Author Archives

Rebecca Jones is a Lecturer in the Department of African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham. She is currently writing a monograph on Yoruba- and English-language travel writing in Nigeria from the late nineteenth century to the present day.

• Q&A: Débọ̀ Awẹ́ on his Yoruba-language literary career

  By Rebecca Jones on 9 July , 2020 • ( 6 )

  

  Débọ̀ Awẹ́ is a writer, a retired secondary school headteacher and a minister of God in Praise for Christ Ministries International. He is also the CEO of Elyon Publishers, a publishing company in Iléṣà, Ọ̀șun State, Nigeria, where he lives…. Read More ›

• Call for applications: Reviews Editor for Africa in Words

  By Rebecca Jones on 21 February , 2017 • ( 0 )

  

  Africa in Words is recruiting a volunteer to join our team as a Reviews Editor. Africa in Words has an average of 6500 readers each month from over 100 countries, with our largest readerships based in the UK, US, South… Read More ›

• A visual tour of the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London

  By Rebecca Jones on 10 October , 2016 • ( 1 )

  

  The 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair was in London this weekend. The fair – a biannual event with editions in London and New York – was initiated in 2013, and this year showcased the work of over 130 contemporary artists from… Read More ›

• Q&A: Ifeanyi Awachie on curating Yale’s Africa Salon: bringing African conversations and African cool to Yale

  By Rebecca Jones on 19 September , 2016 • ( 0 )

  

  Africa Salon is a contemporary African arts and culture festival founded in 2015 at Yale University. The Salon is a week-long feast of visual art, music, dance, literature, film and more from Africa and the diaspora, and it has brought… Read More ›

• Ẹ jẹ́ k’á sọ Yorùbá: Yoruba language resources online

  By Rebecca Jones on 8 February , 2016 • ( 6 )

  

  The online space offers important opportunities to develop resources for African-language documentation and learning, whether drawing on the power of apps and online games to make language learning fun, or on social media, online databases and crowdsourcing as tools to… Read More ›

• Q&A: Pede Hollist

  By Rebecca Jones on 11 September , 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  Posted in the run up to our review of the Caine Prize 2015 anthology Lusaka Punk and Other Stories, as part of a follow up series to our 2015 Blogging the Caine Prize – open to the ongoing public conversation the prize, and… Read More ›

• No Ordinary House: a review of E.C. Osondu’s ‘This House is Not For Sale’

  By Rebecca Jones on 30 June , 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  ‘— That house is no ordinary house. Ordinary house, indeed — […] — People say that at night you could hear voices and sometimes cries emanating from that house. Even though no one lives there anymore. — It casts a… Read More ›

• Saraba issue 17: Survival – now out

  By Rebecca Jones on 27 April , 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  A quick heads up that the latest issue of Saraba Magazine is now out, and available to download for free here: http://www.sarabamag.com/the-survival-issue This issue is themed around ‘Survival’, and as Saraba puts it: “A word from the 1590s, “survival” implies the… Read More ›

• New African fiction, poetry and non-fiction for the coming months

  By Rebecca Jones on 6 April , 2015 • ( 1 )

  

  As the seasons change and Spring begins to arrive here in the UK, it seems a good time look forward to some forthcoming African fiction, non-fiction and poetry releases due over the next few months. What are you looking forward… Read More ›

• Pigeon Posts: Letters from Africa – special offer for AiW readers

  By Rebecca Jones on 15 February , 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  We’re delighted to be able to offer African in Words readers free access to the first five staves (chapters) of Pigeon Posts: Letters from Africa.  Monday 19th January 2015 saw the launch of digital serial publisher The Pigeonhole’s first real-time book, Pigeon… Read More ›

• Review: Alex Mvuka Ntung’s autobiography Not My Worst Day

  By Rebecca Jones on 3 February , 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  When I first sat down to review this book I felt resistant. Not My Worst Day is an autobiography that narrates Alex Mvuka Ntung’s childhood and young adulthood in the Great Lakes Region, describing his experiences during the Rwandan Genocide… Read More ›

• A year of African literature and film – in lists

  By Rebecca Jones on 29 December , 2014 • ( 2 )

  

  Africa in Words is taking a break from our regular content over the festive season, but we’ll be back from next week. In the meantime, it’s that time of year for best-of lists, and the African literature and arts blogosphere… Read More ›

• The circulation of politics, art and literature in Nigeria

  By Rebecca Jones on 7 November , 2014 • ( 1 )

  

  As part of his tour of the UK to promote his novel, Foreign Gods, Inc., journalist, academic and writer Okey Ndibe paid a visit to the University of Sussex earlier this week. As well as being interviewed by locally-based African literature… Read More ›

• African Languages at ASAUK 2014

  By Rebecca Jones on 8 October , 2014 • ( 0 )

  

  As part of our ongoing series on the ASAUK 2014 conference, Rebecca Jones reports on panels on African languages in literature and in the disciplines. Papers that discussed African languages could be found throughout the ASAUK 2014 conference – including panels on Swahili… Read More ›

• Africa Utopia – Hacking Africa?

  By Rebecca Jones on 25 September , 2014 • ( 2 )

  

  With a remit to explore how African art and ideas can change the world for the better: how Africa can lead the way in thinking about culture, community, technology, fashion, sustainability and ethical wealth creation, Africa Utopia was a three-day… Read More ›

• They Will Eat Me in Calabar: tales from the front lines of Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps

  By Rebecca Jones on 8 September , 2014 • ( 5 )

  

  We eventually got to their house, where I was introduced to a middle-aged women. They all spoke in Efik, I did not understand them. So I became more afraid, thinking that they were planning to eat me. The woman asked… Read More ›

• Africa in Words readings with Billy Kahora, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and Alex Ntung at ASAUK Conference, 9th September 2014

  By Rebecca Jones on 29 August , 2014 • ( 1 )

  

  Africa in Words, in association with the African Studies Association UK, Writing Our Legacy and Urbanflo Creative Partnerships, is delighted to present:  WRITING EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA: ACROSS GENRES IN PROSE Readings with authors Billy Kahora, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and… Read More ›

• What space is there for African travel writing? ‘Broadening the Gaze’, Africa Writes, 12 July 2014

  By Rebecca Jones on 1 August , 2014 • ( 3 )

  

  Opening a panel on travel writing at the Royal Africa Society’s Africa Writes festival in London, panel chair Fatimah Kelleher observed that travel writing has often been a narrow genre in the past, dominated by Western perspectives on the world…. Read More ›

• An interview with novelist Fred Soneka

  By Rebecca Jones on 16 June , 2014 • ( 3 )

  

  Fred Soneka is a novelist living in Freetown, Sierra Leone, who recently published two novels:  When The Axe Swings (2012) and Looking for Tanana (2013). When The Axe Swings explores the dynamics of a polygamous marriage as the woodcutter Woody… Read More ›

• Mandela, his legacy and its betrayals

  By Rebecca Jones on 23 December , 2013 • ( 0 )

  

  Africa in Words will be taking a short break from posting new content over the Christmas period, but we will be back refreshed and raring to go in January. Meanwhile, so you can still get your Africa in Words fix,… Read More ›