Book Reviews

New book demystifies natural remedies

Title: Green Medicines: Pharmacy of Natural Products for HIV and Five AIDS-related Infections ISBN-13:  978-0-9695307-5-6 Publisher: Africa In Canada Press, 25 Blue Oak Street, Kitchener, Ontario N2R 0K3, Canada Author: Professor Kazhila C. Chinsembu Book Review by Magadza It is safe to say that there is no local book that better addresses the Namibian government’s Harambee…

New Poetry by Matt Prater (USA)

Matt Prater is a poet and writer from Saltville, VA (US). His work has appeared in journals throughout his native Appalachia, including in Appalachian Heritage, Appalachian Journal, drafthorse, Floyd County Moonshine, The Hollins Critic, James Dickey Review, Kudzu, Motif, Now & Then, The Pikeville Review, Revolution John, Still: The Journal, and Town Creek Poetry, among…

African Literary Prizes, Legitimacy, and the non-African Gaze by Bwandugi Mugarura

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…

Naomi Benaron Reviews ‘This House Is Not For Sale’ by E.C. Osondu

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…

Elliot Ziwira Reviews Kutyauripo’s ‘Museve Usingapotse’

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…

Shona: Vhenyenguro yebhuku ‘Museve Usingapotse’, na Tinashe Muchuri

Tinshe Muchuri anopinda matare naCrymio Kutyauripo mubhuku Museve usingapotse rakatsikiswa mugore ra2014, neCollege Press Mapeji  134 ISBN 9781779006189 Museve usingapotse inyaya yaKaringe mwanakomana waMambo Chakaingesu uyo airwira nyika yake yainge yabvutwa nemuzukuru wake Pondai. Munyaya iyi munobuda hudzamu hwedzidziso yeupenyu yemunhu mutema kusati kwazouya dzizdiso iriyo mukore uno. Musoro webhuku ‘Museve usingapotse’ chirevo chinoudzamu ukuru.…

African Roar 2014, Reviewed by Ronald Adamolekun

Title: African Roar 2014 ; Publisher: StoryTime (Edited by Ivor Hartmann) Reviewed by Ronald Odamolekun   Probably, the most phenomenal feature of this anthology is that a majority of its writers are young, mostly men in their twenties yearning for expression. They are nurturing much passion for writing in arguably the most difficult of all…

The 2014 Longlisted Writers for Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Book

Here are the seven longlisted writers for this year’s Golden Boabab Prize for Picture Book: Katherine Graham – A wordsmith by profession, Katherine fills her days writing articles for magazines and looking after her two boys, husband and ginger cat. She started her career as an economics reporter for the South African Broadcasting Corporation and,…

Isaac Attah Ogezi Reviews ‘On Broken Wings: An Anthology of Best Contemporary Nigerian Poetry’

Check out a new review by Isaac Attah Ogezi. He has reviewed a new anthology of poetry by contemporary Nigerian poets. Isaac Attah Ogezi is a legal practitioner, poet, playwright, short story writer and literary essayist. He is published in Drumvoices Revue, USA (2006), Prosopisia, Vol. 1, No. 1, India (2008), www.fictionontheweb.com, www.authorme.com, www.africanwriter.com and several…

New Short Story by Tendai Machingaidze (Zimbabwe)

“I am a tomb”, begins the new short story by Tendai Machingaidze, ‘The Neurological Map of a Madwoman’, a story that puts the reader into a dream state. What more can you ask for, especially from a writer who also uses language with a magical skill? Tendai Machingaidze was born in 1982 in Harare, Zimbabwe.…