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: Words on the Times – Nzube Nlebedim of The Shallow Tales Review
AiW note: The Shallow Tales Review literary magazine is an online literary outfit that aims to share the unique African story. It was founded in August 2019 by Nigerian writer, critic and editor, Nzube Nlebedim, and is run by a three-man… Read More ›
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Review: The Heshoo Beshoo Group – Armitage Road
AiW Guest: Phumelele Mzimela This rare apartheid-era collector’s item Armitage Road (originally released in 1970) is the only record by South African jazz ensemble The Heshoo Beshoo Group. In 2020, the album received a long overdue reissue by the Canadian… Read More ›
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Q&A: Words on the Times – M Lynx Qualey for ArabLit
AiW note: ArabLit describe themselves as a translator-centered “loose collective” that produce a website, quarterly magazine (ArabLit Quarterly), and a limited book series (ALQ Books) focused on Arabic literatures in translation. They also run an annual ArabLit Story Prize, an… Read More ›
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Q&A: Words on the Times – Kimberley Nyamhondera, Press Officer & Marketing and Communications Manager
AiW note: Following Zahra Banday’s review of Chibundu Onuzo’s latest novel Sankofa last week and her accompanying Q&A with Chibundu — where they chat process and writing and various inspirations — we are excited to be sharing a Words on… Read More ›
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Q&A – Chibundu Onuzo, author of ‘Sankofa’
AiW Guest: Zahra Banday AiW note: Following up on her review of Sankofa, “a fresh, funny and moving take on the theme of identity and place… crafted with gentle care but harbouring brutal realities,” Zahra Banday interviews its award-winning author,… Read More ›
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Review: “Flying Forward with Your Head Facing Back” – Chibundu Onuzo’s ‘Sankofa’
AiW Guest: Zahra Banday AiW note: Our Guest Reviewer, Zahra Banday, appraises award-winning writer Chibundu Onuzo’s third novel, Sankofa, which was published by Virago Books and went on sale on 3 June 2021. Sankofa has been described by Sefi Atta… Read More ›
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Q&A -‘Farewell Amor’ (2020) filmmaker Ekwa Msangi: talking immigration, cultural specificity, and racism in cinema
AiW Guests: Libby Gervais, Abi Taphouse, James Truscott & Maddy Holmes “Let’s actually think about who they are, not just what they are here to take from us”. Ekwa Msangi. Ekwa Msangi is a film director, writer and producer, who has… Read More ›
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Q&A: Words on the Times – Art And About Africa
AiW note: Art And About Africa is a free platform that allows its users to discover artists and art spaces in the vibrant African art scene on the continent, facilitating where to go, what to see, and who to engage… Read More ›
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Review: “You only need the mbira” – T.L. Huchu’s ‘The Library of the Dead’
AiW Guest: Ranka Primorac. By the time I twigged that T. L. Huchu’s The Library of the Dead was not aimed at my age group, it was no longer an option to stop reading. The author of the deft appropriation… Read More ›
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Q&A: Words on the Times – Marina Novelli on “Building Bridges through Contemporary Arts”
The Building Bridges through Contemporary Arts Online Panel Discussions Series is part of a University of Brighton initiative that facilitates a contemporary art-based dialogue between key stakeholders from Africa and Europe. Based on participants’ personal and professional local and global… Read More ›
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Q&A: Words on the Times – Open Hearts Big Dreams & Ready Set Go Books
AiW note: Open Hearts Big Dreams (OHBD) is a not-for-profit organisation working to provide literacy resources and opportunities for students in Ethiopia. Their main project is Ready Set Go Books, an innovative effort to increase literacy in Ethiopia. OHBD publishes… Read More ›
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Q&A with poet Romeo Oriogun: Sacrament of Bodies
AiW Guests: Fisayo Amodu, Dora Houghton & Bryony Gooch. Romeo Oriogun is an award-winning poet from Nigeria. His previous work includes the chapbooks Burnt Men, The Origin of Butterflies and Museum of Silence. He was also awarded the 2017 Brunel… Read More ›
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Review: Can We Really Decolonize the American University? – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o at the University of Yale, 2021.
AiW Guest: Kadiatou Keita. It was exhilarating at first. I cheered Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o on like he was performing. The March 2021 installment of the University of Yale’s English Department organised ‘African Writers in Conversation Series‘ featured Ngũgĩ wa… Read More ›
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Q&A with Abubakar Adam Ibrahim: “Writing the history of the present”
AiW Guests: Yasmine Arasteh, Skye Frewin & Sally Wright. Abubakar Adam Ibrahim is a prominent Nigerian writer and journalist. He is the author of the short story collection The Whispering Trees (2012), the novel Season of Crimson Blossoms (2015), and… Read More ›
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Q&A: Words on the Times – Teesa Bahana of 32° East I Ugandan Arts Trust
AiW note: Following Lizzy Attree’s Words on the Times, in which she spoke about teaching and fundraising during a pandemic; Dami Ajayi’s responses to the same Q&A, in which he discussed his experiences of working as a doctor and writer… Read More ›
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Q&A: Words on the Times – Nduka Otiono
AiW Guest: Nduka Otiono, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada AiW note: Yesterday we celebrated the African release of Wreaths for a Wayfarer (Narrative Landscape Press), published in honour of writer, academic, and esteemed beloved mentor and Nigerian public intellectual, Pius Adesanmi, who lost… Read More ›
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Celebrating World Poetry Day with readings from Wreaths for A Wayfarer
AiW Guests: Nduka Otiono and Uche Peter Umezurike. AiW note: by way of introduction to our Guest post here, we are very pleased to be able to share with the editors news of the African release of Wreaths for a… Read More ›
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“We can draw from the past and create something new, or we can just present the past as it was”: Talking Nostalgia, Memory, and Creative Collaboration with Wanjeri Gakuru
AiW Guests: Isobella Norman, Leyla Mohammed and Leoni Fretwell. Wanjeri Gakuru is a freelance journalist, essayist and filmmaker invested in gender equality and social justice. From 2018, Wanjeri has been the Managing Editor of Jalada Africa, a Pan-African writers’ collective… Read More ›
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Review: A Reckoning with East Africa’s Colonial Histories – Abdulrazak Gurnah’s ‘Afterlives’
AiW Guest: Florian Stadtler.
German colonial history remains little explored in fiction. Since the 1880s, Kaiser Wilhelm II, grandson of Queen Victoria, had the ambition to secure what was then termed Germany’s ‘Platz and der Sonne’, its place in the sun, Von Bülow’s infamous phrase in praise of Germany’s expansionist colonial policies. In popular historical discourse of German colonialism, attention tends to focus more on Deutsch-Südwestafrika…
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Q&A with Abdulrazak Gurnah about latest novel ‘Afterlives’: “These stories have been with me all along…”
By AiW Guest: Judyannet Muchiri.
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Judyannet Muchiri: This is a heavy story and yet there are moments of stillness, joy, love, and tenderness, if you will. I wonder how it is for you as a writer to capture this human existence in its totality as you have done in Afterlives.Abdulrazak Gurnah: My interest was not to write about the war or the ugliness of colonialism. Instead I want to make sure the context in which war and colonialism happened is understood. And that the people in that context were people with entire existences. I want to show how people who are wounded by the war and by life itself cope in these circumstances. Using the unexpected kindnesses in the story, I wanted to show that there is potential for kindness in people and sometimes circumstances can draw such kindness from us.
