Read an excerpt from a new edition of Alex La Guma’s A Soviet Journey, including the Foreword by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
The JRB presents an excerpt from a new edition of A Soviet Journey by Alex La Guma: A Critical Annotated…
Tag: Chinua Achebe
‘Powerful drama fused with its cerebral yet emotional writing’—Read Njabulo S Ndebele’s Foreword to the 60th anniversary edition of William ‘Bloke’ Modisane’s Blame Me on History
The JRB presents Njabulo S Ndebele’s Foreword to the new sixtieth-anniversary edition of William ‘Bloke’ Modisane’s Blame Me on History….
An enigma called Christopher Okigbo—Sanya Osha reflects on the visionary and paradoxical poet (including an interview with his biographer Obi Nwakanma)
Once one experiences the phenomenal power of Christopher Okigbo’s poetry, it seems the reverberations persist throughout one’s creative life, writes…
‘Writing is open to everyone, regardless of their background or where they’re from’—An interview with Eswatini’s first Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner Ntsika Kota
The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec chatted to Ntsika Kota, winner of the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for his story, ‘and the…
Wole Soyinka vs Caroline Davis—The CIA Controversy by Adekeye Adebajo
In 2020, Caroline Davis, a British scholar, now based at England’s University College London, published the book African Literature and…
‘This is the voice of contemporary South African fiction’—Joanne Ruth Davis reviews Mphuthumi Ntabeni’s new novel The Wanderers
Mphuthumi Ntabeni’s The Wanderers is a novel that indicates a storyteller in love with the art of telling tales, writes…
Read an excerpt from ‘Dinner with Dambudzo’ by Nthikeng Mohlele, from his new short story collection The Discovery of Love
The JRB presents an excerpt from The Discovery of Love, the new collection of short stories from Nthikeng Mohlele. The…
‘Nothing, virtually no project, no cultural initiative, was left unbrushed by the CIA reptilian coils’—Wole Soyinka. Read an excerpt from White Malice: The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa
The JRB presents an excerpt from Susan Williams’s new book White Malice: The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa. White…
How to write like a white person—Ben Williams presents notes towards a framework for reading white fiction’s ‘literature of success’
In the context of increasing scrutiny on the literary production of white writers, Ben Williams offers up some ideas on…
[The JRB Daily] Tsitsi Dangarembga wins 2021 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for her ‘inimitable storytelling’
Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga, who recently won the PEN Pinter Prize, has been awarded the 2021 Peace Prize of the German…
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…
[The JRB Daily] ‘To be truly powerful is to have your own voice and tell your own story’—Read Zukiswa Wanner’s ‘career-defining’ Time of the Writer keynote address
The author, activist, founder of Afrolit Sans Frontieres and Goethe Medal winner Zukiswa Wanner gave the keynote address at the…
African literature should be free to remain ‘a question to itself’—Lebohang Mojapelo reviews The Rise of the African Novel by Mukoma Wa Ngugi
In The Rise of the African Novel, Mukoma Wa Ngugi traces the way African literature has been a space to…
‘Thinking while black’—Read Grace A Musila’s essay from the award-winning book Black Academic Voices: The South African Experience
‘How do we craft a healthy, dignified blackness, in a world where blackness is a captured identity location that needs…
‘The majority of writers in Africa, of us, confine ourselves, rather than having great ambition’—An interview with Nuruddin Farah, by Lebohang Mojapelo
Internationally renowned Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah is known for his politically conscious writing, which led him into exile as a…
Tyranny of place, tyranny of time: Remembering Es’kia Mphahlele in his centenary year, by Mmatshilo Motsei
Mmatshilo Motsei pays tribute to Es’kia Mphahlele, one hundred years after his birth. I first encountered Es’kia Mphahlele when, in…
How Hip Hop is helping a new generation to ‘read the world’—Read an excerpt from Neva Again: Hip Hop Art, Activism and Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Hip Hop is producing a new generation of readers and writers in a world that operates in diverse literary forms,…
Tribute to Sibusiso Nyembezi, a literary and cultural giant, in his centenary year, by Sandile Ngidi
Sandile Ngidi reflects on the life and work of Zulu novelist, poet, scholar, teacher and editor Sibusiso Nyembezi (1919–2000). In…
Toni Morrison, 1931—2019, RIP
Toni Morrison, celebrated novelist and Nobel Laureate, has died, aged eighty-eight. Morrison passed away at the Montefiore Medical Center in…
[Conversation Issue] A brief history of the Igbo civilisation, and a love story—Chigozie Obioma chats to Jennifer Malec about his new novel, An Orchestra of Minorities
As part of our January Conversation Issue, The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec talks to Chigozie Obioma about his forthcoming ‘African cosmological novel’, An Orchestra…
[Temporary Sojourner] Efemia Chela reads Trifonia Melibea Obono’s La Bastarda, the first novel by an Equatoguinean woman to be translated into English
In La Bastarda we find a revolutionary piece of literature, where a young girl isn’t saved by her long-lost father,…
‘Authors in the West don’t worry about whether Africa will understand them’—Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi discusses Kintu at Wits
Ugandan author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi visited Wits University in August, for a discussion around her debut novel, Kintu. Kintu Jennifer…
Emerging from Chinua Achebe’s shadow: Nigeria’s first generation of post-independence writers and the literary brotherhood of Umuahia
This July marks the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of Chinua Achebe’s seminal novel Things Fall Apart. Lebohang Mojapelo reviews…
Pede Hollist chats to James Murua about his book So the Path Does Not Die and the ‘vibrant’ Sierra Leonean literary scene
Sierra Leonean writer and 2013 Caine Prize shortlistee Pede Hollist was at the Goethe-Institut in Nairobi in May to kick…
‘English’s tendency to obliterate other languages does not apply here’—Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire reviews Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s Kintu
Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire reviews Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s Kintu, which was recently awarded a prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. Kintu Jennifer…
‘Spending time with Bra Willie is the closest thing to being in touch with the soul of this country’: Read Mandla Langa’s Introduction to Keorapetse Kgositsile’s Homesoil in My Blood
Homesoil in My Blood: A Trilogy Keorapetse Kgositsile Xarra Books, 2018 Exclusive to The JRB, we present author Mandla Langa’s…
[Conversation Issue] Using language without restraint to show the energy of the ‘wretched of the earth’—Fiston Mwanza Mujila chats to Bongani Kona
As part of our January Conversation Issue, Bongani Kona interviews award-winning Congolese author Fiston Mwanza Mujila. Tram 83 Fiston Mwanza…
‘Speaking Shona was associated with humiliation’: Petina Gappah on the influence, on her writing, of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Decolonising the Mind
Exclusive to The JRB, a new essay by Petina Gappah on the influence of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s work on her…
On Things Fall Apart and Things Falling Apart—Simon van Schalkwyk considers modernism in the here and now
1. Chinua Achebe, modernist What might it mean to offer a suite of lectures on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart…