The myth of transcendence—Zanta Nkumane reviews Ocean Vuong’s new novel The Emperor of Gladness
Zanta Nkumane reviews Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness, a novel not intent on building a new national myth, but…
Tag: Language
‘The centre of my world is going to be where I say it is’—An interview with Ellah Wakatama on African publishing, excerpted from Imprint Africa
The JRB presents an interview with Ellah Wakatama, facilitated by Joel Cabrita, excerpted from Imprint Africa: Conversations with African Women…
‘Black women’s imaginative works are wreaths lain on the graves of ancestors so that they may not weep.’—Read an excerpt from Panashe Chigumadzi’s essay ‘Hearing the Silence’
The JRB presents an excerpt from a new essay by The JRB Contributing Editor Panashe Chigumadzi, from Surfacing: On Being…
‘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…
Writing Athlone—Gabeba Baderoon’s latest poetry collection The History of Intimacy maps the small hurts of apartheid, writes Toni Giselle Stuart
Toni Giselle Stuart reviews Gabeba Baderoon’s poetry collection The History of Intimacy, which won the 2019 University of Johannesburg Main…
‘I do not manage my Africanness. I fight for it. I constantly have to defend it.’—Indo-Mauritian poet Moshumee T Dewoo talks to Ahmet Sait Akçay
Turkish author Ahmet Sait Akçay chats to Indo-Mauritian poet Moshumee T Dewoo about being denied Africanness, the hypocrisy of religion,…
Contemplating South Africa’s coalition of traumas through the idea of lost language—Khanya Mtshali reviews Phumlani Pikoli’s Born Freeloaders
In Born Freeloaders, Phumlani Pikoli seeks to provide a meditation on how empire is constructed through language. But the language…
Read ‘Surely This [Mother Tongue] Should Count for Something’—A conversation with 5 women poets, from Makhosazana Xaba’s new book Our Words, Our Worlds
The JRB presents an excerpt from Our Words, Our Worlds: Writing on Black South African Women Poets, 2000–2018, edited by…
Writing queerness as mythology—Zanta Nkumane reviews Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Zanta Nkumane reviews Ocean Vuong’s devastatingly beautiful debut On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, a novel about living in the margins,…
[The JRB exclusive] ‘No Speaking Vernacular! (Woloolo)’, a poem by Kagayi Ngobi
The JRB presents ‘No Speaking Vernacular! (Woloolo)’ by Ugandan poet Kagayi Ngobi in its complete form. Read about Ngobi and…
‘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…