The story begins with a feint; the narrator, Bertha, lures…
I was recently in conversation with a local bookstore owner…
Charity begins at home, or so the platitude goes. It…
The story begins with a feint; the narrator, Bertha, lures us into expectation of some historical recount. From there on, she puts up a trap which try as you may, you simply cannot get away from. First, she introduces us to Sara, a girl who was given to the Sultan, Njoya, for a wife at the tender age of nine, ironically as a demonstration of friendship between Njoya and paramount chief Charles Atananga. In Chapter two, three and four, we learn that we are seeing little Sara’s story through old Sara’s eyes; the narrator is a historian travelled from the…
I was recently in conversation with a local bookstore owner about having my upcoming novel on their shelves. They gave me a sobering piece of advice; to temper my expectations on sales. African literature isn’t doing so great out here right now, they said, even established authors with a number of published books are selling
Today’s actions are tomorrow’s results. I’m sure you’ve heard an iteration of this phrase somewhere. That’s because it’s a truism, and one that you may want to keep at the back of your mind if you happen to be an African author (or writer). Because never before has the continent needed more thought-provoking stories than
A good book and a good piece of music have a lot in common. Both will often tell a story, and both will drive emotion. But perhaps more than anything else, both have the ability to teleport human awareness from one’s immediate environment to the setting of the book or song. It’s hard to explain
Charity begins at home, or so the platitude goes. It would, therefore, be remiss of us to start our book evangelism some place other than home. And having said that, it is with much ado that we join in the hype about the African debut of the Asian Literary Festival, which is set to take