A Geography of Times and Affects
by Marissa Moorman. An Angolan friend of mine refuses to read Ondjaki. He says the writer’s work is nostalgic for the socialist period – times he’d rather forget. I disagree. Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret is the third book (and the second translated into English, following Good Morning Comrades) that uses a child narrator […]
Miniature Metamorphoses
by André Naffis-Sahely. In his dotage, Henry Kissinger has come to resemble Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars; after five decades of insidious influence on US foreign policy, stretching from Nixon all the way to Obama, his face has scrunched into a ripple of wrinkles, but his eyes retain their wily lustre. When he enters a room, […]
IRM de la ville de Douala
by Maud De La Chappelle To Didier À Douala, on nomme les carrefours, places, rond-points, rues, de manière improvisoire [1]– improvisée et provisoire – augré des anecdotes du quartier, des lieux de vies importants ou du type d’activité quis’y pratique. Ces noms apparaissent, suivant le même processus unpeu mystérieux que celui qui forme les rumeurs, pour […]
This Sea Shall Be Uprooted
By Jumoke Verissimo Images by Adolphus Opara I On the silk expanse of the waters Gleaming sparkles of wrinkled greys,Burdens of stilts and wraps and roofsWe acquire the nudity of nature. As you drive down the Third Mainland Bridge into the shrivelled Lagos Island area, you are introduced to the sight of hundreds of […]
The Invention of African Football
Moses März documents his fleeting orbit of the “African” football scene, from the Afcon 2008 tourney in Ghana to Angola in 2009 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup extravaganza further south. All in all it was brief, expensive, stereotypically Eurocentric and big on defeat. My short-lived career as an African football correspondent began with a […]