BETTER THAN GOLD
Better Than Gold A poem by Atinuke Lawal (Obafemi Awolowo University)Precious yellow metalUsed for making ornaments and jewelleryYou are valuable, you are goodBut there is something better than you...
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SORRY YOU'VE BEEN TROUBLED. By O Bolaji
Books reviewed here: Comes the Voyager at last. By Kofi Awoonor.Anatomy of female power. By Chinweizu. Black Man's Dilemma. By Areoye Oyebola. Kossoh Town Boy. By Robert Wellesley Cole.The Edifice. By...
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ADIEU, BUCHI EMECHETA
Buchi Emecheta (1944-2017)- An extraordinary African Woman WriterBy I. M SoqagaAbsolutely, Africa for decades has produced many prodigious and capable writers whose writing fascinates the world...
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OCTOBER. By Zoe Wicomb
'Mercia Murray is a woman of fifty-two years who has been left.” Abandoned by her partner in Scotland, where she has been living for twenty-five years, Mercia returns to her homeland of South Africa to...
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Adieu, South Africa's first Black female novelist
Miriam Tlali - A Powerful Fascinating Pioneer of African LiteratureBy M. I SoqagaIt is absolutely gruesome to see early pioneers of African literature departing this world rapidly! For the past years...
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BOOK IMMORTALISES PETRUS "WHITEHEAD" MOLEMELA
The legendary Ntate Petrus Molemela (South Africa) is dead - the larger-than-life man associated with the Bloemfontein Celtic football club in Mangaung. Before he died, Charley Pitersen wrote a fine,...
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THE PRIMACY OF THE MOTHER TONGUE
Mother tongue is the language that every child learn to speak firstly when she/he start to speak besides the household of the Africans that their houses English is their first language and in that case...
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ARROW OF GOD. By Chinua Achebe
Literature can often puzzle and startle one, including Africanliterature - the way we receive and criticise books. A good example isGhana's world class writer, Ayi Kwei Armah; the literary world...
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THE MAN DIED: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka
It is bizarre to think that a distinguished, world class literary pearl like Soyinka spent years clamped in gaol. But then again, so did other African literary giants like Kofi Awoonor (Ghana), Ngugi...
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THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI'S WIVES. By Lola Shoneyin
Lola Shoneyin's book is one of the most successful and most widely read, received in African literary history (never mind African women's literature). This of course indicates that this work is also...
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A BEAUTIFUL LIFE (Poem)
By KESA MAKAOTAWhen darkness engulfs my days,When dust chokes my breath,When fog enslaves my eyes and the rain shatters my skin.When laughter is but a beautiful enigma and joy fades into a distant...
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ADEBAYO FALETI (1930 - 2017)
By O BolajiPa Adebayo Faleti, the renowned Yoruba writer (from Nigeria) died at the weekend. He was also a veteran actor, poet, translator, and tv facilitator - from inception.As a creative writer,...
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Ferdinand Oyono's HOUSEBOY
This novel, which was written decades ago, is haunting and very powerful, evoking the colonial situation in black Africa in the past. It is very funny and very sombre and sad at the same time. The...
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F O R N T S W A K IIt is a hackneyed cliche But how appropriate!Oh NTSWAKI! You were too young to depart this world! What a Calamitous Loss! The loss of a prized daughter, sister, mother......
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MAFIKA GWALA DIES
Yet another prominent renowned, veteran South African black writer is dead. This time it is celebrated poet, Mafika Gwala who breathed his last this week.SOUTH AFRICA (Pretoria) : Arts and Culture...
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THE SUBLIME POETRY OF CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO
By Akeem Lasisi (PUNCH, Nigeria)The Christopher Okigbo Foundation rallied family and friends and of legendary poet, Christopher Okigbo, to the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), where the 50th anniversary...
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BILAKHULU! By Vonani Bila
Vonani Bila is one of the most accomplished poets from South Africa, never mind being a black man with exceedingly humble roots. Over the years he has published many works of poetry and generally...
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A SIMPLE LUST. By Denis Brutus
Denis Brutus, from southern Africa, was a very polished, assiduous poet. Think about "difficult" rather academic African poets – e.g Lenrie Peters, Wole Soyinka, Dambudzo Marechera - and most would...
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MINE BOY. By Peter Abrahams
The importance of this early novel from any black or coloured African in the pantheon of African literature can not be over emphasized. Pa Abrahams who sadly died this year after glimpsing becoming a...
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CHIEF O BOLAJI ON THE LATE FLAXMAN QOOPANE
The literary fraternity has been reeling with the recent death of Flaxman Qoopane, a long standing flamboyant journalist, author, poet, and literary activist. The award winning, incredibly prolific...
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DEMISE OF THE AFRICAN GREATS
By Raphael MokoenaThe publishing industry continues to trundle on, despite travails. Even here in Africa progress continues to be made in unearthing new literary gems, bringing out new works by the...
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Keorapetse Kgositsile (1938 - 2018)
A minuscule tribute by O BolajiSouth Africa's greatest Black poets? One's mind automatically goes to Mongane Wally Serote, and Keorapetse Kgositsile, who has just died.I have been lucky enough to meet...
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FURTHER GLIMPSES INTO AFRICAN LITERATURE
EDITED BY I. M SOQAGA AND O BOLAJIEssays on selected works of disparate African writers, like: Cyprian Ekwensi Ferdinand OyonoPeter AbrahamsFlaxman QoopaneLola ShoneyinKhanyi MbauMaria SharapovaCharles...
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