Yes, as the headline says, the Africa Region finalists for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize were announced recently, and here in Accra, too! Not too surprisingly, I guess, as the Chair of the Africa Regional jury this year was Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, writer, journalist and most recently editor of The Ghanaian Times newspaper.
The Africa Region winners are:
- Best Book: The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone)
- Best First Book: Happiness is a four-letter word by Cynthia Jele (South Africa)
There was pretty good coverage online here in Ghana, with stories on the Ghana Government website and also on Ghanaweb . OK, some of the headlines were a little unrealistic, or should I say overoptimistic, but still it is something.
My colleague bloggers and book lovers, ImageNations and Geosi Reads were quick to blog about the lists. More power to them. The more people who know about these achievements, the better.
And of course the more likely the books will become available to we omnivorous readers of contemporary African literature. I am not surprised at the choice of the Aminatta Forna book; it has had pretty good reviews. I guess I will just have to wait until the Jele book hits the international distribution circuit!
Recently in African novels and stories Category
From Accra books and things:
Read this over the course of last week... a wonderful, lyric detective story. The scenes in the village (in Ghana) are excellent. The moody atmospherics of the London-returned "book man" who adapts back to local ways were done well. While the murder mystery itself was not very gripping, that was definitely not the point. I recommend the book highly. probably the best I've read over the past year. Better than Wife of the Gods, which was less lyrical. This had more of Mabanckou in it. African fiction is really taking off. I'm totally looking forward to the first good sci-fi novel by an African author.A good book review is here. I read the book based on recommendation of accrabooksandthings. Thanks!
Book is UK edition, apparently a US edition is supposed to come out soon.
Accra books and things blog mentioned this book, so I ordered it through interlibrary loan. I guess I would recommend this only for hardcore African literature readers. It is a morality tale- one of the main characters is named Mystique Mysterious, for heaven's sake- and so just doesn't work as a novel. A pity, because Kwakye clearly has the writing talent to tell a good story. I hope he gets a good editor, and abandons the fluff... don't have a world of humans interacting and then a devil gliding through them, with no character.
I think if you are Ghanaian you probably have a different reaction to the novel- it speaks to you more directly. Here is one blogger, geosireads:
I think if you are Ghanaian you probably have a different reaction to the novel- it speaks to you more directly. Here is one blogger, geosireads:
This is one book you will read and enjoy. Benjamin Kwakye is one writer I respect so much for his works. He tells the major issues confronting modern Ghana and I must confess that this work is very much insightful as well as thoughtful. Reading it for a third time brought to me much joy even more than my first reading. I enjoyed this book as well as his second novel, The Sun by Night. As I am yet to read his third and most recent novel, The Other Crucifix, I will go into it with high expectations, perhaps wanting to see it surpass his previous works. The Clothes of Nakedness is Highly, Highly, Highly, Highly, Highly Recommended!One thing, this novel, together with Wife of the Gods, and Esse Roji's wonderful Dead Men Don't Smoke Marijuana, is making me think there is a lot more marijuana in Ghana and English-speaking West Africa than in Burkina Faso!
FAVL board member Magi Diego writes in:
My local women's book club chose Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as our book of the month. I've been a member of this book club for quite a few years and we have read all sorts of books, many involving women and taking place in faraway lands. However, I think this was perhaps only our second African novel, which made it quite interesting. You see, we have a potluck every month in which book club members are to bring a food item mentioned in the book. (None of us knew what Gari was for sure! ) We ended up with several tasty soups (stews) and yams cooked many ways. It was fantastic.
The book club was divided on their reaction to Half a Yellow Sun. Many found it too gruesome and gory. (One of our members is 8 months pregnant, and well, if you have read the book, you know it is not something that would make for a happy pregnancy). However, the younger bunch really enjoyed it, perhaps because it opened up a whole new culture to us- learning about the Igbo and the short lived history of Biafra. Some of the older folks remembered Biafra from the news as kids. (Personally, I only knew it as the lead singer of the Dead Kennedy's last name- and lo and behold, come to find out, that is where he got the name....) Me, I loved the book. I learned so much as well as enjoyed a good story. The characters could have been a bit more developed and the relationships even more so. However Adichie's clever juxtaposing of America Civil Rights in the 60's to what was going on in Nigeria during the same time was what sold the book to me. If you really find the events way off in Nigeria gruesome, look what we Americans were doing here to each other on our own soil, in our backyard.
Felicitations aux ecrivains!
"Souvenir d'un petit campagnard" de Jean Louis Somda et "Le Roi du Dja Djo" de Bali Nébié. Ce sont là les deux œuvres classées respectivement première et deuxième de la première édition du Prix du roman paalga. Lancé à l'occasion du 35e anniversaire de L'Observateur paalga, ce concours littéraire a rendu son verdict le jeudi 23 décembre 2010 à la faveur de la clôture du Salon international du livre de Ouagadougou (SILO).Lire la suite...
Today we held the first official meeting of the FAVL Librarians' Book Club and it went incredibly well. The librarians all actively participated, made interesting observations and stated their opinions. All had strong opinions on certain aspects of the book. The book discussed was "L'amour d'Aissatou" by Andrée Clair. It takes place in 1960's Niger, right after its independence. Balkissa is determined to send her daughter Aissatou to school, but many villagers are against it, stuck in traditional ways. The book tackles many feminist topics including girls education, forced marriage and polygamy.
-"Ce livre décrit la vie des années 1960, mais ca parle des thèmes d'actualité. C'est ca qui m'a beaucoup impressionné. » (Donkoui)
This book describes life during the 1960s, but the themes ring true today. It made a big impression on me."
-« Ca nous montre qu'il n'y a pas grand-chose qui ait changé » (Ivette)
« It shows us that not much has changed »
The book's topic of polygamy led to a heated debate on the pros and cons of polygamist relationships and the difficulties women face. One librarian is a monogamist Catholic, another a polygamist Muslim, so you can imagine how interesting the discussion was.
The librarians all say their favorite character in the book was Aissatou's mother because of her strength and determination.
"J'ai beaucoup aimée le courage de la mère d'Aissatou. Beaucoup de femmes rêvent d'être comme elle. » (Lucy)
"I really liked the courage in Aissatou's mother. A lot of women dream of being like her."
We were thrilled with how the first meeting went and are looking forward to the next book club meeting. We asked the librarians to look around during their next FILO visit and find the book they'd like to read for their next meeting.
