Subscribe

Search Results for: South Africa

November 11, 2021

Poet Athol Williams Flees South Africa

He testified before the Zondo Commission. “I implicated 39 parties in my testimony so threats could come from many places,” he said. “I’ve faced alienation by corporate South Africa, from the university where I taught ethics. . . and I’ve been let down by many friends.”
Paula Willie-Okafor
Athol Williams. Source: sapeople.com.

April 11, 2021

Surfacing Brings Together Black, Feminist South African Thinkers

Edited by Desiree Lewis and Gabeba Baderoon, the country’s first essay collection on contemporary Black feminisms features Panashe Chigumadzi, Sisonke Msimang, and Yewande Omotosho.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa.

January 7, 2021

New Book Collects Columns by Noni Jabavu, South Africa’s Pioneering Black Female Memoirist

The author of the memoirs Drawn in Colour: African Contrasts and The Ochre People: Scenes from a South African Life and editor of The New Strand was ahead of her time.
Ernest Ogunyemi
Noni Jabavu: A Stranger at Home.

October 14, 2024

“African writers are just not credited enough as innovators”: Otosirieze Speaks to The Republic

In his first interview in three years, the Open Country Mag editor opened up on a range of issues in African and global literature, from The New York Times’ exclusion of Africans from its “Best Books of the 21st Century” list to the need for “sustained critical thinking about the state of Nigeria and Africa.”
Ada Nnadi
Otosirieze. Illustrated by Kevwe Ogini for The Republic.

February 13, 2024

African Prizes, Grants, Fellowships, & Magazines to Apply to in 2024

Orji Victor Ebubechukwu

October 3, 2023

“You Have to Celebrate Writers While They’re Alive”: Labone Dialogues Is the Year’s Big Event in African Literature

Headlined by a quartet of feted veteran voices in Wole Soyinka, Aminatta Forna, Jennifer Makumbi, and Chris Abani, NYU Accra’s 30-author symposium is a convergence of inspiration. “We have to tell our own story,” said convener and school director Chike Frankie Edozien.
Otosirieze
Jennifer Makumbi

May 2, 2023

Announcing The Open Country Mag Curatorial Fellowships, Sponsored by Africa No Filter

The instructors are Lumen Prize winner Minne Attairu, A Nasty Boy founder Innanoshe Akuson, and Open Country Mag editor Otosirieze.
Open Country Mag
The Next Generation of African Literature Covers Open Country Mag. Covers designed by Emmimade Studio.

November 21, 2022

African Comics Cross into Literature

Pearl of the Sea and KARIBA started as animation but ended as graphic novels—the former the first by Triggerfish Studios. Graphic novels are a “three-dimensional experience of literature,” said their publisher, Catalyst Press’ Jessica Powers. “Maybe we’re on the cusp of a trend across the African continent.”
Otosirieze

October 25, 2022

Emeka Ugwu, Newly Named Art Director of OCM, on Creating a Visual Language of Africanness

The multidisciplinary designer, whose clients include NASA, UNESCO, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, makes work that is “unusual and unique.”
Otosirieze
Emeka Ugwu, Art Director of Open Country Mag

August 4, 2022

Troy Onyango on Lolwe & Literary Magazine Publishing in Africa

The platform, founded and edited by the Kenyan writer, is building a conversation between Africa and the Black diaspora. It is his second venture after the defunct Enkare Review.
Socrates Mbamalu
Troy Onyango by Jagero.

July 4, 2022

The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors Announces 2022 Fellows

The initiative, founded by the Nigerian novelist Suyi Davies Okungbowa, offers $500 to writers “to buy time, space, and resources” for their work.
Open Country Mag
Olaposi Halim. Photo from The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors.

May 13, 2022

The O. Henry Prize Series Opens to African Magazines (Exclusive)

Series Editor Jenny Minton Quigley on celebrating the short story form and the ripple effect of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s guest-editing role.
Otosirieze
The O. Henry Prize Anthology 2021, guest-edited by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Photo by The O. Henry Prizes.

April 9, 2022

Ebenezer Agu on 20.35 Africa & Curating New Poetry

“It’s not just about developing platforms for African poets. What is the bigger picture?” asks the Nigerian poet and editor of the collective. “We are thinking of training, models that feed capacity, that enhance their craft and careers.”
Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu
Ebenezer Agu for Open Country Mag.

April 8, 2022

The Next Generation of African Literature

Originally planned for December 2021, to mark our first anniversary, our in-depth special issue profiles 16 African writers and curators who have impacted, disrupted, reshaped, and even created literary culture in the last five years.
Otosirieze
The Next Generation of African Literature Covers Open Country Mag. Covers designed by Emmimade Studio.

March 31, 2022

22 African Writers, Groundbreaking and Female, Born before the Last 60 Years and Now Gone

For Women’s History Month: global, continental, and national literary icons from the 20th century.
Open Country Mag
20 African Writers, Groundbreaking and Female, Born in the Last 45 Years. Curated by Open Country Mag for Women's History Month, March 2022.

March 21, 2022

Chibuihe Achimba & Sara Elkamel to Guest-edit 20.35 Africa Poetry Series’ Vol. 5

The series is now open to submissions.
20.35 Africa
Sara Elkamel by Sima Diab

January 4, 2022

Inside Chinese Publishers’ Growing Interest in African Literature

Since the 1980s, 106 African authors and 269 titles have been translated into the Chinese. Here, an insider provides an overview of the last two years, and a preview of 2022.
Bruce Humes
The Chinese edition of Congolese author Alain Mabanckou's Mémoires de porc-épic (Memoirs of a Porcupine), released in 2020. Credit: Sohu.com.

October 7, 2021

Tanzanian Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins Nobel Prize in Literature, Becomes Second Black African Laureate

The prolific 73-year-old, whose latest is the novel Afterlives, has been awarded “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
Otosirieze
Abdulrazak Gurnah by Mark Pringle.

August 5, 2021

Kwame Dawes’ African Poetry Digital Portal Gets $750,000 Mellon Foundation Grant

It will enhance the next phase of the Portal, “expanding research and scholarship relating to African poetry and joining with other institutions to create a digital collections hub that will give access to materials held by institutions worldwide.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Kwame Dawes and Lorna Dawes. Photo by Annie Albin / University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

July 2, 2021

Submit Your Collection to the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry

Submitted books must be in English.
Ernest Ogunyemi
Chapbooks from African Poetry Book Fund's box set Nne. Credit: Kimberly Ann Southwick. From blog.pshares.org.

November 11, 2021

Athol Williams. Source: sapeople.com.

Poet Athol Williams Flees South Africa

He testified before the Zondo Commission. “I implicated 39 parties in my testimony so threats could come from many places,” he said. “I’ve faced alienation by corporate South Africa, from the university where I taught ethics. . . and I’ve been let down by many friends.”
Paula Willie-Okafor

April 11, 2021

Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa.

Surfacing Brings Together Black, Feminist South African Thinkers

Edited by Desiree Lewis and Gabeba Baderoon, the country’s first essay collection on contemporary Black feminisms features Panashe Chigumadzi, Sisonke Msimang, and Yewande Omotosho.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

January 7, 2021

Noni Jabavu: A Stranger at Home.

New Book Collects Columns by Noni Jabavu, South Africa’s Pioneering Black Female Memoirist

The author of the memoirs Drawn in Colour: African Contrasts and The Ochre People: Scenes from a South African Life and editor of The New Strand was ahead of her time.
Ernest Ogunyemi

October 14, 2024

Otosirieze. Illustrated by Kevwe Ogini for The Republic.

“African writers are just not credited enough as innovators”: Otosirieze Speaks to The Republic

In his first interview in three years, the Open Country Mag editor opened up on a range of issues in African and global literature, from The New York Times’ exclusion of Africans from its “Best Books of the 21st Century” list to the need for “sustained critical thinking about the state of Nigeria and Africa.”
Ada Nnadi

February 13, 2024

African Prizes, Grants, Fellowships, & Magazines to Apply to in 2024

Orji Victor Ebubechukwu

October 3, 2023

Jennifer Makumbi

“You Have to Celebrate Writers While They’re Alive”: Labone Dialogues Is the Year’s Big Event in African Literature

Headlined by a quartet of feted veteran voices in Wole Soyinka, Aminatta Forna, Jennifer Makumbi, and Chris Abani, NYU Accra’s 30-author symposium is a convergence of inspiration. “We have to tell our own story,” said convener and school director Chike Frankie Edozien.
Otosirieze

May 2, 2023

The Next Generation of African Literature Covers Open Country Mag. Covers designed by Emmimade Studio.

Announcing The Open Country Mag Curatorial Fellowships, Sponsored by Africa No Filter

The instructors are Lumen Prize winner Minne Attairu, A Nasty Boy founder Innanoshe Akuson, and Open Country Mag editor Otosirieze.
Open Country Mag

November 21, 2022

African Comics Cross into Literature

Pearl of the Sea and KARIBA started as animation but ended as graphic novels—the former the first by Triggerfish Studios. Graphic novels are a “three-dimensional experience of literature,” said their publisher, Catalyst Press’ Jessica Powers. “Maybe we’re on the cusp of a trend across the African continent.”
Otosirieze

October 25, 2022

Emeka Ugwu, Art Director of Open Country Mag

Emeka Ugwu, Newly Named Art Director of OCM, on Creating a Visual Language of Africanness

The multidisciplinary designer, whose clients include NASA, UNESCO, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, makes work that is “unusual and unique.”
Otosirieze

August 4, 2022

Troy Onyango by Jagero.

Troy Onyango on Lolwe & Literary Magazine Publishing in Africa

The platform, founded and edited by the Kenyan writer, is building a conversation between Africa and the Black diaspora. It is his second venture after the defunct Enkare Review.
Socrates Mbamalu

July 4, 2022

Olaposi Halim. Photo from The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors.

The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors Announces 2022 Fellows

The initiative, founded by the Nigerian novelist Suyi Davies Okungbowa, offers $500 to writers “to buy time, space, and resources” for their work.
Open Country Mag

May 13, 2022

The O. Henry Prize Anthology 2021, guest-edited by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Photo by The O. Henry Prizes.

The O. Henry Prize Series Opens to African Magazines (Exclusive)

Series Editor Jenny Minton Quigley on celebrating the short story form and the ripple effect of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s guest-editing role.
Otosirieze

April 9, 2022

Ebenezer Agu for Open Country Mag.

Ebenezer Agu on 20.35 Africa & Curating New Poetry

“It’s not just about developing platforms for African poets. What is the bigger picture?” asks the Nigerian poet and editor of the collective. “We are thinking of training, models that feed capacity, that enhance their craft and careers.”
Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu

April 8, 2022

The Next Generation of African Literature Covers Open Country Mag. Covers designed by Emmimade Studio.

The Next Generation of African Literature

Originally planned for December 2021, to mark our first anniversary, our in-depth special issue profiles 16 African writers and curators who have impacted, disrupted, reshaped, and even created literary culture in the last five years.
Otosirieze

March 31, 2022

20 African Writers, Groundbreaking and Female, Born in the Last 45 Years. Curated by Open Country Mag for Women's History Month, March 2022.

22 African Writers, Groundbreaking and Female, Born before the Last 60 Years and Now Gone

For Women’s History Month: global, continental, and national literary icons from the 20th century.
Open Country Mag

March 21, 2022

Sara Elkamel by Sima Diab

Chibuihe Achimba & Sara Elkamel to Guest-edit 20.35 Africa Poetry Series’ Vol. 5

The series is now open to submissions.
20.35 Africa

January 4, 2022

The Chinese edition of Congolese author Alain Mabanckou's Mémoires de porc-épic (Memoirs of a Porcupine), released in 2020. Credit: Sohu.com.

Inside Chinese Publishers’ Growing Interest in African Literature

Since the 1980s, 106 African authors and 269 titles have been translated into the Chinese. Here, an insider provides an overview of the last two years, and a preview of 2022.
Bruce Humes

October 7, 2021

Abdulrazak Gurnah by Mark Pringle.

Tanzanian Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins Nobel Prize in Literature, Becomes Second Black African Laureate

The prolific 73-year-old, whose latest is the novel Afterlives, has been awarded “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
Otosirieze

August 5, 2021

Kwame Dawes and Lorna Dawes. Photo by Annie Albin / University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Kwame Dawes’ African Poetry Digital Portal Gets $750,000 Mellon Foundation Grant

It will enhance the next phase of the Portal, “expanding research and scholarship relating to African poetry and joining with other institutions to create a digital collections hub that will give access to materials held by institutions worldwide.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu

July 2, 2021

Chapbooks from African Poetry Book Fund's box set Nne. Credit: Kimberly Ann Southwick. From blog.pshares.org.

Submit Your Collection to the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry

Submitted books must be in English.
Ernest Ogunyemi

“An ambitious new magazine committed to African literature”

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Join 25,000+ subscribers to essential, in-depth stories in African literature, Nigerian film, & culture: inspiring Profiles, incisive reviews, thought-provoking features & conversations that happen nowhere else. It's premium access to the visions of changemakers, from icons to emerging voices. Plus key industry stories from Folio Nigeria by CNN.

We respect your privacy and will never send you Spam or sell your email.

NO, I DON'T CARE ABOUT AFRICAN WHATEVER.

Top