For more information, and to book your place online, see the African Studies Centre at Oxford.
literature
Words on Teaching – Sipho Sepamla, literary realism and ‘A Ride on the Whirlwind’
By AiW Guest: An anonymous academic labourer, somewhere in the South-East of England. Recently I helped teach a course on South African protest and resistance literature. We looked at fiction and poetry from the late 1970s to the late 80s,… Read More ›
CFP: Emerging Perspectives on Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo (deadline May 30)
Emerging Perspectives on Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo Edited by Rose A. Sackeyfio and Blessing Diala-Ogamba Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo has emerged as one of Nigeria’s leading female writers. Her distinguished career gained prominence in the early 21st century and continues to evolve… Read More ›
Q&A: Uche Peter Umez interviews poet Remi Raji
AiW Guest: Uche Peter Umez. “the good poem must and should be readable, friendly to the spoken word without being pedantic and pedestrian” Interviewer’s Note: Remi Raji, Nigerian poet, scholar, literary organiser, and cultural activist, is the author of six poetry… Read More ›
African Studies Classics: Lagosian Print Culture and Gilroy’s Black Atlantic
This is the first post of ‘African Study Classics’: a series about how intellectuals used key African history, anthropology, sociology and literature books in their own work. We are inviting writers (academics or not) to tell us about a book… Read More ›
Elephants and Metaphors: the Nyamnjoh debate on African anthropology
There’s been an debate going in the pages of Africa Spectrum which we thought might be of interest to some of our readers (hat tip to Stephanie Newell for bringing this to our attention). In 2012, Cape Town-based anthropologist Francis… Read More ›
Borrowing the bookshelf: lessons in [virtual bookshelf] husbandry
I came across a meme recently “You know you’re a bookaholic when…” One was “when the first thing you look at in a friend’s house is the bookshelves”. I identified. I house sat for another Africa in Words writer recently,… Read More ›
‘Love is Power or Something Like That’ by A. Igoni Barrett – review
It feels exceptionally hard in a short review to do justice to the layers of story, character and life in A. Igoni Barrett’s second collection of short stories Love is Power or Something Like That. The characters that people these stories range across generation… Read More ›
The 5th European Conference on African Studies, Lisbon – review
The 5th annual European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) was held on June 26-29 this year in sunny Lisbon. A biannual affair, ECAS is the big European Africanist jamboree, organised by AEGIS (the Africa-Europe Group for Inter-disciplinary Studies) and was… Read More ›
Bayan Layi : Blogging the Caine Prize
I just talk without direction, like the harmattan wind that just blows and blows, scattering dust. Me, I just like to say it as I remember it. And sometimes you have to explain the story. Sometimes the explanation lies… Read More ›
Blogging the Caine Prize: Tope Folarin’s ‘Miracle’
There were moments in Tope Folarin’s ‘Miracle’ where I found myself part of a sweaty crowd in a packed church, as the pastor says ‘let us pray’, the ‘tinny Nigerian gospel music’ rings out, and prayer commences with ‘sweating and… Read More ›
Perhaps you missed…
Spotted around the web: short stories, novels and debate. Bakwa magazine: Why does the West ignore intellectual property when Africa is concerned? What does the New York Times really know about music in Africa? Can hip-hop save an artist’s life?, Fashion:… Read More ›
Literary Prizes: Joining the Caine Prize ‘Blog-Carnival’
Last week saw the announcement of the shortlist for the 14th Caine Prize for African Writing. The shortlist of 5 stories was selected by judges Gus Casely-Hayford (Chair), Sokari Douglas Camp, John Sutherland, Nathan Hensley and Leila Aboulela out of… Read More ›
Q&A: Goretti Kyomuhendo – Writer, Co-founder of FEMRITE and Founder-Director of the African Writers Trust
As avid AiW readers will know, last Autumn at the African Studies Association of the UK Biennial Conference, Katie Reid and I co-convened a series of panels on ‘The “post-millennial context” and African writing in English: Writing, production and reception since… Read More ›
ASAUK12: the legacy
AiW guest Helen Cousins. 2012 was the year of ‘legacy’ – a notion popularised, of course, by the London 2012 Olympics. Four months on from the African Studies Association UK conference, I want to reflect on my personal ‘legacy’ from… Read More ›
Reflections on the African Studies Association UK conference, University of Leeds, September 2012
AiW Guest Rebecca Jones. 2012’s ASAUK conference at the University of Leeds was my first ever ASAUK conference, and I went anticipating some interesting panels on African literature, hoping to meet fellow scholars of Yoruba, and, to be honest, expecting a… Read More ›
Q&A: (Pt 1) Jenna Bass – Editor and co-founder of African pulp fiction magazine Jungle Jim.
(Part 2 of this interview is here…) Genre fiction and the rise of African sci-fi; the establishment of literary networks across the continent; the status of independent publishing and bookselling, as well as the significance of DIY ethics and aesthetics in… Read More ›
Nick Barley on the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference at Open Book Festival, Cape Town
Quick update on the previous posts about the Open Book Festival, Cape Town, hosting the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference with 3 events – Censorship Today – a keynote by author Keith Gray, chaired by Mervyn Sloman, the Director of Open… Read More ›
Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets
The submission period is currently open until Nov. 15. It costs nothing to enter! To read how to submit to the prize, click here or follow the guidelines below
More – Open Book Literary Festival, Cape Town, and the World Writers’ Conference
Further to the previous post, other events joining ‘Censorship Today’ as part of the World Writers’ Conference at Open Book, Cape Town: Excited to see that Njabulo Ndebele and Antjie Krog will be in discussion – ‘Should Literature be Political’, 20 September… Read More ›
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