A Tale of Two Continents—Adekeye Adebajo unpacks Dickens in Africa
For reasons technical, historical and—above all—thematic, Dickens is writ large in African literature, writes Adekeye Adebajo. As we approach the…
Tag: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The dialectic of connectedness—remembering Harry Garuba in Ibadan
Sanya Osha remembers the late Harry Garuba, who died earlier this year. Since he passed in February this year, friends…
[City Editor] The Binj outside books—Niq Mhlongo recounts adventures with his friend, Binyavanga Wainaina
Header image: Binyavanga Wainaina (second from left) and Niq Mhlongo (far left), with American author and academic Jeffery Renard Allen, Lesego…
[Conversation Issue] How to protect Africa—Mbali Sikakana decodes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s visit to the Abantu Book Festival
As part of our January Conversation Issue, Mbali Sikakana contemplates the significance of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s recent discussion with Pumla…
[Conversation Issue] Letter to a Young Queer Intellectual by Amatesiro Dore
As part of our January Conversation Issue, read Amatesiro Dore’s Letter to a Young Queer Intellectual. How far, I’ve been…
We told her she was Nina Simone—Bongani Madondo reviews She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Joan Morgan
As Bongani Madondo experienced tinges of nostalgia occasioned by the twentieth anniversary of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, HipHop Feminist…
[City Editor] Visa hassles and visa hustles—Niq Mhlongo compares travelling to Nigeria in 2008 and 2018
Header image (left to right): Nozizwe Cynthia Jele, Niq Mhlongo, Siyamthanda Skota, Yanele Nyamela, Phindile Mokoena, Outlwile Tsipane and Mũkoma…
Maryse Condé receives The New Academy Prize in Literature, aka the ‘Alternative Nobel’
On 12 October, Maryse Condé was announced as the winner of the New Academy Prize in Literature, an award created…
[The JRB Daily] Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie awarded 2018 PEN Pinter Prize for ‘fierce intellectual determination to define the real truth of our lives and our societies’
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been awarded the 2018 PEN Pinter Prize. The prize is awarded annually to a writer who, in the…
‘My main objective is still to help build a bigger reader base of fiction in this country and beyond’—Nozizwe Cynthia Jele chats to Jennifer Malec about her new book, The Ones with Purpose
Editorial Advisory Panel member Nozizwe Cynthia Jele chatted to The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec about her new novel, The Ones with Purpose, which…
[City Editor] Niq Mhlongo visits the PaGya! Literary Festival, finding a very different Ghana from the one he remembers
Niq Mhlongo recounts his literary travels to Accra, Ghana—in 2008, for the Pan-African Literary Forum, and in 2017 for the…
Read an excerpt from the first full-length biography of Christopher Okigbo, a cult hero for a new wave of young African writers
Exclusive to The JRB, an excerpt from the newly published first-ever biography of the Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo: Christopher Okigbo 1930—67, Thirsting…
Professional writers need to be professional readers: Jennifer Malec chats to Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ about her debut novel, Stay With Me
Jennifer Malec sat down with Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ at the recent Open Book Festival in Cape Town to talk about her…
‘How to write about everything’—Binyavanga Wainaina on the problems faced by African writers, and how to overcome them
Binyavanga Wainaina spoke eloquently about his writing career and his life, and how the two are intertwined, at Wits University…
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie named a nouvelle héroïne of literature in France
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been named one of the nouvelle héroïnes of literature by the French newspaper and veritable institution,…
[The JRB Daily] Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie pays touching tribute to Binyavanga Wainaina: ‘A great and rare and genuine talent’
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie paid homage to Binyavanga Wainaina yesterday evening, in a touching message read out at an event at…