AiW note: Max Lobe was born in Douala, Cameroon. Last year marked the first publication in English translation of A Long Way from Douala (HopeRoad and Small Axes 2021, translated by Ros Schwartz), a novel which tackles important issues such as… Read More ›
AiW Guest: Kagiso Nko. It is part of how Joburg narrates itself, in particular to itself. Editors’ Introduction – Nicky Falkof and Cobus van Staden. AiW note: This review of Anxious Joburg (Wits UP) was completed before our accompanying Review… Read More ›
AiW Guest: Sanya Osha.With Osha’s Words on the Times – a Q&A subset inititated to connect us up in our experiences of the pandemic – below… Ola Rotimi is a major Nigerian dramatist who passed away in 2000. Some of… Read More ›
AiW Guest Victor Zuze. Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie’s chapbook, Born in a Second Language (Button Poetry, July 2021), proves to be rich and complete. This owes to her storytelling prowess. She does not waste words. Her lines are suffused with striking… Read More ›
AiW Guest: Doseline Kiguru AiW note: As with every year since “Joining the Caine Prize ‘Blog-Carnival’” back in 2013 — Africa in Words has engaged with the AKO Caine Prize for African Writers in the run up to the winner… Read More ›
We are absolutely delighted to announce the Shortlist for the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing! 🎉🙌🏿 Congratulations to all five of our shortlisted writers 📚@dbaing01 @remythequill @meronhadero @TroyOnyango @wordsweaver Read the stories here: https://t.co/ZezqOVweS7 pic.twitter.com/4O4XtynJXf — The AKO… Read More ›
AiW Note: It’s that time of the year again and AiW’s annual review series of what is now the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist is back! Every day this week, we are publishing Guest reviews of the five… Read More ›
We are absolutely delighted to announce the Shortlist for the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing! 🎉🙌🏿 Congratulations to all five of our shortlisted writers 📚@dbaing01 @remythequill @meronhadero @TroyOnyango @wordsweaver Read the stories here: https://t.co/ZezqOVweS7 pic.twitter.com/4O4XtynJXf — The AKO… Read More ›
AiW Note: It’s that time of the year again and AiW’s annual review series of what is now the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist is back! Every day this week, we are publishing Guest reviews of the five… Read More ›
AiW Note: It’s that time of the year again and AiW’s annual review series of what is now the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist is back! Every day this week, we will be publishing Guest reviews of the… Read More ›
AiW Guest Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè AiW note: Our Guest Reviewer,Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè, reviews award-winning writer Femi Kayode’s debut novel Lightseekers, which was published by Raven Books and released in February 2021. You can find Adégòkè’s recent Q&A with Kayode here. When four Nigerian students accused of… Read More ›
AiW Guest: Clive Allanso. AiW note: Anticipating the final panel in the “Building Bridges through Contemporary Arts“ (BBTCA) series – “Responsible Solutions to New Obstacles” (June 30th, 2pm BST) – Clive Allanso summarises the conversations and debates of the previous… Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
AiW note: Véronique Tadjo is a writer and painter from Ivory Coast. This year marks the release of her latest novel in translation, In the Company of Men: the Ebola Tales (with HopeRoad Publishing, first pub. En Compagnie des Hommes,… Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
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…
By AiW Guest: Judyannet Muchiri.
In the wake of a bad dream, one of the protagonists in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives, Hamza, laments: “such noise and screams and blood”. These words keep resounding when one thinks about the disruption caused by colonialism in Africa – how our grandparents and ancestors must have felt with the arrival of those who set themselves up as colonial masters.
africainwords.com 