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 ›
As we move through the changed circumstances, timelines and spaces of now, we catch up on our monthly round-up of ‘other words’ – news on AiW’s radar, collated from across our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Please be in touch with… Read More ›
AiW Guest: Sana Goyal. Earlier this year saw the publication of first novels by Leila Slimani (Lullaby) and Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (House of Stone), Michael Donkor (Hold) and Peter Kimani (Dance of the Jakaranda). These books sat on bookshelves alongside… Read More ›
Tuesday 17 July, 7.00pm (6.30pm doors) Union Chapel, London N1 2UN Tickets unionchapel.org.uk https://www.englishpen.org/event/celebrating-nelson-mandela-his-letters-his-legacy/ #PENmandelaletters Tuesday next week in London (a London fairly humming right now with the large-scale political ramifications of what it is to be ‘free’ in movement,… Read More ›
Cultural Compounds – Conference 1 19 November 2016, SOAS, London ‘WHAT IS THIS [NEW] “BLACK” IN BLACK POPULAR CULTURE?’ Stuart Hall, Social Justice (1993) We take as our starting point, the title of Stuart Hall’s essay, ‘What Is This “Black”… Read More ›
Jeremy Corbyn and Ben Okri In Conversation Royal Festival Hall, South Bank Centre, London 15 July 2o16 Poetry and politics meet in a conversation between Ben Okri and Jeremy Corbyn. On 12 September 2015 Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of… Read More ›
New Voices of Nigeria: Elnathan John, Sarah Ladipo Manyika and Leye Adenle Chaired by Paul Blezard Wednesday 6 April 2016 Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre A group of authors and publishers join forces to discuss new Nigerian writing to mark… Read More ›
AiW Guest Shadreck Chikoti I get afraid, very afraid, when somebody, anybody, prescribes to me which books to read and not to read. When somebody gives me a template of what African literature ought to look like. And boy! You… Read More ›
AiW Guest Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire I thought that Ben Okri’s December 2014 infamous Guardian essay in which he berated African and black writers for suffering under a mental tyranny of subject was too prescriptive and an inaccurate reading of contemporary African… Read More ›
AiW Guest Réhab Abdelghany I first saw Ben Okri in a photograph that the Africa Centre had sent me back in 2000 to accompany an interview with the first Caine Prize winner, Leila Aboulela, which I published later in Egypt. In… Read More ›
By AiW Guest Ranka Primorac. In London, a three-day literary festival called Africa Writes took place recently at the British Library (BL). The festival is now in its fourth year, it hosts an ever-widening stream of writers, readers and publishers,… Read More ›
Africa Writes – the Royal African Society’s annual literature and book festival promoting contemporary African writing – returns to The British Library. Africa Writes 2015 will bring together over 70 authors, poets, publishers, critics and experts for an exciting three-day programme, including… Read More ›
The Royal African Society is looking for volunteers with a passion for African literature to help run Africa Writes, which returns for its fourth year running! About us Africa Writes is an annual festival organised by the Royal African Society,… Read More ›
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