English, 
Francais, Bilingual,
"Cheney-Coker has written a fantastic novel. There has never, in
my reading, been a novel quite like this before in African literature."
-- Peter Nazareth Sulaiman the Nubian, otherwise known as Alusine Dunbar, has transcended
the limits of life and death, of past, present, and future. Through the
looking glass of his memories, we see black pioneers seeking freedom after
the American Revolution, their landfall on the West African coast at a
place of memory and enchantment, promise and revenge. Through their diligence
and ingenuity the settlement prospers -- then the harmattan blows its dry
breath of ill-omen, presaging an age of bitter struggle and oppression
that echoes down to the brutal politics of today. Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us!
"'Out of our quarrel with others,' said Yeats, 'we make rhetoric,
and out of our quarrel with ourselves we make poetry.' Cheney-Coker is
a superb example of this truth." "Essential for most collections of poetry as well as black studies.''
This collection of the Sierra Leonean poet's work incorporates Concerto
for an Exile. Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us! In this compelling collection of poetry, accomplished poet, Syl Cheney-Coker's
distinctive voice speaks of his native land, Sierra Leone, the desert,
poverty, and childhood. Throughout, his imagery and themes reflect his
concern for political injustice where it is found, and his fluent and elegant
use of language produces a powerful, free-flowing verse. Cheney-Coker's
work draws its inspiration from both European and African poetic and cultural
traditions, paying homage to such artists and musicians of the west as
Goya and Vivaldi while expressing his deep love and concern for the continent
of his birth. Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us! Napolo, the mythical serpent that lives under mountains and is associated
with landslides, earthquakes, and floods in Malawi, inspired the poems
in this collection. Napolo lives on and still has an impact on Malawians
today, as evidenced by a recent reggae hit about the great Python. Napolo
also lives on in the poems of Steve Chimombo. Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us!
A Commonwealth Writers Prize Winner "Zimbabwe has fine black writers and Shimmer Chinodya is one of
the best. Harvest of Thorns brilliantly pictures the transition between
the old white dominated Southern Rhodesia, through the Bush War, to the
new black regime. It is a brave book, a good strong story, and it is often
very funny. People who know the country will salute its honesty, but I
hope newcomers to African writing will give this book a try. They won't
be disappointed." -- Doris Lessing A time of turbulence and turmoil is illustrated through the coming of
age of Benjamin Tichafa, a young man torn between two worlds, between two
sets of beliefs, between old and new. Top of Form | African Literature
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"The first collection of its kind. This volume is re-visionary,
a step toward self-definition. . . Its main strength is the wide range
of voices--42 poets from 18 countries. . . they have begun the process
of remaking poetry in their own multifaceted images." This first major anthology of African women's poetry offers an extensive
selection of poetry by women all over the African continent. The poems
address wide-ranging human concerns such as love, motherhood, death, colonial
domination, and human dignity. They employ a variety of styles from the
conversational to the didactic. Contributors include Ama Ata Aidoo, Noemia
de Sousa, Queen Hatshepsut, Micere Githae Mugo, and Zindzi Mandela. Originally from Malawi, Stella and Frank Chipasula now live in the United
States. Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us!
Marked by a simplicity bordering on song, and drawing on elements of
Malawian folklore, these poems are at once articulate and forceful. Arranged
in four movements and a finale, they confront tyranny in Frank Chipasula's
homeland, Malawi, and then travel outwards through East, Central, and Southern
Africa, dealing with the themes of colonial and post-colonial oppression,
exile, and the nature of good and evil. African dissident poet, Frank Chipasula, has been living in self-imposed
exile in the USA since 1978. Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us!
Lindsey Collen remains in Mauritius despite threats of death, public
rape, acid attacks, and arrest in response to The Rape of Sita. The book
has been withdrawn from distribution and continues to be banned in Mauritius.
"Beautifully written, powerful and wise." "Lyrically complex and richly allusive, yet accessible, the novel
addresses the social, religious and political conditions that make rape
not only possible, but probable." This novel is both starkly modern in its conception and at the same
time reminiscent of an oral folk tale or even a long ancient myth. It is
the story of the rape of a woman called Sita. A story told by her friend,
Iqbal, a man haunted by the desire to be a woman, a man also prepared to
tell stories anew all the time and without stopping. The rapist is Rowan, whose heart it was prophesied would burst in two
if he did rape her, echoing the prophesy of the Mahabharata and Ramanyana.
Sita's rape becomes the rape of the whole continent by its colonizers;
her ultimate sequestration, the slavery of nations. The Rape of Sita
is the story of all rapes and all amnesia, individual and collective. Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us!
"Mia Coutu. . . is on his way to becoming Mozambique's foremost
author of extraordinary tales, in which observed reality and the supernatural
blend." --World Literature Today "A man's story is always badly told. That's because a person never
stops being born. Nobody leads one sole life, we are all multiplied into
different and ever-changeable men." So it is with all the stories
in this collection, which never make a definitive judgment on the individual
life, but only suggest its possibilities. Set in Mozambique, these stories
also reflect the legacy of Portuguese colonialism and the tragedy of the
subsequent civil war. Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us!
In this collection of stories, the Mozambican poet Mia Couto expresses
through striking metaphors the emptiness and absurdity of lives bound by
poverty and subject to arbitrary incursions of extreme violence. In Voices
Made Night, an African cosmology portrays the surreal world defined
by its contradictions, set against a background of political instability.
Top of Form | African Literature
Index | African Writers Index | E-mail us!
Send comments & questions to: africanwriters@yahoo.co.uk
This page has had,
Whats New?
Syl CHENEY-COKER The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar
The Graveyard Also Has Teeth
-- Robert L. Berner in Books Abroad
-- Library Journal 
The
Blood in the Desert's Eyes
Steve CHIMOMBO 
Napolo
and the Python
Shimmer CHINODYA Harvest of Thorns
edited by Stella and Frank Chipasula
The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry
--Ms. Magazine
Frank CHIPASULA Whispers in the Wings
Lindsey Collen
The Rape of Sita
--Booklist
--The Women's Review of Books
Mia COUTO 
Every
Man is a Race
Voices Made Night
Algeria . Angola . Benin . Botswana . Cameroun .Congo, Kinshasa . Congo, Brazzaville . Djibouti . Egypt . Ethiopia . Ghana . Guinea . Ivory Coast . Kenya . Madagascar . Morocco . Mozambique . Mali . Nigeria . Rwanda . Senegal . South Africa . Sudan . Tanzania . Uganda . Zambia . Zimbabwe . visits since June 2000.
