News & Events, December '05

Shout Out: Some Links to the Kpafuca Nation

Read here about the dynamic writers, visual artists, and musicians representing the continent's most populated country.

Groundnuts and Bananas: A Conversation with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

What do I think makes Nigerians so ostensibly happy about God? Fear. Of course there are Nigerians of true faith, but the general popular Christianity does not strike me as coming from that at all…Somebody should pass this law in Nigeria: Don’t TALK God, ACT God.

East Africa is the New West Africa?: Chika Unigwe on the 2004 Caine Prize Competition

The Q & A session leads us again to the topic of African writers writing in English. As well as, predictably, to the question of validity and authenticity. Except for Parselelo, who is moving to Oxford for a year in October, all the writers on the shortlist live in Europe and the US.

Dance of the Infidels: Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo contemplates the ontology of Nigerian-ness

We are delighted by our loots, fatigued by our hate, and happy that the veil is letting us fake happiness. Our heart can hold so much and recall so little. If our destination is doom, does it matter what brand of car that will take us there?

La République et sa Bête: Achille Mbembe on the recent riots in France

Malheureusement, la vieillesse à elle seule ne rend, ni les peuples, ni les États nécessairement plus raisonnables. En fait, chaque vieille culture cache toujours, derrière le masque de la raison et de la civilité, une face nocturne – un énorme réservoir d’obscures pulsions qui, à l’occasion, peuvent s’avérer meurtrières.

Colossal Kourouma: Waberi Abdourahman’s tribute to Ahmadou Kourouma

Il a écrit ce premier livre en intuitif et, ce faisant, il a inventé une nouvelle forme qui a eu la fortune que l'on sait. Etant vierge de toute forme ou théorie esthétique, il a pu faire preuve d'une grande originalité, d’une prodigieuse subtilité dans son appréhension de l'Afrique.