Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire was formerly Programs Director at Writivism Festival. This piece, reflecting on his experience of Writivism, was adapted from a presentation he made at the 5th Annual African Popular Cultures Workshop at Sussex University on 19 April 2016. The… Read More ›
Rebecca Jones
The Truth outside Context: Jumoke Verissimo reviews Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday
This review of Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday is the first in a series of reviews of books published by Cassava Republic Press that we’ll be running over coming weeks to celebrate the launch of Cassava Republic in the UK. AiW… Read More ›
Event: An eye for the “other”: Representations of alterity in contemporary postcolonial “texts”, 18 May 2016, London
An eye for the “other”: Representations of alterity in contemporary postcolonial “texts” Date: 18 May 2016 Time: 5:00 PM Finishes: 18 May 2016 Time: 7:00 PM Venue: Russell Square: College BuildingsRoom: L67 Type of Event: Forum Series: CCLPS Critical Forum The condition… Read More ›
Future Visions: Five Breakout Talents in African Film Today
AiW Guest: Sarah Jilani Returning to screens across London this past November, the Royal African Society’s annual Film Africa festival celebrated and promoted filmmaking from various countries across the continent. In a colourful week of reunions, fresh faces and thought-provoking… Read More ›
Souffles turns 50: Remembering the “Breath” of Moroccan Francophone Literature
AiW Guest: Khalid Lyamlahy Khalid Lyamlahy recalls the role played by Moroccan review Souffles in initiating a new cultural movement in 1960s Morocco. This is part of our joint series with the LSE Africa blog: Reflections on African Literature taking place… Read More ›
Of Lagos, startups, cigarettes and prostitutes: a Nigerian writer unveils his literary inspiration
AiW Guest: Leye Adenle Leye Adenle discusses how an encounter with a sex worker led to him giving her the central role in his first feature-length novel. This is part of our joint series with the LSE Africa blog: Reflections on… Read More ›
Event: Imagining African Futures, LSE Africa Talks, 24 February 2016, London
Imagining African Futures LSE Africa Talks Literary Festival discussion Wednesday 24 February 2016, 6.30-8pm NAB 2.04, New Academic Building Speakers: Leye Adenle, Jennifer Makumbi, Chibundu Onuzo Chair: Rebecca Jones, editor of Africa in Words Western media reports that ‘Africa is Rising’… Read More ›
Ẹ jẹ́ k’á sọ Yorùbá: Yoruba language resources online
The online space offers important opportunities to develop resources for African-language documentation and learning, whether drawing on the power of apps and online games to make language learning fun, or on social media, online databases and crowdsourcing as tools to… Read More ›
Africa in Words’ highlights of 2015
Africa in Words has been taking a break over the holiday season, but we couldn’t resist taking a look back over the memorable year that has been 2015. Here, some of our Editors reflect on their highlights of 2015. We’d… Read More ›
Ethiopia in Transition at Film Africa 2015
AiW Guest: Mike Thomas Four years after Lindiwe Dovey and Namvula Rennie founded Film Africa in 2011, in association with the Royal African Society (RAS) and SOAS, the 2015 edition of the film festival offered the Ethiopia in Transition strand,… Read More ›
Borderless Words: The Lagos International Poetry Festival 2015
AiW Guest: Iquo DianaAbasi The Lagos International Poetry Festival 2015 was themed ‘Borderless Words’, aptly so in this period of migrations within Africa and across Europe. The organizers say that in the light of border restrictions, they choose to see… Read More ›
At Prestigious Yale Literary Festival, Africanness Affirmed: Ifeanyi Awachie on the Windham Campbell Festival
AiW Guest: Ifeanyi Awachie As a Nigerian-American undergraduate at Yale, I was both impressed by my university’s grandeur and accustomed not to expect the institution’s most illustrious visitors or highly touted programs to reflect my race or cultural identity. The… Read More ›
No Ordinary House: a review of E.C. Osondu’s ‘This House is Not For Sale’
‘— That house is no ordinary house. Ordinary house, indeed — […] — People say that at night you could hear voices and sometimes cries emanating from that house. Even though no one lives there anymore. — It casts a… Read More ›
The Way We Lived – A Review of Chinua Achebe’s ‘There Was a Country’
AiW Guest: Pelu Awofeso After the dust raised in Nigeria by its publication had settled, I finally read There Was a Country, Chinua Achebe’s last published book, which centres on the Nigeria-Biafra civil war and Achebe’s personal experiences of and participation… Read More ›
The circulation of politics, art and literature in Nigeria
As part of his tour of the UK to promote his novel, Foreign Gods, Inc., journalist, academic and writer Okey Ndibe paid a visit to the University of Sussex earlier this week. As well as being interviewed by locally-based African literature… Read More ›
Africa in Words hosts Okey Ndibe
Okey Ndibe is a novelist, political commentator and essayist whose writing has been praised and championed by leading voices in African literature including Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. His first novel Arrows of Rain was published in… Read More ›
African Languages at ASAUK 2014
As part of our ongoing series on the ASAUK 2014 conference, Rebecca Jones reports on panels on African languages in literature and in the disciplines. Papers that discussed African languages could be found throughout the ASAUK 2014 conference – including panels on Swahili… Read More ›
Africa Utopia – Hacking Africa?
With a remit to explore how African art and ideas can change the world for the better: how Africa can lead the way in thinking about culture, community, technology, fashion, sustainability and ethical wealth creation, Africa Utopia was a three-day… Read More ›
They Will Eat Me in Calabar: tales from the front lines of Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps
We eventually got to their house, where I was introduced to a middle-aged women. They all spoke in Efik, I did not understand them. So I became more afraid, thinking that they were planning to eat me. The woman asked… Read More ›
What space is there for African travel writing? ‘Broadening the Gaze’, Africa Writes, 12 July 2014
Opening a panel on travel writing at the Royal Africa Society’s Africa Writes festival in London, panel chair Fatimah Kelleher observed that travel writing has often been a narrow genre in the past, dominated by Western perspectives on the world…. Read More ›