Reviewed by Beaven Tapureta The Testament of Black Jesus (2024), an epic by the award-winning protest poet Philani Amadeus Nyoni, presents a black saviour who, according to the poet’s words, ‘rises to speak great and dangerous words’. The saviour has a responsibility thrust upon her by past events, to spread the legacy, good or bad,…
Tee Ngugi, the eldest of Ngugi’s offspring is a writer, columnist, and singer-songwriter of note. His short fiction, essays, and commentaries have appeared in several publications including New Orleans Review, St Petersburg Review, Kwani, Brittle Paper, Timbuktu, New Black Magazine, Jahazi, and The East African, among others.
BEAVEN TAPURETA HARARE, ZIMBABWE: Prolific Zimbabwean writer and poet Oscar Gwiriri is proud of his mother tongue, Shona, which he is doing his best to preserve through writing and defending it from being diluted by modern communication technologies and other forces. Shona is one of Zimbabwe’s sixteen official languages and is spoken in five major…
A Portrait of Emlanjeni tries to take a panoramic picture of this place from the unique landscape, the minds of the people, their rich culture, and the subsequent challenges that they face in the changing times in Southern Zimbabwe. It is a story told through a woman’s gaze, very sensitive to how women experience a landscape made by nature and men.
Title: Lost Memories and other things that I thought I forgot Author: Nesta Hatendi, Publisher: Immortali Year of publication: 2022 Reviewed by Memory Chirere The first time that I read these short stories, I found out that perhaps Nesta Hatendi is working with the technique of the short story sequence. This is something that major…
New Shona Anthology featuring new and seasoned poets published
Diaspora Dreams by Andrew Chatora Diaspora Dreams, A novel by Andrew Chatora Published by KHARIS PUBLISHING,2021, isbn: ISBN-13: 978-1-63746-029-0 There are strong indications that the UK-based Zimbabwean writer, Andrew Chatora, is going to release his debut novel, Diaspora Dreams with Kharis Publishing in the US very soon. On noting the subject matter, I was initially tempted…
The Reign: Africa, by C.Nichole Pan African Publishing, based in Texas, USA, has published a new children’s book entitled The Reign: Africa, written by C. Nichole. The 52-page illustrated book covers 20 African cultural groups, ranging from !Kung, Afar, Baganda, Batswana, and others, concluding with the Yoruba. Each feature is accompanied by an illustration that…
Chad Norman’s poems have appeared for the past 35 years in literary publications across Canada, as well as a number of other countries around the world. He hosts and organizes RiverWords: Poetry & Music Festival each year in Truro, NS., held at Riverfront Park , the 2nd Saturday of each July. In October 2016 he was invited…
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.
