Thirty-five years after Chinua Achebe published The Trouble with Nigeria, Nigeria continues to grapple with the same problems enumerated in his essay, thanks to poor leadership.
Read More
Elnathan John’s debut novel is a coming-of-age story set in northern Nigeria. Its simple, unembellished prose is narrated by Dantala, the smart, inquisitive street kid and Islamic scholar, and presents a convincing picture of how poverty, corruption and brutality perpetrated by security forces have bred disaffection and insurgency groups in the country.
Read More
The Indian Ocean city of Dar es Salaam may be a stopover for tourists journeying ahead to Zanzibar—the quaint archipelago a flight or ferry away—or going on safaris to national parks. But there’s still plenty on offer if you have 24 hours to spare.
Read More
Okey Ndibe’s memoir derives its comical title from a string of advice an uncle had given Ndibe on the eve of his maiden voyage to America. “And the first thing to remember is this: Never look an American in the eye… They take it as an insult,” the uncle intones. “If they catch you, a stranger, looking them in the face, they will shoot.”
Read More
Womanhood is a confection of experiences, choices and a sense of being
Read More
I hate eulogies. Like political campaign speeches, they’re fancy, empty words seldom reflecting the true feelings of the speaker for the deceased. Why speak this flowery language to the dust if it was unspoken between breaths? Why compose beautiful odes to yesterdays that can’t be appreciated by the muse? We rely on the living for that.
Read More
His heart pounded so hard he couldn’t hear the TV. With the force of a pestle striking a mortar, it threatened to burst through his chest as he retrieved the proposal from his safe. Sweat dotted the area his moustache would have covered had his barber not wheedled him into shaving it off last weekend.
Read More
Nairobi wins the prize for greenery with its acres of vegetation. Its verdancy is credited to the late environmentalist and Nobel prize winner Wangari Maathai, whose organisation Green Belt Movement planted tens of millions of trees.
Read More