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I'm currently reading Lauren Beukes latest novel The Shining Girls which I would describe as part-thriller, part-horror, part-sci-fi. As awesome as the book is, this post isn't about The Shining Girls. It's about what it got me thinking about. It really is exciting and fun times for African Science Fiction so I felt I needed to update my first post on African SF to reflect that. 
JJ #16 awesome cover design by Joey Hi-Fi

Since my last post, AfroSF has been published, both the London Southbank Centre and Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol had Science Fiction in African Literature and Film events, Jungle Jim issue 16 was a South African Sci-Fi edition (how cool is that cover?), Nnedi Okorafor's new novel, Lagoon, will be published sometime in 2014 and there has been a call for submissions for volume 2 of AfroSF. There's also Spider Stories - a sci-fi comic set in an African inspired world created by two Nigerian-American brothers.  


In his article, "Africa in Science Fiction", Nick Wood, SF and Fantasy writer, lists a couple more places African SF stories can be found: The Apex Book of World SF 2 (2012) and the Future Lovecraft (2011) anthology. I also know Egypt has an SF scene - mostly written in Arabic. Although Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik which was published in 2008 was translated by Chip Rossetti in 2011. If you're interested in Arabic SF, Arabic Literature (in English) has very interesting posts on the topic. 



With that said, here are a few more books to add to your African SF reading list. My first post can be found here.



For more African SF (and also Speculative Fiction - it includes SF but also fantasy, horror, the supernatural, apocalyptic and post-apolyptic and more) there's also the 2008 Caine Prize winning short story, Poison, by Henrietta Rose-Innes, Nnedi Okorafor's Wahala Zone, which lists all her publications and gives link to her short stories, and Lauren Beuke's website. Also check out Sarah Lotz , who has written horror books and zombie novels. Her next book, called The Three, has been acquired by Hodder & Stoughton and will be published February 2014. And last one (I promise) - this 2011 article on South African Speculative Fiction.

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As I mentioned last week on Facebook, I found out a week or so ago I had two copies of two new releases. I was not sure what to do with them, until my younger sister suggested I do a giveaway. So a big thank you to my sister for that great idea. The books on offer are Love is Power or Something Like That by A Igoni Barrett and We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo. My review on Love is Power can be found here. I haven't had a chance to read We Need New Names yet, but a synopsis can be found here.



The giveaway is open only to followers of the blog or anyone who has liked the Facebook Page. So for a chance to win one of these two new releases all you need to do is:
Leave a comment either on this post OR on the Facebook update for this post saying either "Love is Power" or "We Need New Names" for the book you would prefer. You can also simply just like the Facebook update.
The giveaway is open until July 14th. The winner will be announced on July 15th. 
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I have obvioulsy been under a rock or something, but it's never too late to share information. Right? Remember AfroSF? You must, I gushed over it so much it must have been extremely obvious I was in literary heaven. It turns out it is coming back. I am so excited about this. Extremely excited!!!!!

AfroSF, the first ever Science Fiction anthology by African writers,  was released December 2012. My review on it can be found here. AfroSF V2 is the second anthology of Science Fiction. It is open to submission of novellas from African writers (only) across the continent and abroad. It will be edited by Ivor Hartmann and published by StoryTime in 2014. The deadline for submission is March 14th 2014. So if you're a writer of Science Fiction, please submit so I can read another volume of African science fiction. Thank you!!!

More information on AfroSF V2 can be found here.


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Alain Mabanckou's Blue White Red (translated by Alison Dundy) was published end of January/beginning of February as part of Indiana University Press "Global African Voices" Series. 

This tale of wild adventure reveals the dashed hopes of Africans living between worlds. When Moki returns to his village from France wearing designer clothes and affecting all the manners of a Frenchman, Massala-Massala, who lives the life of a humble peanut farmer after giving up his studies, begins to dream of following in Moki’s footsteps. Together, the two take wing for Paris, where Massala-Massala finds himself a part of an underworld of out-of-work undocumented immigrants. After a botched attempt to sell metro passes purchased with a stolen checkbook, he winds up in jail and is deported. Blue White Red is a novel of postcolonial Africa where young people born into poverty dream of making it big in the cities of their former colonial masters. Alain Mabanckou's searing commentary on the lives of Africans in France is cut with the parody of African villagers who boast of a son in the country of Digol.

                                                                           - Synopsis from Indiana University Press.


Way Back Home, is South African author Niq Mhlongo's third novel, which was released in April. 


I, Kimathi Fezile Tito, do solemnly declare that I am a soldier of the South African revolution. I am a volunteer fighter, committed to the struggle for justice. I place myself in the service of the people, The Movement and its allies.

13 August 1986, Angola

Kimathi Tito has it all. As a child of the revolution, born in exile in Tanzania, he has steadily accumulated wealth and influence since arriving in South Africa in 1991. But even though everything appears just peachy from outside the walls of his mansion in Bassonia, things are far from perfect for Comrade Kimathi. After a messy divorce, accelerated by his gambling habit and infidelities, he is in danger of losing everything. And now, to top it all, he’s seeing ghosts. Sometimes what happens in exile doesn’t stay in exile.

A caustic critique of South Africa’s political elite from the author of Dog Eat Dog and After Tears (both recently reissued).
                                                                                                 - Synopsis from Kwela Books

                                                                                   
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Although I'm really trying to minimise my 'reading-for-fun' as I finish my thesis, there are also some amazing books I'd love to read if I can find some time in between writing. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to read all of them and knowing me, I might not stick to these exact books - I've never been that great with making myself read a certain book at a certain time. But here's what I'm hoping my summer reads will be. Over to you, what will you be reading this summer?
Summer Reads 2013
A big thank you to all the publishers/journals that supplied me with these review copies.
[We Need New Names (Chatto & Windus), Ghana Must Go (Viking), Three Strong Women (Quercus Books), The Shining Girls [Harper Collins via Paradoxa Journal], Rhumba (Quercus Books), Dog Eat Dog (Ohio University Press)]
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Publishing in Africa may be difficult, but the face of the industry in many African countries is changing. This change brings about many things - one being, for lack of a better word, 'home-based' literary awards. The adult market may have a few, but children are not ignored, especially thanks to social enterprises like Golden Baobab that seek to: 

"inspire the creation, ensure the production and facilitate the distribution of enthralling, captivating, culturally relevant literary content by African writers and illustrators for African children".

In 2008 it established the Golden Baobab Prize for African's Children Literature - a prestigious annual pan-African award for excellence in African children's writing. Since then it has received over 800 submission. Each year it awards three prizes to "the most captivating unpublished manuscript" from eligible African writers:


  • The Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Book: $1000 awarded for an African picture book (700-2000 words) for 6-8 years old.  
  • The Golden Baobab Prize for Early Chapter Book: $1000 awarded for an early chapter book (5,000 - 10,000 words) for 9-11 years old.
  • The Golden Baobab Prize for Rising Writers: $1000 awarded to a young African author under 18

Children's literature has the ability to nurture the imagination, but also excite young readers. What Golden Baobab is doing by inspiring both African writers and illustrators to create books for African children and young adults is amazing. They also work to showcase it on the world stage, which is even better - as that way children in other parts of the world might get the opportunity to enjoy these books, but also be introduced to new things.

The 2013 prize is still open to eligible African writers of all ages. So if you're a writer, and one of children's literature, you can submit stories to any of the three prize categories above. You can find out more about the Prize on Golden Baobab's website. The deadline is 14th July 2013. 
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On June 17, 2013, the Kwani? Manuscript Project, a new one-off literary prize for unpublished fiction from African writers, announced the seven shortlisted novels selected from their longlist of 30:

Ayobami Adebayo, Stay with Me (Nigeria)
Ayesha Haruna Attah, Saturday's People (Ghana/US)
Stanley Gazemba, Ghettoboy (Kenya)
Toni Kan, The Carnivorous City (Nigeria)
Timothy Kiprop Makumbi, The Water Spirits (Kenya)
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, The Kintu Saga (Uganda/UK)
Saah Millimono, One Day I Will Write About This War (Liberia)



Here's what Kwani? had to say:

The shortlist has been selected, without the author's name attached, by a high-profile panel of judges including Deputy Editor of Granta magazine Ellah Allfrey, leading scholar of African literature Dr. Mbunga wa Mungai, editor of Zimbabwe's Weaver Press Irene Staunton, and internationally renowned Nigerian writer Helon Habila. The Chair of Judges, award-winning Sudanese novelist Jamal Mahjoub, said:
"The five judges of the Kwani? Manuscript prize 2013 have carefully worked through a longlist of 30. These showed a wide range of styles, subjects and regional concerns. The judges were primarily looking for works that show promise in terms of the writing itself as well as the breadth and depth pf vision brought to bear by the authors. The final shortlist of seven entries reflects the overall consensus of the judges and summarises their individual interests".
These seven novels from five African countries take us through the underbelly of Lagos, class divisions in Nairobi and war-torn Monrovia, through families cursed, self-destruction and reuniting, bringing new scrutiny to the epic, dictatorship and points-of-views in stories that are brave, tender and beguiling. 

Kwani Trust's Managing Editor, Billy Kahora said:
"In reviewing the shortlisted stories, I'm blown away by the potential these manuscripts hold, the different styles, concerns and voices that they bring to new contemporary African literature, and further add to Kwani's fiction list. We can't wait to bring them out as novels in the region and partner with publishing houses across the continent to make them available across Africa".
The Kwani? Manuscript Project was launched in April 2012 and called for the submission of unpublished novel manuscripts from African writers across the continent and in the diaspora. The prize received over 280 qualifying submissions from 19 African countries.

The top three manuscripts will be announced on Monday 1st July 2013 and will be awarded cash prizes totaling Ksh 525,000 (c. $6000). In addition, Kwani Trust plans to publish 3-5 of the shortlisted manuscripts by April 2014. The Trust will also be partnering with regional and global agents and publishing houses to secure high profile international co-publication opportunities.

More on the seven shortlisted stories can be found on the Kwani? Manuscript Project website. Congratulations to all shortlisted authors.
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Last year I dedicated an entire month to reading Alain Mabanckou's  novels that had been translated into English. This introduced me to the writings of an author who, let's be honest, I adore. So when I received a copy of Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty, courtesy of Serpent's Tail, I was so happy. This and Americanah honestly were joint first for books released in 2013 that I had to read. 

Narrated through the voice of ten year old Michel, who lives in Pointe Noire, Congo in the 1970s Tomorrow I'll be Twenty  (or Demain J'Aurais Vingt Ans in its original French) is a fictionalised memoir of Alain Mabanckou's childhood. In a recent interview with Africa Book Club, Alain Mabanckou was asked why it was important to write this story. To which he replied:


"It was very important because I figured out that we had no stories told through the voice of a kid in Congolese literature. In Tomorrow I'll be Twenty, I wanted to explain the way we were living under this Congolese regime called 'Soviet Socialism'. We were a red country! Everything was Marx and Engels, about materialism and the philosophy coming from the USSR".


The last time I read a novel with a child narrator I believe it was Ellen Banda-Aaku's Patchwork, and as much as I loved the book, I really did not like the main character. Michel, on the other hand, I absolutely adored. He was generous, kind-hearted, carefree, and also had a way with words for a ten year old ("I'll keep you in the castles I've got in my heart too, where no one can harm you"). I have to say he was a bit naive, but considering he was ten, I'm happy he was. What I loved about this book was the way it intertwined the global with the local - historical events such as the Cold War, Socialist principles, and the daily lives of a family living in the Congo-Brazzaville in the1970s- and how these were all portrayed through the eyes of a child.



There's Michel’s communist uncle, Rene, who quotes Marx, Engels and Lenin and claims to believe in the tenets of Marxism/Communism, but lives in wealth. A President who is also the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and President of the Congolese Workers' Party, and immortal leaders with speeches children have to know by heart and recite word for word in class.


Michel and his father, Papa Roger, listen to the Voice of America with the American, Roger Guy Folly, on the radio cassette player his father got as a present from one of the guests at the Victory Palace Hotel where he works. Here he learns about Phnom Penh in Cambodia and the Vietnamese army that took over, the Shah of Iran and Ayatollah Khomeyni, Idi Amin Dada, the President of Uganda, and even Mother Teresa and the Nobel Peace Prize. Michel's also got seven brothers and sisters who he stays with when his mother, who sells peanuts, goes to the bush for business. His best friend is Lounes. They like to watch planes flying overhead and guess which country they will land in. He is also in love with Lounes' sister, Caroline, but she left him for ugly Mabele because he's read books like Marcel Pagnol.

While he struggles to decipher world events and the demands of his girlfriend, there is also a problem on the home-front. His mother is unable to have a second child and a witch doctor convinces Michel’s parents that he has the key (literally) to unlock his mother’s womb.

I can't say how much I enjoyed reading this book, but if you have ever been curious about what was happening, but also what it was like living, in a communist African country during the 1970s, what better way to see it than through the eyes of a loveable boy, like Michel.  Also, who else can get away with saying, "The Shah of Iran's become a kind of vagabond, wandering from country to country, while the Monster, Idi Amin Dada, is fine, no one's after him, he's just chilling out in Saudi Arabia”, other than Alain Mabanckou in the voice of ten-year old Michel. 

All that’s left for me to say, is grab a copy of Tomorrow I’ll Be Twenty. And let me know what you think.

4.5 out of 5 stars.
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The Ake Arts and Book Festival is a six day cultural, art and literary festival in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Running from November 19-24, this will be its first year. The theme of the festival is "The Shadow of Memory", with invited guest Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. Other guests include A.Igoni Barrett, Teju Cole, Tendai Huchu, Alain Mabanckou, Laila Lalami, and Yewande Omotoso. 

As part of the festival, there will be workshops, master classes ranging from creating graphic novels to effective editing, panels with discussions on the representation of women in African Literature and the realities of Post-conflict African societies, book chats, book fair, an art exhibition and more. 

The festival sounds pretty cool. Here's a look at the works of some of the authors at the festival. If you're interested, more information can be found on their website. 


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There is another prize to be added to the literary prizes celebrating African literature, and this one also recognises its publishing industry. Etisalat, said to be Nigeria's most innovative telecommunications company, recently launched the Etisalat Prize for Literature. It celebrates new writers of African citizenship (based anywhere in the world) whose first fiction novel was published in the last twenty four months. It also has a category for Flash Fiction Short Story. As written on their website, it is:

" ... the first ever pan-African prize ... aims to serve as a platform for the discovery of new creative talent out of the continent and invariably promote the burgeoning publishing industry in Africa".

The Panel of Judges, chaired by Pumla Gqola (Associate Professor in the Department of African Literature at the University of Witwatersrand), includes Zakes Mda (South African author, playwright and poet, winner of the 2001 Commonwealth Prize, and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Ohio), Billy Kahora (Managing Editor of Kwani?), and Sarah Ladipo Manyika (author of In Dependence). 

Entries for the Fiction Novel category open June 5th to publishers who have published a minimum of ten books in the last three years. The deadline is 30th August 2013. More information on the Prize, entry criteria and more can be found on their website.

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The Caine Prize for African Writing, now in its fourteenth year, is awarded annually to a short story published in English by an African writer. Each year an anthology is published containing the shortlisted stories alongside stories written at Caine Prize workshops. 

The Caine Prize Anthologies are published by New Internationalist in the UK and publishers in seven African countries: Jacana Media (South Africa), Cassava Republic (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), Bookworld Publishers (Zambia) and 'amaBooks (Zimbabwe). 

This year's anthology, A Memory This Size and Other Stories will be available July 1 2013.  More information can be found on the New Internationalist. A list of past Caine Prize Anthologies can be found here and a review of last year's anthology, African Violet, here.

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A couple of months ago, I mentioned there was a new book club for booklover's based in Lagos. Well the second meeting is almost here.

"The Lagos Book Club is a free club catering to young women living in Lagos and those who have moved back to Lagos after living outside the country. The main criteria: be open to discussions and like good books".


June's book is award-winning author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's much anticipated novel, Americanah. Spanning three continents, this is a story of love and race between a young man and women from Nigeria. It was published in 2013 by 4th Estate in the UK and Farafina in Nigeria. It can be found in most major bookstores in Lagos and an excerpt can be read here.

Chimamandan Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria in 1977. Her first novel Purple Hibiscus (2003) won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in 2005. Her second novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007.

The second meeting is scheduled for Saturday June 29th. Venue, TBC, but if you're interested in joining do send an email to lagosbookclub@gmail.com for more details and to also reserve a spot. 

As I said the last time, what's there not to love? A place where book lovers can meet, share their interests and discuss books. And it's free :). I'm also seriously jealous about June's book selection. If I was in Lagos, I'd definitely be there. So send an email, get a copy of the book (if you haven't already got it) and enjoy!!!
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"THIS IS WHAT I learned during my first visit to a Nigerian church: that a community is made up of truths and lies. Both must be cultivated in order for the community to survive".
                                                                                                                        
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Week 1 of Blogging the Caine Prize and the first story is Tope Folarin's "Miracle", which the quote above is taken from. 

I have never been to a Pentecostal Church, but I have heard many things about it and watched many clips, documentaries, and even Sunday services shown on TV on them. So I guess I could say I am familiar by association. I say all this because Tope Folarin's story is set in a Pentecostal Church, but not one in Nigeria. It is set in one frequented by the Nigerian diaspora in North Texas. 

I'm going to come out and say I liked this story. I liked its simplicity. I liked that it was about a diaspora community in the West, and how in a way it provided an understanding of their plight ("Each of us represents dozens, sometimes hundreds of people back home. So many lives depend on us Lord, and the burden on our shoulders is great"). More than that, I liked that it was not about what it was about. It may be set in a church, it may be called "Miracle", but it was less about performing miracles and more about belief and hope that religion gives to people, especially people in need of it. So what was it about then?

"Miracle" is set in a Pentecostal church with the congregation singing "joyful songs to the Lord" of redemption and hope because each person is there for some sort of solace. In fact everyone was there because they need a miracle:


"We need jobs. We need good grades. We need green cards. We need American passports. We need our parents to understand that we are Americans. We need our children to understand they are Nigerians. We need new kidneys, new lungs, new limbs, new hearts. We need to forget the harsh rigidity of our lives, to remember why we believe, to be beloved, and to hope".

When the congregation stops singing and the pastor starts praying, eventually a short, old, blind man - a prophet - is introduced. He is there because he "performs miracles that were previously only possible in the pages of our Bibles". With his presence, the story moves from the group to a young man, who then becomes the focus. This young man with asthma and extremely bad eyesight has been chosen by the prophet. His mission - heal his ailment and make him see without his glasses.

Now whether the prophet cured the young man and made him see depends if you are a believer in miracles or not. Here's a spoiler, it doesn't happen. While the prophet does not perform a miracle in the sense of giving the young man 20-20 vision, he does perform an entirely different kind of miracle. So you could say he made him see, but not in the literal sense. He made this young man, who was a bit of a sceptic at the beginning "begin to believe in miracles" by the end:


"I realize that many miracles have already happened; the old prophet can see me even though he’s blind, and my eyes feel different somehow, huddled beneath their thin lids. I think about the miracle of my family, the fact that we’ve remained together despite the terror of my mother’s abrupt departure, and I even think about the miracle of my presence in America. My father reminds my brother and me almost every day how lucky we are to be living in poverty in America, he claims that all of our cousins in Nigeria would die for the chance, but his words were meaningless before. Compared to what I have already experienced in life, compared to the tribulations that my family has already weathered, the matter of my eyesight seems almost insignificant".

At the end, while the prophet did not perform any true miracle, to me the story wasn't about that. It was about belief and leaving a group of people who might have needed it with that. As the young man said:


"This healing isn’t even for me. It is to show others, who believe less, whose belief requires new fuel, that God is still working in our lives".

If being a Nigerian immigrant in America is difficult, "Miracle" is about what is done (in this case a prophet who performs miracles and a young man who pretended in the end that his eyesight was cured) to help a community feel like they have not been broken and for them to believe that things are possible and their lives can be better. Because really who wants to hear that life is terrible and things aren't going to get better?


 For other reviews of Miracle: Aaron Bady, Africa in Words, Backslash Scott, Beverley Nambozo, Brittle Paper, Nigerians Talk, Okwiri Oduor, Veronica Nkwocha.
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About me

Founded in 2011, bookshy represents two things: the young me who was so shy I escaped through books, and the older me whose shelf is always one book shy of being full.

bookshy is a space where I celebrate, promote and recognise contemporary African literature - although sometimes I go back in time to commemorate the greats. It is about the books I love, the books I have read and the books that I am dying to read.

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