Yale faculty member Cajetan Iheka was an undergraduate in his home country of Nigeria at the height of unrest in the oil-rich Niger Delta in the 2000s. Militants were setting fire to oil installations ...

I have previously received funding from the Mellon and Rhodes Foundations for my academic research. But Aidoo believes that Afropolitanism is “evidence of self-hatred”. Its proponents, she charges, ...

This year’s observance of Black History Month carries forward the centennial anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance. However, in this reflective season, we find ourselves at a crossroads that would be ...

Delve into the world of South African literature this Easter with a selection of thought-provoking books that explore themes of love, loss and justice.

African literature is the object of immense international interest across both academic and popular registers. Far from the field’s earlier, post-colonial association with marginality, a handful of ...

The award of the Goncourt Prize, a prestigious French literature award, to Senegalese author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr in 2021 marks the first recognition of a sub-Saharan author by this institution in ...

I didn’t start reading fiction until later in my life. Correction: I did not begin to consciously read until I was 15; I was still subjected to mandatory reading time both at school and at home. Back ...

This interview, conducted by Élisabeth Nicolini with Élimane Fall present, was published in Jeune Afrique no.1314, dated 12 March 1986. We know him as a revolutionary fighter; less as a literature ...

When Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature on Oct. 7 — the first Black African writer since Nigerian Wole Soyinka won it in 1986 — you could almost hear the head-scratching, at ...

In 1968, the Malian novelist Yambo Ouologuem won France’s prestigious Prix Renaudot for a bloody satire about a fictional African country called “Bound to Violence.” Opening in mock epic style with ...

The inaugural Sharjah Festival of African Literature (SFAL) was held January 24–27 in University City, Sharjah, U.A.E., during the only time of year when cool temperatures allow for an outdoor event.