Books

A Man Is Not A Pillow: A Review Of ‘Husband Is Useless’ – Akumbu Uche

If there was ever a universal commandment for readers, it would be “never judge a book by its cover,” which in its most literal sense means…

When the Victim is left with Guilt and Shame:  A Review of Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s ‘Damage’ – Olukorede S Yishau 

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim knows how to tell riveting-but-tragic love stories in ways that are elevated, in a style that is not banal or soppy but rather…

Confronting the Past: A Review of  Faraaz Mahomed’s “Mother/Land” – Akumbu Uche

Mother/Land, Faraaz Mahomed, 2026; Catalyst Press, pp 285 Mother/Land, the debut novel from the South African author Faraaz Mahomed, opens with a reference to Rhodes Must…

A Review of Magnus Onyibe’s “The Imperative of State Police in Nigeria” – Prof Anthony Kila

There are books which arrive because their authors have something to say, and there are books that arrive because a country has reached a point at…

Deadly Things We Hide Behind Closed Doors in ‘The House Was Never Quiet’- Olukorede S Yishau 

‘The House Was Never Quiet’ by Tanitoluwa Adeniba, Parresia Books, 2026  Tanitoluwa Adeniba’s nonfiction, ‘The House Was Never Quiet’, has a subtitle: ‘Domestic Violence And What…

A Review of ‘The Visit And Other Stories’ by Ebele Mọgọ Akumbu Uche

The Visit and Other Stories, Ebele Mọgọ, 2026; Masobe, pp 187 According to conventional wisdom, people are wired for success either in the arts or in…

Ifowodo Examines a Nation’s Dysfunction In “Why Does God Need A Gun?” – Sima Essien

Why Does God Need A Gun?, Ogaga Ifowodo, Masobe Books, 2026, 116 pages Over the past two decades, there has emerged a growing body of Nigerian…

In Jazz Negotiations, Echezonachukwu Nduka Scores a Symphony Out of Silence – Sima Essien

Jazz Negotiations, Echezonachukwu Nduka, Masobe Books, 2026, 112 pages   “What is life without jazz, without rhythm and harmonies tearing down walls?” —Echezonachukwu Nduka, Jazz on…

Passengers x Alexander Maksik

256 pp. October 13, 2026, Europa Editions. Fiction/SF. It’s the end of the world, and a father and daughter are stuck in an airport. The father’s…

Jacqueline

The Iron Garden Sutra x A. D. Sui

384 pp. February 24, 2026, Erewhon. SF. Generation ships, like the one suddenly orbiting Doshua Station, had all but disappeared. The last one crossed the galaxy…

Jacqueline

Robert Mugabe: The Black Victorian x Percy Zvomuya

356 pp. October 15, 2026, Jonathan Ball Publishers. Non-fiction. My middle sister, when she was small and could still be carried, was obsessed with “The President”;…

Jacqueline

A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School x Kuzhali Manickavel

400 pp. October 6, 2026, Angry Robot. SFF. Mostly new-ish to Manickavel, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from this novel. I had, however, read…

Jacqueline

Vauhini Vara has accused Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza of using AI to write his Caine Prize-winning story

Before we could even take a breath to celebrate Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza’s winning the 2026 Caine Prize for Writing, Vauhini Vara alleged in an article in…

Jacqueline

The Apex Code x Chris Chia

430 pp. December 9, 2025, Atmosphere Press. SF. Something about this book pulled me in quite quickly, and it’s probably the pacing (or maybe the grumpy,…

Jacqueline

Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend x Ravi Coltrane

288 pp. September 1, 2026, Ten Speed Press. Non-fiction. September 23, 2026 was the centennial of the great John Coltrane’s birthday. Coltrane was one of the…

Jacqueline

Born at the End of The World x Donica Merhazion

384 pp. February 17, 2026, Catalyst Press. Historical Fiction. Conflict in Ethiopia and the region goes back generations. A recent novel, Ian MacKenzie’s Nothing on Earth, describes…

Jacqueline

Sean MacGinty and Alan Finlay in Conversation: New Books, Relocation and Writing About Home

Sean MacGinty is a South African poet. He grew up in Cape Town and moved to Buenos Aires a few years ago where he now lives…

anshita

When a Story Speaks More Than One Language: Translation and the Future of Kenyan Literature

Kenya is a country where people move between languages almost effortlessly. A conversation can begin in a mother tongue, shift into Kiswahili, borrow a phrase from…

anshita

Station Life Repair Winner of One City One Book Campaign

Station Life Repair – A Novel, has  been selected as the reigning title of the One City One Book (OCOB) Campaign for the 2026 to 2028…

anshita

Connecting African Books to the World: Reflections from the Nairobi International Book Fair 2026

Attending the 27th Nairobi International Book Fair (NIBF) from 23-27 September 2026 was a particularly meaningful experience for me as I begin my journey as Executive…

anshita

Between The Knife and The Gown: Sithembele Isaac Xhegwana’s The Troubled Child and the Burden of Spiritual Translation

There is a moment in Andrei Tarkovsky’s most famous film, Andrei Rublev, when the protagonist, a 15th century Russian icon-painter, after years of violence, doubt and…

anshita

PUBLISHING NGŨGĨ: REFLECTIONS FROM JAMES CURREY, HENRY CHAKAVA AND KIARIE KAMAU

An abridged version of this paper was presented at the University of Nairobi on 10 August 2026, during the launch of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o in Context,…

anshita

Announcing African Books Collective (Kenya)

African Books Collective is pleased to announce the opening of African Books Collective (Kenya) (ABC-K). ABC-K is the newly established Kenyan office of African Books Collective…

anshita

Living Sustainably Here: African Perspectives on the SDGs: A Review

Introduction In an era where the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are often discussed through Western-centric lenses, Living Sustainably Here: African Perspectives on the SDGs,…

anshita

The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 10, Issue 1 (October 2026)

Wamuwi Mbao • Fifi Bat-hef • Nondwe Mpuma • Makhosazana Xaba • Percy Zvomuya • Anthony Chennells • Percy Mabandu • Musaemura Zimunya • Malika Lueen…

Ben Williams

‘Many murky fixations bob to the surface’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Dominique Botha’s The Crying Bride & Other Hallucinations

Wamuwi Mbao reviews The Crying Bride & Other Hallucinations by Dominique Botha, a keenly alive collection from the new Painted Dog Press. The Crying Bride &…

Wamuwi Mbao

[Sponsored] Who was the ‘Black Victorian’—? Find out in Percy Zvomuya’s definitive new biography of Robert Mugabe

Who was Robert Mugabe, really? Robert Mugabe: The Black Victorian, Percy Zvomuya’s definitive new biography of the man who shaped—and devastated—Zimbabwe, is out now from Jonathan…

The JRB

‘I remember him as an enthusiastic student, with a terrible stutter’—Percy Zvomuya conducts a final interview with Anthony Chennells (1937—2026, RIP) on Marechera, Mungoshi, Lessing and more

Percy Zvomuya visits his former teacher, the critic Anthony Chennells, at Arrupe Jesuit University in Harare, to talk about the Rhodesian novel, the writers he taught—Dambudzo…

Percy Zvomuya

‘The haunted house becomes the colony in miniature’—Fifi Bat-hef reviews Nadia Davids’s Cape Fever

Fifi Bat-hef reviews Cape Fever by Nadia Davids, a slow-burning gothic tale of a young Cape Malay woman in service in a colonial-era house. Cape FeverNadia…

Fifi Bat-hef

[Sponsored] Exploring the moral and emotional terrain of fatherhood, memory, and inheritance: Mphuthumi Ntabeni’s new novel, Multitudes

Multitudes, the new novel from Mphuthumi Ntabeni, is out now from Kwela Books! MultitudesMphuthumi NtabeniKwela Books, 2026 When Phila, a writer adrift, enters fatherhood, he does…

The JRB

‘A revisitation-cum-commemoration’—Makhosazana Xaba on ten years of Percy Mabandu’s Yakhal’inkomo: Portrait of a Jazz Classic

Makhosazana Xaba revisits Percy Mabandu’s Yakhal’inkomo: Portrait of a Jazz Classic ten years after its publication, and the many artists who have borne witness to Winston…

Makhosazana Xaba

New Poetry by Kelwyn Sole: ‘The Honourable Skin’

The JRB presents previously unpublished poetry by Kelwyn Sole. ~~~ The Honourable Skin .jrb-sole p { line-height: 1.4; } .jrb-sole .l { display: block; padding-left: 1.5em;…

Kelwyn Sole

Tolu Daniel Joins Saraba as Editor-at-Large

In this role, Tolu Daniel will help shape Saraba’s nonfiction publishing, working with writers and commissioning work across the breadth of the form. The post Tolu…

Saraba Magazine

Introduction to 20.35 Africa Volume IX: “Sit with Their Grief . . . Reconcile with the Devastation”

The poems in 20.35 Africa Volume IX, guest-edited by Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie and Antony Fangary, "remind us that the suffering in the world is inflicted by…

Precious Okpechi

Cover Reveal: Mismemories: Contemporary Writing from Queer West African Voices (Exclusive)

Élékéré Press today unveils, exclusively via Open Country Mag, the cover of Mismemories: Contemporary Writing from Queer West African Voices, a new anthology edited by Nelson…

Élékéré Press

What Adedayo Agarau Got from His Fathers

The Nigerian poet did not necessarily plan for his first full-length collection, The Years of Blood, to confront his boyhood in a stark way. But the…

Iheoma Uzomba

In Nollywood, an SFX Master Earned His Audience

Before his award-winning work in big dramas Oloibiri, Shanty Town, The Milkmaid, and Jagun Jagun, Hakeem "Effects" Onilogbo, the most decorated makeup artist in the industry, wanted…

Oluwatobi Adedayo

Former Open Country Mag Cover Star Maaza Mengiste Awarded 2026 MacArthur “Genius” Grant

The Open Country Mag cover star is now the third African writer and second Ethiopian to receive the grant, after Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Dinaw Mengestu.…

Victor Ebubechukwu Orji

Cover Reveal: Tolu Daniel’s Exodus, His Debut Essay Collection (Exclusive)

Open Country Mag is exclusively revealing the cover of Exodus by Tolu Daniel, his debut essay collection forthcoming from CavanKerry Press in March 2027. A synopsis:…

Open Country Mag

The Élékéré Short Story Prize Shortlist

Élékéré Press has announced the seven writers shortlisted for the inaugural Élékéré Short Story Prize, selected from more than 200 submissions received across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya,…

Élékéré Press