The story begins with a feint; the narrator, Bertha, lures…
A good book and a good piece of music have…
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…
If you follow the gossip in literary and author circles then you are painfully aware of the two biggest concerns in publishing right now, at least as far as fiction goes. The first is the rise in the number of witch-hunts orchestrated by the publishing industry against authors—many notably black—over false AI claims. The second is the proliferation of AI generated slop which some people fear will dilute literature and take away the light from deserving human-made books. The first problem is a direct result of the second. The publishing industry has been sufficiently flogged over its indiscretions towards authors,…
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 surprisingly few copies. I knew they were right to a certain degree, the same way I know the price of essential goods will go up over the next few months because of oil. My hope was pampered with the vague reassurance that the story I…
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 it does now. Why, you ask? Simple: According to Worldometer, Africa has the youngest population of any continent (the nitty-gritties may vary between sources, but it will still hold true). People in the business of analysing demographics will tell you what this means: it means…
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 what that feeling is, yet anyone who has ever enjoyed a story and felt like it wasn’t supposed to end knows it only too well. The feeling that makes you want to get up and look for another book just like that one. It is…
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 place in April, 2026 right here in Nairobi. This is particularly exciting news for authors and readers in East Africa; it is an opportunity to commune and share experiences with like-minded people from vastly different cultural backgrounds, and, at virtually no cost! Literary festivals are…