Book Reviews / Articles

Recent years have seen a renewed scholarly interest in utopian and/or dystopian literary writing more generally. With regard to postcolonial and, most specifically, African literature, Keith Booker was one of the first to comment on the fact that “while “[p]ostcolonial writers, actively engaged in the construction of cultural identities for their new societies, often include […]

There were others before him. But we start with Malangana because that is where our story begins. (p.7) The South African novelist, poet and playwright Zakes Mda, author of critically acclaimed novels like Ways of Dying and Heart of Redness, has published his tenth novel. Little Suns starts in the fashion of the oral storytelling […]

This is a translation of Virginie Mouanda Kibinde’s first novel, originally entitled Les âmes de la forêt (Souls of the forest, 2002). In a second edition of 2004 the book was renamed Au soleil noir du Cabinda. In the introduction, the translator, Vanessa Everson explains that this modification of the title frames the novel more […]

The South African poet, essayist, freedom fighter and painter Breyten Breytenbach hardly needs any introduction since he is perhaps the best-known Afrikaans poet in the world. Neither does Afrikaans literary scholar Louise Viljoen, who recently published a monograph of twelve essays on Breytenbach’s literary work – Die mond vol vuur. Beskouings oor die werk van […]

Selon les termes de Thierry Sinda, cette anthologie est celle des neuf années d’un festival poétique qui a sa place au sein à la fois de la littérature francophone et du mouvement de la négritude. Ce volume rassemble en effet un choix de poèmes sur le thème de l’amour parmi les œuvres, éditées ou inédites, […]