Most of the best-known Africa-set African novels of the last five years are works of historical fiction: from Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s Dust (2013), from Kenya, and Jennifer Makumbi’s Kintu (2014), from Uganda, to Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees (2015), from Nigeria, Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing (2016), from Ghana, Peter Kimani’s Dance of the Jakaranda (2016), […]
Tag Archives: Jennifer makumbi
Writing in Migration | Photos from the Festival of African Writers in Berlin
Last month, the Nigerian-German novelist Olumide Popoola, author of When We Speak of Nothing, curated a star-studded festival of African writers in Berlin. The event, held from 26–28 April at Kino Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 3010178, Berlin, was themed “Writing in Migration” and was presented by the literary agency InterKontinental. It was sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Berlin’s Senate Department for […]
Bringing Achebe’s Masterpiece to Life | Highlights from the 60th Anniversary Reading of Things Fall Apart | Eddie Hewitt
60 years on from the first publication of Things Fall Apart, I was excited to be in Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre to pay homage to Chinua Achebe and to enjoy a performance of his masterpiece by a stellar group of readers. A seven hour session of the finest literary entertainment, presented by […]
Olumide Popoola to Curate Star-Studded 2018 Berlin Festival of African Writers
Olumide Popoola, Nigerian-German author of When We Speak of Nothing, will be curating a star-studded 2018 festival of African writers in Berlin. The event, themed “Writing in Migration,” is presented by the literary agency InterKontinental, and will be attended by writers from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, and Ghana. For the first […]
The Reviews Are In! | Namwali Serpell Has High Praise for Jennifer Makumbi’s Kintu
Jennifer Makumbi’s Kintu is one of the hit novels of 2017. A historical drama, it tells the story of an 18th century Ugandan patriarch whose actions bring misfortune on his descendants. Kintu is a cross-generational novel that jump-cuts across centuries and decades. To say the story is gripping is an understatement. Kintu is a certifide unputdownable! […]
Booker Prize Winning Publisher, Oneworld, Picks Jennifer Makumbi’s Kintu for UK Publication
Oneworld, publishers of the 2015 and 2016 winners of the Booker Prize—Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, respectively—have picked up the UK rights to Jennifer Makumbi’s “Great Ugandan Novel” Kintu. According to The Bookseller, “Oneworld publisher Juliet Mabey bought UK and Commonwealth rights from James McDonald-Lockhart at Antony Harwood.” Kintu, […]
When We Talk about Kintu | Ellah Wakatama Allfrey | Essay
When Kwani? launched its Manuscript Project competition in 2012 the stated aim was to find the best unpublished novels by writers from across Africa—and to publish them for readers across Africa. The call for submissions asserted a firm belief that ‘there is no greater celebration of emergent forms than in publishing our own’ with Billy Kahora […]
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