AiW Guest: Allison Shelton Early in Nathan H. Mogos’s novel, Amid the Chaos (CreateSpace Publishing, 2016), best friends and partners in crime Misghe and Chenkelo express their opposing views regarding life in Asmara, capital city of Eritrea: “‘It is just not… Read More ›
Matthew Lecznar
Film Review: Hissene Habré: A Chadian Tragedy by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
AiW Guest: Dare Dan Have you seen Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing (2012), the gruelling tale of the annihilation of communists in 1965/66 Indonesia? Well, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Hissene Habré: A Chadian Tragedy is such a story; no less provoking,… Read More ›
Review of The Chameleon House: Short Stories by Melissa de Villiers
AiW Guest: Anu Kumar In the title story in Melissa de Villiers’ collection The Chameleon House (Modjaji Books, 2015), Dena, the one who seemingly holds the group together, is always the outsider. As the unnamed narrator reveals, Dena tastes the… Read More ›
Book Review: Writing the Nigeria-Biafra War, a new critical volume edited by Toyin Falola and Ogechukwu Ezekwem
AiW Guest: Matthew Lecznar To sum up the varied literary legacies of the Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-70) in a single volume is no easy task. The conflict, which ended in the deaths of an estimated 1-2 million people, has produced a… Read More ›
Innovative exhibition puts African cities on the fashion map
AiW Guest: Harriet Hughes Fashion Cities Africa, the first major UK exhibition dedicated to presenting contemporary African Fashion design, opened at Brighton museum in April 2016. The aim of the exhibition is to present the fashion cultures of four African… Read More ›
Book Review: The Rainbow’s Heart
AiW Guest Jen Aggleton continues our adventures in African children’s literature. The Rainbow’s Heart is a picture book written and illustrated by Richard Latimer, based on the author’s experiences of travelling in Botswana in the late 1970s. Originally published in 1982, it has… Read More ›
A Review of South African Literature Beyond the Cold War by Monica Popescu
This week, AiW Guest Katarzyna Kubin launches her new series examining the relationship between Africa and Eastern/Central Europe with a review of Monica Popescu’s South African Literature Beyond the Cold War. AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin Colonial and postcolonial history has customarily been perceived along a North-South axis,… Read More ›
A Review of Route 234: An Anthology of Nigerian Travel Writing
AiW Guest: Jade Lee For all of the genre’s diverse geographical settings, much travel writing has depended on a relatively consistent viewpoint. For the Western reader (especially the white, male variety) there are certain expectations of where the travelogue will… Read More ›
Us Versus Them: A Review of Safe House
AiW Guest: Jovia Salifu The essays in this anthology, Safe House: Explorations in Creative Nonfiction (Dundurn 2016), address the very topics that have made Africa the centre of the world’s attention over the years for all the wrong reasons — disease,… Read More ›
Nigerian Cinema: A Renaissance in Making
AiW Guest: Dare Dan 1998: An Onitsha man arrives in Lagos at the Surulere offices of Zeb Ejiro, a movie producer. He offers cash to make an instant movie named Scores to Settle (1998), directed by Nigerian auteur Chico Ejiro… Read More ›
Review: ‘Together We’re Strong!’ – Book Dash Storybooks
AiW Guest: Nard Choi This week, AiW Guest Nard Choi continues our journey into African children’s literature.
Review: Signs for an Exhibition by Eliza Kentridge
AiW Guest: Erica Lombard The illness or death of a parent and the impulse to return in writing to one’s formative years are intimate companions, and have been particularly prevalent tropes in white South African literature of the past two… Read More ›
Review of Chris Abani’s Song for Night
AiW Guest: Alexandra Schultheis Moore This week, Alexandra Schultheis Moore continues our summer voyage into African children’s literature. First published in 2007 and recently re-issued by Telegram in the UK, Chris Abani’s novella, Song for Night, offers a compelling story as well… Read More ›
A Review of Stacy Hardy’s Because the Night
AiW Guest: Anu Kumar It is almost an anomaly of sorts: that any literary work from South Africa, as from India for that matter, demands a certain context—who is telling the story and why. But Stacy Hardy’s short stories—and all the… Read More ›
A Review of Inua Ellams’ The Wire-Headed Heathen
AiW Guest: Jason Allen This month, Jason Allen continues our deep dive into Eight New Generation African Poets with a review of Inua Ellams’ The Wire-Headed Heathen. This is the third chapbook by Nigerian-British performance poet Inua Ellams. The poems display his… Read More ›
Wotsits and Palm Wine: A Review of Irenosen Okojie’s Butterfly Fish
AiW Guest: Anthea Gordon Butterfly Fish (Jacaranda, 2015) is primarily a story about Joy, a London-based photographer whose only friend is her eccentric elderly neighbour, Mrs. Harris. Then Joy’s mother dies unexpectedly, leaving her a bemusing inheritance, which includes Joy’s grandfather’s diary and a sculpture of a… Read More ›
A Journey of Self-Discovery and Love: A Review of Frances Mensah Williams’ From Pasta to Pigfoot
AiW Guest: Jovia Salifu In From Pasta to Pigfoot, Frances Mensah Williams tells a beautiful story of cultural education, self-identity, and love. It is a story of a young black woman whose quest for knowledge about her culture and identity… Read More ›
Review: The Mirror and Nine Other Stories by Susan Nkwentie Nde
Heather Snell continues our summer voyage into children’s literature. AiW Guest: Heather Snell The Mirror and Nine Other Stories is a product of Langaa, a press with offices in Bamenda and Buea. As Langaa indicates on their website, access to… Read More ›
A Space of One’s Own – A summary of a conversation between the 2016 Caine Prize shortlisted writers
AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin With only days left before the winner of the 2016 Caine Prize for African Writing is announced on 4th July, the five short-listed writers have been on a whirlwind circuit of public events throughout London, from a… Read More ›
2016 Caine Prize Shortlist: A Review of Tope Folarin’s “Genesis”
It’s Caine Prize season again! Before the judges’ announcement on 4th July, we’re taking a look at each of the shortlisted stories. This week, Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva reviews Tope Folarin’s “Genesis.” AiW Guest: Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva Tope Folarin takes us to dizzying spiritual and emotional heights, telling his story… Read More ›