#africanlit

[wilsonlibunc]

This collection of African post-colonial literature, recently acquired by the Rare Book Collection, includes works published from the 1950s through the 1980s, primarily titles published in English and French, all by African authors. Most were published in the United States, London, and Paris, with some titles published in countries across Africa including Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria.

The three decades beginning in the 1950s found African literature flourishing in a post-colonial moment. African writers took to the pen, telling or retelling stories of African life, often in the languages of the colonial powers who had occupied their nations. Their work had a significant impact on the novel in the West and represented a global turn in literature.

Learn more on the Chapel Hill Rare Book Blog and see this collection in person tomorrow at our Recent Acquisitions Event.

[jroar]

JRR: Would you talk about the research that went into this novel? During this process, was there a piece of information or moment that really solidified for you that you had to write this narrative?

AHA: I wanted the family story, so I asked anyone who would indulge me for information on my ancestor. All that they knew was that she could have been Fulani, a people spread all over northern West and Central Africa; that her home could have been in Mali, Burkina Faso, or Niger; and that she was beautiful. The second part of research was going up to Salaga, to get a sense of the infamous slave market where my great-great grandmother ended up. And the third was scouring primary and secondary sources. I read through travelers’ accounts of Salaga in the 19th century, and gems such as J. A. Braimah’s Salaga: The Struggle For Power, which outlined the political activity taking shape within and outside of Salaga. There was one line in this book that cemented my resolve to write this novel. It said that princesses in Salaga could choose their lovers, even if they were already betrothed to another. It was perfect dramatic material for a novel.

Full interview with my J-School brilliant fellow alum, Ayesha Harruna Attah, about her third novel and much else here. More about her U.S. book tour here.

[fantasticradiouk]

@goodblackreads with #Photocredit @athenas_conceit A coming-of-age story about navigating the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family, Buck shares the story of a generation through one original and riveting voice. MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: his mother a dancer, his father a revered professor. But as a teenager, MK was alone on the streets of North Philadelphia, swept up in a world of drugs, sex, and violence. MK’s memoir is an unforgettable tale of how one precocious, confused kid educated himself through gangs, rap, mystic cults, ghetto philosophy, and, eventually, books. It is an inspiring tribute to the power of literature to heal and redeem us. #buck #mkasante #goodblackreads #blackauthors #blackwriters #womenwriters #womenauthors #womenofcolor #pocwriters #africanauthors #africanliterature #africanlit #blacklit #blackliterature #bookstagram

[renareads]

#ReadSoulLit Day 8 – Short Story Collection: I was drawn to HAPPINESS, LIKE WATER around the time 300 girls were stolen from their dormitory in Nigeria in April 2014. I found the connection profound. Chinelo Okparanta’s short story collection is set in Nigeria, and her characters – women and girls – wrestle with their own issues of love, faith, and sorrow. Hauntingly beautiful. Also very inclusive of the lesbian perspective. #readingblackout #LGBTbook #blacklesbianbooks #ownvoices #africanlit #nigerianliterature

[isiaba]

Unbound

Chapter One (Excerpt)

My body felt cold. I was reacting to her last statement and I wasn't sure why. Out of earshot, I walked quickly into my room and locked the door behind me. The journal I’d been assigned was still sitting empty on the worktable. Mocking.

How provocative, I thought. A writers workshop with a worktable in each room.

Take your work to bed with you. Write it in your sleep, my head whispered.

I sighed, sat on the edge of the bed and put my face in my hands.

Read more on wattpad

[fantasticradiouk]

#Photocredit @wmebooks The acclaimed New York Times bestselling and National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreamingdelivers her first adult novel in twenty years. Running into a long-ago friend sets memory from the 1970s in motion for August, transporting her to a time and a place where friendship was everything—until it wasn’t. For August and her girls, sharing confidences as they ambled through neighborhood streets, Brooklyn was a place where they believed that they were beautiful, talented, brilliant—a part of a future that belonged to them. But beneath the hopeful veneer, there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where grown men reached for innocent girls in dark hallways, where ghosts haunted the night, where mothers disappeared. A world where madness was just a sunset away and fathers found hope in religion. Like Louise Meriwether’s Daddy Was a Number Runnerand Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina, Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn heartbreakingly illuminates the formative time when childhood gives way to adulthood—the promise and peril of growing up—and exquisitely renders a powerful, indelible, and fleeting friendship that united four young lives. CONTENT SOURCE @goodblackreads #blackauthors #blackwriters #womenwriters #womenauthors #womenofcolor #pocwriters #africanauthors #africanliterature #africanlit #blacklit #blackliterature #bookstagram #AnotherBrooklyn #JacquelineWoodson #paperback #mustreadbook #NationalBookAwardFinalist #newyorktimesbestseller #wmebooks

[fantasticradiouk]

#Photocredit @stephanie_shafiepour It begins in North Philadelphia. He was born an accident, unwanted by his parents. His father was a drug addict who was in and out of jail. His brother was a crack dealer and petty thief. And his mother was overwhelmingly strict, beating him with belts, frying pans, and his own toys. The odds, in short, were stacked against our young hero, just like the odds that are stacked against the release of a new book in this era of social media (where Hart has a following of over 100 million, by the way). But Kevin Hart, like Ernest Hemingway, JK Rowling, and Chocolate Droppa before him, was able to defy the odds and turn it around. In his literary debut, he takes the reader on a journey through what his life was, what it is now, and how he's overcome each challenge to become the man he is today. And that man happens to be the biggest comedian in the world, with tours that sell out football stadiums and films that have collectively grossed over $3.5 billion. He achieved this not just through hard work, determination, and talent: It was through his unique way of looking at the world. Because just like a book has chapters, Hart sees life as a collection of chapters that each person gets to write for himself or herself. "Not only do you get to choose how you interpret each chapter, but your interpretation writes the next chapter," he says. "So why not choose the interpretation that serves your life the best? CONTENT SOURCE-@goodblackreads #blackauthors #blackwriters #womenwriters #womenauthors #womenofcolor #pocwriters #africanauthors #africanliterature #africanlit #blacklit #blackliterature #bookstagram #kevinhart #icantmakethisup

[fantasticradiouk]

#Photocredit @amukelanimayimele On a freezing winter’s night, a few hours before dawn on May 12, 1969, South African security police stormed the Soweto home of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, activist and wife of the imprisoned Nelson Mandela, and arrested her in the presence of her two young daughters, then aged nine and ten. Rounded up in a group of other antiapartheid activists under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act, designed for the security police to hold and interrogate people for as long as they wanted, she was taken away. She had no idea where they were taking her or what would happen to her children. For Winnie Mandela, this was the start of 491 days of detention and two trials. Forty-one years after Winnie Mandela’s release on September 14, 1970, Greta Soggot, the widow of one of the defense attorneys from the 1969 –70 trials, handed her a stack of papers that included a journal and notes she had written while in detention, most of the time in solitary confinement. Their reappearance brought back to Winnie vivid and horrifying memories and uncovered for the rest of us a unique and personal slice of South Africa’s history. 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 shares with the world Winnie Mandela’s moving and compelling journal along with some of the letters written between several affected parties at the time, including Winnie and Nelson Mandela, himself then a prisoner on Robben Island for nearly seven years. #MbokodoLeads #WinnieMandela #491days #womenwholead #mandela CONTENTSOURCE -@goodblackreads #blackauthors #blackwriters #womenwriters #womenauthors #womenofcolor #pocwriters #africanauthors #africanliterature #africanlit #blacklit #blackliterature #bookstagram