Subscribe

Interviews

November 15, 2024

Abi Daré Claims Her Space

The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl with the Louding Voice and And So I Roar on her writing process.
Orji Victor Ebubechukwu
Abi Dare. Supplied.

July 18, 2023

Sarah Ladipo Manyika Is Curious About Culture Icons

In Between Starshine and Clay, the novelist interviews Toni Morrison, Michelle Obama, and Wole Soyinka, among other major Black figures in the arts and politics. “One of the things that was the most surprising was the actual extent to which they forged their own path,” she said.
Otosirieze
Sarah Ladipo Manyika on Facebook

June 13, 2023

Binyavanga Wainaina’s Great Scatter of Work (Exclusive)

How to Write About Africa gathers vivid, powerful essays and fiction by the late Kenyan icon. Its editor Achal Prabhala talks compiling it, a second posthumous book, and an uncompleted novel. “Much is made of what he did for other writers, but it was his own writing that did it for me,” he said.
Otosirieze
Binyavanga Wainaina by Allan Gichigi.

February 13, 2023

“Friendship, to Me, Is What Saves One’s Sanity”: Wole Soyinka

In this excerpt from Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s Between Starshine and Clay, the Nobel laureate and his friend Henry Louis Gates, Jr. remember another friend: the late Toni Morrison.
Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Wole Soyinka. Credit: University of Oxford.

October 15, 2022

It’s a Continent Is a Popular History Podcast. Now It’s Also a Book.

Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba on how their “conversational approach to the book and podcast allows us to reach audiences who wouldn’t typically engage with such content.”
Paula Willie-Okafor
Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba, hosts and authors of the podcast-turned-book It's a Continent. Image supplied.

July 23, 2022

In Conversation with Lan Samantha Chang, Director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop

The influential Chinese American novelist on running the famed program, new African writing, MFAs, literary genres, and her novel The Family Chao. “There is the possibility of creating the conversation that brings in as many voices as possible,” she said of the Workshop.
Otosirieze
Lan Samantha Chang by IfeOluwa Nihinlola

October 26, 2021

Novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija on Being Jailed and Tortured in Uganda

PEN’s 2021 International Writer of Courage shares his story with Open Country Mag.
Otosirieze
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Photo credit: English PEN.

October 7, 2021

Linking Sierra Leonean Literature

Poda-Poda Stories is a digital platform for writers from Sierra Leone, whose literary scene was disrupted by a decade-long civil war and is now regenerating with great promise. “I started it to look inward and celebrate our own writing,” says editor Ngozi Cole in this interview. “What was missing was building bridges and connections.”
Ernest Ogunyemi
Photo from Sierra Leone Writers Collective on Facebook.

August 24, 2021

AKO Caine Prize Winner Meron Hadero on Language, Musicality, and How “Writing Asks for Empathy”

“If we are to make our characters feel human and real, they require our care,” she says of her story “The Street Sweep.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Meron Hadero. Credit: Meron Hadero.

March 13, 2021

Tsitsi Dangarembga on Why Young Africans Need Allies

“Because they haven’t been constrained by the world, their imagination is much more agile,” said the Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist, who was on the December 2020 cover of Open Country Mag.
Ada Nnadi
Tsitsi Dangarembga. From Tsitsi Dangarembga.

January 23, 2021

For 13 Years, Nigeria’s DSS Targeted Novelist Okey Ndibe. Now, He Might Push Back

“It’s amazing that any government would put writers like me on a list of enemies of the Nigerian state,” he says. “A writer who calls out corruption could not be an enemy of the state.”
Otosirieze
Okey Ndibe by Rex Features/Associated Press.

January 18, 2021

Caine Prize Winner Makena Onjerika on Her Nairobi Writing Academy

The Kenyan writer tells us her motivations and approach to teaching writing.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Makena Onjerika.

January 9, 2021

Chigozie Obioma, Twice Booker Prize Finalist, on Judging the 2021 Prize

Shortlisted for his first two novels, The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities, the Nigerian writer tells us what the prize means to him and what he will look out for on the panel.
Otosirieze
Chigozie Obioma. From Sidewalk Citizen.

December 26, 2020

How Pride Afrique Created a Conversation Space for Queer Progress

. . . by resisting the narrative that Africa can only be ground zero for the violation and destruction of queer persons.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Johannesburg Pride 1990. Credit: GALA.

December 26, 2020

The Abuja Literary Festival: Harnessing Creative Power to Build Community

Festival Director Teniola Tayo tells us about the festival’s mission, the 2020 edition, and projections for the future.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Abuja Literary Festival 2019. From alitfest.com

November 15, 2024

Abi Dare. Supplied.

Abi Daré Claims Her Space

The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl with the Louding Voice and And So I Roar on her writing process.
Orji Victor Ebubechukwu

July 18, 2023

Sarah Ladipo Manyika on Facebook

Sarah Ladipo Manyika Is Curious About Culture Icons

In Between Starshine and Clay, the novelist interviews Toni Morrison, Michelle Obama, and Wole Soyinka, among other major Black figures in the arts and politics. “One of the things that was the most surprising was the actual extent to which they forged their own path,” she said.
Otosirieze

June 13, 2023

Binyavanga Wainaina by Allan Gichigi.

Binyavanga Wainaina’s Great Scatter of Work (Exclusive)

How to Write About Africa gathers vivid, powerful essays and fiction by the late Kenyan icon. Its editor Achal Prabhala talks compiling it, a second posthumous book, and an uncompleted novel. “Much is made of what he did for other writers, but it was his own writing that did it for me,” he said.
Otosirieze

February 13, 2023

Wole Soyinka. Credit: University of Oxford.

“Friendship, to Me, Is What Saves One’s Sanity”: Wole Soyinka

In this excerpt from Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s Between Starshine and Clay, the Nobel laureate and his friend Henry Louis Gates, Jr. remember another friend: the late Toni Morrison.
Sarah Ladipo Manyika

October 15, 2022

Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba, hosts and authors of the podcast-turned-book It's a Continent. Image supplied.

It’s a Continent Is a Popular History Podcast. Now It’s Also a Book.

Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba on how their “conversational approach to the book and podcast allows us to reach audiences who wouldn’t typically engage with such content.”
Paula Willie-Okafor

July 23, 2022

Lan Samantha Chang by IfeOluwa Nihinlola

In Conversation with Lan Samantha Chang, Director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop

The influential Chinese American novelist on running the famed program, new African writing, MFAs, literary genres, and her novel The Family Chao. “There is the possibility of creating the conversation that brings in as many voices as possible,” she said of the Workshop.
Otosirieze

October 26, 2021

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Photo credit: English PEN.

Novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija on Being Jailed and Tortured in Uganda

PEN’s 2021 International Writer of Courage shares his story with Open Country Mag.
Otosirieze

October 7, 2021

Photo from Sierra Leone Writers Collective on Facebook.

Linking Sierra Leonean Literature

Poda-Poda Stories is a digital platform for writers from Sierra Leone, whose literary scene was disrupted by a decade-long civil war and is now regenerating with great promise. “I started it to look inward and celebrate our own writing,” says editor Ngozi Cole in this interview. “What was missing was building bridges and connections.”
Ernest Ogunyemi

August 24, 2021

Meron Hadero. Credit: Meron Hadero.

AKO Caine Prize Winner Meron Hadero on Language, Musicality, and How “Writing Asks for Empathy”

“If we are to make our characters feel human and real, they require our care,” she says of her story “The Street Sweep.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu

March 13, 2021

Tsitsi Dangarembga. From Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Tsitsi Dangarembga on Why Young Africans Need Allies

“Because they haven’t been constrained by the world, their imagination is much more agile,” said the Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist, who was on the December 2020 cover of Open Country Mag.
Ada Nnadi

January 23, 2021

Okey Ndibe by Rex Features/Associated Press.

For 13 Years, Nigeria’s DSS Targeted Novelist Okey Ndibe. Now, He Might Push Back

“It’s amazing that any government would put writers like me on a list of enemies of the Nigerian state,” he says. “A writer who calls out corruption could not be an enemy of the state.”
Otosirieze

January 18, 2021

Makena Onjerika.

Caine Prize Winner Makena Onjerika on Her Nairobi Writing Academy

The Kenyan writer tells us her motivations and approach to teaching writing.
Paula Willie-Okafor

January 9, 2021

Chigozie Obioma. From Sidewalk Citizen.

Chigozie Obioma, Twice Booker Prize Finalist, on Judging the 2021 Prize

Shortlisted for his first two novels, The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities, the Nigerian writer tells us what the prize means to him and what he will look out for on the panel.
Otosirieze

December 26, 2020

Johannesburg Pride 1990. Credit: GALA.

How Pride Afrique Created a Conversation Space for Queer Progress

. . . by resisting the narrative that Africa can only be ground zero for the violation and destruction of queer persons.
Uzoma Ihejirika

December 26, 2020

Abuja Literary Festival 2019. From alitfest.com

The Abuja Literary Festival: Harnessing Creative Power to Build Community

Festival Director Teniola Tayo tells us about the festival’s mission, the 2020 edition, and projections for the future.
Uzoma Ihejirika

“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