The award-winning South African playwright has written a masterful short story about a woman having to play a challenging theatre role.
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Articles on African literature
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After a messy break-up, Mangi loses his job and finds himself destitute in downtown Johannesburg. That’s where his transformation begins.
Despite being detained by the apartheid government and his work being banned, Matthews never stopped writing truth to power and was celebrated around the world.
Kenya’s first post-independence president used his writings to present himself as a leader of an exceptional sort.
Challenging oppression, advocating for justice, and inspiring social change are the hallmarks of Soyinka’s life.
The Road to the Village is the acclaimed Nigerian author’s third novel and is about ‘a young man seeking redemption in a country on fire’.
Her book Daughters of Africa brought black women writers into the literary canon.
The South African novelist messes with the line between fiction and non-fiction.
It reads powerfully in the Shona language, and is one of two of her books newly translated into it.
Christopher Mlalazi, award-winning novelist, was inspired by the stories he was told by his grandparents as a child.
The solo journey of a queer, black woman across the continent makes fascinating reading.
Swahili readers who have not encountered Abdulrazak Gurnah’s work in other languages are in for a great treat.
Driven by social justice, he showed that all people are capable of both good and evil.
Married couple Woppa Diallo and Mame Bougouma Diene won for their powerful short story A Soul of Small Places.
Variations of English names reveal the enduring effects of British rule - but there’s also a return to tradition.
Digital platforms have birthed a new school of writers and activists in Nigeria and Kenya.
A Spell of Good Things powerfully explores polygamy, patriarchy, political corruption and poverty.
From domestic worker to matriarch of South African literature, the book is a reflection on her writing journey.
The Camões Prize is the most important award for Portuguese literature, and Paulina Chiziane is the first African woman to receive it.
The activist and writer has been erased from South Africa’s history - but new academic work seeks to restore his voice.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor, Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University
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Research Associate, University of Oxford
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Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch University
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Professor of Practice, Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC)
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Adjunct Professor, Richmond American International University
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Assistant Professor, American University of Paris (AUP)
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Senior research fellow, University of the Western Cape
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Associate professor, University of Johannesburg
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Professor, Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University
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Associate Professor, University of Cape Town
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Tutor in West African Literature, University of Oxford
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Associate Professor, Centre for Higher and Adult Education, Stellenbosch University
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Lecturer in English, City St George's, University of London
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Assistant Professor of World Anglophone Literature, Johns Hopkins University
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Associate professor, University of the Witwatersrand
