photo source: Weaver Press In the fiction section, we present a new short story by Bongani Sibanda, entitled “The Preventer of Disasters“. Bongani is a Zimbabwean writer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Born in 1990, at a village in Mat. South, he has been writing since he was a child in primary school. His short…
Judith grew up in Polokwane, South Africa. She lived in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe for two years before moving back to her hometown in 1994. She worked as a proofreader at a newspaper printing company and has since been a writing housewife. Her writings have appeared in Vision Magazine, Ancient Paths Christian Literary Magazine, The Kalahari Review…
The results are out, and the winning story, “Caterer, Caterer”, is by Nigerian writer Pemi Aguda. The story, along with four others shortlisted for the Prize, is published here. Pemi Aguda writes short stories and flash fiction. Her stories have appeared in The Kalahari Review, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Prufrock Magazine, The Wrong Quarterly and the…
Every year the African continent holds its breath as we wait for the announcement. We’ve blogged the stories, Googled the authors, engaged in furious debate about the style of writing, about the story, about the author. Then the tweet drops, the website is updated and we all find out who won the Caine Prize. The…
I was one of the participants of the 2015 Caine Prize Writers Workshop, held in Elmina, a picturesque coastal town in Ghana, from April 6 to 19. I travelled from Douala on Ethiopian Airlines, so I spent the night in Addis Ababa and boarded the long flight to Accra the next morning. We landed at the…
Take a collection of colorful, madcap characters linked by a Family House and the despotic grandfather, part god, part politician, and part semi-benevolent dictator, who rules the house. Add a rich sense of culture peppered by local dialect, humor, and the scents of cook fires and earthy, delicious foods. Spice with a hint of political…
Economics professor Smile Dube reviews Benjamin Sibanda’s debut novel When Freedom Came, which is set in Zimbabwe after 1980. Starting in the 1970s, when young university students left the then Rhodesia to pursue their education in England, the book covers the life of a young man who has returned to a newly independent Zimbabwe, to…
Kutyauripo, the Custodian of Shona Cultural Values CHINUA Achebe writes in “African Writers Talking” (1972:7) that: “. . . what I think a novelist can teach is something very fundamental, namely to indicate to his readers, to put it crudely that we in Africa did not hear of culture for the first time from…
Madzimai paanonyora nhetembo dzerudo vanenge vanonetseka kunyora vachinyatsobudisa zvavanonzwa kana vapinda murudo. Memory Chirere anovapa mhosva yekunyora pane imwe nguva savarume kwete samadzimai. Pane kuti ndakadya John vanonyora kuti ‘Ndakadyiwa naSara.’ Zvakadaro zvinoonekwa kuti pane mamwe madzimai anoburitsa zviri kutsi kwemoyo yawo munyaya dzerudo achishandisa rurimi rwechichiRungu. Madzimai akaita saPrimrose Dzenga naEve Nyemba vanonyatsobudisa shuviro…
Dexter Zvicha is a fiction writer and political nerd. He is an MA and MPA graduate of the University of Delaware. He is interested in exploring the wild, grotesque and beautiful through poetry and short fiction. You can see more of his work on his blog thelitepassenger.wordpress.com or follow him on Twitter @LitePassenger. The young…
