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African Writers’ Corner
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Marion Grammer
2009-06-11, Issue 437
Born 3,600 million years ago, I am the oldest and most stable land mass on earth. I am so large that the mightiest nation on earth could fit into a desert of mine. My oldest rocks bequeath such wealth, I am well-endowed. Too well-endowed for my...
ITCH e.04 call for submissions
2009-06-11, Issue 437
ITCH Online welcomes contributions from artists and writers to its fourth issue.
An interview with Brian Chikwava
Mildred K Barya
2009-06-04, Issue 436
With this year's Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist now announced, Mildred Kiconco Barya interviews Brian Chikwava, the 2004 winner of the prize. The winner of the 2009 prize will be announced at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 6 July.
Drop
Karest Lewela
2009-06-04, Issue 436
It’s in the drop Of water, rain water that turns into a pool Breeding ground for jealous ambition The domicile of lost and downtrodden faith It’s in the drop Of silence, pin-drop silence that becomes an echo Laden with guilt from feig...
History
Karest Lewela
2009-05-27, Issue 435
I feel the intensity of the pressure crushing me In this ocean of a world, I remain confused Am I the gushing waves or the solid rocks? However the perspective, I am crushed Left wishing I were the sand, inconsequential Indifferent observer in t...
'Writing is the only thing I enjoy'
An interview with Helon Habila
Mildred K Barya
2009-05-27, Issue 435
With this year's Caine Prize for African Writing Shortlist now announced, Mildred Kiconco Barya interviews Helon Habila, the 2001 winner of the prize.
A certain beauty and a certain happiness
An interview with Leila Aboulela
Mildred K Barya
2009-05-27, Issue 435
With this year's Caine Prize for African Writing Shortlist now announced, Mildred Kiconco Barya interviews Leila Aboulela, the 2000 winner of the prize.
An interview with Courttia Newland
Conversations with Writers
2009-05-14, Issue 432
In an interview with Conversations with Writers, Courttia Newland talks about the influences behind his writing and giving a voice to those left outside of mainstream fiction.
Carving a path through Central Africa
An interview with Zvisinei Sandi
Conversations with Writers
2009-05-07, Issue 431
In an interview with Conversations with Writers, Zvisinei Sandi discusses the intended audience for her works and her approach to writing. A Politics and Literature in Southern Africa lecturer at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, Sandi's short stories have been published in anthologies like Creatures, Great and Small (Mambo Press, 2005) and Women Writing Zimbabwe (Weaver Press, 2008).
An interview with Petina Gappah
Conversations with Writers
2009-04-30, Issue 430
In an interview with Conversations with Writers, the Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah talks about the influences behind her work and the pressure she feels in being published by Faber.
The natural storyteller
An interview with Sarudzayi Barnes
Conversations with Writers
2009-04-23, Issue 429
Sarudzayi Barnes talks to Conversations with Writers about her concerns as a writer and her publishing company The Lion Press Ltd, which specialises in African and Afro-Caribbean children's stories.
An interview with Ivor W. Hartmann
2009-04-16, Issue 428
Ivor Hartman speaks to Conversations with Writers about StoryTime, his online ezine to showcase new African writing, and his desire to tell the world about the Zimbabwean situation through writing.
Interview with Zukiswa Wanner
2009-04-09, Issue 427
Conversations with WritersIn an interview with Conversations with Writers, Zukiswa Wanner discusses her books Behind Every Successful Man and The Madams.
Life is constant negotiation
An interview with H. Nigel Thomas
H Nigel Thomas
2009-04-02, Issue 426
'I write largely because reality’s surface is for me hardly more than a mask', says Canadian author H. Nigel Thomas in an interview with Conversations with Writers,'What’s worth knowing is beneath it'. Thomas talks about his life as a writer, and about his recent novel, Return to Arcadia, an exploration of a mixed-race man's quest for sanity as he tries to cast off the burdens bequeathed by his colonial heritage.
Home is not only a place but a state of mind - an interview with Rory Kilalea
Conversations with Writers
2009-03-26, Issue 425
'That is our function as writers', says Zimbabwean writer Rory Kilalea, 'to tell it as we see it'. In an interview with Conversations with Writers, Kilalea speaks about authors whose work has influenced him, his central concerns as a writer, and the novel he is currently working on, The Disappointed Diplomat. It is the story of a young man trying to forget his home in Zimbabwe and finding that home is not only a place but a state of mind.
Crying for Darfur
Lemlem Tsegaw
2009-03-19, Issue 424
The Sudan That unknown village Repugnant stage A child killed A mother raped A father tortured The whole world Witnessed Yet did nothing I You Through silence We all are accomplices...
The Liberator
Lemlem Tsegaw
2009-03-19, Issue 424
The Liberator at Markato what is his motto? The Liberator, who wore camouflage in lieu of Dr.'s gown has put a red hat on. That Liberator rules at night as Leninist. The godless, boorish but clever, works day and night sitting at the Ad...
When death stalks our land AGAIN
Kirigo wa Wanyugi
2009-03-11, Issue 423
Walumbe's* hand stalks our land AGAIN Oh, each generation has to lose brilliant lives So the rich can gorge themselves to death while we die of hunger Oh Walumbe's hand stalks this land AGAIN Oi, oi, the young fall to death!...
Writers and progress in east Africa
Ronald Elly Wanda
2009-03-11, Issue 423
Lamenting the thin supply of organic African critical and theoretical thinking about the continent, Ronald Elly Wanda argues for the place of African writers in addressing an ‘imposed history’. In light of the understandable tendency of much of the continent’s people to identify more with their own local groups than distant, largely exploitative nation-states, Wanda argues for the need for greater regionalisation as a route towards true independence from colonialism. Underlining the importance of African writers addressing African themes, the author contends that uncovering a genuine spirit of renaissance will only occur when the promotion of African intellectualism is truly normalised.
Tears of a non-resident father: A conversation with emotions
Bhekinkosi Moyo
2009-03-11, Issue 423
Originally written back in March 2008 in the wake of Kenya’s post-election crisis, Bhekinkosi Moyo offers some points of reflection on the apparent ease with which citizens’ rights can be manipulated and abused for political ends. Weighing up the emotional difficulty of being a non-resident parent, Moyo reconsiders some of the negative ideas around the supposed callousness of men willing to leave their families for business trips, and decides that there is perhaps ultimately little difference between absent fathers and those chained to their desks at the office.
Interview with Oliver Mtukudzi
Jessie Kabwila Kapasula
2009-03-05, Issue 422
In an interview with one of Africa’s musical giants at Capital Hotel in Lilongwe, Jessie Kabwila Kapasula talks to Oliver Mtukudzi. Mtukudzi, from Zimbabwe, discusses the rich themes behind his work, as well as broader points of discussion such as the contemporary misuse of cultural practices around the death of a brother, parental responsibilities, and the objectification of women in popular music.
J M Kariuki
Philo Ikonya
2009-03-05, Issue 422
Memories of this day in 1975 still live on our streets, huts and streams. Our books, hearts and thoughts, in Kenya's womb. Convinced our freedoms Our country we revive, Refusing to die inside, We hope against hope, And stem the tide, ...
Mzalendo Kariuki thirty years later
Onyango Oloo
2009-03-05, Issue 422
they flung your carcass to the hyenas of ngong not knowing that a maasai mchungaji known as musaita ole tunda would retrieve your remains and expose moi's brazen canard about your mythical excursion to zambia they bombed the otc buses in...
Interview with Monica Arac de Nyeko
Shailja Patel
2009-02-26, Issue 421
Discussing her approach to writing and her family’s response to her success, Shailja Patel interviews the 2007 Caine Prize Winner Monica Arac de Nyeko.
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Interview with Valerie Tagwira
World Press Review
2009-02-18, Issue 420
In an interview with the World Press Review, the Zimbabwean author Valerie Tagwira talks about the background to and influences behind her work.
The Cut
Maryam Sheikh Abdi
2009-02-12, Issue 419
I was only six years old when they led me to the bush, to my slaughterhouse. Too young to know what it all entailed, I walked lazily towards the waiting women. Deep within me was the desire to be cut, as pain was my destiny: it is the b...
The Obama-Nation
Jalil A. Muntaqim
2009-02-12, Issue 419
Will the Obama-Nation become an abomination if it fails to stop the bombing of nations? From Gaza to Afghanistan, the American people must take a stand and tell Obama to forge a better plan to free the land of Zionist and the Taliban. To stan...
For Oscar
Sheilagh ‘Cat’ Brooks
2009-02-12, Issue 419
Oscar Grant was brutally killed by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Police (in California, USA) in the early hours of New Year's Day 2009, an event that was captured on video and widely circulated across the internet. In a poetic response, Sheilagh ‘Cat’ Brooks reflects on the impact of this event.
Looking down from Mt. Kenya
Wangui wa Goro
2009-02-05, Issue 418
Where do you hope to join my life Flowing Not like a river But as torrents and currents of the tide Buffeted by multitudinous waters of change Going back or forth? Lapping up the high and low banks Dazzling the plains with illuminous floodings...
Interview with Lilian Masitera
Conversations with Writers
2009-02-05, Issue 418
In an interview with Conversations with Writers, the Zimbabwean author Lilian Masitera talks about the background to and influences behind her work.
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