African Literature News and Review

Dispatches from two failed States, Zimbabwe & Nigeria

2012-01-28T02:28:00.000-08:00

Two of Africa's contemporary writers, Petina Gappah and Chimamanda N. Adichie, have portraits of their native countries, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Great writing, a study in contrast in styles and personalities. I have the feeling that these two writers, to the degree that they remain faithful to their temperaments, philosophies and creative outputs, will surely shape African writing in ways Achebe and Soyinka did.

Petina Gappah: "Zimbabwe:
"If Zimbabwe were human, the country would need more years of therapy than its 30 years of independence. According to Foreign Policy, in 2010, Zimbabwe was fourth on the “Failed State Index.” In 2006, it was declared to be the unhappiest place on earth—ahead of Zimbabwe on the “Happiness Index” were countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and North Korea. In 2008, it had inflation rates not seen since the Weimar Republic: prices of goods changed as customers walked to the tills. By any measure, Zimbabweans should just have given up, switched off what little lights remained burning, and hightailed it to the nearest border.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:"Why Are You Here?"
I came at the wrong time. It was mid-March 2011, a few weeks before general elections, and every surface in Lagos—compound walls, gates, even buses—was covered with political posters. “You came at injury time,” the senior teacher at the government junior high school told me. She was small and well-groomed, her blouse awash in ruffles. She looked me over suspiciously. “Why are you here?”

SOMETIMES THERE IS A VOID: Memoirs of an Outsider

2012-01-28T02:07:00.000-08:00

Having spent copious time with my mother, in my village, and having survived the chaos of Nigerian life (oil subsidy removal and all other idiocies), I'm happy be back to my workplace in the West. I loved being with my people; I didn't like the pain and misery they still go through. Well, I'm happy to report on some of the intellectual things going on in the African world. Here is a review of Zakes Mda's memoir, "SOMETIMES THERE IS A VOID: Memoirs of an Outsider," by Rob Nixon:

A sample:
"The lesson he learns has ramifications that carry well beyond his personal story: how easy it is for a successful, mid-career artist to lapse into the role of professional opinion maker and cosmopolitan partygoer. In the end, Mda resists the fatal temptations of the limelight. Tiring of the deadening dishonesties that pollute official discourse among A.N.C. apparatchiks, he realizes that creativity and probity are less in demand than sycophancy. And so he trades hectic Johannesburg for American academia, where he can better sustain the anonymity and inventive autonomy that feed his talent."
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Wainaina Has No Right To Speak For All Africans

2011-11-30T01:52:00.000-08:00

Betty Caplan asks an interesting question that seems to touch the core of Binyavanga Wainaina's ideology. "What, I want to ask, gives Wainana permission to speak on behalf of all Africans? Where does the royal “we” come from?"

To establish her argument she quotes Wainaina:

"With that wonderful Kenyan burr and distinctive accentuation, he rhetorically pronounced: “We are not interested in Oxfam, we are not interested in Tony Blair, we are not interested in what Oxfam is doing for America (Africa?), we are not interested in what aid donors are doing....we never have been. We don’t talk about it, we don’t discuss it.”

Like authors all around the world, African writers were interested in the lives of people around them. “If you ask me what are the greatest issues in Africa I would say that it is that people love, people, fuck, people kiss, people speak.”

Is Betty Caplan correct in her analysis? Is her analysis fundamentally flawed? Is she being patronizing because of her skin color? I am happy that some discussions about the African intellectual state of affairs are taking place.

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The Trials of Chris Abani and the Power of Empty Words

2011-11-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

The gadfly is at it again.

"When the history of Africa’s troubled journey is accurately chronicled, the world will come to realize the horror of the self-serving perfidy of Africa’s intellectual leaders. We are the new self-serving colonialists perpetuating black-on-black crime on our own people."

An educative read, a good piece about a disturbing development.
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Kenyan author attacks insularity of British fiction

2011-11-20T07:43:00.000-08:00

"Binyavanga Wainaina says authors fail to tell 'universal' stories, leaving their books 'indigestible' for modern Africans." The Guardian.

I understand that Wainaina's words need some contextualization in order to understand where he's coming from. At any rate, it does appear that he makes the same mistake he accuses the West of: generalization, slippery slope, and perhaps, some degree of ideological antithetical positioning. When he claims that Africans don't understand British writing, what on earth, does he mean by African? Who, exactly, does not understand British writing? Wainaina? Kenyans? When has Wainaina become representative of Kenyans, and when have Kenyans become the sum of Africans? Has Wainaina read Ian McEwan?Julian Barnes? Zadie Smith? Monica Ali? And what, on earth, does he mean by "universal?"
As one who owes his life to good luck and the empathic gestures from Europeans during the Biafran war, I find it somewhat disturbing that Wainaina, who was born circa a decade after the Biafran war, and far removed from the scenes of Biafran horrors, would make a sweeping condemnation of rescue/aid agencies such as Oxfam. In my case, in 1968/69, it was the Irish aid agency "Concern" that saved me and many other famishing, kwashiorkor Biafran kids. Without Concern, and perhaps, Oxfam, I would have perhaps succumbed to the famine that was orchestrated by fellow Nigerians/Africans. Why would any person in his right mind ever condemn Bob Geldof for having responded to the human tragedy that took place in Ethiopia and Somalia? I am sincerely baffled. I get the impression that Wainaina's need to save the good image of Africa has blunted his sensibility to the pains of the African bodies. I only hope that this is a special case of an ideological pitfall, which time and intellectual maturation would take care of. But this, of course, does not imply my support of the contemporary African beggarly mindset. Quite the opposite. I have been saved so that I can help save others.

Listen to Binyavanga's interview on the books podcast

2nd African Women Writers' Forum

2011-11-19T06:59:00.000-08:00

This is from my sister-blog, Wordsbody. Great development in African writing. I've always known that it the African women's writing that would save African literature from its self-defeating obsession with the West, and little concern with the African body. Go sisters. I love the panel, "The Worldliness of words."
ENJOY!

The Granta Book of the African Short Story edited by Helon Habila – review

2011-11-11T04:26:00.000-08:00

Bernardine Evaristo lauds the collection of African short stories, edited by Helon Habila.
"This book is a landmark, a historic record and, most of all, a celebration of what has been an unprecedented decade for African fiction."
ENJOY!

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Miracle

2011-11-08T00:44:00.000-08:00

"Ifemelu's father sat in his well-worn sofa, silently reading his well-worn book. He had been jobless for months, fired from the federal agency for refusing to call his new boss mummy. "If you have to call somebody mummy to get your salary then you do so!" Ifemelu's mother had said when he, wracked with bitterness, came home with his termination letter, complaining about the absurdity of a grown man calling a grown woman mummy because she had decided it was the best way to show her respect."

Someone said somewhere that Adichie is a better novelist than a short story writer. That person might be right. There is a déjà vu element in this short story, something that makes you forget each paragraph the moment you are done with it. Perhaps I'm particularly biased because I'm Nigerian, and the incidents described in this short story are what I see on daily basis in Nigeria. But I miss the psychological depth that informed the short story, "Tomorrow is too Far."
Anyway, ENJOY!

World Fantasy award goes to Nnedi Okorafor

2011-11-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

Nigerian-American novelist Nnedi Okorafor has beaten a host of big names to win the World Fantasy award for her novel set in a post-apocalyptic Saharan Africa.

"Who Fears Death" is the story of Onyesonwu – her name means "who fears death" in Igbo – a woman with great magical powers who was conceived when her mother was raped during a battle.

To those of us who know Nnedi, the prize doesn't come as a surprise. There are more to come.
Congratulations.
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African Writers Trust

2011-10-27T01:14:00.000-07:00

What is African Writers Trust?
Established in 2009, African Writers Trust is a non-profit entity which seeks to coordinate and bring together African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent to promote sharing of skills and other resources, and to foster knowledge and learning between the two groups. AWT is governed by an Advisory Board and administered by the Director. It is assisted by a working group and volunteers. It is operational in London, United Kingdom and in Kampala, Uganda, where it’s registered as a company limited by guarantee. AWT’s activities and programmes are sponsored through donor funding, friends, philanthropists and supporters of African writing.

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Stepping out of the light

2011-10-27T00:28:00.000-07:00

Those of us who nearly cried when Ikhide announced his retirement from NEXT can now be heartily consoled: He's back! He now has his blog, which I am happy to introduce here. I am particularly happy that he is not restricting his writing to Facebook.
Anyway ENJOY his introductory offering. Aperitif!
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Alexandra Fuller's top 10 African memoirs

2011-10-27T00:26:00.000-07:00

"From JM Coetzee to Nelson Mandela, the author chooses her favourite 'performances of courage and honesty' that have come out of the continent."
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Baingana returns home to share literary experience

2011-10-21T23:25:00.000-07:00

Doreen Baingana is following the example of writers I admire such as Molara Wood; she has gone back to Uganda after several years abroad. Here is her belief: “I love my country; east, west home is best, and I wanted to bring up my child in Uganda –he has already learned the national anthem!"

To me, the best contribution a talented person, indeed, anyone, can make to one's country is to live there. Great example, Doreen.
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Commonwealth Short Story Prize

2011-10-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2000 – 5000 words). Submissions must be made by the author of the short story. Regional winners receive £1,000 and the overall winner receives £5,000.

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Octavia McBride-Ahebee

2011-10-15T02:14:00.000-07:00

Introducing a blog of great interest and an emerging poet that deserves serious attention. Octavia McBride-Ahebee has just published a collection of poems,Where My Birthmark Dances, one of which is dedicated to Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian environmentalist and human rights activist, who sacrificed his life for the survival of his people and Nigeria. A sample:

"A Chase Through the Niger Delta"

For Ken Saro-Wiwa

When my feet pound the damp earth

distancing themselves from the fears of the day

awakening,

as my toes collect mineral wealth

and ancestors’ blessings,

the hope of the world

because I am chased by a lover

in heat

in whose mouth sprouts mango-colored hibiscus,

our blissful flight is still broken,

overthrown by surface pipes,

snaking conduits of slick poison,

fallen piñatas full of slippery promises

lined in fire and incessant flares

engulfing

with fury and inflamed detachment

the tops of our crop’s heads

drowning our stomachs in greasy blackness

stuffing our chest with soot and oil’s disdain

is how a pair of lovers

whose day began unspoiled

fueled by the thrill of a dreamy chase

became uninspired and polluted.

The blog, "Octavia McBride-Ahebee is a work of art that introduces you not only to the world of poetry, but also to that of human rights activism, and beautiful people. A click will convince you.

The blog: Octavia McBride-Ahebee
The collection,Where My Birthmark Dances, is available at Amazon.com

Enjoy!

Humanity's willing curator

2011-10-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

Percy Zvomuya sketches a beautiful portrait of the Nigerian poet, novelist and jazz trumpeter, Chris Abani. Well, it's Chris Abani sketch of himself that brings most smile to my face. Here you go.
"I am complicated, contradictory, lazy, always looking for the right question (because that is all there really is to life), happy, moody and always up for spicy food."
I can assure you this. Go to any of his readings, repeat his line to him, then hang around. He will take you out for some spicy food. But be ready to talk literature.
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Mostly Books

2011-10-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

Introducing a blog every lover of literature ought to know, and a beautiful anthology of African writers, "African Roar." I got a preview of the anthology, and you should be reading my review of the great stories in it. Well, friends, Dawn Promislow has beat me to that. This is her beautiful review.
ENJOY!

Sentinel Nigeria

2011-09-16T06:26:00.000-07:00

For those of you who do not know about the existence of the literary journal, Sentinel Nigeria, I wish to use this opportunity to draw your attention to it.
Here are the words of the eagle-eyed editor, Richard Ugbede Ali:
"Without further ceremony, with the utmost humility and the most responsible sense of pride, I welcome each and every one of you to the seventh berthing of the Sentinel Nigeria ship. This issue is but a glimpse of greater destinations to come the fruits of voyages to be weathered even better than we have done in the year months—for the double assurance of our readership’s faith in us and of our confidence in our contributors’ abilities remains the most fateful wind in our sails."

There are great stories and poems and interviews and much more.

ENJOY

AFRICAN FEMINISM

2011-09-14T13:58:00.001-07:00

Hello friends, I am organizing a panel on the present generation of African women writers at the upcoming African Literature Conference, in April 2012.
Here is the official announcement. Please help me to get this info to those who might be interested in discussing any of the recent works by our great writers.
Here is the announcement.

How Publishing is Rigged

2011-09-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

If your stories have been rejected and rejected and rejected, the problem might not be with you or them; it might have to do with the enormous rigging going on in the publishing world. Interesting observations?
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You don't have four kids without having a lot of sex.

2011-09-06T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well, you can accuse me of borrowing a leaf from the Boulevard press in regard to the title above, but you have got to like the mindset that produced the saying. One thing I have observed about my dear Nigerian people is that most of them claim to worship God and hate sex. None of this is true.
In a Q&A session during a reading by some Nigerian women writers, a man from the audience asked these women why/how they felt comfortable writing about sex in their stories. One of the women shot the answer above.

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Try, Try Again: Rejection and Persistance - by Andrew Scott

2011-09-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

"Two months before I moved to New Mexico to study fiction writing with four writers I deeply admired, I submitted a short story to magazines for the first time. Knowing a response would take a while, I listed my future address on the SASE. I had only written one story good enough to send out. A shocking coincidence: It was the only story I had ever seriously revised."
A good read.
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The Prize of Thoughtlessness

2011-08-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine once told me that much of Nigeria's problems is that Nigerian leaders seem to have taken an oath never to think through any of their decisions. Their policies are cut to meet the need of the present ... as if they lived in a refugee camp.
An example of a shameless waste of mind, time and resources is the Nigerian literature prize, presently tagged at $100.000 dollars. I hope you read this correct: HUNDRED THOUSAND US dollars for a book.
Anyway here is my piece on the Nigerian literary prize. While you read it, remember that iconic phrase: "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste."
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Wanted dead or alive: Happy African Writers!

2011-08-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

Mukoma wa Ngugi disagrees with Ikhide Ikheloa on the aesthetic parameters of African literature.

"But that is the weaker principle in his argument. What I am interested in is his assertion that “many writers are skewing their written perspectives to fit what they imagine will sell to the West and the judges of the Caine Prize.”

Does Mukoma have a strong argument, or is he just trying to shoot down Ikhide?
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Wole Soyinka Prize for African Writing

2011-08-13T02:22:00.000-07:00

This is potentially the greatest prize for African writing. One of its initial defects has been that it was only for books that have NOT won any award at all. This debilitating clause has now been removed. So the prize is now open to all really, really, good books by any African anywhere. This is Soyinka spirit as I know it. Excellence! Friends, let the good books win.
Here are entry rules.
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And should I forget, I need to send some profound words of admiration to Ogochukwu Promise for her excellent work at Lumina. Profound spirit!

Insights from an insider and outsider

2011-08-13T02:13:00.000-07:00

Colin Gardner lovesPius Adesanmi's
"YOU'RE Not a Country, Africa: A Personal History of the African Present"

"The picture that he paints is in many ways very grim. Yet his writing is buoyant and he is not without hope; hope that Nigeria, and Africa as a whole, will pull itself together and use its best instincts to devise a valid ideal and workable political and economic policies. This book helps one to entertain such a hope."

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New Nigerian writers are in need of spirit

2011-08-13T01:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a provocative essay by one of the very few Nigerian intellectual gadflies, Obi Nwakanma. He takes Nigerian writing to task.

"...the trouble with my own age of writers. We have no story; no drama, simply because we have lived in diapers all our lives, secluded from the messier details of real power; sheltered by the romantic view that writers are isolate figures, shielded from the rest of society by their moral sensibilities."

See the rest of the essay below, but here is my take on the piece.
Nwakanma's goal is to rouse his generation of writers from their creative slumber. I love that project. In fact,the more Nwakanmas and Ikhides we have, the better for Nigerian writing. Anyway, for a better judgment, I trim Nwakanma's arguments to their basic logical form.

Thesis: modern Nigerian literature is a joke.
Support: The current crop of writers are apolitical.
Conclusion: Their products are therefore anemic.

Actually, given his very first sentence, "Writing is an intensely political act," I think that he is basically correct. If you don't believe that writing is political then his essay crumbles. One might tell him that being political is just one of the many aspects of literature. In this regard, if the Achebe and Soyinka generation chose to be political and therefore made their marks in the literary world, the third generation of Nigerian writers could choose to be apolitical; they could be existential, or purely ethical and still make their mark on the world literary map.

The good thing in his essay, though, is that he challenges writers and critics, including himself, to dig deeper and explore the Nigerian human condition. I have lately read a number of young Nigerian writers. There is a lot to discover in their works. They are just waiting for clever, profound critics.

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A Caine Prize diary

2011-07-23T18:27:00.001-07:00

A good piece by Tolu Ogunlesi

"I've come to realise that there will never be an end to all those debates - around "authenticity", "identity", "stereotyping" and "audience" - that follow writers of African origin wherever they go. African writers will forever carry the burdens of having to comment, not merely about their "Africanness" as individuals, but also about the Africanness of their writing."
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Six writers make 2011 Nigeria Prize for Literature shortlist

2011-07-22T14:39:00.001-07:00

This is the richest literary prize in Africa. $100.000 dollars for the winner. Did you get it? I repeat. One hundred thousand US of dollars!
Here are the shortlisted authors.
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One-Day-I-Will-Write-About-This-Place

2011-07-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

One day I Will Write About This Place gets Oprah's nod.
Congratulations, Binyavanga.
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On Writing: the Short Story Edition, with Dawn Promislow

2011-07-20T14:05:00.001-07:00

A few nuggets on the nature of the short story. The collection, "Jewels and Other Stories," is set in South Africa.
"It's a collection of short stories set in apartheid-era South Africa. I tried to capture that time and place, a time and place I lived in. I tried, above all, to see it with fresh eyes, to uncover something in it that I knew was there but hadn't seen or found or even read. The stories are told from the perspectives of a wide range of characters: black and white, old and young, rich and poor. They are fictional stories, but the world the characters inhabit is very real, and this was very important to me, to be faithful to the history of that time."
I loved reading it.
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Who speaks for Black Africa?

2011-07-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

At least one writer has realized that African writers/thinkers have argued/written us all into an ideological blind alley. This is largely because the trajectory of our thought world has been directed towards meeting the gaze of the white man. Things Fall Apart is all about matching Heart of Darkness roar for roar. With very few exceptions, African discourse world has been primed to answer questions raised by the white man, not really questions Africans themselves raise. It is little wonder that our writings have been apologies that shape-shift from blame on one hand, and to horrifying portrayal of Africans as lacking agency, on the other. Writers have chosen to deify Africa's victimhood.
Anyway, I'm beginning to ramble. I thought I should present this cool piece by our gadfly, Ikhide.
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NoViolet Bulawayo wins 12th Caine Prize for African Writing

2011-07-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

NoViolet Bulawayo wins 12th Caine Prize for African Writing

Zimbabwe’s NoViolet Bulawayo has won the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award, for her short story entitled ‘Hitting Budapest’, from The Boston Review, Vol 35, no. 6 - Nov/Dec 2010.

The Chair of Judges, award-winning author Hisham Matar, announced NoViolet Bulawayo as the winner of the £10,000 prize at a dinner held this evening (Monday 11 July) at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Hisham Matar said: “The language of ‘Hitting Budapest’ crackles. Here we encounter Darling, Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Stina and Sbho, a gang reminiscent of Clockwork Orange. But these are children, poor and violated and hungry. This is a story with moral power and weight, it has the artistry to refrain from moral commentary. NoViolet Bulawayo is a writer who takes delight in language.”

NoViolet Bulawayo was born and raised in Zimbabwe. She recently completed her MFA at Cornell University, in the US, where she is now a Truman Capote Fellow and Lecturer of English. Another of her stories, ‘Snapshots’, was shortlisted for the 2009 SA PEN/Studzinski Literary Award. NoViolet has recently completed a novel manuscript tentatively titled We Need New Names, and has begun work on a memoir project.

Also shortlisted were:

· Lauri Kubuitsile (Botswana) ‘In the spirit of McPhineas Lata’ from The Bed Book of Short Stories published by Modjaji Books, SA, 2010

· Tim Keegan (South Africa) ‘What Molly Knew’ from Bad Company published by Pan Macmillan SA, 2008

· David Medalie (South Africa) ‘The Mistress’s Dog’, from The Mistress’s Dog: Short stories 1996-2010 published by Picador Africa, 2010

· Beatrice Lamwaka (Uganda) ‘Butterfly dreams’ from Butterfly Dreams and Other New Short Stories from Uganda published by Critical, Cultural and Communications Press, Nottingham, 2010

The panel of judges is chaired by award-winning Libyan novelist Hisham Matar, whose first novel, In the Country of Men, was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published by Viking this March.

He is joined on the panel by Granta deputy editor Ellah Allfrey, publisher, film and travel writer Vicky Unwin, Georgetown University Professor and poet David Gewanter, and the award-winning author Aminatta Forna.

Once again, the winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize will be given the opportunity to take up a month’s residence at Georgetown University, Washington DC as a ‘Caine Prize/Georgetown University Writer-in-Residence’. The award will cover all travel and living expenses.

Last year the Caine Prize was won by Sierra Leonean writer Olufemi Terry. As the then Chair of judges, Fiammetta Rocco, said at the time, the story was “ambitious, brave and hugely imaginative. Olufemi Terry’s ‘Stickfighting Days’ presents a heroic culture that is Homeric in its scale and conception. The execution of this story is so tight and the presentation so cinematic, it confirms Olufemi Terry as a talent with an enormous future.”

Previous winners include Sudan’s Leila Aboulela, winner of the first Caine Prize in 2000, whose new novel Lyrics Alley was published in January 2010 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, as well as Binyavanga Wainaina, from Kenya, who founded the well-known literary magazine, Kwani?, dedicated to promoting the work of new Kenyan writers and whose memoir One Day I Will Write About this Place will be published by Granta Books in November 2011.

Africa’s imaginary Gay crisis - Ebenezer Obadare

2011-06-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

"A SPECTRE is haunting Africa - the spectre of homosexuality. But it is an unusual spectre: it does not exist. It is a phantom. Over the past decade, a curious and totally unlikely coalition of religious leaders, the ruling class, and sections of the mainstream media, has launched a vigorous campaign against homosexuality and perceived homosexuals. Trading in the most spiteful rhetoric and symbols imaginable, members of this alliance have sung from the same hymn book, affirming, implausibly, that homosexuality is a recent import intoAfrica, and that homosexuals are responsible for the continent’s postcolonial throes."

I enjoyed this essay. I thought you might. ENJOY

"Learn to Be Open to Criticisms" _ Jude Dibia advises in this interview with Jeff Unaegbu

2011-06-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

"You can say so. Nigerians are renowned for taking just about anything you dish at them. If you don’t provide them with light, they will find a way of getting light. If you don’t give them pipe borne water, they will dig boreholes for themselves in their homes. If you give them bad roads, they find a way of buying big cars to maneuver the potholes etc"
This is a smart observation, friends. I believe it gives you an inroad into the mind of our one of our excellent young writers.
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So, You Know How To Write About Africa

2011-06-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

"Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina is inexhaustible, a public intellectual very much engaged with the literary and political worlds. His memoir, One Day I Will Write About This Place, published this July by Graywolf Press, chronicles the multiplicity of his middle-class African childhood: home squared, we call it, your clan, your home, the nation of your origin."
Great interview. I like this guy.
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Once upon a life: Helen Oyeyemi

2011-06-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

"As the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, novelist Helen Oyeyemi knows how hard it can be to feel at home. But when she was assaulted in broad daylight in a London park, she had no option but to pack her bags."
There are many traits I've inherited from my parents. Among them are a love of, and geeky interest in, perfume (that's from my mum), an innate conviction that the plausibility of a piece of information is in no way connected to its truth (that's from my dad), and (from both of them) the idea that you don't have to stay in a place just because you were born there, or because you're used to it.
An insightful essay. Philosophical. Deep.
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Award Winning Author Hisham Matar on the 2011 Caine Prize

2011-06-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

"Hisham Matar was born in New York City to Libyan parents and spent his childhood first in Tripoli and then in Cairo. His first novel, In the Country of Men, was published in 2006 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Guardian First Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in the US. It won six international literary awards including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best First Book award for Europe and South Asia, the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifize, and the inaugural Arab American Book Award."

Can you comment on this year’s prize – the range, number, and quality of entries? What impressed you?

I can only compare this year’s entries to my 2008 experience, which is the only other time I have been a Caine Prize judge. The previous time, the entries were generally not as good as what we’ve received this year. Yes, there were a few powerful stories that clearly stood out. But this time, while we still do have a number of powerful stories, the general standard is better overall.

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Loving and hating Julius

2011-06-04T20:13:00.000-07:00

This seems to be the appropriate title for Ikhide's review of Teju Cole's "Open City."

"I loved Julius, I hated Julius. He is a Walter Mitty character, a creep even. Julius is eclectic, some would say too eager to appear so, precise, almost anally-retentive. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifHe knows his Chopin, Bach partitas, Beethoven sonatas and Shostakovich symphonies by heart. The peasant reader asks: Who are these people that Julius knows on a last-name basis? Who is Veláquez? Gilles Deleuze? Gaston Bachelard? Paul Claude? Julius comes across as a caricature of the African intellectual schooled in Western ways and loudly wearing his intellect like a pimp overwhelmed by his loud clothes."

I think I recognize some of these European guys. Will I be able to recognize a character who showcases his knowledge of them?
Enjoy

Sierra Leone tale 'Memory of Love' wins Aminatta Forna the Commonwealth Writers' Prize

2011-05-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

"A POWERFUL portrayal of human resistance in war-torn Sierra Leone has taken out this year's Commonwealth Writers' Prize.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Glasgow-born Aminatta Forna on Saturday won Best Book with her novel, Memory of Love, in the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize in Sydney.
According to judges, the book is an "immensely powerful portrayal of human resilience" which "delicately delves into the courageous lives of those haunted by the indelible effects of Sierra Leone's past".
The books highlights the courage of those who have experienced the worst of the embattled country."
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The 2011 Caine Prize: How Not to Write About Africa

2011-05-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

"The Caine Prize for African Writing has been great for African literature by showcasing some truly good works by African writers. The good news is that the Caine Prize is here to stay. The bad news is that someone is going to win the Caine Prize this year. This is a shame; having read the stories on the shortlist, I conclude that a successful African writer must be clinically depressed, chronicling in excruciating detail every open sore of Africa. Apologies to Wole Soyinka."

This is food for thought, friends. I would encourage every writer and aspiring ones to read this carefully. I have learned a lot from it.
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Adichie - A Harvard Fellow

2011-05-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Chimamanda Adichie chosen as Radcliffe fellow

Award-winning author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has been selected as a fellow for the 2011- 2012 session at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, US. The author of ‘Purple Hibiscus’ and ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ is among the 51 people selected from 800 applications received by the Institute where individuals pursue advanced work across a wide range of academic disciplines, professions,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif and creative arts."
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Twelfth Caine Prize shortlist announced

2011-05-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

The shortlist for the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing has been announced today (Monday 9 May). The Caine Prize, widely known as the ‘African Booker’ and regarded as Africa’s leading literary award, is now in its twelfth year. The chair of judges, the award-winning Libyan novelist Hisham Matar, said "choosing a shortlist out of nearly 130 entries was not an easy task – one made more difficult and yet more enjoyable by the varied tastes of the judges – but we have arrived at a list of five stories that excel in quality and ambition. Together they represent a portrait of today’s African short story: its wit and intelligence, its concerns and preoccupations.”

Selected from 126 entries from 17 African countries, the shortlist is once again a reflection of the Caine Prize’s pan-African reach. The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 11 July.

The 2011 shortlist comprises:

· NoViolet Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) ‘Hitting Budapest’ from ‘The Boston Review’ Vol 35, no. 6 - Nov/Dec 2010

· Beatrice Lamwaka (Uganda) ‘Butterfly dreams’ from ‘Butterfly Dreams and Other New Short Stories from Uganda’ published by Critical, Cultural and Communications Press, Nottingham, 2010

· Tim Keegan (South Africa) ‘What Molly Knew’ from ‘Bad Company’ published by Pan Macmillan SA, 2008

· Lauri Kubuitsile (Botswana) ‘In the spirit of McPhineas Lata’ from ‘The Bed Book of Short Stories’ published by Modjaji Books, SA, 2010

· David Medalie (South Africa) ‘The Mistress’s Dog’ from ‘The Mistress’s Dog: Short stories 1996-2010’ published by Picador Africa, 2010

As always the stories are available to read online on our website.

Joining Hisham on the judging panel this year are Granta deputy editor Ellah Allfrey, publisher, film and travel writer Vicky Unwin, Georgetown University Professor and poet David Gewanter and the award-winning author Aminatta Forna. Once again the winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize will be given the opportunity of taking up a month’s residence at Georgetown University, Washington DC, as a ‘Caine Prize/Georgetown University Writer-in-Residence.’ The award will cover all travel and living expenses.

Last year the Caine Prize was won by Sierra Leonean writer Olufemi Terry. As the then Chair of judges, Fiammetta Rocco, said at the time, the story was “ambitious, brave and hugely imaginative. Olufemi Terry’s ‘Stickfighting Days’ presents a heroic culture that is Homeric in its scale and conception. The execution of this story is so tight and the presentation so cinematic, it confirms Olufemi Terry as a talent with an enormous future.”

Previous winners include Uganda’s Monica Arac de Nyeko, for ‘Jambula Tree’ from ‘African Love Stories’, Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2006, and Binyavanga Wainaina, from Kenya, who founded the well-known literary magazine, Kwani?, to publish work by new Kenyan writers.

This year the shortlisted writers will be reading from their work at the Royal Over-Seas League on Friday, 8 July at 7pm and at the London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre, on Sunday, 10 July at 7pm.

Jumoke Verissimo on the joy of writing - Titilayo Olurin

2011-04-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

“I’m from a humble background, from a family where we are taught that the truth is above all else. We were taught that integrity is above all else and honesty is very important.”
In this interview, Jumoke reminds me why I discovered literature, and began to write at the age of 21.
She's spot on, and I am sure we're bound to hear from her and about her writing in the nearest future.
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How Writers Build the Brand

2011-04-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

Are you willing to do this, barter your soul for success?

"Walt Whitman notoriously wrote his own anonymous reviews, which would not be out of place today on Amazon. “An American bard at last!” he raved in 1855. “Large, proud, affectionate, eating, drinking and breeding, his costume manly and free, his face sunburnt and bearded.”
If you are a shy author, may be you might have to devise a means of making yourself known. Otherwise... mmhh.
Enjoy

Tales From the Global Sex Trade

2011-04-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

Beautiful review of Chika Unigwe's On Black Sisters Street by FERNANDA EBERSTADT

Opponents of immigration often prefer to ignore the tragic forces that chttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifompel people to risk death in order to reach our lands of plenty, not to mention the horrors that often await the “lucky” few, once they do arrive. Imagine an Underground Railroad in which the conductor robs and rapes his passengers, and the station porter, once they’ve disembarked, ushers them into a new form of slavery. This unholy traffic in impoverished strivers, imported to service needs Westerners don’t want to think about, is the subject of Chika Unigwe’s novel “On Black Sisters Street.”

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Conversation: Teju Cole's 'Open City'

2011-04-17T20:11:00.000-07:00

Teju Cole's interview granted to Jeffrey Brown:

"TEJU COLE: Well, there were two things I thought about when I gave the book that title. One is this idea that this city is accessible to him. It's open. The way we talk about open hearted, open minded. So it has a positive connotation that way. It's about a sensitive narrator who has taken in a lot of the signals that the city has given him as he walks around. But the other idea was the meaning of the term "open city" itself, which is not such a positive meaning. It's a city that has been invaded, but a city that is trying to deal with the enemy to prevent physical destruction of its infrastructure."
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A peculiar tragedy

2011-04-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while geniuses engage in less ingenious ideas. Even Nobel Prize winners often writes some less inspiring works. Michiko Kakutani, the doyen of literary reviews often produces okay reviews. Our African Kakutani has just produced one of his weakest book reviews ever. Did I say book review? I should have said "author review," for that is exactly what Ikhide Ikheloa has done in this piece.
This is how the piece begins:
"The writer Adewale Maja-Pearce' just published a sloppy biography of the literary icon John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo titled, ‘A Peculiar Tragedy: J.P. Clark-Bekederemo and the Beginning of Modern Nigerian Literature in English.' Apparently Maja-Pearce dreamed up a proposal to write Clark's biography and applied somewhere for a $63,000 grant to fund the project."
Anyway, see for yourself.
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African Writing Prize for Flash Fiction 2011 - Results

2011-04-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

We are grateful for all the entrants to this competition. 151 entries were received from sixteen countries in this inaugural edition of the prize. Entries were judged blind, with the final selection of the short-list made by Sarah Ladipo Manyika, the competition judge, whose letter follows the list of winners.

Winning entries will feature in the next edition of the magazine. We look forward to the next competition!
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'Akata Witch' by Nnedi Okorafor

2011-04-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Who is afraid of albinos? Growing up in my village, near Enugu, I used to believe that they had extraordinary power. Nnedi Okorafor proves me right. You wanna see? Read her novel, Akata Witch.

By the way, who says science fiction is not African? I have heard Nnedi Okorafor speak: awesome. She has produced at least six great books, and collected prizes the way a magnet collects bits of metal. Here is a review of one of her great novels.
An excerpt:
"The protagonist at the center of the young-adult novel "Akata Witch" lives in many worlds. She is, in the truest sense, African American: Nigerian by ancestry, American by birth. Born in New York, she moved to West Africa with her parents and brothers when she was 9.

But Sunny Nwazue is also albino, with skin the color of "sour milk" and "hazel eyes that look like God ran out of the right color." Complicating matters further, she's a witch."
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Omotoso on Soyinka and Achebe

2011-04-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
"But my worry is this: if you critic Conrad and Joyce Carey as misrepresenting Africa and yet write a book like ‘Things Fall Apart’ where at the end of the story the hero commits suicide; you write ‘No Longer at Ease’ at the end of which the central character goes into prison. You write ‘Arrow of God’ at the end of which the community abandons their priest. I then ask you, where is that alternative to the British, American representation of Africa culture?”
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Sefi Atta on the writing life

2011-03-21T19:27:00.001-07:00

"Nothing struck me more forcibly than the soft voice I was greeted with when I met Sefi Atta at her Victoria Island home. I almost couldn't reconcile it with the strong passionate voice in her writings. It was when I watched one of her plays ‘The Cost of Living' staged at the Terra Kulture that I decided to interview her. We immediately got down to business at the poolside. I asked the one question that had been bothering me first: why had she decided to write a Niger Delta story like everyone else?"
Good piece.
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Beyond the balance of stories

2011-03-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

This piece should be prefaced with: Notes for the New Generation of African Intellectuals. If you are not prepared to re-examine your conventional attitude to Africa's intellectual history, please ignore Ikhide's latest post, for it will make you sad. But then, some has got to speak some sad truths.

Okay, this is the way I interpret it.

Truth hurts. The truth of the African intellectual history is that most scholars have expended their intellectual capital defining Africa to the world, attacking those who shaped Africa's image in the West. One of the unintended consequences is the utter negligence of the human condition in various African cultures. I respect Ikhide for pointing this out. Hopefully, the new generation of intellectuals will just ignore the gaze of the West, and begin to ask questions that will make us Nigerians, Africans begin to take one another as seriously as we should; questions that will urge us to create a sound moral environment in which life can begin to flourish. Is Ikhide the gadfly we’ve been waiting for? To me he is. If I had not been mulling over some of his concerns before now, I would humbly add my name to his converts.
Thanks Ikhide.

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The Nigeria Prize for Literature

2011-03-18T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Nigeria Prize For
Literature 2011

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Entries are hereby invited for The Nigeria prize for Literature. The yearly literary prize is endowed by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) to honor the author of the best book by a Nigerian within the last four years.

The prize will rotate amongst four literary genres-prose fictions, poetry, drama and children’s literature. This year, the competition is for children’s literature.

The competition is open only to published works by Nigerian writers irrespective of place of residence. It carries a prize of $50,000. Two other writers may also be accorded honorable mention.

Submission Procedure

Six copies of the entry together with evidence of Nigerian citizenship (photocopy of Nigerian passport or National identity card) may be submitted either by authors or publishers, in accordance with the genre in competition.

Books should be submitted to Nigeria LNG Limited’s External Relations Division, promoters of the prize, by the stipulated deadline. Failure to meet the stated conditions will lead to disqualification of the entry.

This being an annual competition, the date of publication on the work submitted must be within the previous three years. Complete contact information, including full postal address and\or e-mail and evidence of Nigerian citizenship, should accompany each submission.

An author in any competition will enter only one published work. Manuscripts will not be considered. No book previously submitted for this competition may be resubmitted at a later date, even if major revisions have been made or a new edition published.

The prize will be awarded for no other reason than excellence.

Judges for 2011 competition

Prof. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo - Chairman
Prof.Iniobong Uko - Member
Prof. David Ker - Member
Prof. Yakubu Nasidi - Member
Prof. Lekan Oyegoke - Member

Calendar for Prize Administration

· Close of entries (deadline)-March 31,2011. Late entries will not be entertained.

Entries should be sent to:

The Nigeria Prize for Literature
External Relation Division
Nigeria LNG Limited ,
7th floor,C&C Towers
Plot 1684 Sanusi Fafunwa Street
Victoria Island, Lagos
Nigeria.

For entries outside Nigeria:
The Nigeria Prize for Literature
External Relation Division
Heron House,
10 Dean Farrar Street
London SW1H 0DX

Orange prize longlist tackles difficult subjects – and alligators

2011-03-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

Lola Shoneyin's "The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives" is on the Orange Prize Longlist.
Aminata Forna's "The Memory of Love" and Leila Aboulela's "Lyrics Alley"
This is strong list.
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Jude Dibia Set to Publish Blackbird, His Third Novel

2011-03-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

"In 2005, when he published Walking with Shadows, his “controversial” debut novel whose central character is Adrian, the homosexual; some readers thought Jude Dibia, the author was gay. When Unbridled,his second novel was published in 2007, some readers said he had soft spot for the feminine. Now, as Jude is ready to publish a new novel, one wonders what some readers would think of him."

I love what this guy is doing. He gives fiction a noble name, by breaking boundaries and taboos, and thereby making us more human. I can't wait to lay my beautiful eyes on this latest offering.
And here is the interview he granted to Obidike Okafor.
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John Steinbeck, The Art of Fiction

2011-03-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

Some nice words from Steinbeck:

ON GETTING STARTED

It is usual that the moment you write for publication—I mean one of course—one stiffens in exactly the same way one does when one is being photographed. The simplest way to overcome this is to write it to someone, like me. Write it as a letter aimed at one person. This removes the vague terror of addressing the large and faceless audience and it also, you will find, will give a sense of freedom and a lack of self-consciousness.

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” - John Steinbeck

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Ayesha: Ghana's rising literary icon

2011-03-10T07:22:00.001-08:00

Talents to take note of.

"Young Ayesha Harruna Attah grew up in a home where reading and writing flow through the blood. Ayesha is a biochemistry degree holder from Mount Holyoke College. She studied journalism at the Columbia University. Her parents own one of Ghana's respected private newspapers, The Mail, where she started as a tyro."

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Literature is a big house with many rooms

2011-03-08T06:48:00.000-08:00

Did you know that Literature is a big house with many rooms? You need to hear this. A beautiful interview conducted by two beautiful, smart women. Okay, don't tell me that I'm already melting like butter. Blame it on brains. But, you've got to hear this.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) and The Thing Around Your Neck (2009). Born in Enugu, Nigeria and brought up in the University town of Nsukka, her writings approach race, gender and identity with a distinctly perceptive style. Her works are deeply connected to Nigeria, articulating different experiences and producing a complex impression of history and violence.

Enjoy!

Good Reads by our veteran reviewer

2011-03-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

"I am officially in love. With Abimbola Adunni Adelakun’s book, ‘Under the Brown Rusted Roofs’."
If Ikhide makes his love of a certain writer's book known, as he once did to Sefi Atta's, know that it is serious. Ikhide is thermometer; he doesn't lie about the temperature of a book. So, take his words when you can because the next time, oh, friends...

Okay, here is what he thinks about the recently minted, and some old, books by Nigerian authors.
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Why Do Writers Abandon Novels?

2011-03-05T14:05:00.000-08:00

Have you ever felt like ditching a novel you've been working on for long but never gets it to its supposed rounded form? Have you ever felt compelled not to give up on that particular work because it would mean that you have just wasted about five years of hard work?
Goodness, I know that feeling.
Anyway, here is a piece by Dan Kois. It might be of interest to you.
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Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Winners, 2011

2011-03-03T20:53:00.001-08:00

Congratulations!
Regional Winners:

Africa:

Best Book: The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone)

Best First Book: Happiness is a four-letter word by Cynthia Jele (South Africa)

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Bitter Leaf by Chioma Okereke

2011-02-27T09:09:00.000-08:00

Nigeria keeps on producing enormous writing talents. As the American reading public is mesmerized by Teju Cole's debut novel, Open City, the rest of the Commonwealth is getting to know Nigeria's other talents. Here is a review of Chioma Okereke's debut, Bitter Leaf.

"Jericho, (who's female by the way), is a beautiful young woman. She's curious about the outside world so like many before her, she's taken the brave step of sampling life in a big, bustling city. She returns to her home village with some rather pretentious airs ... and a rich suitor in tow. By sheer coincidence Jericho's mother had attended an interview in her past at her daughter's new boyfriend's family home. A veritable mansion with ... sweeping rooms that took longer than a river to cross. What a lovely way of describing luxury in an essentially poor area of Africa. Everyone thinks the next natural step is marriage and babies but is it? "

I look forward to having my own copy.

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Teju Cole Mesmerizes America

2011-02-24T10:23:00.000-08:00

Taylor Antrim is truly excited about Teju Cole's novel, Open City.
"In its patient, cumulative way, the novel paints a startlingly dim picture of our present moment, our age of permeable borders and teeming heterogeneous cities. Julius looks like the bright side of globalism—born in Africa to a German mother and Nigerian father, educated in New York, now one year from his medical degree—but he feels off-step, adrift. The closer he looks at the world around him, the more callousness and anomie he finds—qualities the reader can't help but see, as the novel proceeds, in Julius himself."
He concludes, like many other reviewers:
"It’s the most thoughtful and provocative debut I’ve read in a long time."

I have read a number of things written by Teju. The guy is terribly smart, and he is an accomplished artist. I can't wait to lay my hands on Open City.

Congratulations, Teju.
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And this is an EXCERPT. Just two chapters. Beautiful.

Polygamy: for worse and worse

2011-02-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

I'm an admirer of Lola Shoneyin's take no prisoner feminist mind-set. There are many things to love in her novel,The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives besides her frontal attack on patriarchal disregard for woman's dignity. One of them is Shoneyin's lyricism, which comes as no surprise to those who have read her poems. Thank God, Lola has got a mind of her own as is evidenced in this interview granted to Eva Hunter of Iol.

"Shoneyin says that she sees 'more and more seemingly educated people from my generation opting to take a second wife. This happens mostly amongst my Muslim friends who justify it by saying their religion allows it. For me, the only thing that drives polygamy is greed.'"

Enjoy

2011 prize Commonwealth Prize Shortlist

2011-02-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, supported by the Macquarie Group Foundation and now in its 25th year, has selected both household names and other emerging stars from across the Commonwealth for the four regional shortlists for the Best Book and Best First Book awards.

The regional winners of the Best Book and Best First Book prizes will be announced on the 3rd March, with the final programme commencing on the 16th May at Sydney Writers’ Festival in Australia. This will bring together the finalists from the four different regions of the Commonwealth, and the two overall winners will be announced on the 21st May.
Nigeria and South Africa are well represented. Congratulations, friends, and good luck.
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On the Murder of David Kato, the Ugandan Gay Rights Campaigner

2011-02-07T19:21:00.000-08:00

We the undersigned condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of Mr David Kato the Ugandan gay rights campaigner. We wish to state emphatically that homosexuality is neither a sin nor a social or cultural construct. It is a biological given. Homosexuals are human beings like everybody else. Scientific research has been helpful in clearing the fog of ignorance entrenched by some religious texts in regards to homosexuality. Our opinions of homosexuality must change for the better just as our opinion of slavery has changed even though it was endorsed by those same religious texts. All violence against gays and people deemed to be gay in Africa must cease forthwith.

We call on the government of Uganda to find and prosecute all those involved in the murder of Mr Kato, including the newspaper that called for the hanging of gays. We also call on African governments to learn from the South African example by expunging from their laws all provisions that criminalize homosexuality or treat homosexuals as unworthy of the same rights and entitlements as other citizens. African states must protect the rights of their citizens to freedom and dignity. Homosexuals must not be denied these rights.

Undersigned

1. Wale Adebanwi, PhD, University of California, US

2. Diran Adebayo, Writer, UK

3. Kayode Adeduntan, PhD, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

4. Biola Adegboyega, University of Calgary, Canada

5. Shola Adenekan, Editor, The New Black Magazine, UK

6. Pius Adesanmi, PhD, Carleton University, Canada

7. Akin Adesokan, PhD, Indiana University, US

8. Joe Agbro, Journalist, Nigeria

9. Anthony Akinola, PhD, Oxford, UK

10. Anengiyefa Alagoa, Writer, UK

11. Ellah Allfrey, Deputy Editor, Granta Magazine, UK

12. Alnoor Amlani, Writer, Kenya

13. Ike Anya, Public health doctor and writer, UK

14. Bode Asiyanbi, Writer, Lancaster University, UK

15. Sefi Atta, Writer, US

16. Lizzy Attree, PhD, University of East London, UK

17. Damola Awoyokun, Writer, UK

18. Doreen Baingana, Writer, Uganda

19. Igoni Barrett, Writer, Nigeria

20. Tom Burke, Bard College, US

21. Jude Dibia, Writer, Nigeria

22. Chris Dunton, PhD, National University of Lesotho, Lesotho

23. Ropo Ewenla, PhD, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

24. Chielozona Eze, PhD, Northeastern Illinois University, US

25. Aminatta Forna, Writer, UK

26. Ivor Hartmann, Writer, South Africa

27. Chris Ihidero, Writer, Lagos State University, Nigeria

28. Ikhide R. Ikheloa, Writer, US

29. Sean Jacobs, PhD, New School, US

30. Biodun Jeyifo, PhD, Harvard University, US

31. Brian Jones, Professor Emeritus, Zimbabwe

32. Martin Kiman, Writer, US

33. Lauri Kubuitsile, Writer, Botswana

34. Zakes Mda, PhD, Ohio University, US

35. Colin Meier, Writer, South Africa

36. Gayatri Menon, PhD, Franklin and Marshall College, US

37. Valentina A. Mmaka, Writer, Italy/South Africa

38. Jane Morris, Publisher, Zimbabwe

39. Mbonisi P. Ncube, Writer, South Africa

40. Iheoma Nwachukwu, Writer, Nigeria

41. Onyeka Nwelue, Writer and filmmaker, India/Nigeria

42. Nnedi Okorafor, PhD, Writer, Chicago State University, US

43. Ebenezer Obadare, PhD, University of Kansas, US

44. Juliane Okot Bitek, Writer, Canada

45. Tejumola Olaniyan, PhD, University of Wisconsin, US

46. Ngozichi Omekara, Trinidad and Tobago

47. Akin Omotosho, Actor and filmmaker, South Africa

48. Kole Omotosho, PhD, Africa Diaspora Research Group, South Africa

49. Samuel Sabo, Writer, UK

50. Ramzi Salti, PhD, Stanford University, US

51. Brett L. Shadle, PhD, Virginia Tech, US

52. Lola Shoneyin, Writer, Nigeria

53. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate for Literature

54. Olufemi Taiwo, PhD, Seattle University, US

55. Kola Tubosun, Writer, Fulbright Scholar, United States

56. Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, Writer, Nigeria

57. Abdourahman A.Waberi, Writer, US /Djibouti

58. Binyavanga Wainaina, Writer, Kenya

59. Ronald Elly Wanda, Writer& Lecturer, Marcus Garvey Pan-Afrikan Institute, Uganda

60. Kristy Warren, PhD, University of Warwick, UK

Of African Writers and their Uncles

2011-02-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

I love Ikhide. I truly do. He reminds of me of one kind of masquerade in my town, Amokwe, called Obute. Obute embodies energy in any way you choose to think of. Whenever it arrives at a gathering he sends every one, man, woman, old young running for their dear lives. Some sprint like the Jamaican Usain Bolt; some others just manage to hobble out of Obute's way. In the end though, when the Obute-storm is over, people gather to laugh about it, happy to have experienced that cathartic moment. That's one of the reasons we have masquerade festivals.
Whenever Ikhide writes, people's hearts palpitate. You have to laugh, sigh, curse, praise. Some said he's a child of God; some others claimed he must be the anti-Christ. Some have even told me they would love to punch him down below, eh? You know where.

Okay, the point is this: Ikhide knows how to rabblerouse. And he is not afraid of stepping on people's toes: See, for instance:
"When you examine African writing or writing from the writers of African extraction, one thing is clear; it is blessed with an abundant narrowness of range and vision. There is the understandable obsession with everything African. In their writings, huts, moons, stars, fearsome masquerades, wars and malevolent spirits come tumbling out, chased by constipated army generals."

The introductory part of his essay seems to have been specially designed to wake the slumbering Jack. He talks about the white man organizing parties for African writers:
"I call these gatherings pity parties because after a few glasses of cheap red wine, the writers become weepy and whiny."
Okay, these African writers become whinny after downing glasses of red wine?
The last sentence of that paragraph is confessional: "I love cheap red wine."
One might wonder whether he also loves to whine.
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Call for Applications

2011-02-01T16:47:00.000-08:00

H.A.L.D. 2011

The Danish Centre for Writers and Translators proudly presents H.A.L.D. 2011 (Housing Authors & Literature, Denmark), the second “International Summer Residency for Writers at Hald”.

The H.A.L.D. program will select four fiction authors from abroad* to live and work alongside selected Danish fiction authors in Hald Hovedgaard’s main building during the period of July 18 – August 15, 2011.

The foreign authors will live and work at Hald under the same conditions as writers during a working residency at Hald normally do. Each author will work on the writing project that he or she has brought along to Hald and will be responsible for providing his/her own food and toiletries. The principal purpose of this international cultural and literary encounter is the informal meeting of professional writers, living door to door in an inspiring environment.

Participation in the H.A.L.D. program is determined by written application on the part of the author.

The application deadline is April 1, 2011 for foreign authors and May 15, 2011 for Danish
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Adaobi Nwaubani reacts to The Sun interview on Feminism

2011-01-28T11:14:00.000-08:00

I got this email from one of the editors of NEXT234, and I thought I should share it in the spirit of fairness.

Here we go:
"Our attention has been drawn to an interview published in The Sun newspaper of Saturday, January 22, 2011, which quotes our client, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, as saying, "...feminism is when a woman wants to be a man." Whilst Ms. Nwaubani declines from public engagement even when errors of facts are made regarding her person or her work, we find it necessary to clarify this particular statement.
Following a review of the transcribed recordings of the interview, we would like to confirm that Ms. Nwaubani was grossly misquoted.
In response to the reporter's query on why she wrote a book about 419 instead of dealing with feminist issues, Ms. Nwaubani explained that she did not feel constrained by her being a woman to write only about women issues. She then went on to comment on the various expectations some people in Nigeria tend to have about women: "...the impression I get from people when they talk about feminism is that they expect you to be a woman who is angry or who wants to be like a man or who wants to grow a beard."
Ms. Nwaubani's debut novel, I Do Not Come to You by Chance in fact had a male character who expressed this ignorant view point. This is not her view point.
In an interview for www.books.co.za, Liesl Jobson stated: "In an interview with a Soweto radio station that morning, (Nwaubani) had been asked whether she wrote romance or chick-lit. She found the limitations frustrating. She's also experienced the other extreme, specifically in Nigeria, where if you call yourself a feminist, the expectation is that you are a 'very angry woman; a man-hater'." That was the same sentiment Ms. Nwaubani was communicating to The Sun’s reporter. Unfortunately, it got presented way out of context.

The Sun has informed us that they will delete the misquote from their online version. We appreciate their cooperation with this. This embarrassing situation was apparently not a result of mischief on the reporter's part. It was simply a case of editing gone very bad – however, we believe it is necessary that Ms. Nwaubani’s correct sentiments are shared with the public."
***
COMMENT: It is a sign of greatness to acknowledge flaws. My respect. African political leaders should take a cue from their young, talented intellectuals. I think our better days are ahead of us.

My Suffering Is Worse Than Yours By Okey Ndibe

2011-01-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

Chinua Achebe wrote a seminal essay called "The Trouble With Nigeria." In it he blamed the dysfunction in the country on the political leaders. I am not sure whether he also blamed intellectual leaders.
Okay Ndibe's piece "My Suffering Is Worse Than Yours" to me, approaches something like the first step towards seriously diagnosing the seeming defeatist mentality of most Nigerians. It has to do with a low, or nonexistent self-esteem, the understanding that you really worth nothing, and therefore it made no difference if you are oppressed. This is cultural; it is also the first place for any African intellectual worth the name to begin. A people that never heard they had dignity will not suddenly begin to think that they deserve to be respected.
Thanks, Okey.
ENJOY

The Three Rs: Reading, Reading and Reading

2011-01-23T16:29:00.000-08:00

I don't like to talk about myself, but it seems I have to do it this time around if only to help make my point. I was born in 1962. I was five years when the Nigerian civil war began. Being Igbo I had to be on the run. Three most important years of my life lost to mindlessness, on the one hand and inhumanity on the other. It takes two mad people to fight, doesn't it? I began to learn ABCD at the ripe age of 9. It could have been 10 given that I had to recover from the unmentionable hangover from that war. Ever since then I've been playing catch up. Anyway, I somehow discovered the mystery of written words. I began to read and to read and to read. I know what Ikhide means when he declares that it is child abuse not to have children read. I'll steal this idea. It's better than what I told my students sometime last week: If you want to write what is to be read you have to read what has been written. Nuff said.
Anyway, here's Ikhide's warning against child abuse.
An excerpt:
"Today, there are homes that house no books. Unfortunately, there are children in those homes. That is child abuse. A child should be immersed in all sorts of books. I know, I know, I have said that the book is dying a long slow death. A house should be slaphappy with books and ideas. Look at it another way: This is a great time to buy books because no one wants them anyway. Buy them and leave them lying around the house. A child may just read them."
ENJOY

“Feminism is when a woman wants to be like a man” Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

2011-01-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

If you have not read the brilliant novel, “I Do Not Come To You by Chance,” please do everything possible to do so. You will be grateful to the writer for the many delicious passages, anecdotes, humor. Usually, when you’ve been this impressed by a book you’ll watch out for anything written by the author. Adaobi gave a couple interviews here and there. And based on some of her dazzling ideas she won me over.
Then came the Op-Ed piece in New York Times. The essay started out well on a seemingly smart, or perhaps smarty note, refreshingly brash. Not really bad, given that that’s exactly what attracted me to Nietzsche whose foulmouthed attack on all established philosophers from Socrates to even Immanuel Kant was not only refreshing, but solidly backed by profound insights. I thought Nigeria was about to produce a new, fearless writer; one who is finally ready to take it to the establishments. But then after the effervescence of the first paragraph, the essay quickly simmered down to a bland brew. Her jab at Achebe and Soyinka was so simplistic that I thought it was an attempt to puncture the moon with AK-47.
“Achebe and Soyinka are certainly masters, but of an earnest and sober style.” Achebe and Soyinka have no humor? And Adaobi forgot that humor is just an aspect of an important element of good writing. That element is entertainment, and the question that guides that element is this: is the writing pleasing? Does it entertain? Entertainment is, however, not only when I break into whoops of laughter while reading a book. I could be duly entertained by the author’s efficient uses of metaphors, sentence structures, diction, characterization etc. But entertainment is just an aspect of a realistic work of fiction. Indeed, without taking pleasure in the work, we wouldn’t go beyond the first ten pages unless we have to. To apotheosize humor in literature seems a bit off the mark. Of course I do not want to comment on her belief that in order to embrace Nigeria we have to reject our ethnic origins. This has been given due attention by others. I had however trusted that what has been perceived as misjudgment in her NYT piece was a slip of the pen. But then I read the interview in which she said this: “The impression I get when people talk about feminism is when a woman wants to be like a man, and am not interested in that at all.”
Nwaubani’s observation is not malicious. No, not at all; it is wrong. And it reveals a pitiful ignorance in the world of one who has attracted a significant global name recognition.
One thing is to not want to have anything to do with a particular thing/issue; it is another thing to reveal that you don’t even know what that thing/issue is. The idea that feminism “is when a woman wants to be like a man” is as pedestrian as Sarah Palin claiming to have expertise in foreign policy because Alaska is close to Russia. If my 81 year old, illiterate mother says the same thing, I will simply grin, knowing where she got her idea from. But for a winner of Commonwealth prize in literature to reveal ignorance of Virginia Woolf’s main concern (A Room of One’s Own); the existence of Mary Wollstonecraft, Simon De Beauvoir, or Buchi Emecheta (Joys of Motherhood), or Oyeronke Oyewumi etc, that makes me sad.
Should I throw in works by Nwaubani’s own contemporaries that should teach every Nigerian the ABC of feminism? Lola Shoneyin’s (So All the Time I was Sitting on an Egg and Baba Segi’s Wives) Unoma Azuah (Sky-High Flames) Sefi Atta (Everything Good Will Come) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Purple Hibiscus), Sarah Manyika (In Dependence). These are works that have opened (my already opened) eyes to the necessity of addressing the position and dignity of women in our uber-patriarchal African societies. Do I need to give another definition of feminism?
He who wants to write what is to be taken seriously should first read what has been taken seriously. At some stage in our lives the task of acquiring knowledge becomes a moral obligation if not for our private uses, then for the interest of those who may learn one or two things from us.

By the way, here is the interview in Daily Sun: I decided to write before I knew what to write on.
And here, again, is the NYT Op-Ed piece: In Africa, the Laureate’s Curse

New Rules For Writers: Ignore Publicity, Shun Crowds, Refuse Recognition And More

2011-01-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

I thought you might like this. The ten commandments for being a successful writer destined for immortality. I loved reading it. Hard rules, eh? An example:

"1. Disobey the System. The system--from the MFA program to that fat-ass editor sitting in glorious judgment over your manuscript--will never reward originality. So fuck it! The more you humiliate yourself before it, shape your writing, your lifestyle, your public persona, your habits of endearment and hostility, according to what you think "they" want, the more it'll ruthlessly crush you. The system is for the benefit of insiders--and you don't get to be an insider by being an original."

ENJOY

The Militant Intellection Complex... a Conversation with Pius Adesanmi

2011-01-15T08:45:00.001-08:00

Pius Adesanmi displays a wide range of knowledge of the African intellectual world in his interview granted to African Writing Online. There are ample great ideas to be gleaned from the copious interview. This, I think, is just a sample of what to expect from his upcoming book, for which he won the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing in the non-fiction category. I look forward to the book.
ENJOY

Voice of America by EC Osondu – review by Helon Habila

2011-01-15T08:08:00.000-08:00

Yet another one.
Helon Habila applauds a collection that examines the Nigerian immigrant experience in the US

"In "A Letter from Home", an exasperated mother writes to her son: "Why have you not been sending me money through Western Union like other good Nigerian children in America do? You have also not visited home. Have you married a white woman? Do not forget that I have already found a wife for you. Her name is Ngozi. Her parents are good Christians and her mother belongs to the Catholic Women's League like me. Please do not spoil the good relationship I have built over the years with Ngozi's parents."
ENJOY

Voice Of America: Osondu's brisk, unadorned prose is powerful

2011-01-14T09:39:00.000-08:00

If you live in the West, dear fellow African, then the path to the Western Union knows you. Unless, of course, you are one of the few ones from a rich families. I'm not. And E.C. Osondu's stories make me smile and laugh till tears run. Whenever I get calls from Nigeria I pray that the words "Western Union" do not rear their shitty heads in our conversation, and when they do not, I usually end the conversation this way: "I love you."
Chei, an aging Igbo man telling his 81 year old mother that he loves her. And in English!!

Anyway, here's a short review of E.C. Osondu's stories that will help you understand me and other "Western Union" pilgrims:
"There’s a neat irony in E C Osondu’s title for his debut collection, as the majority of these flinty short stories are set in Nigeria. Yet many of the characters here have a relationship of sorts with the US (where Osondu now lives), be it the refugee children who dream of being adopted by US parents or the mother who writes to her son who has emigrated to the US asking why his Western Union payments to her have dried up."
Enjoy

I Write For People Not Critics — Atta

2011-01-09T08:56:00.001-08:00

One of Nigeria's fine writers, Sefi Atta, reacts to Ikhide Ikheloa's review of her novel, Swallow.

Here is the core of Ms. Atta's reaction:

"Actually, I’m only aware of one critic who reviewed "Swallow" negatively, and that was in Next. Apparently, he is a bit of a joke and his reviews barely qualify as blogs. An American friend who lives in Lagos asked why he was so spiteful. I said that’s what bloggers do to get attention. They go tabloid on you. I just wondered what I’d done to Next to deserve such a debut.
Critics don’t need to denigrate writers to review our works. They only expose their own flaws when they do. They can point out flaws in our works without being rude. I mean, I’ve heard of dissatisfied readers hurling books across rooms, but really, does reading a book you don’t enjoy constitute a personal affront that justifies retaliation against the writer? It’s absurd."

MY JUDGMENT:
Well, I loved Sefi Atta's "Everything Good Will Come," and I even wrote an assessment of the work that will be part of my upcoming book on African literature and culture. I haven't read "Swallow" - it's on my shelf. But it's unfair to allege that a critic, Ikheloa, who celebrated "Everything Good Will Come," denigrates writers (Sefi Atta).
Well, that fine wisdom that comes with age tells me that it is often more professional when writers just keep writing instead of reacting to how their works were received.

Here is an excerpt of Ikheloa's review of "Everything Good Will Come."
"Sister Atta, you speak to me in your book. You speak to me from deep in the bowels of my ancestors’ coven. You speak to me howling, bawling, and soaking me in the song of our mothers’ grief. In the feverish insistence of your voice, in the feverish insistence of your rhythm, in the pounding of your feet on the earth of our mothers, you speak to me. And joy rides our senses going places in the heart where fear still clings to life. Our sister, look at joy bounding up and down the streets of happy memories. Our sister, in your book, joy takes me by the hand and sets me free to dream of the way things used to be. I don’t remember much of Chicago. I will never forget Everything Good Will Come." (See Nigerian Village Voice)

So, sister Atta, why would you allege that this writer is out to denigrate you? Just why? Because he didn't praise your second novel as he did your first?
And by the way, here is Sefi Atta's interview. ENJOY.

Polygamy, sex and Baba Segi's wives

2011-01-06T08:03:00.001-08:00

An interesting article by Bunmi Ajiboye. And here is Lola in action. I wish I was there.
Okay, here is an excerpt:
"On December 21, the Life House on Victoria Island, Lagos, played host to literary enthusiasts, writers and friends of Lola Shoneyin who came there to watch her give a delightful reading from her newly published novel, ‘The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives'."
ENJOY

MUSDOKI: Literature and the distortion of history

2010-12-25T16:52:00.000-08:00

For the birth of literature in any culture, you need three things besides readers and publishers. Have you guessed? Okay, I'm not one to keep people in suspense. But the truth is that every culture undergoes rigors of parturition before the water breaks and then a healthy child will glimpse the face of the earth.
Okay, okay, for the birth of literature you need these three things: 1. writers, 2. reviewers, and 3. conscientious reviewers. Usually # 3 precedes good writers, for they make those talented people rethink the figments of their imagination before spewing them out there for public consumption.
Why am I saying all these? I have been following the meticulous, almost religious examination of African literature in form of reviews by Ikhide Ikheloa, and I strongly believe that African literature of the 21st century cannot be discussed without acknowledging his midwifery job. Last week he sat on Lola Shoneyin's Baba Segi's Wives (No pun intended, friends). This week it's Ahmed Maiwada's Musdoki. I find his reviews increasingly professional, very helpful, balanced and sincere. Musdoki, he says, is an important book.
Here is an excerpt:
"It is true that in terms of the written word, with respect to the Nigerian civil war, the commentary has been dominated by Southern thinkers. There have been few Northern writers weighing in with their perspective. Despite the myriad flaws of Musdoki, it is an important book in that it shows that a fiery rage burns still in the hearts and minds of Northerners. There is no excuse for what happened during the pogrom and the Nigerian civil war."
ENJOY

Laurent Gbagbo has put Ivory Coast on a precarious path

2010-12-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

An exciting piece by Chika Unigwe, the author of On Black Sisters' Street
"By refusing to accept the poll result, Gbagbo is pushing Ivory Coast to the brink of war, like a fly following a corpse into a grave."

Enjoy

Loving Baba Segi's wives

2010-12-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

I believe you've got to smile after reading this.
"This is a rebel gleefully tugging at silly clay boundaries. Every other page hides sentences that desire to stir your consciousness - and your loins. Nothing is taboo for Shoneyin; she is eclectic in a brilliant near-reckless manner. Her words are defiant, and drunk with the sweet musky smell of primal sex. Sexual tension keeps the pages erect and thirsty for lusty sex."

Excellent review by Ikhide Ikheloa:
ENJOY

Not so, Adaobi…

2010-12-18T14:32:00.000-08:00

.... and the debate continues. Thanks to Tricia Adaobi Nwaubani, many brilliant minds are expressing ideas that might, in deed, begin to shape our consciousness, and perhaps lead to more robust discourses that we solely need.
Here is another response by Chuma Nwokolo:

"At any rate, wholesale cultural suicide is too high a price to pay for national unity, if only because it is just a deposit. The full-price is a level of self-hatred that is ultimately inimical to any nation."
Enjoy.

Achebe And Adichie: How 4Ps Impact Success Of Literary Brands - By Uzochukwuamaka Otoh

2010-12-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

I thought you might like this piece by

THE 4ps of marketing as developed by Jerome McCarthy in 1960 was later upgraded to include 3 more ps. The original price, place, promotion and product were later improved to include 3 other necessary factors of marketing, people, physical evidence and process. As with many theories of marketing, which are more consistently applied with product brands, the theory of the 4ps has yet to find full expression in its ability to positively impact the equity of service and personality brands.
Literary brands as with other brand types often go through a series of metamorphosis, which render them better and more refined. Literary icons such as Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri and Chimamanda Adichie have come to define themselves via their style carving a unique niche thereby making them literary brands to be reckoned with the world over."

ENJOY

Nwaubani, Ngugi and the Nobel

2010-12-18T09:48:00.000-08:00

Another informed reaction to Tricia Adaobi Nwaubani's Op-Ed piece. I love how writers and critics analyze Nwaubani's ideas; how they push her to rethink her ideas. I am sure she will bounce back with a more vigorous, enriching OP-Ed. Never discount smart minds, friends.

Anyway, this is Molara Wood's beautiful piece. Let the debate begin, friends; I'm loving it.
"My own reading of Nwaubani’s ‘In Africa, the Laureate’s Curse’ was predictably complicated. I am a great admirer of Mario Vargas Llosa (a worthy 2010 laureate) and many other great Latin American writers, people in whose works I’ve found a world closest to that of the Yoruba, from among whom I’ve sprung."

ENJOY

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2010-12-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

"A humid night two years ago, sitting beside a male friend in his car, and I roll down my window to tip a young man, one of the thousands of unemployed young men in Lagos who hang around, humorous and resourceful, and help you park your car with the expectation of a tip. I brought the money from my bag. He took it with a grateful smile. Then he looked at my friend and said, “Thank you, sir!”"

Beautiful, smart piece. It made me think.
Enjoy

In response to Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s “In Africa, the Laureate’s Curse” an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times by Carmen McCain.

2010-12-14T06:54:00.000-08:00

"When I first began to read Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s op-ed piece “In Africa, the Laureate’s Curse,” published in on 12 December 2010 in the New York Times, I thought I would enjoy the piece." Writes Carmen McCain. But then, Nwaubani's piece lost one of its front tyres and never regained its balance.
Good piece.
Enjoy

In Africa, the Laureate’s Curse

2010-12-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

An interesting piece by Tricia Adaobi Nwaubani. Here's a taste.

"Here, each successful seller of plantain chips spawns a thousand imitators selling identical chips; conformity is esteemed while individuality raises eyebrows; success is measured by how similar you are to those who have gone before you. These are probably not uniquely African flaws, but their effects are magnified on a continent whose floundering publishing industry has little money for experimentation and whose writers still have to move abroad to gain international recognition."

To me though, what began as a promising essay somehow turned into a mishmash of cowardly ideas, the core of which sought to suggest that it is separatist for a writer to write in his native language or even to claim that he is a writer from his ethnic group. Is Soyinka not Yoruba? Does it make him less a patriotic Nigerian? To me, the more Yoruba he is, the better for me as Igbo. He has single-handedly introduced me to the riches of Yoruba culture. Denying who we are doesn't make us more universal-minded. What cripples a nation is when individuals fail to empathize, when they believe that others are there to serve them

By the way
Enjoy

Baba Segi’s house of misfits

2010-11-17T07:08:00.000-08:00

Olushola Ojikutu enjoyed Lola shoneyin's much talked-about novel. Here is an excerpt of Ojikutu's review:

"Nonetheless, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is a book which elucidates the intricacies inherent in the typical polygamous Nigerian home. And the wonderful use of language and grammar, save for a few editing oversights, ensure that it is an enjoyable read. Lola Shoneyin possesses a strong adventurous voice and is representative of the new crop of female writers who will undoubtedly play an important part in promoting Nigerian literature."
ENJOY

Best Books of the Year

2010-11-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

Alastair Campbell on Chika Unigwe's novel.
My favourite novel of the year was On Black Sisters' Street (Vintage) by Chika Unigwe. I was drawn to it first by the beautiful picture on the cover, of the back of a stunning black woman's body. Inside is the haunting story of four African women trafficked to Belgium and working there as prostitutes. Sometimes a novel can tell you more than any amount of documentary journalism."
Enjoy

Celebrating African fiction

2010-11-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

African drumming and dance will herald a new collection of contemporary African fiction on Wednesday. Agni literary magazine, based at Boston University, is publishing half of the 21 short stories in the print edition of its fall issue and half at Agni Online.

Enjoy

Creative writing workshop in Enugu

2010-10-31T15:04:00.000-07:00

"Coal City Literary Forum Enugu Presents a workshop with the theme; Saving our Natural Environment through creative writing,

Scheduled to hold from the 3rd to 5th of November 2010.The workshop is designed to equip young and aspiring writers with the skills for incoporating environmental issues into their writing which will serve as a sensitization mechanism to Nigerians about our responsibility to the environment. "
Courtesy of Bookaholic Blog.

You’re Invited: E.C. Osondu’s Book Party on November 2

2010-10-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

"This election night, please join Guernica in celebrating the launch of Osondu’s exhilarating debut collection, Voice of America, published by HarperCollins. In the tradition of Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee, and Chinua Achebe (all patrons of the Caine Prize), Osondu’s stories are wise, soul-stirring, and deeply compelling. In electrifying prose, he articulates the struggles of Nigerian immigrants in America, and refugees, villagers, and expatriates in Africa. Voice of America marks the beginning for a brave and remarkable new voice in African literature."
ENJOY

The 2011 Paris Literary Prize

2010-10-27T06:53:00.000-07:00

For those who write novella, this might be of interest.
The 2011 Paris Literary Prize will be awarded for an unpublished novella (defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a short novel, or long story). A submitted novella must be a sustained narrative with a minimum word count of 20,000 and maximum of 30,000.
Good luck, and ENJOY

Kenyan man builds aeroplane in front yard

2010-10-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hei, this is not literature, but, well what the heck, it's such good news that I thought I should share it with you. Here is Mr. Nderitu in his own words:
"In the west they are sending people into space. In Africa we are still struggling for good roads. Without trying bigger things, we will never get anywhere."
Well said, bro. This is beautiful.
ENJOY.

African Odyssey

2010-10-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

"Her father's story led Nadifa Mahomed to write her debut novel. Bron Sibree reports

If Nadifa Mohamed ever had any doubts about writing her acclaimed debut novel, Black Mamba Boy, they had nothing to do with the real-life story that inspired it: that of her father."
ENJOY

Helon Habila’s ‘Oil on Water’

2010-10-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Another review of Helon Habila's novel, Oil on Water. Thanks, Ikhide.

"In the beginning, the book is engaging; it doesn’t sound contrived and there is abundant evidence that Habila did some research for this novel. There is enough detail to provide memorable scenes. His greatest strength is deployed to descriptions of the apocalypse that is the Niger Delta. Dreamy and haunting are the lush descriptions of the roiling waters and forests. Habila loves water and he finds a peaceful kinship with the seas and the rivers. When he is good, the scenes remind one of Vietnam, Napalm bombs, children on the streets fleeing fires roasting them, and My Lai."
ENJOY

Soyinka, Le Clezio for Garden City Literary Festival

2010-10-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

You've got to love this if you love independent literary developments in Africa, any part of Africa. This is what makes for solid traditions. Kudos to Koko Kalango for her ingenuity.
Okay, read this.
"Nobel Laureates Wole Soyinka and J.M.G Le Clezio are the headliners of the third Garden City Literary Festival, which opens in Port Harcourt on December 8. An initiative of the Rivers State governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and organised by Koko Kolango of the Rainbow Book Club, the festival is intended “to highlight the significant contribution of writers to the story of African nations.”
Thanks to Bunmi Ajiboye for reporting.

ENJOY

An Eurocentric Nobel Prize and African literature

2010-10-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Is it true that the Nobel Prize is Eurocentric? Djamel Belayachi, Heba Montaser believe that it is, and they have their reasons. Here is the layout of their argument:
"African literature is generally ignored by the Nobel committee. Since 1901, only four writers from the continent have been rewarded, two of whom are entirely of European descent. This year, Africa has again bitten the dust after many had tipped the Swedish Academy to give the award to one of four ingenious African authors: Chinua Achebe from Nigeria, Nuruddin Farah from Somalia, Ngugi wa Thiong’o from Kenya, and Assia Djebbar from Algeria. Nevertheless, the Swedish Academy has failed to live up to its Eurocentric reputation by choosing Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa as winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in literature.
"
Enjoy the rest of their argument, and share your opinion.

Esiaba Irobi wins national literature prize

2010-10-12T06:35:00.000-07:00

" The late dramatist and poet, Esiaba Irobi, has won the 2010 Nigeria Prize for Literature. Irobi's play, ‘Cemetery Road', was adjudged the best ahead of Ahmed Yerima's ‘Little Drops...' and Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo's ‘The Killing Swamp' for this year's prize awarded for drama.
Ninety three entries were initially received before the panel of judges comprising theatre scholars, Dapo Adelugba, Mary Kolawole, John Ilah, Kalu Uka, and Tanimu Abubakar, who pruned them down to 11. Irobi, Yerima, and Adinoyi-Ojo made the final shortlist of three announced at a press conference on August 11."
So writes Akintayo Abodunri. ENJOY!