LITERATURE - The African Mirror

Feb

08

2024

Zuleikha Mayat: South African author and activist who led a life of courage, compassion and integrity

LIFESTYLE, LITERATURE

FEW Indian South African women have achieved wider public recognition than author, human rights and cultural activist Zuleikha Mayat, who passed away on 2 February 2024. An honorary doctorate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal was just one of many awards bestowed on her during a life that spanned almost 98 years. SALEEM BADAT, Research Professor, UFS History Department, University of the Free State Mayat was a remarkable pioneer, evocative writer, public speaker, civic worker, human rights champion and philanthropist. She was a staunch supporter of Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli apartheid and genocide. I am a scholar of…

Dec

27

2023

By The African Mirror

4 must-read books from east Africa in 2023: from Tanzanian masters to Ugandan queens

LITERATURE

EAST African literature continues to grow and reshape itself in exciting new ways – and 2023 was no exception. The world really did take notice of the region when Tanzanian-British author Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021. Interest in Gurnah’s work continued last year when he made a homecoming to East Africa. PETER KIMANI, Professor of Practice, Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC) But it is in Tanzania that Gurnah made a proper homecoming in 2023 – through the first ever Kiswahili translation of Paradise, now out as Peponi. I am an…

Dec

16

2023

By The African Mirror

Black Ghosts: Noo Saro-Wiwa’s new book is a powerful reflection on Africans in China

LITERATURE

NOO SARO-WIWA is a celebrated Nigerian-born travel writer. Her latest book is Black Ghosts. It explores, with candour and compassion, the lives of several African economic migrants living in China, a group of people who are key to trade between the continents. As a scholar of African travel writing and mobility, among other fields, I read the book with keen interest and then asked Saro-Wiwa more about it. JANET REMMINGTON, Research Associate, Humanities Research Centre (and African Literature Department, University of the Witwatersrand), University of York Janet Remmington: Let’s start with the title: Black Ghosts. And the subtitle which outlines…

Dec

05

2023

By ESTHER MUSEMBI, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Interview: Acclaimed Zambian writer Mubanga Kalimamukwento on lifting the veil around stories of children during the HIV/AIDS pandemic

LITERATURE

MUBANGA Kalimamukwento is a Zambian human rights lawyer and award-winning writer who has written extensively about the intimate lives of characters facing unimaginable challenges during the AIDS epidemic in Zambia. Her latest but unfinished novel earned her a place as a 2023 Miles Morland Scholar, a scholarship scheme which aims to give African writers of both fiction and non-fiction the financial freedom to complete an English-language book. The following is an extract of a longer conversation. In your first novel, the Mourning Bird, you choose to write from the perspective of a child; why did you choose to do this?…

Nov

28

2023

By The African Mirror

Good Jew, Bad Jew: new book explores why the West views brutality against Ukrainians and Palestinians differently

LITERATURE

IN a recently published book Steven Friedman, who has written extensively on the political and social aspects of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, explores the racist underpinnings of the west’s responses to Israel’s war in Gaza. This is an extract from the book, Good Jew, Bad Jew. STEVEN FRIEDMAN, Professor of Political Studies, University of Johannesburg Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani sees a link between the violence of the coloniser and the slaughter of Jews and Slavs by the Nazis. The racial theories of Houston Stewart Chamberlain and others who claimed the Aryan race was superior meant that Jews and Slavs,…

Nov

24

2023

By The African Mirror

South African politicians vs judges: new book defends the Constitution

LITERATURE

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

21

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

09

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

18

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

06

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,”…