Africa Writes, the Royal African Society’s annual literature and book festival, returned for its fourth year running . The festival took place from Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th July at the British Library. Africa Writes showcases established and emerging literary…
Africa Writes 2014 opened with a heady mix of femininity, politics and poetry on 11th July when Warsan Shire, London’s Young Poet Laureate joined an exciting line-up of voices to reclaim the feminine voice in literature. The festival’s headline event…
African Books to Inspire Sunday 3 July 12:00 – 13:30 FREE Come to discover and be inspired with guest writers Yewande Omotoso, Abdilatif Abdalla, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, and Akala as they talk about the books that have inspired them. Chaired…
Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire While working on the programming for the #Writivism2015 festival, my colleague and the fulcrum of the administration of the 2015 Writivism project at the Centre for African Cultural Excellence in Kampala, Rebecca Rwakabukoza always insisted on the…
Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire The Africa39 project needs no introduction. Does it? I think African Books To Inspire however needs. In fact, requires. Most times, when writers are invited to speak on panels, to participate in conversations, it is about their…
A contribution from our #100DaysofAfricanReads collaboration What are your ‘African Books to Inspire’? Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique by Goncalo Tavares. I exploit a technicality in choosing Goncalo Tavares’ novel: he’s Angolan-born. Learning to Pray possesses in spades an alienative…
A contribution from our #100DaysofAfricanReads collaboration What are your ‘African Books to Inspire’? Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owour This beautiful and difficult book poignantly captures loss of family, self and nationhood. Yvonne weaves a sorrowful tale that takes Kenyans to lands…
Ben Okri sits among the greats, not only of Nigerian or African literature, but of the world’s literature. Here is a list including his 1991 novel The Famished Road. Seeing the names of such esteemed Nigerian Novelists alongside Okri’s in…
Between October 2014 and January 2015 Angela Wachuka AKA Sister Killjoy shared her #100DaysofAfricanReads – a beautiful series of portraits highlighting the work of an African author in print or online each day for 100 days. Ahead of our own…
Poet and spoken word performer JJ Bola responds to Ben Okri’s article in The Guardian on the mental tyranny keeping black writers from greatness. Whilst acknowledging the value of Okri’s argument, Bola takes to task what he sees as a…