Author Archives
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Book Review: Writing the Nigeria-Biafra War, a new critical volume edited by Toyin Falola and Ogechukwu Ezekwem
AiW Guest: Matthew Lecznar To sum up the varied literary legacies of the Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-70) in a single volume is no easy task. The conflict, which ended in the deaths of an estimated 1-2 million people, has produced a… Read More ›
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Book Review: The Rainbow’s Heart
AiW Guest Jen Aggleton continues our adventures in African children’s literature. The Rainbow’s Heart is a picture book written and illustrated by Richard Latimer, based on the author’s experiences of travelling in Botswana in the late 1970s. Originally published in 1982, it has… Read More ›
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A Review of South African Literature Beyond the Cold War by Monica Popescu
This week, AiW Guest Katarzyna Kubin launches her new series examining the relationship between Africa and Eastern/Central Europe with a review of Monica Popescu’s South African Literature Beyond the Cold War. AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin Colonial and postcolonial history has customarily been perceived along a North-South axis,… Read More ›
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A New Series on Africa and Eastern/Central Europe
A new AiW series curated by AiW Guest Katarzyna Kubin examines relations between Africa and Eastern/Central Europe. AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin In the essay “How Poles Became White,” the anthropologist, Kacper Pobłocki, writes: “Ideas tend to get ‘incarcerated’ into places. One… Read More ›
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A Review of Route 234: An Anthology of Nigerian Travel Writing
AiW Guest: Jade Lee For all of the genre’s diverse geographical settings, much travel writing has depended on a relatively consistent viewpoint. For the Western reader (especially the white, male variety) there are certain expectations of where the travelogue will… Read More ›
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Us Versus Them: A Review of Safe House
AiW Guest: Jovia Salifu The essays in this anthology, Safe House: Explorations in Creative Nonfiction (Dundurn 2016), address the very topics that have made Africa the centre of the world’s attention over the years for all the wrong reasons — disease,… Read More ›
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Review: ‘Together We’re Strong!’ – Book Dash Storybooks
AiW Guest: Nard Choi This week, AiW Guest Nard Choi continues our journey into African children’s literature.
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Review: Signs for an Exhibition by Eliza Kentridge
AiW Guest: Erica Lombard The illness or death of a parent and the impulse to return in writing to one’s formative years are intimate companions, and have been particularly prevalent tropes in white South African literature of the past two… Read More ›
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Review of Chris Abani’s Song for Night
AiW Guest: Alexandra Schultheis Moore This week, Alexandra Schultheis Moore continues our summer voyage into African children’s literature. First published in 2007 and recently re-issued by Telegram in the UK, Chris Abani’s novella, Song for Night, offers a compelling story as well… Read More ›
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A Review of Stacy Hardy’s Because the Night
AiW Guest: Anu Kumar It is almost an anomaly of sorts: that any literary work from South Africa, as from India for that matter, demands a certain context—who is telling the story and why. But Stacy Hardy’s short stories—and all the… Read More ›
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A Review of Inua Ellams’ The Wire-Headed Heathen
AiW Guest: Jason Allen This month, Jason Allen continues our deep dive into Eight New Generation African Poets with a review of Inua Ellams’ The Wire-Headed Heathen. This is the third chapbook by Nigerian-British performance poet Inua Ellams. The poems display his… Read More ›
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Wotsits and Palm Wine: A Review of Irenosen Okojie’s Butterfly Fish
AiW Guest: Anthea Gordon Butterfly Fish (Jacaranda, 2015) is primarily a story about Joy, a London-based photographer whose only friend is her eccentric elderly neighbour, Mrs. Harris. Then Joy’s mother dies unexpectedly, leaving her a bemusing inheritance, which includes Joy’s grandfather’s diary and a sculpture of a… Read More ›
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The Aftermath of War: A Review of the Film Ezra
AiW Guest: Dare Dan Newton Aduaka’s Ezra treads a path familiar to Africa’s cinema and literature: the tragedy of child soldiers and of childhoods broken by war. So what’s new?, I hear you ask. Produced in 2007, Ezra, which precedes Beasts of… Read More ›
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A Journey of Self-Discovery and Love: A Review of Frances Mensah Williams’ From Pasta to Pigfoot
AiW Guest: Jovia Salifu In From Pasta to Pigfoot, Frances Mensah Williams tells a beautiful story of cultural education, self-identity, and love. It is a story of a young black woman whose quest for knowledge about her culture and identity… Read More ›
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Review: The Mirror and Nine Other Stories by Susan Nkwentie Nde
Heather Snell continues our summer voyage into children’s literature. AiW Guest: Heather Snell The Mirror and Nine Other Stories is a product of Langaa, a press with offices in Bamenda and Buea. As Langaa indicates on their website, access to… Read More ›
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A Space of One’s Own – A summary of a conversation between the 2016 Caine Prize shortlisted writers
AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin With only days left before the winner of the 2016 Caine Prize for African Writing is announced on 4th July, the five short-listed writers have been on a whirlwind circuit of public events throughout London, from a… Read More ›
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2016 Caine Prize Shortlist: A Review of Tope Folarin’s “Genesis”
It’s Caine Prize season again! Before the judges’ announcement on 4th July, we’re taking a look at each of the shortlisted stories. This week, Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva reviews Tope Folarin’s “Genesis.” AiW Guest: Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva Tope Folarin takes us to dizzying spiritual and emotional heights, telling his story… Read More ›
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Broken Men Who Never Heal: A Review of Bongani Kona’s “At Your Requiem”
AiW Guest: Iquo DianaAbasi “I rewind time to conjure you back to life.” The above words on the opening page strike a note of foreboding and thus set the tone and pace for the story. Indeed the whole tale rests on this conjuring back to life through… Read More ›
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2016 Caine Prize Shortlist: Review of Lesley Nneka Arimah’s “What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky.”
It’s Caine Prize season again! Before the judges’ announcement on 4th July, we’re taking a look at each of the shortlisted stories. This week, Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva reviews Lesley Nneka Arimah’s “What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky.” AiW Guest: Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva The opening line is… Read More ›
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What do children read?: A Review of ALT 33 Children’s Literature and Story-telling
Following AiW’s Q&A with Professor Emenyonu last week, and to kick-off our summer review series on African children’s literature, Tamara Moellenberg reviews ALT 33: Children’s Literature and Story-telling. AiW Guest: Tamara Moellenberg Children’s Literature and Story-telling, the latest issue of African Literature Today, brings much-needed attention to… Read More ›
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