A new documentary is in production on Onitsha Market Literature, the pamphlet trade that ran out of the market town of Onitsha for roughly two decades either side of Nigerian independence. Written and directed by writer and linguist Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún and produced by OlongoAfrica, Life Turns Man Up and
The Macondo Literary Festival returns to Nairobi for its sixth edition, running September 18–20, 2026, under the theme Ink, Sea, Silence, a frame built around Africa’s histories, cultural memory, and the archives that colonial extraction has silenced. The theme and programme were launched on Septemb
Harlem Stage presents the second edition of the New York Black & African Literature Festival (NYBALF), running September 18–20, 2026, in a new presenting partnership that brings the festival’s three days of literature, performance, and conversation to the historic Harlem Stage Gatehouse at 150 Conve
Every book club knows the struggle of finding that next great read. You scroll through bestseller lists, revisit the books everyone has been talking about and somehow end up circling the same familiar titles. But beyond those well-worn recommendations is a wealth of African writing that deserves a s
What can poetry hold when a country is carrying too much history? For Ogaga Ifowodo, James Ngwu Eze and Tares Oburumu, poetry becomes a way of looking closely at Nigeria: at the violence that has become ordinary, the histories that remain unresolved, and the private disappointments that are often in
Founded in 2018 by sisters Keikantse and Kenanao Phele, the Gaborone Book Festival (GBF) held its 9th edition August 20–22 at the National Museum of Botswana, marking the flagship festival’s return after a two-year hiatus during which GBF kept its momentum alive through smaller events, quarterly boo
The finalists for the 2026 Walcott Prize are out! Two Nigerian poets have made the finalist list for the 2026 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, awarded annually by Arrowsmith Press in partnership with the Derek Walcott Estate and the Derek Walcott Festival in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Tolu Oloruntoba e
The Doek Literary Festival returns to Windhoek for its third edition, running Wednesday, September 30 through Saturday, October 3, 2026. Hosted every two years by the Doek Arts Trust, the festival celebrates writers, poets, and visual artists connected to Doek! Literary Magazine, bringing Namibian l
There is an exquisite pleasure unique to Agatha Christie and which the African literary tradition has, largely, shied away from exploring. It is the pleasure of receiving all the clues and still arriving at the wrong conclusion. Oh, the anguish! You sit with the suspects in the library, you have the
Baba said he was fourteen when he was sixty-seven. At first, we saw it as one of those late-life oddities. Old age had begun to court him, but unlike his peers on Marian Road, he did not flirt back. They dyed their grey hair black, left the top button of their shirts undone to […]