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How Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai Chiurai has reinvented the idea of a library

How Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai Chiurai has reinvented the idea of a library

ZIMBABWE born artist Kudzanai Chiurai is a phenomenon. He is one of the most challenging and inventive figures in contemporary African art. From large scale photos of fictional African dictators to experimental films and protest posters, rich oil paintings and minimal sculptures, his work is housed in the world’s top galleries and collections. TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand Chiurai, though, frequently shrugs off gallery spaces to show in warehouses, on the street or in urban locations. His latest project, The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember, is housed in a boutique shopping complex, 44 Stanley, in…
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The library club: taking African storytelling mainstream

The library club: taking African storytelling mainstream

LERATO MOGOATLHE, BIRD NUMBER 4 Portuphy Street in West Legon, Accra, Ghana may look like an ordinary house in the suburb - until you step inside. Crossing the threshold, the one-storey building morphs into a living, breathing vault of stories alive with the potential to transcend the very boundaries of history, geography, and time. This is the embodiment of one woman's passion and a dream so big, it spans the whole world. Welcome to Syliva Arthur's Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD), where even the walls offer a history lesson. Pictures of authors like Kwame Nkrumah, Toni Morrison,…
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Book predicts ANC’s last decade of political dominance in South Africa

Book predicts ANC’s last decade of political dominance in South Africa

THE declining political dominance of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has increasingly attracted scholarly attention since 2009. Political analyst Ralph Mathekga’s new book, The ANC’s Last Decade: how the decline of the party will transform South Africa, is a welcome addition. CHRISTOPHER ISIKE, Professor of African Politics and International Relations , University of Pretoria The ANC’s electoral fortunes have steadily declined in the last three national elections; 2009 (65%), 2014 (62%) and 2019 (57.50%). But, since the 2016 local government elections saw the party lose some of its former strongholds, including four major metropolitan municipalities, the question has…
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Adichie and Emezi: ignore the noise, pay attention to the conversation

Adichie and Emezi: ignore the noise, pay attention to the conversation

THE recent media furore surrounding the “feud” between the celebrated Nigeria-born African diaspora writers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Akwaeke Emezi conflates issues too easily. ARETHA PHIRI, Associate Professor, Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University The very public disagreement began when Adichie presented her views on transgender women – or transwomen – in an interview in 2017. Rather than affirm their status as women, Adichie stated that “transwomen are transwomen”. Emezi, once mentored by Adichie, responded with hurt and anger amid accusations that Adichie is transphobic – prejudiced against transgender people. The latest public disagreement between them on the…
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The story of an African children’s book that explains the science of skin colour

The story of an African children’s book that explains the science of skin colour

SKIN We Are In is a landmark South African book for children (and grown-ups) on the subject of skin colour. Published in 2018, it was co-authored by an artist and a scientist, both South African luminaries – the author Sindiwe Magona and the anthropologist and palaeobiologist Nina Jablonski. Here they talk about how – and why – the book came about. NINA G. JABLONSKI, Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology, Penn State I had found, in the course of my work, that people knew its social significance, but they didn’t understand it. Many were convinced that there was a genetic…
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Aliens in Lagos: sci-fi novel Lagoon offers a bold new future

Aliens in Lagos: sci-fi novel Lagoon offers a bold new future

IN his satirical essay How to Write About Africa, the late Kenyan writer and journalist Binyavanga Wainaina advocated for a rethinking of clichéd and stereotypical representations of the continent. Wainaina was in favour of looking beyond the despair that has plagued and continues to plague Africa. GIBSON NCUBE, Associate Professor, University of Zimbabwe African science fiction is a literary genre which tries to imagine utopic futures of the continent. Nigerian-American novelist Nnedi Okorafor calls her brand of sci-fi “Africanfuturism”. She explains in her blog that Africanfuturism is “concerned with visions of the future” and that “it’s less concerned with ‘what…
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Fighting for Black women’s rights

Fighting for Black women’s rights

JOYCE PILISO-SEROKE ACTIVIST and community organiser Joyce Piliso-Seroke fought overseas and at home in the struggle against apartheid, eventually joining the Commission for Gender Equality in 1999. I was still working for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) when Thenjiwe Mtintso resigned from the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) on 1 April 1998 to take up the full-time political position of deputy secretary-general of the ANC. She had completed just two years of her five-year term. Since I had vowed to continue my involvement in South Africa’s transitional process beyond the end of the TRC lifespan, I was excited to…
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The book fair giving Egypt’s writers hope

The book fair giving Egypt’s writers hope

ONE of Africa's biggest book fairs has come not a moment too soon for authors like Noha Mahmud. The up-and-coming Egyptian author is one of many who struggled to earn a living during the COVID-19 pandemic which devastated Egypt's publishing and book sales industry. As difficult periods go for writers, the last one-and-a-half years have been as tough as they come, for Noha Mahmud, an Egyptian writer in her late 30's. "Publishers stopped buying the literary production of almost all writers," Mahmud said in an interview. "The publishing industry as a whole came to a standstill and with it the…
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New Kiswahili science fiction award charts a path for African languages

New Kiswahili science fiction award charts a path for African languages

THE 6th edition of The Mabati Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature, suspended last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is back. Founded in 2014, the prize recognises writing in African languages and encourages translation from, between and into African languages. Kiswahili is widely spoken across the east coast of Africa. This year’s prize also offers a special award designed to promote and popularise a Kiswahili vocabulary for technology and digital rights. We spoke to the prize founders – literary academic Lizzy Attree, also of Short Story Day Africa, and literature professor and celebrated author Mukoma Wa Ngugi – on…
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Book Review | Remnants of Miriam Tlali

Book Review | Remnants of Miriam Tlali

BARBARA BOSWELL EDITED by esteemed feminist literary critic Pumla Dineo Gqola, Miriam Tlali: Writing Freedom presents a kaleidoscopic view of Miriam Tlali’s life and writing.  The book’s most significant contribution may be that it renders into print, for the first time, a previously unpublished play by the pioneering writer. The text of the play, Crimen Injuria, landed fortuitously with Gqola after a chance encounter at the State Theatre in Pretoria, where a stranger offered it to her, having found it at the theatre.  Understanding Writing Freedom’s significance hinges on understanding the significance of Tlali in South African literature. Born in 1933 in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, Tlali…
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