Limbe is a coastal resort city by the black, sandy beaches of the Atlantic in the Anglophone South West Region of Cameroon. It is also where Africa’s first million dollar novelist, Imbolo Mbue was born and raised. Her debut novel, “Behold the dreamers” is partly set there. Most of the flashback in her novel also goes there. Imbolo’s very moving reminiscences of places like Half Mile, Down Beach and Isokolo, resonated with me a lot because they are all places that I lived in or visited in Limbe while growing up. Yet, no matter how neatly she paints the portrait of that clean city in her novel, it is ironically a place that she left. It is also a city which her novel’s two main characters, Jende and Neni Jonga also leave behind.
african writing
Africa, african writing, Fiction, international
Chinyanganya Reviews ‘A Casualty of Power’ by Mukuka Chipanta
A Casualty of Power (Weaver Press, 2016) reads something like a thriller, and it is as difficult to put down, while simultaneously exploring some of the fundamental issues bedevilling post-colonial Africa. The experiences that Hamoonga Moya, the Zambian protagonist, endures will resonate with many in the sub-region. Corruption in high places and the recolonization of…
Africa, african writing, Fiction, international, new writing, writing contests, writivism shortlist
I Haven’t Returned by Laure Gnagbé Blédou (Ivory Coast), translated from the French by Edwige-Renée DRO
Laure Gnagbé Blédou whose short story, “I Haven’t Returned”, was shortlisted in August 2016 for Writivism short story competition, is passionate, a woman, lover, mother, daughter, sister, cousin, friend, Africa-ddict, thirty-something, impatient, Ivorian, French, human, reader, speaker, writer, demanding, citizen, vegetarian, traveller, road-trip fan, learner, book-lover, bridge-lover, chocolate-lover, music enthusiast, sharer, feminist, old-school, new-school, journalist.…
african writing, beaven tapureta, Fiction, international, Poetry, win zimbabwe, zimbabwe
“Poetry Heals Me,” says Ethel Kabwato (Zimbabwe)
Poetry has an indescribable power to do different things to different people. To the Zimbabwean poet and writer Ethel Kabwato, poetry is therapeutic and allows her to be happy, sad, or inspirational. In a wide-ranging interview with Beaven Tapureta, poet Ethel Kabwato revealed how poetry launched her onto a career which she finds self-healing and…
african writing, beaven tapureta, Book News, Fiction, international
Interview with Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Munyori Literary Journal has just reviewed Manyika’s second novel, Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun, which was published this year by Cassava Republic Press Abuja-London and was officially launched in Harare. The following is an exciting conversation which writer/literary journalist Beaven Tapureta (BT), recently held with Sarah Ladipo Manyika (SLM) about herself,…
Africa, african writing, Fiction, international, new writing, writing contests, writivism shortlist
Boyi by Gloria Mwaniga Minage (Kenya)
Gloria Mwaniga Minage is a high school teacher in Baringo where she also runs a children’s reading club. She is also a freelance writer of literary pieces for The Saturday Nation and The East African newspapers as well as coordinator of Amka, a literary workshop that meets monthly at the Goethe Institut in Nairobi to…
Africa, african writing, Fiction, international, new writing, writing contests, writivism shortlist
SunDown by Acan Innocent Immaculate (Uganda)
Acan Innocent Immaculate is a 20-year old Ugandan pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery. Writing has always been her first love and she looks forward to a literary atmosphere where African stories will break the mould even more than they do now. Read her shortlisted story here.
Africa, african writing, Fiction, writing contests, writivism shortlist
The Swahilification of Mutembei by Abu Amirah (Kenya)
Writivism shortlisted writer Abu Amirah finds pleasure in the written word because of the ability to lose himself in an infectious world filled with characters begging to come to life, metaphors, muse and madness; and amid all this, the power to give the reader permission to laugh, cry, love and hate! Read is shortlisted story…
Africa, african writing, Book News, Fiction, Poetry, Shona, zimbabwe
Nhetembo Shanu dza Emmanuel Mhike Hove (Zimbabwe)
Emmanuel Mhike Hove akaberekwa kwaMazvihwa, Zimbabwe, mugore ra1987. Mwana weimba yovushe hwekwaMazvihwa uyo anombodzwa nerekuti “Prince of Mazvihwa” . Akadzidza paGudo Primary School nepaGwavachemai Secondary, achibva azopedzisira paZvishavane High, asati aenda kuMidlands State University, uko abuda neHonours degree reMusic and Musicology. Akashanda paMusic Arts and Culture Festival iyo yaachiri kubatsira nanhasi. Mhike ndoumwe veavo vakauya…
Africa, african writing, Fiction, international
New fiction by Tendai Machingaidze (Zimbabwe)
We are featuring a new short story, “The Cape of Good Hope”, by Tendai Machingaidze, who was born in 1982 in Harare, Zimbabwe. She holds degrees from Syracuse University and Southwestern Seminary. Her short stories have been published by Weaver Press, Africa Book Club, The Kalahari Review, Lawino, Munyori Literary Journal, African Roar, Open Road…
