In our regular Book Digest segment, we spotlight new books from Kola Túbọ̀sún, Thebe Ikalafeng, and Egara Kabaji.
Èșù at the Library By Kola Túbọ̀sún
Publisher: Masobe Books
Date: December 12, 2024
Genre: Poetry
Language: English
Where to find it: Masobe Books
Kola Túbọ̀sún
Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún, Nigerian writer and linguist, has authored Edwardsville by Heart (2018), Ìgbà Èwe: Translated Poems of Emily R. Grosholz (2021), a chapbook, and a dictionary of names. He is the publisher of OlongoAfrica and the Africa co-editor of the Best Literary Translations anthology. He was the 2016 awardee of the Premio Ostana “Special Prize” in Cuneo, Italy, for his work in language advocacy, and a 2019 Chevening Research Fellow at the British Library. He lives in Lagos and Minnesota.
Èșù at the Library
A poet in a new city, a linguist at Primark, a native son meeting a familiar deity in a foreign town, in books, in the faces and voices of strangers, on trains, in the histories that intersect with traumas and pleasures, in flirtations at a bank on Euston road, in food, in contemplations of space, accents, missed connections, and police shootings in Lagos; all as part of one travel experience in the time of a global pandemic. In Èṣù at the Library, Túbọ̀sún returns to his favourite tools of travelogue as a vehicle for the interrogation of memory through the limits of language.
The Traveller: Crossing Borders and Connecting Africa by Thebe Ikalafeng
Publisher: Tafelberg
Date: October 4, 2024
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Language: English
Where to find it: Exclusive Books, Nuria Books, Barnes and Noble
Thebe Ikalafeng
Thebe Ikalafeng is an award-winning pan-African marketer, a non-executive director on private and public sector boards and has worked on over 100 brands across Africa. Has been to over 100 countries world-wide and every country in Africa.
The Traveller: Crossing Borders and Connecting Africa
Thebe Ikalafeng is a branding icon who set the agenda for the industry at the dawn of our democracy and continues to pioneer it to this day. As the founder of Brand Africa, the African continent is now a major focus in his life’s mission. He is The Traveller, having touched soil on every African country. From Kimberley to the world, his mission is impact.
Shadows of Love by Egara Kabaji
Publisher: InterCEN Publishers
Date: December 2, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Nuria
Egara Kabaji
Egara Kabaji is a professor of Literary Communication at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST). He is one of the most prolific writers of children’s literature. His seminal novel, Journey to Becoming, was the second runner-up for the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 2021. His other novel, Mourning Glory (2022), has been lauded as a masterpiece. In 2024, he was declared one of the most notable writers that Kenya has ever produced. The Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) has bestowed on him the distinguished honor of Esteemed Patron of the Arts (EPA) in Africa.
Shadows of Love
Sylvia Mwende dreams of love, but instead, her heart is scarred by betrayal and heartbreak. In her desperate search for love, she confronts a maze of internal conflicts in an uncaring world. In her naivety, she makes wrong choices, leading her deeper into emotional turmoil. Torn between the shadows of past pain and the hope for a better future, Mwende’s journey is punctuated with missteps that complicate her already fragile life. In Shadows of Love, the author weaves a captivating love story that confronts contradictions between the heart’s yearnings and the ways of the human mind. Skillfully and with surgical precision, Egara Kabaji peels layers of the ramifications of love while leading the reader to deep embers of reflection on love. Vividly, he depicts the troubled life of Sylvia Mwende, who swings between polarities of joy and pain and unexpectedly finds real love in an unlikely place. As she navigates the complexities of her heart, she discovers that while good men are indeed rare, they do exist. Yet, she also learns a harsh truth: some women can be unwittingly destructive. Tormented by family expectations, Sylvia must confront her past and embrace the possibility of a brighter future. As Sylvia Mwende grapples with the consequences of her decisions, the line between love and pain blurs, leaving her at a crossroads. Will Mwende break free from the chains of heartache, or will the shadows consume her?
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