“Of African literature and the language and the politics of the stories” by Ikhide R. Ikheloa
by ahjotnaija
“Authorial howls of artful prose as created by James Joyce, Faulkner, Nabokov, Cormac McCarthy, Shirley Hazzard, are becoming increasingly rare — sacrificed on the altar of minimalism.” – Chigozie Obioma
Many moons ago (moons!) in the throes of nostalgia and longing for the Africa I had left behind for the hell of Babylon, I wrote a piece of creative nonfiction that was chock-full of the kinds of things to expect from an African writer. There were moons, corruption and whatnot. I submitted it to a Western journal and it was accepted for publication. This is what one of the editors said in an email that I was copied on:
“I have a weakness for this kind of enthusiastic writing by people, usually African, Asian, or Caribbean, whose English is very different from the main Anglo styles.”
Another time, I wrote a long rambling piece in which I referred to Barack…
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ajagunna 