Book Excerpts

August 5, 2023

“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

August 2, 2023

“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

March 9, 2023

“River Spirit”

The Women’s Prize-nominated and Caine Prize-winning author returns with her sixth novel, set in 1880s Sudan: “This is why she does not stop when she feels the sting. What sting?”

Leila Aboulela

January 17, 2023

“Black and Female”

The first essay collection from the PEN Pinter Prize winner and Booker Prize-nominated novelist: “That which is dead does not feel. We are not dead while we protest.”

Tsitsi Dangarembga

July 30, 2021

“Sankofa”

The third novel from the Nigerian sees a woman search for her father: “The man in the picture was the darkest tint in the human spectrum.”

Chibundu Onuzo

July 19, 2021

“We Once Belonged to the Sea”

In the Somali writer’s debut novel, a tense dynamic between a gifted reclusive lesbian artist and her punk hijabi protégé.

Diriye Osman

May 29, 2021

“Biracial Britain: A Different Way of Looking at Race”

The Nigerian Polish writer, who lives in the UK, offers his experiences as a mixed-race person.

Remi Adekoya