We wrap up book news for our readers in our regular Book Digest segment with books from Zeinab Badawi, Dieudonné Niangouna, Eduardo Quive, and Ibiso Graham-Douglas.
Covik One Nine edited by Ibiso Graham-Douglas
Publisher: Paperworth Books
Date: April 24, 2024
Genre: Anthology, Fiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Paperworth Books
Ibiso Graham-Douglas
Ibiso Graham-Douglas is an international publishing and book development consultant and a seasoned conference speaker passionate about knowledge and books and fostering their access across Nigeria and the larger African continent. She has a master’s in Publishing from the London College of Communication, University of the Arts, a certificate in New Creative Ventures from the London Business School and an MBA in International Business Management from Griffith College, Dublin. She founded Paperworth Books Limited in 2002.
Covik One Nine
Contributors include Chimeka Garricks, Michael Afenfia, Olukorede S. Yishau, Obari Gomba, Dolapo Marinho, Michael W. Ndiomu, and Shehu Zock-Sock.
Journey through the intricacies of life in the COVID era with this rich tapestry of short stories and poems. Eight esteemed and emerging storytellers spin narratives that traverse the landscapes of Nigeria and its diaspora, offering profound insights into the essence of our shared humanity.
Witness the unravelling of a man’s secret at his funeral and the tale of a migrant grappling with despair amidst lockdown in the USA. In Pidgin English, an eavesdropper at a funeral reflects on COVID’s impact on his marriage as a young woman confronts the aftermath of a botched plastic surgery. Experience a lawyer’s efforts as he struggles to free his wrongfully imprisoned client, alongside the inner turmoil of a psychiatrist battling her own mental health issues. Immerse yourself in the journey of an abandoned wife as she forges a new reality, complemented by poems that echo the diverse emotions woven into personal and collective struggles.
These captivating narratives encapsulate the resilience, despair, and redemption woven into the fabric of the COVID-tinged Nigerian and diasporic experience.
Salve d’honneur pour orchestre à Papa By Dieudonné Niangouna
Publisher: Éditions L’Œil d’Or
Date: May 5, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Language: French
Where to find it: Éditions L’Œil d’Or
Dieudonné Niangouna
Dieudonné Niangouna a playwright with around fifteen plays to his credit), director and actor was born in 1976 in Brazzaville, Congo. From 2003 to 2015 he directed the Mantsina festival on stage, which is held every December in Brazzaville. In 2013, he was an associated artist at the Avignon festival. In 2015 he received the literary prize for high school students and apprentices of Île-de-France, in 2021 the Béatrix Dussane-André Roussin young theater prize from the Académie française.
Après Papa tombe dans la lune, and La Mise en Papa (Grand Prix Afrique Avant Garde 2023), both published by Éditions L’Œil d’Or follow Salute to Papa for Orchestra his third novel.
Salve d’honneur pour orchestre à Papa (English: Salute of honor for orchestra to Papa)
“My birth was planned purely by chance. There was an announcement posted on the walls of the city: “search for a messiah”. Dad, who had long theorized that we will have a messiah when everyone is their own, ended up throwing in the towel. He spoke to his ancestors who promised him an arrival soon. By the time my father contacted me in the cogs of the big bang where I was wandering in the company of Jean Sébastien Bach, mother was full term.”
Dieudonné Niangouna continues, through a world-work, to offer us contemporary literature of the “humid tropical” – here the Congo – in an incredibly poetic, burlesque and incisive language.
Mutiladas by Eduardo Quive
Publisher: Catalogus
Date: April 23, 2024
Genre: Fiction, Short Stories
Language: Portuguese
Where to find it: Eduardo Quive
Eduardo Quive
Eduardo Quive is a writer and journalist, born on June 8, 1991, residing in the city of Matola, Mozambique. As a journalist, his career has been in the press, television and multimedia. He is co-founder of LITERATAS magazine – arts and letters magazine, edits the newsletter RADAR – Maputo Fast Forward dedicated to creativity and innovation, and writes regularly for the in-flight magazine of Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique – ÍNDICO. In the cultural area he has acted as a curator and producer. He published the poetry books “Lágrimas da Vida Sorriso da Morte” (Literatas, 2012) and “Where the living went” (Alcance Editores, 2022). Co-organized two anthologies “Stories and chronicles to read at home”, Volume I and II (Literatas, 2020) and the book of interviews “O abismo aos pé – 25 lusophone writers respond about the imminent end of the world in 2020”, (Literates, 2020). He is a founding member of the Kuphaluxa Literary Movement, of LITERATAS – an arts and letters magazine of which he was editor (2011-2021). He is co-founder of the platform for promoting Mozambican authors and literary projects CATALOGUS.
Mutiladas (English: Mutilated)
Eduardo Quive presents us with a book of short stories written in various settings and environments, but very focused on existentialism, degradation, violence and small gestures of love. The author takes us to stories of women, the peripheries and the exercise of memories, in a brief, intense and provocative writing. The fate of the characters reflects a society of daily tragedies, where violence and indifference have become a manifesto of inhumanity. In Mutiladas , life is liquid and dilutes without the protagonists realizing it.
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by Zeinab Badawi
Publisher: WH Allen
Date: April 18, 2024
Genre: Nonfiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Penguin
Zeinab Badawi
Zeinab Badawi is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist. She was the first presenter of the ITV Morning News, and co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow from 1989 to 1998 before joining BBC News.
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence
For too long, Africa’s history has been dominated by Western narratives of slavery and colonialism, or simply ignored. Now, Zeinab Badawi sets the record straight. In this fascinating book, Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history – from the very origins of our species, through ancient civilisations and medieval empires with remarkable queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence. Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, she unearths buried histories from across the continent and gives Africa its rightful place in our global story. The result is a gripping new account of Africa: an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves.
Please consider supporting the work that we do here at Writing Africa with a one-off donation or regularly on Mobile Money, PayPal, or Patreon. Click here for information on how to support our work.
Leave a Reply