Bakwa 05 October 14, 2013 Why do poets die? Emmanuel Iduma remembers Kofi Awoonor and Klas Lundstrom remembers Anna Politkovskaya. Serubiri Moses questions the legacy of Heinemann’s African Writer’s Series. Adebiyi Olusolape investigates gradual extinction of the Kakanda language Cover art: Photo by Piotr Arnoldes from Pexels Cover design: Dante Besong
We are constantly reinventing ourselves and, as a magazine, we have grown enamored of long-form creative journalism (or nonfiction), daring to publish online a genre that is more adapted for a print outlet given how easily distracted netizens are with the plethora of tantalizing online content. Nevertheless, long-form journalism, when in the right hands can
Emmanuel Iduma Audience at Kofi Awoonor memorial at the Nairobi Museum (Photo by Paul Munene, Quaint Photography) Let’s assume from the outset that poets die because they stand in the way of politics, and let’s find a way to defend this. We’re speaking specifically about Kofi Awoonor who, on Saturday September 21, was shot
In Memoriam: Why Poets Die (for Kofi Awoonor) Read More »
Klas Lundstrom A Memorial to Anna Politkovskaya. (Image Teppo) October 7 is the annual date of the death of the Russian writer and investigative journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. It was a miserable and shameful deed in 2006, which forever silenced a brave voice that is badly needed in today’s Russia–and in the rest
In Memoriam: Anna Politkovskaya Read More »
Dzekashu MacViban As a latecomer to the Cameroonian musical scene, hip-hop has been on a gradual but steady rise in an over-congested milieu where, according to Kangsen Feka Wakai, “for at least two decades, it would play fifth fiddle to Soukous, Makossa (in all its apparitions), Bikutsi, and Bend-skin.” This change is due to a
Afrikan Luv Unapologetically Flaunts its African-[ness] Read More »
Serubiri Moses “No one who loves life would wish to imitate her dedication to martyrdom nor would wish it for his children nor for anyone else whom he loves.” – Susan Sontag, Simone Weil (New York Review of Books) To be brutally honest, the vast legacy of much thought of African intellectuals
African Sacredness, When Fiction Becomes Reality Read More »
Night time Experiment Night time Experiment 2 On the set of ‘Pitie’- Jovi Witi Bakoto Carol photoshoot On the set of ‘Pitie’-Sentury Yob Mufor Eric Atangana aka Sentury Yob was born in 1988. He is a poet, rapper, writer, photographer and graphic designer. Sentury merges poetry with photography, relating it to a story that could
Selected Photography by Sentury Yob Read More »
A shorter version of this article was originally commissioned by the Goethe-Institut and published on www.goethe.de Dzekashu MacViban Black Alice. Photo Credit: Black Alice For many years, spoken word in Cameroon was like the anecdotal man with the iron mask— faceless and denied recognition as it played second fiddle to other forms of art
The Spoken Word Scene in Cameroon: From Poetry to Poetography Read More »
Wirndzerem G. Barfee A work of art is, and can be, read from multiple perspectives. One of the most engaging perspectives to read Macviban’s collection, Scions of the Malcontent (SOTM), is by collapsing the opposition between the verbal and graphic articulations, and as such creating a complimentary dynamics that participates in the
From Scions of the Malcontent to Men of Contentment Read More »
