Once There Were Humans
In the hills above Kingston, Jamaica Annie Paul unpacks some baggage in a rare interview with Peter Abrahams, the South African-born writer and ardent Pan-Africanist. According to Nigerian critic Olu Oguibe, the South African-born novelist and essayist Peter Abrahams is “one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, though few people know it. […]
Childhood Snapshots
by Bill Kouélany We are on a bus – my sister, my girlfriend and I. It is hot. Sweat is pouring from my girlfriend’s armpits, slipping down her arms, wetting her school uniform. I watch as the stain spreads, taking up more and more space. I move closer to inhale the smell. Appalled, my […]
Discoveries of Timbuktu
Ciraj Rassool I am not a scholar of Timbuktu or Arabic or Ajami (African languages in Arabic script) texts. Instead I have had the opportunity to think about the meanings and significance of this book from the vantage point of a scholar of heritage, archives and collecting. I myself travelled to Timbuktu and Djenne under […]
In Search of Yambo
Christopher Wise Yambo Ouologuem, the Malian author of Le devoir de violence (translated as Bound to Violence), has not been interviewed in nearly three decades. His doings have been shrouded in mystery ever since he “disappeared” from the West, in effect turning his back on literature. Ouologuem has become an enigma for many, a mysterious […]
Sortir de la grande nuit. Essai sur l’Afrique décolonisée
Norbert N. Ouendji interviews Achille Mbembe before Afropolitanism (circa 2010) « Sortir de la grande nuit. Essai sur l’Afrique décolonisée ». Tel est le titre du dernier livre d’Achille Mbembe qui paraît aux Éditions La Découverte à Paris le 14 octobre. J’ai eu le privilège de lire de manière attentive cet ouvrage riche et très documenté écrit en […]