Long-listed for both the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Walter Scott Prize, Afterlives is the tenth novel by Zanzibar-born Abdulrazak Gurnah, who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. This award has been regarded as “a family win” for East African writers or, more broadly, for Gurnah’s many devoted readers worldwide. […]
For many people, the Libyan novel – and the country it represents – is largely a terra incognita, a place where ancient cartographers masking their ignorance would have written ‘hic sunt leones’ (‘here … there are lions’). This is regrettable; Charis Olszok’s study is a most welcome and relevant addition in the field of literary studies. […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/libyan.jpg750500Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172021-11-11 10:55:552021-11-11 10:56:00Charis Olszok, 2020: The Libyan Novel. Humans, Animals and the Poetics of Vulnerability | A Review by Caroline Janssen
“I remember the year I turned seventeen as the year of stubborn seasons.” (7) So begins Sifiso Mzobe’s novel, Young Blood, which follows the turbulent coming-of-age of a young man, Sipho, over the course of one pivotal year in his life – the year that he is 17. Describing the seasons as ‘stubborn’ because they […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Young-blood-cover-204x300.jpg300204Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172021-05-20 21:46:392021-05-20 21:46:48Young Blood (Catalyst Press, 2021) Sifiso Mzobe | A Review by Beverley Jane Cornelius
So this is not history, it is a revelation; A revelation of love A revelation of hope A revelation of perseverance A revelation of bravery A revelation of knowledge Kwa ũguo rũũrũ ti hithitũrĩ ni kĩguũrĩrio Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa wendo Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa mĩwhoko Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa ũmĩrĩru Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa ũkamba Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa ũmenio After decades of producing […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/perfect_nine_final.jpg360240Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172021-05-20 17:19:372021-05-20 17:29:52The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi (The New Press, 2020) / Kenda Mũiyũru: Rũgano rwa Gĩkũyũ na Mũmbi (East African Educational Publishers, 2018) | A Review by Annachiara Raia
In his new book, The Postcolonial Animal, Evan Mwangi studies the role of animals in contemporary postcolonial African literature. His aim is not to explore the way in which animals are used to represent human society, but rather more to show ‘how the animal shapes texts’ (vii), leading to a reframing of the human category. Mwangi does […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/postcolonial-animal.png505337Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172020-10-31 12:13:062020-10-31 12:17:54Evan Maina Mwangi, The postcolonial animal. African literature and posthuman ethics | A Review by Inge Brinkman
C’est le mardi 8 Septembre 2020, un après-midi nuageux dans le quartier Matongé de Bruxelles que nous avons le plaisir de parler avec Celestina Jorge Vindes, propriétaire de Pépite Blues. Pépite Blues, qui se trouve à la rue Anoul 30, est une librairie et un espace culturel où les afro-littératures sont mises à l’honneur. Celestina Jorge Vindes nous accueille et nous répond généreusement et profondément quand on l’interroge […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/entretien.jpg552736Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172020-10-31 12:10:222020-10-31 12:20:04Un entretien avec Celestina Jorge Vindes de Pépite Blues | Amber Frateur & Adja Sy
In the driest region east of the Okavango, the Amakanko live a quiet life with their cattle, their gods and their ancestors. That is until Khama’s father, the bravest hunter between the Zambesi and the Cape, is killed by an elephant. According to custom, Khama’s uncle marries his widowed mother and takes over the household. […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/khama.jpg348225Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172020-10-31 12:08:242020-11-11 14:53:09Khama’s rebellion against history | A Review by Gitte Postel
Ameera Patel’s Outside the Lines, situated in contemporary Johannesburg, South Africa is a raw depiction of the intermeshed nature of political and personal realities and the human connections, dreams, aspirations of choice and self-alienation that exist in their gaps and fissures. The author dexterously manages a seamless storytelling experience despite the ever-shifting narrative voices that flit between the […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/outside-the-lines.jpg300200Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172020-10-31 12:04:212020-10-31 12:04:28Outside the Lines | A Review by Aneesha Puri
Two strangers from Mthatha (South Africa) cross paths in London when they become embroiled in a well-to-do family’s argument about an antique violin (a 300-year old family heirloom). Consequently, when the violin is stolen, both South Africans travel to Nsawam (Ghana) – one returning to an ancestral home, the other hoping for a sublime musical […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/yellowbone.jpg475312Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172020-05-25 22:05:042020-05-25 22:05:04Yellowbone, Ekow Duker | A Review by Beverley Jane Cornelius
A good writer can always imagine stories about a place she has never been to. However, for certain stories to get to the heart of the matter, the writer must know her setting and characters enough to understand their motives, to sympathetically portray their impulses, and to accurately capture their “raison d’être”. When such writers […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Better-Never-Than-Late-Front-Cover.jpg25511594Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172020-05-25 21:51:572020-05-25 21:51:57Of Paper Wives and Cowardly Existence: A Review of Chika Unigwe’s Better Never than Late | Elizabeth Olubukola Olaoye
Afterlives (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020). Abdulrazak Gurnah | A Review by Annachiara Raia
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017Long-listed for both the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Walter Scott Prize, Afterlives is the tenth novel by Zanzibar-born Abdulrazak Gurnah, who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. This award has been regarded as “a family win” for East African writers or, more broadly, for Gurnah’s many devoted readers worldwide. […]
Charis Olszok, 2020: The Libyan Novel. Humans, Animals and the Poetics of Vulnerability | A Review by Caroline Janssen
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017For many people, the Libyan novel – and the country it represents – is largely a terra incognita, a place where ancient cartographers masking their ignorance would have written ‘hic sunt leones’ (‘here … there are lions’). This is regrettable; Charis Olszok’s study is a most welcome and relevant addition in the field of literary studies. […]
Young Blood (Catalyst Press, 2021) Sifiso Mzobe | A Review by Beverley Jane Cornelius
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017“I remember the year I turned seventeen as the year of stubborn seasons.” (7) So begins Sifiso Mzobe’s novel, Young Blood, which follows the turbulent coming-of-age of a young man, Sipho, over the course of one pivotal year in his life – the year that he is 17. Describing the seasons as ‘stubborn’ because they […]
The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi (The New Press, 2020) / Kenda Mũiyũru: Rũgano rwa Gĩkũyũ na Mũmbi (East African Educational Publishers, 2018) | A Review by Annachiara Raia
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017So this is not history, it is a revelation; A revelation of love A revelation of hope A revelation of perseverance A revelation of bravery A revelation of knowledge Kwa ũguo rũũrũ ti hithitũrĩ ni kĩguũrĩrio Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa wendo Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa mĩwhoko Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa ũmĩrĩru Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa ũkamba Kĩguũrĩrio kĩa ũmenio After decades of producing […]
Evan Maina Mwangi, The postcolonial animal. African literature and posthuman ethics | A Review by Inge Brinkman
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017In his new book, The Postcolonial Animal, Evan Mwangi studies the role of animals in contemporary postcolonial African literature. His aim is not to explore the way in which animals are used to represent human society, but rather more to show ‘how the animal shapes texts’ (vii), leading to a reframing of the human category. Mwangi does […]
Un entretien avec Celestina Jorge Vindes de Pépite Blues | Amber Frateur & Adja Sy
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017C’est le mardi 8 Septembre 2020, un après-midi nuageux dans le quartier Matongé de Bruxelles que nous avons le plaisir de parler avec Celestina Jorge Vindes, propriétaire de Pépite Blues. Pépite Blues, qui se trouve à la rue Anoul 30, est une librairie et un espace culturel où les afro-littératures sont mises à l’honneur. Celestina Jorge Vindes nous accueille et nous répond généreusement et profondément quand on l’interroge […]
Khama’s rebellion against history | A Review by Gitte Postel
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017In the driest region east of the Okavango, the Amakanko live a quiet life with their cattle, their gods and their ancestors. That is until Khama’s father, the bravest hunter between the Zambesi and the Cape, is killed by an elephant. According to custom, Khama’s uncle marries his widowed mother and takes over the household. […]
Outside the Lines | A Review by Aneesha Puri
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017Ameera Patel’s Outside the Lines, situated in contemporary Johannesburg, South Africa is a raw depiction of the intermeshed nature of political and personal realities and the human connections, dreams, aspirations of choice and self-alienation that exist in their gaps and fissures. The author dexterously manages a seamless storytelling experience despite the ever-shifting narrative voices that flit between the […]
Yellowbone, Ekow Duker | A Review by Beverley Jane Cornelius
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017Two strangers from Mthatha (South Africa) cross paths in London when they become embroiled in a well-to-do family’s argument about an antique violin (a 300-year old family heirloom). Consequently, when the violin is stolen, both South Africans travel to Nsawam (Ghana) – one returning to an ancestral home, the other hoping for a sublime musical […]
Of Paper Wives and Cowardly Existence: A Review of Chika Unigwe’s Better Never than Late | Elizabeth Olubukola Olaoye
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017A good writer can always imagine stories about a place she has never been to. However, for certain stories to get to the heart of the matter, the writer must know her setting and characters enough to understand their motives, to sympathetically portray their impulses, and to accurately capture their “raison d’être”. When such writers […]