists, scholars of Africa and the African Diaspora, and those interested in the socio-historical roots of social inequality. As a university professor in… Read More ›
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‘Dust’ by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor – review
AiW Guest jalida scheuerman-chianda The second time I met Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor she was sitting at a round wooden table in the garden of the Kwani? office in Nairobi, waiting to be interviewed on the launch of her debut novel… Read More ›
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Anticolonial Visions: Revisiting Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic in 2013
AiW Guest Armin Fardis. We are being abandoned by history. Few care to read or think about it. We live increasingly in a ‘post-historic’: age, in the endless proliferation of technological means and what Jacques Ellul has called ‘efficient ordering’,… Read More ›
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Review – ‘Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”’: Prufrock, the Magazine
AiW Guest: Graham Riach. The first edition of new literary magazine Prufrock, which appeared in autumn this year, cuts quite a dash. The cover must be somewhere around a Pantone 2635c, I imagine, with a line drawing of J. Alfred’s… Read More ›
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Journeys into Genre: Talking Horror and Sci-fi with Jahmil XT Qubeka
Hot on the heels of Christine Singer’s nuanced review of Jahmil XT Qubeka’s Of Good Report, Emma Dabiri shares insights from her recent conversation with Qubeka – exploring whether Of Good Report can be described as a ‘horror film’ or… Read More ›
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Jahmil XT Qubeka’s ‘Of Good Report’ opens Film Africa 2013
AiW Guest Christine Singer. The widely anticipated film Of Good Report opened Film Africa 2013, London’s annual major celebration of film from Africa and the diaspora, on 1 November 2013 at the Hackney Picturehouse. Set in a small town in… Read More ›
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African Photography Series: African Photography has always been International
by AiW Guest Jürg Schneider Between October 26 and November 16 of 2013 the fourth edition of the international photography festival LagosPhoto opened its doors to the public. The month long festival which includes exhibitions, workshops, artistic presentations and discussions is… Read More ›
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Digital Futures: The changing landscape of African publishing – Review & Response
Earlier in the year Africa in Words editors and authors attended Africa Writes 2013 in London. This literature and book festival organized by the Royal African Society hosted some of the most exciting names in contemporary African literature at the… Read More ›
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An archive of solidarity: The City of London Anti-Apartheid Group papers
Africa in Words Guest: Gavin Brown. When I set out to research the history of the Non-Stop Picket of the South African Embassy in London, I knew I could trace enough former participants in that protest to make the project… Read More ›
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Chimurenga Chronic and Chronic Books II
By AiW Guest: Steffan Horowitz The latest issue (August 2013) of Chimurenga’s quarterly pan-African gazette, the Chronic, and its accompanying Chronic Books magazine are now available in print or for download. It features contributions from the likes of Akin Adesokan,… Read More ›