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

Books

A Lack in Liberian Literature

There is no literary bookstore in Africa’s oldest modern country. But, after civil wars and an epidemic, its writers are writing, and hoping.

Aiwanose Odafen’s Duology of Womanhood

For the Nigerian novelist, women’s lives are the plot. With Tomorrow I Become a Woman and We Were Girls Once, the first two books in a planned cross-generational trilogy, she takes us into the burdens of marriage, motherhood, ethnicity, and class.

Iheoma Uzomba

Momtaza Mehri’s Fluid Diasporas

Having traversed regions, her poetry, including the Forward Prize-winning Bad Diaspora Poems, interrogates a race- and class-conscious world — and her place in it as a Muslim Somali woman.

Iheoma Uzomba

The Rovingheights Bestseller List 2023: Presented with Open Country Mag

The 100 bestselling books of 2023 in Nigeria: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, self-published, and children’s books.

Open Country Mag

New Writing & Excerpts

“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

“Creating a New Tradition in African Poetry”

20.35 Africa Vol. VI, edited by Nick Makoha and Safia Jama, is introduced by the series’ managing editor Precious Okpechi: “The poets understand that history evolves with us.”

20.35 Africa

“The Quality of Mercy”

Following The Theory of Flight and The History of Man, the Windham Campbell Prize winner concludes her City of Kings trilogy: “Her unsolved murder made what he needed to do now very difficult.”

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

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

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

The 10 Best Films & TV Series of the Year

In a storied year for Nigerian cinema, our inaugural list prioritizes the realization of narrative, and these features stand out.

Otosirieze

The 10 Best Acting Performances of the Year

In a year of ensembles, in which it fell on collective performances to elevate stories, these actors stood out — among the films and TV series we saw.

Otosirieze

“It’s the Fact That We Did It Our Own Way”: How Yahoo+ Captured a Desperate Side of Internet Fraud

Director, producer, and screenplay writer Ebuka Njoku and producer Lorenzo Menakaya on their professional journeys and the making of their Netflix No. 1 hit.

Orji Victor Ebubechukwu

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

The Creed of Cardinal Arinze

How a young priest from Onitsha, Nigeria, became the highest-ranking African and Black official of the Roman Catholic Church, and a storied icon of modern apostolicism.

Otosirieze

Francis Cardinal Arinze Is on the August 2024 Cover of Open Country Mag

At 91, the Catholic prelate is the most accomplished living African and Black religious minister, our oldest cover star, and our first outside literature and film.

Otosirieze

The OCM Curatorial Fellowship Presents: Among Us, Scans of Ancient Nok Art for an AR-scape

Created by the Nigerian artists Vetum Galadima and Amaka Obioma, with sponsorship by Africa No Filter, it “combines museum technology and art direction to create a perspective for art preservation.”

Otosirieze

The OCM Curatorial Fellowship Presents: It’s Bloom Time, a 3-D Fashion Story Collection

Crafted by the Nigerian designer Izuchukwu Udokwu, with sponsorship by Africa No Filter, it weaves fashion, music, and poetry to show that “you don’t have to create physical pieces that would probably end up in the waste bin and contribute to the wastes in our environment.”