A tale of two debuts

Recently 'Discovered' in the West, Teju Cole was already known elsewhere.

Romance bodice-ripper novels get SA flavour

Hate and passion flares in rural SA when Thuli meets Jake in a locally flavoured romance novel with a feisty black heroine and hunky Zulu man.

Calling a monster by its name

The enormity of the atrocity in Rwanda demands that we keep revisiting it and questioning it. There is no guarantee it won't happen elsewhere.

Low ride, high places

On his regular Book Safari, David L Smith looks at The Democratic King, a novel by a policeman from Burkina Faso about his ideal Africa.

Privileged and published

The M&G's literary critic compiles his best reads for 2009 -- with a selection of brilliant African writing.

Airbrushed out

One way of measuring the worth of any dictionary is not only noting what has been included but, more crucially, what has been left out.

So many books, not enough care

'Tell our stories" went the post-apartheid creative mantra in film and literature. A golden age beckoned, unfettered by censorship.

Ruined by liberation aristocrats

Africa’s potential is curbed by the focus on personalities rather than policies, William Gumede tells Percy Zvomuya.

In search of great prose

The Commonwealth Writers' Prize aims to reward the best Commonwealth fiction written in English by both established and new writers.

Metal on concrete jars my drink lobes

Nigerians are in love with language, though meaning is not always a priority … C Don Adinuba hacks through the thickets.

IN THIS WEEK'S PAPER

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