The Ugandan writer Doreen Baingana won the 2006 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for her book Tropical Fish. In this article she talks about the influence of writers like Tony Morrison and Nadine Gordimer on her own writing. And the importance of certain letters written by the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
Review FATWA
At the end of her biographical book, Jacky Trevane (not her real name) gives two reasons for writing her book. One is: to get to terms with the events in her life that she describes in her book. The second reason: a warning to romantic souls. She was a romantic soul. This British lady travels … Continue reading Review FATWA
winners in new found freedom
Here you will find some more information on the two winners of the 2014 University of Johannesburg writing in English. One winner is an established writer, Zakes Mda, the other, Penny Busetto, is awarded for her debut. One similarity of the two awarded books is the setting outside South Africa, even outside the continent.
david livingstone online
In a recent article in The Guardian the Nigeria-born writer Chibundu Onuzo mentions the famous missionary and explorer David Livingstone as an example of a white person who went to Africa, so why should not a black person travel unhindered to Europe. I just discovered a website on the life and work of David Livingstone … Continue reading david livingstone online
everything is yours everything is not yours
This is an amazing story about two girls who fled the massacre in Rwanda in 1994. Death and disaster were lurking behind every tree and stone. The girls ended up in the United States of America and were catapulted into the limelight of television.
decolonisation and literary festivals
At times I feel like letting go all these contributions on the absence or presence or racism or non-racism at literary festivals in South Africa. We can be victors and victims or the other way around. We can be writers and readers. Allan Kolski Horwitz has this to say.
books touched by Africa 