I've been in this country long enough to know not to get too excited when the sun comes out - you never know how long it will stick around! Still, the winter coat is officially tucked away for the next few months and the lighter scarves and coats have come out, as the sun has been shining a lot more recently. Supposedly it's also going to to be the hottest summer in 40 years, with some reports saying there is going to be 99 days of sunshine in the UK this summer (I've also been here long enough to not get too excited about that). Still, basically, Hello (Almost) Summer! And with summer - as with each new season - comes reading lists: BuzzFeed shared 31 Brilliant Books for Spring back in April; while ELLE let us know the 19 Summer Books That Everyone Will Be Talking About, also in April. 

Image via loveyourchaos

Well, I'm here to share three books I'll be reading this summer - during my downtime (whenever work isn't taking over). I may read others, but these three are certainly at the top of my list. They are Abubakar Adam Ibrahim's Season of Crimson Blossoms, Sarah Ladipo Manyika's Like A  Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun and Yewande Omotoso's The Woman Next Door.

These three books also have one thing in common -  the central protagonists are 'older' women*. This is amazing because 'older' women (in real life, as well as in literature) tend to be seen as dependent and often depicted as not have any sexuality - in fact that aspect is usually rendered invisible. I don't know entirely what to expect, but from the blurbs of these three novels, as well as the few reviews I've read, they seem to break away from these stereotypes of 'women of a certain age'.
There's the youngest of them all, fifty-five-year old widow, mother and grandmother Hajiya Binta Zubairu in Season of Crimson Blossoms who has an affair with a 25-year-old weed dealer, Reza, and now yearns for intimacy after the sexual repression of her marriage. Then Dr. Morayo Da Silva, on the cusp of seventy-five,  in Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun. Dr. Da Silva is a Nigerian woman living in San Francisco, in good health and spirit. That is until she falls and her independence crumbles. The story is also said to have elements of the erotic yearnings of an older woman. Finally, Hortensia James and Marion Agostino - both over eighty-years-old, successful women with impressive careers, recently widowed, neighbours and sworn enemies. 

My Summer Reading List. What's yours?

Seriously, all three books sound like they will be amazing reads, and can we also take a second to acknowledge these writers for writing (and their publishers for publishing) what seem like positive stories about 'older' women. Can't wait to tuck in!

*Side note: I'm using older (instead of old) and putting older in quotes, as while I do not think women in their early- to mid-50s are old, in the case of Season of Crimson Blossoms Hajiya Binta Zubairu - being a widow, mother and grandmother - would be considered old in the context in which the story is set.

I tend to share quite a bit of what I've been reading about African literature mainly on my facebook page. Although if I'm honest, I read a lot more than I post. So I'm trying out something new here, and every week (every other week, let's be sincere here!) I will be sharing what I've been reading and loving across the interweb. It will be mostly about African literature, but sometimes I might share some non-African literature content that I've really loved reading that week. Without further ado, here is the first edition of things I've read and loved on the interweb this week.

Really loving the fun and positive energy in this drawing. Pretty much sums up blogging about African Lit for me.* Image via Elf House.

Okayafrica discusses the debate within African literary circles on writing and publishing in European languages versus doing so in African languages, against a backdrop of Solange being critiqued for letting her son learn French over African languages. Solange's response:

What I will say is one of the key factors in making a decision on whether to embark on the French immersion journey was actually made with the hopes of him being able to travel to many countries in Africa and connect, experience and learn. He has since, been able to use that line of communication in Senegal, Rwanda and Morocco and make incredible friends, experiences, and moments in his life that I believe will be lasting and defining ones.

Speaking of languages, Yewande Omotoso asks if writers need to speak the same language as their characters?

Over on the NewStatesman, I was reminded that translated fiction is not a genre:

By giving translated fiction a separate section in bookshops and online stores and suggesting it is possible to "like" translated fiction, just as one might like crime or sci-fi, booksellers imply that there is something that unites all these books.

Olisa TV explores why some people are stuck to Lagos; while ArabLit discusses how two publishing houses in Algeria have been focusing on African literature on the continent 'to promote exchanges between African authors and reader.' 

Emmanuel Iduma's essay analysing witchcraft and the treatment of witches (who are often female) in Nigeria:

A woman I know, when she was about ten, or a little older, was accused of being possessed by the devil. She does not remember on what occasion her actions as a precocious, headstrong child gave her off. But there is a moment in her memory when she is kneeling, encircled by a praying group from our childhood Presbyterian Church. After a session of prayers, she is asked to recant her allegiance to Satan.

Also check out a recent interview Emmanuel Iduma did on 'Intimacy, Otherness and the Nigerian Identity' with Wana Udobang, who is interviewing participants of the 2016 Invisible Borders Roadtrip; as well as the essays from the participants on their reflections on the trip.

Speaking of interviews, here's five questions with 2016 Caine Prize shortlistee, Lesley Nneka Arimah, who has written a couple of stories with women who have supernatural powers. On the topic of the Caine Prize shortlist, Brittle Paper shares with us the Instagram photographs of Lidudumalingani, who is described as 

... part of a growing collective of young African writers - which includes Wana Udobang, Warsan Shire, and Akwaeke Emezi [who] are multi-disciplinary in their approach to storytelling.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I mean Dr. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was awarded an honorary doctorate with Zikoko sharing the great news in true awesome Zikoko style. Plus here's her speech - knowledge in so few words:

Eat real food as often as you can and embrace ignorance. Say these words "I don't know." Because by embracing ignorance we open up the possibility of knowledge.'

There were also a couple of lists, which by now is no secret I love. May 25th was Africa Day and Books LIVE celebrated it by sharing with us the best African books - as chosen by the Books LIVE Community.

Image via Books LIVE

While Daily Trust Nigeria introduced its readers to four novels by African women you should read - with Cassava Republic Press sharing with us an image from the newspaper itself. I've read two (LCTJ and Beneath the Lion's Gaze) and Like a Mule is on my to read list - what's your count?

Image via Cassava Republic Press

Speaking of Kintu (one of the four books recommended by The Daily Trust), it was in this week's Focus in Africa Book Club along with So The Path Does Not Die. Okay so I listened to this one, but still loved it. PS. If you've been wanting to read Kintu, it was announced recently that Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi signed with Transit Books in Oakland, California.

Image via BBC Focus in Africa

There's also a new British literary journal, Panorama, with a modern focus on travel literature, art and photography. David Ishaya Osu is the Assistant Poetry Editor, Yvonee Adhiambo Owuor is the Wandering Editor, and Contributing Writers include Richard Odour Oduku, Noo Saro Wiwa and Ola Nubi. 

Finally, a couple of non-African literature related content, but so worth the read - a long (very long) essay on race, sexuality, gender, class and culture, but also Laurny Hill, Nina Simone, Beyonce (really Lemondae), Miles Davis and Prince. Also, this piece on the new Roots miniseries:

The overall goal of this project is not to dismiss the original, but rather to use the evolution of technology and enhanced storytelling to introduce a new generation to an important part of American history ... 

... and with that, I come to the end of the first edition on Read it! Loved it. Happy Reading!

*Side note: I need to up my image search game, as I really struggled to find drawings I liked (that was not a stock photo drawing) depicting carefree black women on a computer. In the end I found tons of photos I liked of carefree women on computers (love Pinterest) but none I really liked with black women. Made me wonder about that!

On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released after spending 27 years in prison for his engagement against apartheid. Following his release, the African National Congress (ANC) leader worked closely with President F.W. de Klerk's government - and numerous other political organisations - to draw up a new constitution for South Africa. After negotiations, concessions - and political violence - both sides eventually reached an agreement in 1993, which led to a new constitution for South Africa which took effect in 1994. The same year, the first non-racial elections were held, ANC won and this marked the official end of apartheid. 

1967: A taxi rank for white people. Source: Mashable.com

Well, in Nick Wood's, Azanian Bridges, Nelson Mandela was never released and 'died an old and broken man on Robben Island' (loc 2875 of 3124); apartheid never ended - indeed it is almost Christmas in 2014 and elections are taking place next year,  'but everyone knows AWB [Afrikaner Resistance Movement] will win hands down; De Klerk is still in prison for trying to dismantle apartheid from the inside and Terre'Blance [white supremacist] carefully ensures the safety of all ballot boxes' (627); and 'Obama and Osama [are] to meet the Soviet bloc in Peace Talks above the Berlin Wall, as the Soviet Union tires of thirty years of haemorrhaging men into their Afghan ulcer' (422).* 

This is the alternate  world where we find the two main protagonists of this story - Sibusiso Mchunu, a young amaZulu man about to start his first year at university and Dr. Martin van Denter, a white neuropsychologist. Their lives intertwine following Sibusiso suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and being sent to a mental health institution after seeing a friend of his shot by the security police during a peaceful protest. Dr. van Denter becomes his psychologist. 



Martin is one of the co-inventors (along with Dan, can't remember his surname) of  a new device - the Empathy Enhancer (EE) (a Feelings Box), which took years and 'carefully filtered research funds' (438) to create. The EE connects two humans together and 'amplifies ... brain waves' (458) enabling them to understand their experiences more easily. In a depressingly racist country such as the one in this story, in the right hands this device could do good - it could end apartheid, it could break down racial barriers as people begin to connect through feelings, thoughts and memories, it could enable people to empathise with each other. The problem is once it is discovered that it exists, everybody, and I mean everybody, wants it. This includes the secret police who could use it in terrible ways during their not-so-friendly interrogations, for instance. 

Interesting though the first time the EE is really used is on Sibusiso and I cannot help but think of the many levels of ethics that have been broken by testing this device on a human subject; but also the racial element as the subject is a black one, a black one currently suffering from PTSD, but then again Martin does not consider himself remotely racist. Martin is liberal, and thinks he does not see colour. And this subtle and not-so subtle racism embedded in the story, is one of the many really wonderful things about this novel. 

Indeed, beyond the amazing (but quite terrifying) alternate South Africa Wood's has created, what is also interesting about Azanian Bridges is that it is not just the state sanctioned violence that is in the novel, such as the security police shooting black students protesting. There is also the different ways in which the State aims to control the public - South Africa is extremely isolated from the rest of the world, which probably allows for apartheid to continue; there are State Firewalls that make it so that banned 'black' music such as Gil Scott-Heron's is very difficult to obtain, and they 'still wait for cam-phones, but they remain banned as a potentially easy source of troubling video' (627-8). There's also the subtle one: Martin being a 'little more racist than he thinks' (506) or later in the book when he reflects briefly that he has 'become more aware of a wider range of living places in the past couple of days that I have experienced in my entire life' (2158). So here we have a man who thinks he is colour blind testing out his device for the first time on a young black man. 

The device works, and no harm was done to Sibusiso, but the problem with the device working as I said is that everybody wants the EE - seriously people just be knowing about things even when you think it's all secret and what-not. The secret police find out and threaten Martin, but he smashes it before they can take it, and ends up making  a new one. He thinks it's safe (for someone so smart ...), but Sibusiso ends up stealing borrowing it for the other side, a radical anti-apartheid group. 

Indeed, Sibusiso is quite apolitical at the start but becomes more political and aware as the story goes on - in part due to him seeing his friend murdered right in front of him, but the people he begins to be surrounded by such as activists, Nombuso and Mama. He and one of the members of the group, Numbers, end up smuggling it outside of the country - to Zambia - where through the brilliance and mass production skills of the Chinese, it goes from the big, clunky EE to the smaller, portable EmPods - and it only took a few days.

Honestly, the world Nick Wood created is rather terrifying - one where apartheid never ended. What  happens when apartheid doesn't end - state firewalls, police brutality and the likes, but it seems no one is safe - black or white; as while black south Africans are overtly abused, discriminated, harmed and even murdered; white South Africans that might support the cause in any way are also affected. Still, in the words of old Kanye, not new Kanye, 'racism still alive' they just aren't concealing it in this alternate South Africa. 

Case in point towards the end of the story, when both Martin and Sibusiso are interrogated by the same person, the outcomes and treatment are different - with Martin getting the 'better' experience. We know they get different experiences because Azanian Bridges is told from a two person perspective, which allows us to know through words, thoughts, feelings and memories what apartheid South Africa is like for these men of different races, and I should say also economic backgrounds. 

This is also a really clever novel, weaving political history with technology and thriller and in very cunning ways. For instance, Room 619 where Sibusiso is interrogated in, tortured and kept at the end of the novel, is also where Steve Biko was taken for interrogation in 1977 and severely tortured. But as I read and then finished Azanian Bridges, for me the question really is can this EE that everyone wants so badly really bridge the divide between people of different races in this alternate South Africa? Or is it but one element that can help to end apartheid, or indeed any form of racial hatred, by getting people to look beyond skin colour (as but one element) and be open to different possibilities. 

A thoroughly enjoyable and intelligent read, that not only makes you think about technology, about ideas, about discrimination, about thoughts that we may never be comfortable enough to share with others; but also makes you glad for activism and the series of events that did take place in real life that ensured apartheid ended in 1994. 

*Read on my older generation kindle [yes the one with the keyboard :)] so these are the locations on mine, which might be slightly different for another e-reader. Will update with page numbers when I'm able to.

This post is inspired by a conversation I had the other day about millennials  - the generation, my generation, born between the early 1980s (some sources say 1980, others say 1982/3) to around early 2000s. 'Millennials' certainly get a lot of bad press: 'The Me Me Me Generation", "whiny entitled youth" and more. The conversation centred on the labelling of millennials, how the term as it is understood does not relate to all people born between 1980 and 2000, and more. 

Me, Me, Me

Well, not all 'millennials' fit into that 'entitled and whiny' category - so to sort of disrupt this notion and challenge that stereotype, and because I am really in need of some serious inspiration this weekend, here are ten young women writers and poets of the so-called 'millennial' generation who have been producing very exciting work.  Also these women are very accomplished and I haven't included all of their awesomeness in this post, but do follow the links to find out more. And a little disclaimer - I am using the more widely used category of 'millennials' - that is from 1982 - so books by female writers, such as NoViolet Bulawayo and Nadifa Mohamed - both born in 1981 - are not included. With that said, let's go!!!



25-year-old Panashe Chigumadzi is a Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean storyteller interested in the narratives of black and African women. Chigumadzi is also the founder and editor of Vanguard Magazine - a black feminist platform for young black women coming of age in post-apartheid South Africa; as well as the co-founder of The Feminist Stokvel -  a collective of 8 young black women in media and arts aimed at addressing social issues specific to young black women in South Africa. Her debut novel, Sweet Medicine, was published in October 2015 (when she was 24) by Jacana. It tells the story of Tsitsi, a young woman who seeks romantic and economic security through 'otherwordly' means. Read an excerpt here.


Safia Elhillo is Sudanese by way of Washington DC, by way of NYC. She is a Cave Canem fellow and received an MFA in poetry at the New School in New York. Safia Elhillo is also the co-winner of the 2015 Brunel University African Poetry Prize - winning at the age of 24 - and is the winner of the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets. Asmarani, a term of endearment for a brown skin person, is one of the eight poetry chapbooks in Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani's New Generation African Poet, and has been described as interweaving family history and autobiography with a broader analysis of Sudan's socio-political history. Her first full-length collection, The January Children, will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2017.



In April 2015, it was announced that Yaa Gyasi, had her debut novel purchased in a seven-figure deal. 25 at the time of the deal, the novel, Homegoing, traces the descendants of two sisters torn apart in eighteenth-century Ghana across three hundred years in Ghana and America. Gyasi is a Ghanaian-born writer who was raised in Alabama and is also a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. 


Karen Jennings was born in Cape Town in 1982 and holds Master's degrees in both English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her debut novel, Finding Soutbek, was published in 2012 and shortlisted for the inaugural Etisalat Prize for African Literature. It is set in the small town of Soutbek and centres on the lives of the inhabitants of this very divided town that has experienced recent hardship.



Kopana Matlwa, born in 1985, is a South African medical doctor currently undertaking her PhD in Population Health at the University of Oxford. Matlwa has also published two award-winning novels. Coconut, her debut novel, won the European Union Literary Award in 2007 and was a joint winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in African in 2010. Both Coconut and Spilt Milk are social commentaries on post-apartheid in South Africa. Coconut focuses on growing up black in white suburbs in modern Johannesburg, and fitting in when you are too white for black people and too black for white people.



Chibundu Onuzo was born in Nigeria in 1991 and is currently a PhD student at King's College London, exploring The West African Student's Student Union and West African nationalism. Her debut novel, The Spider King's Daughter, won a Betty Trask Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize, shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Commonwealth Book Prize. The Spider King's Daughter, is a modern love-story set in Lagos following two seventeen-year-olds - wealthy Abike Johnson and street hawker, Runner G. 



Where to even begin with Helen Oyeyemi, born in 1984, who already has seven books published - the first being Icarus Girl when she was still in secondary school; and her most recent  - a short story collection, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, with nine stories joined thematically by a lock or key. Her works all tend to be infused with elements of the fantastical.


Born in 1988, Warsan Shire, is a Kenyan-born Somali-British poet and writer. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel University's African Poetry Prize in 2013 and was the first Young Poet Laureate for London in 2013. Shire is the author of three collections: Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, Her Blue Body and Our Men Do Not Belong to Us - one of the chapbooks in the Seven New Generation of African Poets. Her full collection will be released in 2016. Our Men Do Not Belong to Us deals with trauma and loss, absent men, women's lives, about motherhood, sisterhood and more. You can read an abridged version here. 




Born in Zimbabwe in 1988, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma's short fiction has been featured in numerous anthologies including A Life in Full and Other Stories: Caine Prize Anthology and Bed Book of Short Stories. In 2009, she won the Yvonne Vera Award for short fiction and is one of the Africa39 writers. Novuyo Rosa Tshuma is also Deputey Editor of the pan-African writers' collective, Jalada.  She is currently working on her debut novel, and her first collection, Shadows, consists of a novella and selected short stories centred on the realities of daily life in Zimbabwe and the peculiar intricacies of being a foreigner in Johannesburg. 


So I'm completely guessing with Chinelo Okparanta that she is a 'Millennial'- I couldn't find any information on her date of birth so I could be completely off. She was born and raised in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and has a BS from Penn State University, MA from Rutgers University and an MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Okparanta that she is under 36, is the winner of a Lambda Literary Award and an O. Henry Prize. Under the Udala Trees, her debut novel, is set in Nigeria during the civil war and centres on two young girls from different ethnic communities that fall in love.