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 ›
Reviews & Spotlights on…
Review – Against conventions: on Femi Morgan’s Renegade (2019)
AiW Guest: Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè. Sometimes, impositions on our spaces and feelings – in the form of law, tradition or custom – try to curtail our inclinations and stifle our freedom of expression. In some nations subject to despotic regimes, restrictions are… Read More ›
Festive Favourites: Season’s Reading from Africa in Words
It is that time of year again when the holiday spirit begins to grow. For some, it is a time to spend with family and get away from it all. For others, the holidays might just be a good chance… Read More ›
Review of “Dog Meat Samosa”: Short stories by Stanley Gazemba
In the first story in Stanley Gazemba’s collection Dog Meat Samosa (Regal House Publishing, 2019), Mukabwa is a subordinate member of staff, a disgruntled hospital cashier working in the morgue. As the narrator reveals, Mukabwa is nonetheless in a position… Read More ›
Plagiarism, Intertextuality, and the Same Old Story: The Caine Prize Controversy is Not Original
On September 3, 2019, the Caine Prize for African Writing announced that it was removing Tochukwu Okafor’s “All Our Lives” from the 2019 short list for the Prize for short fiction for “failure to attribute an original source.” The 2019… Read More ›
Words on Teaching: ‘Creative Thinking, Bold Idea-ing, Do-it-yourselfing’: Literature and Education in Binyavanga Wainaina’s Works
AiW Guest: Ruth S. Wenske. AiW note: Welcome to the first in our new “Words on…” series. In “Words on Teaching,” we’re thinking around print culture – books, images, texts, mags, spaces – and broad senses of what “teaching” might… 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 ›
In the Dark: Review of Jumoke Verissimo’s ‘A Small Silence’
AiW Guest: Temitayo Olofinlua Prof, a pro-democracy activist, has just returned from prison after years of incarceration. And now he chooses to sit in darkness. Whenever he goes out, he is shrouded from head to toe in a dark cloak…. 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 ›
Of Odyssean Saga and Romantic Tragedy – a review of Chigozie Obioma’s An Orchestra of Minorities
AiW Guest Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè ‘You paid me evil for all I did for you…’ –An Orchestra of Minorities. ‘If the luminous intensity of Good did not give the night of Evil its blackness, Evil would lose its appeal.’ –Literature and… 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 ›
Review: New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Tano Part 5, Juxtapositions)
AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi AiW note: This is the last in a series of poetry reviews on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set from AiW Guest Rashi Rohatgi. You can find the introduction to this series here, and reviews of the… Read More ›
Living to not please the aesthetic of the colonized eye: Zanele Muholi’s “Somnyama Ngonyama”
AiW Guest: Bulelwa Mbele Somnyama Ngonyama: Hail the Dark Lioness is the latest release by the South African photographer and visual activist Zanele Muholi. Previously breaking ground with solo exhibitions including Only Half the Picture (2006, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town),… Read More ›
Review: New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Tano Part 4, Memory)
AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi AiW note: This is the fifth in a series of poetry reviews on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set from AiW Guest Rashi Rohatgi. You can find the introduction to this series here, and reviews… Read More ›
‘Reality the stranger fiction’: Review of Namwali Serpell’s ‘The Old Drift’
AiW Guest: Charlott Schönwetter Zzz Zzzz. At the beginning and – as much shall be revealed – at the end, a swarm of mosquitoes speaks: “This is the story of a nation – not a kingdom or a people –… Read More ›
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