By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Some two decades ago, Ngugi wa Thiong’o challenged African writers to break their colonial chains and write in African languages. He then shocked the literary world and took on the challenge himself. Although he continued to write nonfiction in English, Ngugi wrote his novels and […]
Senegalese Singer Thione Ballago Seck Recalled As “A Legend”
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) — Thione Ballago Seck, born in a family of praise or “griot” singers and one of Senegal’s beloved music stars over the last four decades, has died at the age of 66 in Dakar on March 14. Tributes poured in after his death was announced with […]
Tributes Pour in for South Africa’s Musical Genius Dr Khumalo
By Jeffrey Moyo HARARE (IDN) – President Cyril Ramaphosa has paid tribute to Jazz and Opera Musician, Dr Sibongile Khumalo, for advocating the rights of performing arts, women, as well as human rights. Khumalo passed away on January 28, at the age of 63. She was an esteemed member of the Order of Ikhamanga, a […]
“The Hill We Climb”: A Poem by Amanda Gorman
NEW YORK (IDN) – Amanda S. C. Gorman is an American poet and activist from Los Angeles. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. She was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book “The One for Whom […]
Reviewing the Book ‘Myth of ‘Free Media’ and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era’
By Kannan Salazar BANGKOK (IDN) – With Julian Assange’s “show trial” in progress in the UK for alleged national security breaches in the US, and a cold war era propaganda campaign between the Anglo-American media and China gathering momentum, a timely new book sheds some light on how the so-called “free media” has ditched its […]
Anglo-Nigerian Writer Awarded Major Literary Prize
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – England’s most prestigious literary prize has been awarded to Bernadine Evaristo, an Anglo-Nigerian writer, for her eighth work of fiction, to be shared with Margaret Atwood, author of “The Testaments” in a surprise double award approved by the judging panel. Of Nigerian and British parentage, […]
Great Novelist Ben Okri Explains Why Nigeria Has Become a ‘Literary Factory’
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – “In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.” This must be one of the best opening lines ever penned by a novelist. […]
World Heritage Committee Stresses Need to Enhance and Preserve African Heritage
By Krishan Dutta PARIS (IDN) – The World Heritage Committee has inscribed a total of 29 new sites on the World Heritage List – one in Africa, two in the Arab States, ten in the Asia Pacific region, 15 in Europe and North America and one in Latin America. The List now features 1,121 sites […]
Remembering the Martinque Poet Aimé Césaire
By Rene Wadlow The writer is President of the Association of World Citizens, and author of ‘Aime Cesaire: (1913 – 2008) A Black Orpheus’. GENEVA (IDN) – Aimé Césaire, whose birth anniversary we note on June 26, was a Martinique poet and political figure, a cultural bridge builder between the West Indies, Europe and Africa. […]
A Nobel Laureate who was ‘the Most Homeless, Rootless Person’
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | LONDON (IDN) – “V.S. Naipaul’s legacy is complex – but his writing must be celebrated,” writes essayist Amit Chaudhuri. “His comments about Islam, women and Africa were often unjustified, unpleasant and untrue – but that can be acknowledged alongside his gifts.” Novelist Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, known […]