Open Country Mag : Africa : Books, Film and TV, Culture

Books

The Rovingheights Bestseller List 2024: Presented with Open Country Mag

Releasing the third annual compilation of the only bestseller list in Nigerian literature: comprising the Top 100 books of the year, alongside the Top 50 in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, self-published, and children’s books.

Otosirieze

JK Anowe, a Confessional Poet, Confronts Himself

Working from fragments, the reclusive poet led a wave of young Nigerian voices situating the self and mental states. Now his “schizo poetry” is evolving, drawing from Igbo cosmology.

Iheoma Uzomba

Anticipated Books of 2025

From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Laila Lalami, and Goretti Kyomuhendo to Tochi Eze, Chisom Okafor, Itiola Jones, and Adedayo Agarau: the anticipated books of 2025.

Orji Victor Ebubechukwu

Translating Under Empire

As Series Editors of Global Black Writers in Translation, Vanessa K. Valdés, Anette Joseph-Gabriel, and Nathan H. Dize know that “Black literature is the least translated.” In a mostly white field, the long histories of Afro-diasporic, Caribbean, Spanish, French, and Portuguese erasures inform their work.

Otosirieze

New Writing & Excerpts

“The Ahistorical Racial Polemic of Conclave”

Politicking and ideological clashes take centre stage in Edward Berger’s papal succession drama Conclave, a frontrunner for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards. But it is in the arc of its African cardinal that the film sets a damaging narrative.

Otosirieze

“This Grasping for Hope Walks with Us”

20.35 Africa Vol. VII, guest-edited by Kwame Opoku-Duku, is introduced by managing editor Precious Okpechi: “A sense of belonging permeates the poems in this anthology, an acceptance of one’s place in a flawed world.”

20.35 Africa

“Thinking Through Tremor”

Morality as an uncanny city in Teju Cole’s second novel: “And if we are to think of music as a sort of shield for him, then we are invited to think of his dead friend as having once played that same role in his life.”

Reyumeh Ejue

“‘Our Literature Has Died Again’: Nigerian Writing in the Era of the Nomadists”

As conversations sethe about the “death” of Nigerian literature and the loss of authenticity in its poetry, a writer counters for the growing japa-MFA subculture: “I call them the Nomadic Generation because of their complication of nationalism.”

Kanyinsola Olorunnisola

Book Reviews

This Motherless Land

Nikki May

★★★★★ 3.5/5

When We Were Fireflies

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim

★★★★★ 3.7/5

I Am Still with You

Emmanuel Iduma

★★★★★ 3/5

Imagination’s Many Rooms

Amatoritsero Ede

★★★★★ 2.5/5

My Seven Black Fathers

Will Jawando

★★★★★ 3/5

God’s Children Are Little Broken Things

Arinze Ifeakandu

★★★★★ 5/5

Shop

The Stone Breakers

Emmanuel Dongala

In the fifth novel by Dongala, a major figure in Francophone African literature, Congolese women, working as stone crushers at a gravel pit, demand higher wages.

Ghost Season

Fatin Abbas

This sweeping tale of the breakup of Sudan explores the porous and perilous nature of borders ― national, ethnic, or religious ― and the profound consequences of crossing them.

Gaslight

Femi Kayode

The second novel in a mystery series following investigator Taiwo Philips, who tries to crack a conspiracy around a religious leader accused of murder.

Whites Can Dance Too

Kalaf Epalanga

A reflection on and celebration of Angolan music, the intertwining of cultural roots, freedom, and love.

Film & TV

In the Lives of Three Couples, a Vision for Queer Love

The documentary This Is Love shows Nigerians who “live beautiful love stories in a place where the love they share is taboo.” After a Best LGBT Feature win at Brazil’s Bahia Independent Cinema Festival, director and co-producer Victor Ugoo knows that “distribution seems to be the hardest part of filmmaking.”

Orji Victor Ebubechukwu

A Small Indie Producer Bets on Social Justice Cinema

Godwin Harrison’s “advocacy-led” HUG Media Concept is “about using cinema to address issues.” His new film Ima’mi is based on his life as an Efik prince who was outed as gay.

Orji Victor Ebubechukwu

With the S16 Film Festival, an Arthouse Collective Locks Its Focus

A trio of young filmmakers banded together as the Surreal16 Collective, to resist Nollywood clichés. At their festival, Michael Omonua, C.J. “Fiery” Obasi, and Abba T. Makama curate a haven for unorthodox filmmakers.

Michael Aromolaran

How Tolu Obanro, Nollywood’s Top Composer, Crafts the Sounds of Its Biggest Hits

Hopping between genres, his scores are heard in almost every major recent box office and streaming success, including A Tribe Called Judah, Jagun Jagun, Gangs of Lagos, and Battle on Buka Street. “I’ve been trusted by filmmakers,” he said.

Paula Willie-Okafor

Film & TV Reviews

House of Ga'a

Bolanle Austen-Peters

★★★★★ 4.3/5

Afamefuna: An Nwa Boi Story

Kayode Kasum

★★★★★ 4.3/5

Breath of Life

BB Sasore

★★★★★ 3/5

Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory

Kola Tubosun

★★★★★ 3.6/5

A Tribe Called Judah

Funke Akindele

★★★★★ 4.5/5

Jagun Jagun

Adebayo Tijani & Tope Adebayo

★★★★★ 4.5/5

Streaming

Sarah Masiyiwa & Line Talla

The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah

Alhaji Waziri Oshomah

BBC: The Reich Lecture 2022: The Freedom of Speech

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nsukka Is Burning

Deborah Shorinde

Issues & Covers

Culture & Industries

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is on the Host Committee for the MET Gala 2025

Her selection — with LeBron James, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, and Anna Wintour as chairs — coincides with the rollout of her forthcoming fourth novel Dream Count.

Orji Victor Ebubechukwu

Our Top Stories of 2024

From a groundbreaking Profile of Cardinal Arinze to a feature on Liberia’s lack of a literary bookstore, to the story of a novelist-cum-soldier: these stories of artists and industry shapers in African literature, Nollywood, and culture defined our year.