“Mandela was not the only head of state taken in by Koagne. Le king kept snapshots of himself with many a man of power, among them Mobutu Sese Seko and Denis Sassou Nguesso […] He took Mobutu for 15 million dollars. Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso lost 40 million to him. Sassou, Etienne Eyadéma of Togo, several high officials of Gabon, Tanzania and Kenya, a member of the Spanish government and an ex-operative of the Israeli Mossad were bamboozled as well.” – Dominique Malaquais (Blood Money: A Douala Chronicle).
Bantu Serenade by Ntone Edjabe (featuring Nah-ee-lah) (read excerpt)
Santu Mofokeng: Trajectory of a street photographer (part1) (read excerpt)
Binyavanga Wainaina: Hell In Bed With Mrs Peprah (read excerpt)
Dominique Malaquais: Lindela (the winnie suite) (read excerpt)
Boubacar Boris Diop: Myriem (read excerpt)
Cover:
Neo Muyanga
Collected Poems by Mafika Pascal Gwala (SAHO, 2016)
This volume of Mafika Pascal Gwala Collected Poems edited by Mandla Langa and Ari Sitas is an important contribution to restore the power of the voice of one of the most influential poets and political activists in the 1970s and 80s.
Gwala's two books Jolinkomo (1977) and No More Lullabies (1982) were met with muted applause. By the time a collective book, Exiles Within, was published, the allure of black writing was in decline. The struggle got ugly, and the words uglier. Gwala entered the fray of the simmering national discontent by working alongside many who were trying to modify the rising authoritarian popularity of Zuluness. His and Liz Gunner's Musho! (1991) made the case for an imbongi tradition "from below"