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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The Rise of the African Development Confessional?
AiW guest James Smith. Nina Munk’s The Idealist: Jeffery Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty (Random House) isn’t a book only about Jeffery Sachs. It’s a book about the world as we would like it to be, an uncomfortable… Read More ›
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Q&A: Uche Peter Umez interviews poet Afam Akeh
By AiW Guest: Uche Peter Umez. “Different writers in different locations at different times find their different reasons for writing.” Interviewer’s Note: AFAM AKEH, the author of Stolen Moments (1988), has won prizes and other honours for his poems, short stories… Read More ›
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To write poetry after Pistorius is insufficient: rapture, rupture and narrative non-fiction in South Africa
By AiW Guest Anneke Rautenbach. Tom Wolfe, as early as 1973, spoke of a new form of writing that “consumes devices that happen to have originated with the novel and mixes them with every other technique known to prose. And… Read More ›
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Spotlight on…Mengistu Lemma
AiW Guest Sara Marzagora. This post is the second in an occasional series of writer profiles, looking especially at those working in African languages. The first post in our series was on Akinwumi Isola. Mengistu Lemma (1928-1988) If you ask… Read More ›
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For Young African Writers
AiW Guest Mukoma Wa Ngugi I love to write and have been doing it for a long time now. Along the way I have learned, mostly through mistakes, a few things that I want to list here below with the… Read More ›
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Is there a market (in Africa) for contemporary African art?
By Africa in Words Guest Jürg Schneider. In a period of dramatically shifting geopolitics where markets as well as people have to readjust in an accelerated pace to new constellations of players and rules there is a lot of excitement… Read More ›
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Lauren Beukes and African Science Fiction
Africa in Words Guest, Professor James Smith of the University of Edinburgh, writes: Professionally I research the role science and technology play in shaping Africa’s development. Thus I naturally have an interest in the writing of Lauren Beukes given her… Read More ›
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The magic of African cinema comes to Scotland
AiW Guest Justine Atkinson on the upcoming ‘Africa in Motion‘ Film Festival: Fallous is a young Tunisian boy who is always running. We follow him as he journeys through his village, down winding paths bordered with lush green forests, greeting each… Read More ›
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Winning films from African Movie Awards 2013
by AiW guest Phoenix Fry On 20 April 2013 the African Movie Awards took place at “a glittering ceremony” in Yenagoa, southern Nigeria. You can read elsewhere about the glitz and the glitches – this blog focuses on the films… Read More ›
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Blogging the Caine Prize: Thinking Through Chinelo Okparanta’s ‘America’
On Monday Tope Folarin’s ‘Miracle’ was announced as the winner of the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing. Building up to this announcement the five shortlisted writers spent a week in the UK, talking about their writing in the media… Read More ›
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‘Ghana Must Go’ by Taiye Selasi – review
AiW Guest Emylia Hall One of my favourite quotes on the subject of the craft of writing comes from the Pulitzer Prize-winner, Katherine Anne Porter: ‘Get so well acquainted with your characters that they live and grow in your imagination exactly… Read More ›
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Blogging the Caine Prize: Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s ‘The Whispering Trees’
AiW Guest Sylvia Gasana Hauntingly beautiful! Those are the two first words that come to mind when describing Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s ‘The Whispering Trees’. I’m always very excited to read a story that has a title that instantly transports you…. Read More ›
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‘Deliver us from Evil’: A Review of Tope Folarin’s ‘Miracle’
AiW Guest Gbemisola Abiola. Tope Folarin’s Miracle depicts the prevailing belief in Christian supernaturalism, and the apparent promise of prosperity it holds for the African adherent, as the means of achieving success in the Diasporas. While the story is set in… Read More ›
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Fela Kuti and Bob Marley: two ports of the Black Atlantic
This post is part of the series Gilroy’s Black Atlantic. Click here to read the first post of the series, here to read the second and here to read the third AiW Guest Tiago C. Fernandes SIDE A: FELA KUTI Fela Anikulapo Kuti was born in… Read More ›
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Culture, politics and intellectual practice through Gilroy’s “The Black Atlantic”
This post is part of the series Gilroy’s Black Atlantic. Click here to read the first post of the series and here to read the second. The book “The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness” written by Paul Gilroy is extremely insightful to… Read More ›
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Gilroy’s Black Atlantic: Samba, Jazz and Sambajazz in Brazil and the Black Atlantic.
This post is part of the series Gilroy’s Black Atlantic. Click here to read the first post of the series and here to read the third. AiW Guest Gabriel Improta I’m a musician and a social scientist from Rio de… Read More ›
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Travels in Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Transwonderland
AiW Guest Steve Haines Working in the world of ‘international development’ I’m easily tempted to measure a country by metrics and indices. What interests me is the percentage of the population with access to safe drinking water, the primary school… Read More ›
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The Book in Africa: A Day Symposium
AiW Guest Ruth Bush This lively one day event took place in London at Senate House on 20 October 2012, was led by Dr Caroline Davis (Oxford Brookes) and brought together a number of researchers working in the broad area of… Read More ›
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Notes from the Kwani? Literary Festival
AiW Guest Dzekashu MacViban In December 2012, I travelled to Nairobi for the 2012 Kwani? Litfest as part of the Goethe Institut’s pan-African exchange programme ‘Moving Africa’. Of the various panels and readings I attended four stood out: our Moving… Read More ›
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Review: 100% Jacob Zuma
AiW Guest Emily Hogg and Benjamin Poore. In 2006 The New York Times reported that Jacob Zuma’s defence during his trial for rape was rooted in claims he made about the traditions and customs of Zulu culture. The Times wrote: “His… Read More ›
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