alain mabanckou

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Features, Lit Scene June 22, 2017

The Impossibly Dapper Novelist: A Look at Alain Mabanckou’s Style File

From Chimamanda Adichie’s widely-publicized made-in-Nigeria wardrobe to Teju Cole’s Ikire Jones scarves to Prof Ato Quayson’s fedora hats, fashion and style have become a new mode of self-expression among African literary figures. They effortlessly blend literary success and a love for style. In so doing, these writers have transformed the idea of the public intellectual into […]

An Excerpt from Alain Mabanckou’s Man Booker Prize-nominated Black Moses

Alain Mabanckou’s eleventh novel, Black Moses, was longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. It was translated from French by Helen Stevenson. Described by The Guardian as “Oliver Twist in 1970s Africa,” the book was published in the UK by Serpent’s Tail and in the US by The New Press. Straddling both Francophone and Anglophone […]

Alain Mabanckou’s 11th Novel Longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize

Star-writer Alain Mabanckou’s eleventh novel, Black Moses, has been longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. Mabanckou has been described by The Guardian UK as “Africa’s Samuel Beckett…one of the continent’s greatest living writers.” This nomination is the second for the Congolese novelist who was also shortlisted in 2015. At the time, the prize was awarded in celebration […]

Interview | Alain Mabanckou Talks Tutuola, Exile, and His Love of Fashion

When writer, Alain Mabanckou, mentioned that he had been exiled from his home country of Congo Brazzaville during a panel discussion at the recently concluded Ake Festival, I knew we needed to have a conversation about this. Spotting a print shirt, blue jeans, and brown fedora, it would have been hard to guess this […]

The Magic of Childhood Captured in Six African Novels

Childhood is a stage in life that captivates us all, in part, because it is so elusive. Once we come of age, the experience of being a child—the innocence, bewilderment, and vulnerabilities—are immediately lost to an irrecoverable past. That’s why stories about children trying to make sense of a perplexing world have always been so powerful. […]

4 Times an African Writer Rewrote a Western Classic and Nailed It

Here are four instances when an African writer reproduced or drew inspiration from a western classic and ended up giving the original a much needed makeover. *** Our Sister Killjoy (1977, Ghana) Heart of Darkness tells the story of a British sailor who travels the river Congo in search of a lost explorer. The […]

Keeping Up With The Professor | Alain Mabanckou’s Blue Suit is Everything!

Remember when we announced Alain Mabanckou’s appointment at College de France? [click here if you missed it.] We have since caught up with him, and from all indications, the Congolese novelist is enjoying his time in Paris where he is serving as the 2015-2016 artistic director at the College de France. Earlier in the month, he […]

Alain Mabanckou Takes African Literature to 400 year Old French University

Congolese novelist Alain Mabanckou is the master humorist of contemporary African fiction. Within the English speaking parts of Africa and the world, Mabanckou is the most well-known African novelist writing in French. He is the author of contemporary classics such as Broken Glass and African Psycho. He recently secured an appointment as a visiting professor in one […]