Ndima Ndima is Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Mapepa’s debut novel, published by Catalyst Press in 2023. The narrative unfolds through at least three interconnected sub-narratives. The first sub-narrative delves into the experiences of Zuva and her family in Harare, exploring the intricate (dis)harmony between nature and humanity. A second narrative thread traces Zuva’s past, encompassing her relationship […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ndima.jpg300199Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172024-04-28 15:24:372024-04-28 15:24:37Ndima Ndima, a Zimbabwean eco-story | A Review by Tendai Mangena
This graphic novel starts with a dreamy text and image that refers to rumuko; the mythical ritual of the river snake Nyaminyami dying and being reborn again. After this introduction, the story begins with two men, Tongai and Rock, whose adventures on the Zambezi river to hunt for a treasure lead them to the entrance of […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/kariba-cover.jpg300222Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172024-04-28 15:16:522024-04-28 15:16:52Kariba | A Review by Inge Brinkman
The Catalyst Press book cover states that Ndlovu’s novel The History of Man is ‘set in a southern African country that is never named’. This is true, neither Rhodesia nor Zimbabwe is ever mentioned. But every other place in this novel can easily be located in what is now Zimbabwe: the Matopos hills in the […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/history-1.jpg300195Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172023-11-05 16:08:392023-11-05 16:09:22The History of Man - Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (Penguin Random House South Africa, 2020) | A Review by Gitte Postel
Stephen Buoro’s first novel, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa, chronicles Andy Aziza’s coming-of-age in contemporary Nigeria. Blending poetry and prose, Buoro endows his titular character with a vivid voice and personality while also tackling issues of religion, race, and migration. Furthermore, Buoro’s novel is infused with a wide range of influences and references, […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/five.jpg719474Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172023-11-05 16:02:432023-11-05 16:02:43The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa (Bloomsbury, 2022), Stephen Buoro | A Review by Christopher Hebert
Introduction A humble corpus of seventy-nine limestone flakes – ostraca – and four papyri lies at the basis of this book, a study of what Jennifer Miyuki Babcock understands to be visual representations of Ancient Egyptian animal fables. The author is a professor of Art History and Archaeology in New York, and specializes in the […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ancient.jpg277180Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172023-04-29 14:34:142023-04-29 14:34:15Ancient Egyptian Animal Fables. Tree Climbing Hippos and Ennobled Mice (Brill, 2022), Jennifer Miyuki Babcock | A Review by Caroline Janssen
Noo Saro Wiwa is a Nigerian- British Travel writer who Condé Nast Traveler Magazine listed as one of the 30 most influential women travelers. She was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England, where she attended King’s College London and then Colombia University in New York. She has contributed book reviews, travel, opinion, […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Looking_for_Transwonderland.jpg389256Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172023-04-29 14:24:572023-04-29 14:24:58Interview with Noo Saro-Wiwa on her recent memoir Looking for Transwonderland | by Elizabeth Olaoye
During the 1991-1992 academic year, the Division of the Humanities of the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University, with grant-funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities, restructured its two-semester core course entitled “Introduction to Humanities I and II”. The overall goal was to revise and expand the course content to include in […]
Eye Brother Horn (2023) by Bridget Pitt, is the story of two brothers who, though devoted to each other, are at odds with the world, each in his own way. Daniel and Moses are the sons of an English Reverend at a Christian mission station in Natal[1] in the mid- to late-1800s. While Daniel, the […]
https://www.africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Eye-Brother-Horn-cover-1.jpg588384Gilbert2017http://africabooklink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-africa-book-link2.pngGilbert20172023-04-29 13:50:072023-04-29 13:58:38Eye Brother Horn (Catalyst Press, 2022) Bridget Pitt | A Review by Beverley Jane Cornelius
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
Ndima Ndima, a Zimbabwean eco-story | A Review by Tendai Mangena
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017Ndima Ndima is Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Mapepa’s debut novel, published by Catalyst Press in 2023. The narrative unfolds through at least three interconnected sub-narratives. The first sub-narrative delves into the experiences of Zuva and her family in Harare, exploring the intricate (dis)harmony between nature and humanity. A second narrative thread traces Zuva’s past, encompassing her relationship […]
Kariba | A Review by Inge Brinkman
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017This graphic novel starts with a dreamy text and image that refers to rumuko; the mythical ritual of the river snake Nyaminyami dying and being reborn again. After this introduction, the story begins with two men, Tongai and Rock, whose adventures on the Zambezi river to hunt for a treasure lead them to the entrance of […]
The History of Man – Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (Penguin Random House South Africa, 2020) | A Review by Gitte Postel
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017The Catalyst Press book cover states that Ndlovu’s novel The History of Man is ‘set in a southern African country that is never named’. This is true, neither Rhodesia nor Zimbabwe is ever mentioned. But every other place in this novel can easily be located in what is now Zimbabwe: the Matopos hills in the […]
The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa (Bloomsbury, 2022), Stephen Buoro | A Review by Christopher Hebert
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017Stephen Buoro’s first novel, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa, chronicles Andy Aziza’s coming-of-age in contemporary Nigeria. Blending poetry and prose, Buoro endows his titular character with a vivid voice and personality while also tackling issues of religion, race, and migration. Furthermore, Buoro’s novel is infused with a wide range of influences and references, […]
Ancient Egyptian Animal Fables. Tree Climbing Hippos and Ennobled Mice (Brill, 2022), Jennifer Miyuki Babcock | A Review by Caroline Janssen
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017Introduction A humble corpus of seventy-nine limestone flakes – ostraca – and four papyri lies at the basis of this book, a study of what Jennifer Miyuki Babcock understands to be visual representations of Ancient Egyptian animal fables. The author is a professor of Art History and Archaeology in New York, and specializes in the […]
Interview with Noo Saro-Wiwa on her recent memoir Looking for Transwonderland | by Elizabeth Olaoye
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017Noo Saro Wiwa is a Nigerian- British Travel writer who Condé Nast Traveler Magazine listed as one of the 30 most influential women travelers. She was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England, where she attended King’s College London and then Colombia University in New York. She has contributed book reviews, travel, opinion, […]
Chinua Achebe and the Igbo-African World: Between Fiction, Fact and Historical Representation (Lexington Books, 2022), Chima J. Korieh and Ijeoma C. Nwajiaku (Eds.) | A Review by James J. Davis
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017During the 1991-1992 academic year, the Division of the Humanities of the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University, with grant-funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities, restructured its two-semester core course entitled “Introduction to Humanities I and II”. The overall goal was to revise and expand the course content to include in […]
Eye Brother Horn (Catalyst Press, 2022) Bridget Pitt | A Review by Beverley Jane Cornelius
/in Uncategorized /by Gilbert2017Eye Brother Horn (2023) by Bridget Pitt, is the story of two brothers who, though devoted to each other, are at odds with the world, each in his own way. Daniel and Moses are the sons of an English Reverend at a Christian mission station in Natal[1] in the mid- to late-1800s. While Daniel, the […]
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. […]