Essays & Opinion

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.”

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.”

On the eight anniversary of his burial, we look at the great writer’s continued relevance. By engaging his work more as a chronicle of oppression, one sees him as a modern voice who still has so much to say.