Season’s greetings from the team at Africa in Words! Thanks for your readership and for another year of conversations on writing and culture from the African continent. As 2017 comes to a close, the blog is moving through some transitions…. Read More ›
Matthew Lecznar
Event: LUCAS Annual Lecture with Professor Ato Quayson (06 Dec, University of Leeds)
LUCAS Annual Lecture We are delighted to announce details of the LUCAS Annual Lecture for this academic year: Conscripts of Colonial Modernity in Chinua Achebe’s Rural Novels Professor Ato Quayson (New York University)
CfP: Archives of Resistance (deadline Jan 15th, 2018)
Image via The National Archives UK Archives of Resistance: Cosmopolitanism, Memory and World Literature Three-Day International Conference University of Leeds, June 20-22 2018
Call for Submissions: Mawazo Novel Writing Workshop
AiW thanks to Mawazo Africa Writing Institute for this info about their upcoming writing workshop… Call for Submissions: Mawazo Novel Writing Workshop Mawazo Africa Writing Institute announces a Call for Submissions for its first writing workshop: Writing the Novel, led by award-winning author Jennifer… Read More ›
CfP: Theorising Africa: Reviewing a History of Ideas, Finding Africa Seminar Series, 2018
AiW thanks to Finding Africa for this info about their 2018 seminar series… Finding Africa 2017/18 (UK) Theorising Africa: Reviewing a History of Ideas University of Leeds Seminar Series 2018 – Call For Papers
Event: Bertha DocHouse Presents Ouaga Girls
AiW thanks to Bertha DocHouse for this info on their upcoming film release… Bertha DocHouse Presents Ouaga Girls 13th October 2017 | Bertha DocHouse | Tickets: £9 (£7 conc.) “With Ouaga Girls I wanted to capture … when dreams, desires and courage… Read More ›
Familiar, yet utterly new: A Review of Fred Strydom’s The Inside Out Man
AiW Guest: Kimmy Beach Bent is a gifted jazz pianist who plays in seedy nightclubs, lives in the “Crack Radisson”—a run-down flat in a Johannesburg suburb—and doesn’t seem to need much more in his life. With that deceptively… Read More ›
Refreshingly focused on the fiction, but struggling for definition: a review of A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, edited by Ernest N. Emenyonu.
AiW Guest: Matthew Lecznar Since the turn of the 21st-century, few authors have been able to implant themselves on the global literary imagination with the kind of deftness and flare exhibited by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The author’s… Read More ›
Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 5: ‘God’s Children Are Little Broken Things’ by Arinze Ifeakandu
AiW Guest: David Borman This week, we are featuring reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. The fifth and final review of the… Read More ›
Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 4: ‘The Virus’ by Magogodi Makhene
AiW Guest: David Reiersgord This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Today’s review is of South African author Magogodi… Read More ›
Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 3: ‘Bush Baby’ by Chikodili Emelumadu
AiW Guest: Iquo DianaAbasi This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Today’s review is of Nigerian author Chikodili Emelumadu’s story… Read More ›
Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 2: ‘Who Will Greet You At Home’ by Lesley Nneka Arimah
AiW Guest: Kufre Usanga This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Today’s review is of Nigerian author Lesley Nneka… Read More ›
Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 1: ‘The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away’ by Bushra al-Fadil
AiW Guest: Rebekah Bale This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Our first review is of Sudanese author… Read More ›
‘”It’s a passport!” my inner voice yells’. Review of Lola Akinmade Åkerström’s Due North
AiW Guest: Janet Remmington With Nigerian passport in hand, fifteen-year-old Lola crossed the Atlantic to study in the US. The ‘little green book’ soon accumulated visas, each costing hundreds of dollars, as she took to traversing borders in different continents…. Read More ›
Woe and Womb: A Review of Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò
AiW Guest: Sana Goyal When asked about the seeds of her novel Stay With Me, Ayòbámi Adébáyò likes to tell the tale of how Yejide and Akin—two characters she created for a short story—persistently stayed in the corners of… Read More ›
Review: Introduction to the filmmaker Tunde Kelani and review of his film Pyrolysis or Paralysis
AiW Guest: Babatunde Onikoyi Tunde Kelani is the preeminent Nigerian filmmaker and one of the most distinguished in Africa. His cinematographic endeavours, under the stables of Mainframe Television and Film Production and situated in the heart of the city of… Read More ›
Event: 6th African Popular Cultures Workshop – Biafra 50 years on – University of Sussex, 17th May 2017
The School of English and the Sussex Africa Centre invite you to the 6th African Popular Cultures Workshop at the University of Sussex, ‘Biafra 50 years on’ Wednesday 17th May, 3.00pm – 6.30pm, Arts C, Room C333 Workshop Programme 3.00pm –… Read More ›
Betwixt and between: A review of Mitu’s Spice Tour by Blessing Musariri
AiW Guest: Joanna Skelt This month, Joanna Skelt continues our deep dive into Eight New Generation African Poets with a review of Blessing Musariri’s Mitu’s Spice Tour. With a title evocative of a culinary travelogue, dreamcatcher-esque cover iconography and powerful series… Read More ›
How to Write (and Draw) History in Africa: A Review of Abina and the Important Men
AiW Guest: Tamara Moellenberg The second edition of Trevor R. Getz’s and Liz Clarke’s Abina and the Important Men (OUP, 2016) creates a scholarly ‘forum’ around Abina, a nineteenth-century Ghanaian woman who sought her freedom from slavery through the British… Read More ›