LITERATURE - The African Mirror

Nov

2023

South African politicians vs judges: new book defends the Constitution

IN 1994, South Africa became a democracy founded on a supreme constitution. The Constitution’s preamble affirms the nation’s quest to establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. The Constitution clearly envisioned political accountability and judicial review of executive and legislative actions. But, almost three decades on, this vision is increasingly under virulent criticism by populist politicians. ANTHONY DIALA, Director, Centre for Legal Integration in Africa, University of the Western Cape Dan Mafora’s new book, Capture in the Court – In Defence of Judges and the Constitution, likens the rising rebellion against judges and the…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

Henri Lopes, the prime minister of Congo who became a famous novelist: behind the power of his writing

LITERATURE

“ON the other bank … that is where Henri Lopes now rests,” wrote novelist and journalist Nicolas Michel in a beautiful tribute to mark the passing of the celebrated Congolese author. It’s a reference, of course, to Lopes’ 1992 novel Sur l'autre Rive (On the Other Bank). JUDITH SINANGA-OHLMANN, Professor of French language, French and Francophone Literature, University of Windsor Indeed, how can we not imagine Lopes as the character Andélé from his 1990 novel Le Chercheur d’Afriques (The Researcher of Africa), who describes himself as a man “born between the waters”. Lopes, born to mixed ancestry, was a writer…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

Birds of East Africa: new book reveals their extraordinary diversity and changing behaviour

LITERATURE

101 Curious Tales of East African Birds is a new book that uses academic research to tell fascinating stories about the tropical birds of East Africa, from well-known species to rare ones. It also explores changing bird behaviour in the region. Its author, Colin Beale, studies shifts in the distribution of birds and other animals. We asked him four questions. COLIN BEALE, Professor of Ecology, University of York Why is it important to study birds and their environment? Like millions of people around the world, I love watching birds. They’re so accessible, and their busy lives brighten up pretty much…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

Caine Prize 2023: Senegalese writers win for fantasy-horror story about dangers facing girls

LITERATURE

THE influential Caine Prize for African Writing for 2023 was won by a power couple from Senegal. Their short story A Soul of Small Places (which can be read over here) echoes deeper trends in the country’s literature while picking up on the growth of horror and speculative fiction across the continent. African literature specialist Caroline D. Laurent explains. CAROLINE D. LAURENT, Assistant Professor, American University of Paris (AUP) What’s the Caine Prize and what does winning it mean? The Caine Prize, awarded annually since 2000, acknowledges a short story written in English by an African author. Its objective is…

Oct

2023

By AMY WEST, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Writing In The Sand: This young woman’s early memories of her grandmother kept her dreams of an education alive

LITERATURE

WHEN Tholoana was four, her grandmother taught her to write her name using a stick to carve out the letters in the sand outside her home, a one-bedroom brick house in a small, peri-urban area outside of Maseru, Lesotho. “She didn’t have much of an education, but she taught me letters by the shapes they formed: downward wash basins, chairs, standing tree, and eggs. This is how my name took form,” said Tholoana, recalling those early years, and speaking now at the Cape University of Technology (CPUT) in Cape Town. “I come from the dusty ground, like a true warrior,”…

Sep

2023

By The African Mirror

African Literature in the Digital Age: new book traces the role of the internet, queers and class

LITERATURE

THE first book-length study of digital literature in Africa has attracted a lot of academic attention. African Literature in the Digital Age: Class and Sexual Politics in New Writing from Kenya and Nigeria considers the role of the Internet and new media in finding and shaping new audiences for literature. We asked its author, former journalist, literature scholar, publishing editor of The New Black Magazine and associate professor of African studies, Shola Adenekan, about the book. SHOLA ADENEKAN, Associate Professor of African Literature, Ghent University What prompted you to write this? The book came out of my own experience of…

Sep

2023

By The African Mirror

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s new novel is a modern Nigerian tragedy about the rich and the poor

LITERATURE

NIGERIAN writer Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀` took the literary world by storm with her debut novel Stay With Me in 2017. Six years later, she has followed up with an equally brilliant second novel, A Spell of Good Things, which has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023. SAKIRU ADEBAYO, Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia Just as with her first novel, A Spell of Good Things delves masterfully into the complexities of polygamy and problems with patriarchy while also exploring the corrosive effects of Nigeria’s political corruption on ordinary and, especially, poor Nigerians. As someone who studies Nigerian literature, I hold…

Sep

2023

By The African Mirror

Kole Omotoso, the Nigerian writer, scholar and actor who inspired a continent

LITERATURE

BANKOLE Ajibabi Omotoso, better known as Kole Omotoso, the Nigerian novelist, playwright, journalist, scholar and actor, died on 19 July 2023. His son Akin Omotoso, a filmmaker, announced the death of the writer on Instagram. It came at a time when Nigeria was celebrating the 89th birthday of Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel laureate in literature and Omotoso’s colleague at the then-University of Ife. Both were so prominent nationwide that everyone wanted to go to Ife and study at their feet, especially those aspiring to a career in the arts or humanities. OLAYINKA OYEGBILE, Journalist and Communications scholar, Trinity University,…

Jul

2023

By The African Mirror

Sindiwe Magona’s new book of essays tackles issues South Africans aren’t talking about

LITERATURE

SINDIWE Magona – who turns 80 this year – is a celebrated South African writer, storyteller, speaker and activist. In 2022 Magona, once a domestic worker, received her PhD in creative writing. Best known for her novels, autobiographies, short stories, poems and children’s books, she’s also a writer of essays. Now a new collection, I Write the Yawning Void, has been published. The essays in the book mostly deal with becoming and being a writer in a country like South Africa with a violent past that lives on in painful social and economic inequality. We asked her about the book.…

Jul

2023

By FRANCESCA NEGRO

Paulina Chiziane, Mozambique’s grand novelist, finally receives her prestigious award

LITERATURE

PAULINA Chiziane, the first woman to publish a novel in Mozambique, has become the first African woman to receive the most important award for Portuguese literature, the Camões Prize. She’s also the first to break all the rules about what a writer may reveal about Mozambique’s patriarchal culture and social taboos. Born in Manjacaze in 1955 and raised in the capital, Maputo, Chiziane’s mother tongue is Chopi, a Bantu language spoken along the southern coast of Mozambique, which she practised along with Portuguese, the language imposed during the colonial period. Today Chiziane has a degree in linguistics and is a…