Category: Blog
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My Original Sin Against Wole Soyinka – Maja-Pearce
By Adewale Maja-Pearce I was recently the recipient of what one writer called ‘a devastating public verbalassault’ by Wole Soyinka. The occasion was an interview with Sahara Reporters, inthe course of which I was tagged as a ‘sterile literary upstart’, ‘an inept hustler’, ‘anignoble character’, and ‘an empty, notoriety-hungry hanger-on and…
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A colonist discovers the Igbo
By Isidore Emeka Uzoatu Before Reverend George T. Basden arrived Onitsha at the turn of the 19th century, the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria had long been ‘discovered’. Thanks to the apocryphal ‘discovery of the embouchure of the Niger’ by the Lander brothers. In fact, the Royal Niger Company had…
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Author Profile: Juliet Ezenwa Maja-Pearce
For many years , Ezenwa Maja-Pearce was just content to paint, exploring a variety of themes including childhood, maidenhood and everyday life, capturing scenes we tend not to notice because they’ve become too familiar. Then through her work and interactions with other artists, she came to the realization that the…
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War Games (Excerpts)
Grandpa always did his best to please us, just as Mama always did her best to please him. She gave himfrom the meals she cooked and he gave us one farm produce or the other, and every other day a livechicken. I later discovered that the chickens came from his…
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Surviving the Storms (Excerpts)
1 THE CEMETERY The cemetery was deserted as Kuro walked through it on his way to see his friend in the adjacent waterside during a short school holiday. So much awe about the cemetery in this city. Even those who pass through it as a short cut to and from…
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Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa (Excerpts)
3 Nobody knows exactly what happened on that bloody Saturday, May 21, 1994 because no proper police investigation was conducted and no forensic evidence was offered at the subsequent Tribunal. According to the unremittingly antagonistic prosecution witnesses, itseems that the chiefs were holding a meeting in the palace of His…
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Billy Bisa’s Secrets, Mbachu’s Short Stories, Published
Billy Bisa’s Secrets and Other Stories is the first collection of short stories published by Dulue Mbachu. Eight in number, they were all written between the mid-1980s and the end of the 1990s. A few of them previously appeared in West Africa and BBC Focus on Africa magazines as well…
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The Centrist Manifesto
(Book Review) By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu The Centrist Manifesto by Uchenna Nwankwo; Centrist Books – An Imprint of Centrist Productions Ltd, Ikeja, Lagos; 2022; 202pp Books that change history do not come as heavy tomes. Back in 1848, the world was shaken up with the publication of The Communist Manifesto…
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What a Knight?
By Maxwell Chiedozie Ihedioha She said a very emotional, self-justifying, arrogant prayer reminding God that she would hold Him accountable for any lapses in the care and nurture of her children. She was sitting on his bed, an anxious, care-worn woman in her early thirties. She was light-skinned and wore…
The New Gong 