Author Archives
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Caine Prize 2018 Shortlist: A Review of Stacy Hardy’s “Involution”
AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin This review of Stacy Hardy’s “Involution” by our regular Guest contributor, Katarzyna Kubin, is the penultimate of our series of the stories shortlisted for the 2018 Caine Prize for African Writing, ahead of the announcement… Read More ›
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Caine Prize 2018 Shortlist: A Review of Olufunke Oludimu’s “The Armed Letter Writers”
AiW Guest: Divisha Chummun AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis started off this series in 2013. In the coming days we are… Read More ›
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Caine Prize 2018 Shortlist: A Review of Makena Onjerika’s “Fanta Blackcurrant”
AiW Guest: Beverly Akoyo Ochieng’ AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis started off this series in 2013. In the coming days we are… Read More ›
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Caine Prize 2018 Shortlist: A Review of Wole Talabi’s “Wednesday’s Story”
AiW Guest: Sana Goyal AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis started off this series in 2013. In the coming days we are… Read More ›
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“Chance, eloko pamba”: A review of In Koli Jean Bofane’s Congo Inc.: Bismarck’s Testament
AiW Guest: Connor Pruss Arjun Appadurai notably explained that globalization is marked by a new role for the imagination in social life in which the world may consist of regions (seen processually), but regions also imagine their own worlds. The… Read More ›
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Revisiting Makhosazana Xaba’s These Hands: Poems
AiW Guest: Stephanie Selvick I asked Makhosazana Xaba what it was like hearing that her debut collection of poetry, These Hands: Poems (2005), was accepted by Modjaji Books for a reprint due to demand by readers and teachers. “There is… Read More ›
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Neatly packaged snapshots of often inaccessible headlines: A Review of The Hamburger that Killed Jorge
AiW Guest: Nafeesah Allen The Hamburger that Killed Jorge is an anthology of short stories, written by young and emerging Mozambican writers, meant to open an aperture for a new branch of crime fiction. Born out of a 2016 national… Read More ›
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The Problem with the Prophet: Review of Alain Mabanckou’s Black Moses
AiW Guest: Sarah Ahrens The first thing that struck me about the English translation of the latest novel of Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa’s arguably most successful living writer was its title: Black Moses is quite a departure from the original French… Read More ›
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A Study in Contrast: A Review of Stanley Gazemba’s Forbidden Fruit
AiW Guest: Amanda Anderson Stanley Gazemba’s 2002 novel Forbidden Fruit, previously published in Kenya as The Stone Hills of Maragoli, presents a tightly woven tapestry of human experience. The narrative follows Ombima, a poor man from the small village of… Read More ›
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Old is New: A Review of Emmanuel Dongala’s Jazz and Palm Wine
AiW Guest: David Borman I first encountered Jazz and Palm Wine in fragmentary form. As a student who read French poorly yet took a course on Francophone African Literature, I was allowed to read translations of our coursework, and… Read More ›
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Self-help as Warfare: Lola Akande’s campus novel and What it Takes to be a Woman who Succeeds on a University Campus
AiW Guest: Carli Coetzee The title of Lola Akande’s novel What it Takes can be interpreted in more than one way. The novel can be read as a celebratory narrative of the extraordinary achievements of the protagonist, Funto Oyewole, as… Read More ›
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Familiar, yet utterly new: A Review of Fred Strydom’s The Inside Out Man
AiW Guest: Kimmy Beach Bent is a gifted jazz pianist who plays in seedy nightclubs, lives in the “Crack Radisson”—a run-down flat in a Johannesburg suburb—and doesn’t seem to need much more in his life. With that deceptively… Read More ›
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Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 5: ‘God’s Children Are Little Broken Things’ by Arinze Ifeakandu
AiW Guest: David Borman This week, we are featuring reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. The fifth and final review of the… Read More ›
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Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 4: ‘The Virus’ by Magogodi Makhene
AiW Guest: David Reiersgord This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Today’s review is of South African author Magogodi… Read More ›
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Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 3: ‘Bush Baby’ by Chikodili Emelumadu
AiW Guest: Iquo DianaAbasi This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Today’s review is of Nigerian author Chikodili Emelumadu’s story… Read More ›
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Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 2: ‘Who Will Greet You At Home’ by Lesley Nneka Arimah
AiW Guest: Kufre Usanga This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Today’s review is of Nigerian author Lesley Nneka… Read More ›
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Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 1: ‘The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away’ by Bushra al-Fadil
AiW Guest: Rebekah Bale This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Our first review is of Sudanese author… Read More ›
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‘”It’s a passport!” my inner voice yells’. Review of Lola Akinmade Åkerström’s Due North
AiW Guest: Janet Remmington With Nigerian passport in hand, fifteen-year-old Lola crossed the Atlantic to study in the US. The ‘little green book’ soon accumulated visas, each costing hundreds of dollars, as she took to traversing borders in different continents…. Read More ›
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Woe and Womb: A Review of Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò
AiW Guest: Sana Goyal When asked about the seeds of her novel Stay With Me, Ayòbámi Adébáyò likes to tell the tale of how Yejide and Akin—two characters she created for a short story—persistently stayed in the corners of… Read More ›
