AiW note: Sana Goyal’s piece covering Africa Writes’ 2018 pre-launch of the UK edition of Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel, Freshwater, brings our range of #PastAndPresent posts over this first weekend in July 2020 – the weekend the in-person festival would… Read More ›
Reviews – Events
2015 Africa Writes #P&P – Losing my Head Because: Ben Okri’s Meditations on Greatness
AiW note: Bwesigye Bwa Mesigire’s reflections on Ben Okri’s headline event for the 2015 Africa Writes Festival form part of our #PastAndPresent weekend of re-posts of coverage of the festival over the years (from 2013-2018). The full timetable of our… Read More ›
2018 Africa Writes #P&P – Building an Archive – Voices from the Panel “Loving Womxn: Deliberate and Afraid of Nothing”
AiW note: this review of the panel ‘Loving Womxn’ at the 2018 Africa Writes Festival in London is part of our #Past&Present revisits of our coverage of the festival over the years, in the run-up to the digital conversations of… Read More ›
2014 Africa Writes #P&P – Ama Ata Aidoo in Conversation: Review.
AiW note: this review of the great Ama Ata Aidoo in conversation with Dr Wangui wa Goro at Africa Writes’ 2014 edition is the second of our cast backs to our attendance at the Festival over the years, in the… Read More ›
Review – The Smouldering Fires of Aké Arts & Book Festival 2019
AiW Guest: Temitayo Olofinlua Earlier in the year, I watched The Hate U Give and If Beale Street Could Talk and, through these films, saw how the American justice system hurls itself against black bodies until it is bent out… Read More ›
Westdene Graffiti Project
AiW Guest: Ofentse Mashego In July 2015, the Johannesburg suburb of Westdene launched its own community mural project. The first of its kind in South Africa, and possibly globally, the Westdene Graffiti Project uses the art of graffiti to personalise… Read More ›
A Tragic Story of War: Discussing Aminatta Forna’s The Memory of Love at the BBC Bookclub
AiW Guest Zahra Banday Zahra Banday attended a recent recording of BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub discussing Aminatta Forna’s novel The Memory of Love (2011). The BBC Bookclub programme aired on 1st September 2019; you can listen again here, or catch… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2019 Shortlist: A Review of Lesley Nneka Arimah’s “Skinned”
AiW Guest: Tolulope Akinwole AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back, adding to our conversations over the years about prizes and prize culture – see Kate Wallis’ kick off from back in 2013. In the coming days we are… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2019 Shortlist: A Review of Tochukwo Okafor’s “All Our Lives”
AiW Note: The Caine Prize has recently removed Tochukwu Emmanuel Okafor’s “All Our Lives” from the 2019 shortlist, following a decision that there had been “failure to attribute an original source.” Short Story Day Africa, who awarded its 2017 Prize… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2019 Shortlist: A Review of Cherrie Kandie’s “Sew My Mouth”
AiW Guest: Temitayo Olofinlua This is the third in AiW’s annual Caine Prize for African Writing review series, reviewing all five of the shortlisted stories of 2019’s offerings. We’ve long used the opportunity to talk through the writing recognised by… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2019 Shortlist: A Review of Meron Hadero’s “The Wall”
AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back with this, the second in our reviews of the five shortlisted stories for 2019. In the spirit of our broader and longer conversations about prize culture at Africa in Words – Kate Wallis… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2019 Shortlist: A Review of Ngwah-Mbo Nana Nkweti’s “It Takes A Village Some Say”
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 featuring reviews of the stories… Read More ›
‘Graduating to genre’: Marlon James in person and on the page
“What does it mean when you don’t think you have a mythology?” Marlon James is increasingly preoccupied by legacy. “I return to Greek tragedy before every book I write. I look for answers and Greek tragedy provides them. Or, better… Read More ›
Gaël Faye in Conversation: A Review
AiW Guest: Akua Banful. I walked into the large room on the second floor of Albertine, the French consulate affiliated bookstore in New York, and immediately felt the energy and anticipation of the crowd. The old, the young, the francophone… Read More ›
Conserving culture and pushing boundaries in Somaliland: Hargeysa International Book Fair 2018
AiW Guest: Caitlin Pearson, Africa Writes Go through the gates of the Xaranta Dhaqanka, the Hargeysa Cultural Centre in Somaliland’s capital, and you’ll encounter a courtyard of small buildings. To your right is the Cultural Centre’s library, housing a wide-ranging… Read More ›
“Reading is a collective pursuit”: Open Book Festival Review
AiW Guest: Megan Ross. Before I write this review I’ll… Share my Open Book diet Too. Much. Caffeine. All the dry red at the Fugard bar. Half a bottle of single malt whiskey (and its accompanying hangover) that Helene Prinsloo… Read More ›
‘The archive of my life’: The UK pre-launch of Akwaeke Emezi’s autobiographical novel ‘Freshwater’ at Africa Writes 2018
AiW Guest: Sana Goyal. It’s the Saturday afternoon of the Africa Writes weekend in London — the 2018 edition. Sitting in the second row of the Auditorium at the British Library, I hear several excitable voices over my shoulder. And… Read More ›
A People-centred Approach to Literary Activism in 21st Century Africa: Nii Ayikwei Parkes on Arts Management and Literary Activism at Writivism 2017
AiW Guest Madhu Krishnan. AiW note: This week in the run up to the 2018 Writivism festival, the Arts Managers and Literary Activists Network (AMLA) hosted their third annual workshop bringing together early career academics and Africa-centered literary producers. It… Read More ›
Building an Archive – Voices from the Panel “Loving Womxn: Deliberate and Afraid of Nothing” at the 2018 Africa Writes Festival
AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin. It was the second day of the Africa Writes Festival, a week ahead of Black Pride. The heatwave beat on in London whilst, in the British Library, the animated festival crowd buzzed and mingled to and… Read More ›
Flexible Forms and Publics: Moradewun Adejunmobi and Stacy Hardy on Small Magazines
AiW Guest Penny Cartwright A place for ‘extended curiosity, new adventures, critical thinking, daydreaming, socio-political involvement, partying and random perusal’: so Stacy Hardy, of South Africa’s Chimurenga, imagines the small magazine. Speaking as part of a closing keynote conversation hosted… Read More ›