The African Novel, Issue #14

Celebrating African literature and performance

Jun 13, 2023

Welcome to the latest issue of The African Novel digital newsletter. You have joined an exciting global community of publishers, authors, readers, writers, poets, and performers, as well as academics, missionaries, and even current and former Peace Corps volunteers. We are all connected in our passion for appreciating, celebrating, and sharing African literature and performance in its many forms.

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IN THIS ISSUE

Editor-in-Chief's Message
Book Review
The African Novel Podcast: Remembering Ama Ata Aidoo
Author Readings: Aidoo’s Her Hair Politics
State of African Literature
Bookshelf
Book Events & More
Our Radio Archives
African Proverb: Guinean

Editor-in-Chief’s Message

A Tribute to Ama Ata Aidoo

Africa and the literary world have lost a uniquely strong voice in the death of Ghanaian-born writer, poet, Ama Ata Aidoo, recently. A Ghanaian professor of African literature who teaches the late author joins our very own resident novelist (also from Ghana) in a podcast to reflect on the life and legacy of Ama Ata Aidoo, whom many considered also a feminist. Professor Vincent Odamtten says Aidoo’s greatest legacy is her pure love for Africa. He pays her tribute by reading from Aidoo’s short story, titled Her Hair Politics.

Enjoy!

Cyril Ibe, Ph.D.

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Book Review

A book review or excerpt will return in the next issue.

Episode #13

Professor Vincent Odamtten and The African Novel Resident Novelist/Poet Benjamin Kwakye join Cyril Ibe to reflect on the life and legacy of the Ghanaian-born, iconic writer, Ama Ata Aidoo, who died recently at age 81.

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Past Podcast Episodes:

Ghanaian novelist and poet Benjamin Kwakye Parts 1 & 2, author of Songs of Benjamin and other titles

Gambian poet Tijan Sallah (Parts 1 & 2), author of I Come from a Country

Poet Obiwu Iwuanyanwu, author of Tigress at Full Moon

Harlem-based writer Obi Nwizu, author of Residue

Jeanne-Marie Jackson, author of The African Novel of Ideas

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, author of Praise Song for My Children

Bayadir Mohamed-Osman, author of Second Hand Smoke

Vanessa Onwuemezi, author of Dark Neighbourhood

Cyprian Njoku Josson, author of The Immigrant Ladder

Kabuika Kamunga, author of Kabuika Wants to Make New Friends

Author Readings

A Tribute to Ama Ata Aidoo (1942-2023)

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Questions on the State of African Literature

Three questions are posed to writers every month. Listen here to their answers.

Responding to the questions below is Nigerian-born writer Obi Nwizu.

Are writers of African fiction “taking the literary world by storm?” these days?
Is the “tide turning” for African literature in America and the rest of the West?
Are we witnessing “a renaissance” of African literature today?
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Bookshelf

What writers and readers of African titles are reading:

Young writer Adaobi Iwuanyanwu:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

I Fell in Love with Hope by Lancali
Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Poet Tijan Sallah from the Gambia: African Literature and the CIA: Networks of Authorship and Publishing by Caroline Davies; Ancient Ghana and Mali by Nehemiah Levtzion; Nonrequired Reading by Wislawa Szymborska; African Literature Comes of Age, African Literature Today 40, edited by Ernest Emenyonu.
Comparative literature professor Jeanne-Marie Jackson (Baltimore, Maryland): Brotherhood by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (in English translation; French original); The Wolf at Number 4 by Ayo Tamakloe-Garr; The Madhouse by T.J. Benson; and An Unusual Grief by Yewande Omotoso (just started reading).
Poet Obiwu (Ohio, USA): The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare; Ijele by Uche Nduka; Samarkand by Wole Soyinka; Ingrid Joker: Poet Under Apartheid by Louise Viljoen.
Writer Arinze Ifeakandu: Hue and Cry by James Alan McPherson, and The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee.
Writer Obi Nwizu (New York): Another Country by James Baldwin and The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare.
Poet Bayadir Mohamed-Osman (Maryland): Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and The New War on the Poor by Dr. Paul Farmer; Secrets of Divine Love by A. Helwa.
Writer/Poet Vanessa Onwuemezi (London): The Palmwine Drinkard by Amos Tutola; Lote by Shola Von Reinhold.
Novelist Cyprian Josson (Chartres, France): Ladies Trip by Fanny Enoh; Burning Grass by Cyprian Ekwensi.
Novelist Benjamin Kwakye (Michigan, USA): Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka; The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers.

Cyril Ibe (Ohio, USA): Things Fall Apart (in French)/Le Monde s’effondre by Chinua Achebe; Songs of Benjamin by Benjamin Kwakye.
(As a reader or subscriber of this newsletter, you can submit titles of African fiction and other books on your reading list. Tell us in what part of the world you reside).

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Book Events & More…

On Demand:

What: Library of Congress’ Interviews with African Writers, a three-part series titled “Conversations with African Poets and Writers Series.” Featured are Nigerian-born author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, South African novelist and playwright Damon Galgut, and Tanzanian-born novelist and Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah.

When: Available since May 2022.

Where: Library of Congress

For more information: Visit here.

Our Radio Archives

Coming soon: Offerings of rare, exclusive interviews and audio documentaries for our paid subscribers.

A partial list of archived Premium offerings:

Interview: Chinua Achebe biographer Ezenwa-Ohaeto
Interview: Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka on his legendary cousin, Fela
Interview: The Black press in America
Interview: South African novelist Mark Mathabani
Audio Documentary: Eighty Gifts for Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks
An audio tour of the Mandela House Museum in Soweto, South Africa
Interview: Ethiopian-Jewish Filmmaker Orly Malessa
Interview: U.S. filmmaker Ileen LeBlanc on Take Us Home, a documentary pic on the exodus of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
Interview: American historian Edward Haas on slavery, the civil war, and the uncelebrated heroism of Blacks in the Union Army.
Interview: Herbert Martin, professor emeritus of English literature and African-American studies at the University of Dayton and co-editor of The Collected Novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar (Ohio University Press).