African literature

Longform Profiles on Wole Soyinka and curator Chude Jideonwo, a feature on South African poetry, an essay on an Oscar-winning film, interviews with indie filmmakers, and more: the defining stories of our fifth year.

Since the 1950s, the Nobel laureate has worked in rebellion, carving out a complex, fecund torque of an oeuvre. But as his plays of mythic vigor and Yoruba impulse revitalized Anglophone theatre, raising an art form to ritualistic heights, his force of personality kept him in the political arena, a close witness of an African affliction. Few artists have lived like him. Yet at 91, carrying the mantle of “greatest living writer,” he has one more great battle on his hands — with generations who once deified him.

He inherited the drama of the gods and became the greatest living writer. But at 91, in the long rage of Nigerian nationhood, his deep political legacy is at a crossroads.

To tell their stories, the author of Yahoo! Yahoo! imitates his characters. If he writes about scammers, he wants readers to suspect him of scamming. Why should Nigerian literature not be as relatable as its music? And why, as director of the Puebla International Literature Festival, should he not want writers to take an ethical stand?

Nick Mulgrew started a publishing outfit to bring “dismissed or ignored” voices to print. Ten years later, it has landed notable prizes, invested in indigenous languages, and grown a dedicated readership.

As a child, no one told the writer and attorney how her family died. She has since compressed her resilience into acclaimed novels, nonfiction, poetry, and Ubwali, a magazine shaping Zambian literature.

For decades, Nigerians looked to writers for moral authority. As the country deteriorates further, and more writers become “hooker intellectuals,” the short story writer, attorney, and digital publishing pioneer hopes to maintain his courage.

The Abebi Award in Afro-Nonfiction is “not just about beautiful sentences and essays” but also “a world where girls and women are equipped and empowered.” Founder Mofiyinfoluwa O. and 2024 Award winner and runner-up Mariam Tijani and Ifeoluwa Ajike Williams reflect on courage, contemplative exploration, and catharsis.

The late great Kenyan writer produced full-length work in all genres except poetry, capturing the tensions between colonizer and colonized, orality and literacy, and tradition and modernity.

Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad, the actress’ debut collection of stories, sold over 2,200 copies, assuring it the No. 1 spot on The Rovingheights Bestseller List: Presented with Open Country Mag. So why do these stories of failing romance connect so widely?

The author of the short story collection If You Keep Digging on activism, the social power of literature, and South Africa’s need for change.

The prize-winning Nigerian poet and co-founder of A Long House magazine honed his craft in the quiet, and then we heard his pathbreaking voice.

For many writers and artists in the continent, the Motswana shaman, poet, scriptwriter, editor, and interviewer is a go-to for deep conversations. What she does is “about consciousness,” going “into the realm of memory.”

The author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-nominated poetry collection The Rinehart Frames wants “an expansion in terms of how we speak of African literature.”

The writer and editor, working from Nigeria, has seen his groundbreaking work with the anthology Dominion earn major acclaim in the US and the UK, including becoming the first Africa-born Black writer to earn a Hugo Award nomination.

The Future Award Africa Prize-winning Nigerian poet and author of the collection In the Nude on “the book as an interface for the soul” and their literary, musical, and cinematic influences.