ALT 40: African Literature Comes of Age(African Literature Today)

Explores and interrogates the many and diverse perspectives of the new frontiers of African literary studies. Publication of the seminal volume African Literature Comes of Age, by C.D. Narasimhaiah (India) and Ernest N. Emenyonu (Nigeria), in 1988 generated the consciousness that African literature had attained maturity by the evolution of diverse concerns among scholars, critics, and researchers over the decades following the publication, in the English language, of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart in 1958. Since the publication of the first volume of African Literature Today (ALT) in the 1970s, the writings of Africans across the continent have spread across the globe, constituting refreshing and hitherto unimaginable epistemologies. This 40th volume provides a serious critical response to those changing horizons and reflects African literature's maturity, diversity, scope, spread, and above all, relevance. The topics discussed range from sickle cell disease to the animalization of humans, new feminisms and stereotypes of womanhood, the different shades of black masculinity, and political exploitation in creative works. Reaching across boundaries, recent fictions are seen to suggest a widening of conventional literary genres, and new forms that change the known trajectories of dramatic theatre. The substance, freshness, and vitality that characterize the articles in this volume of African Literature Today bring a welcome perspective to the continent's rich creative life. Funded by the Knowledge Unlatched Select 2023 collection, this title is available as Open Access under the Creative Commons License: CC BY NC

Table of Contents:
EDITORIAL ARTICLE African Literature Comes of Age ERNEST N. EMENYONU ARTICLES Of Literature & Medicine: Narrating Sickle Cell Disease in a Nigerian Novel KAZEEM ADEBIYI-ADELABU Posthumanism & Speciesism in African Literature: Animals & the Animalized in Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness CHIKWURAH DESTINY ISIGUZO Manifestations of Masculinities in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Novels: Initiating a Talk on Black Masculinity Studies PARAMITA ROUTH ROY Transformative Female Narratives & New Visions in African Women's Writing: A Re-reading of NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names & Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah NONYE CHINYERE AHUMIBE Religion, Capitalism & Politics: The Revolutionary Imagination in the Plays of Nawal El Saadawi H. OBY OKOLOCHA Approaching Gang Violence on the Cape Flats in Rehana Rossouw's What Will People Say? ALEXANDRA NEGRI The Denunciation of Religious Collusion with Colonization in Devil on the Cross & Matigari CHRISTOPHE SÉKÈNE DIOUF The Weapons of Subjugation in Imbolo Mbue's How Beautiful We Were BENEDICTA ADEOLA EHANIRE Abrogating Aesthetic Boundaries in Contemporary Nigerian Poetry: A Reading of Femi Abodunrin's Poetry as Drama SANI GAMBO The End of Robert Mugabe: On Knowledge Production & Political Power TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU The Text & Textual Fields of African Popular Literature: The Agency of Nigerian Stand-Up Comedy JOHN UWA LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Ezuga' (Short Story) KASIMMA Four Poems: 'Mis/Identity'; 'Portable Longing'; 'Darkling Shores'; 'Mea Culpa' EUGEN M. BACON TRIBUTES Remembering Professor Charles R. Larson (14 January 1938-22 May 2021) TIJAN M. SALLAH The End of an Era: A Tribute to Nawal El Saadawi (27 October 1931-21 March 2021) RAZINAT T. MOHAMMED REVIEWS Kasimma, All Shades of Iberibe NONYE CHINYERE AHUMIBE Ikechukwu Otuu Egbuta and Nnenna Vivien Chukwu, World on the Brinks: An Anthology of Covid-19 Pandemic ISIDORE DIALA Evelyn N. Urama, The Writer in the Mirror: Conversations with Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo LOUISA UCHUM EGBUNIKE Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 'Zikora' IJEOMA IBEKU-NGWABA Isidore Diala (ed), Obumselu on African Literature: The Intellectual Muse AFAM EBEOGU Imbolo Mbue, Behold the Dreamers IJEOMA IBEKU-NGWABA Tijan Sallah, Saani Baat: Aspects of African Literature and Culture OBI NWAKANMA

About the Author :
ERNEST N. EMENYONU is Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. He is Series Editor of African Literature Today. His publications include A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017), Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi (2010), and the children's book Uzoechi: A Story of African Childhood (2012). Paramita Routh Roy has an MA in English Literature from the University of Calcutta, India. Her research interests include African Literature with special emphasis on Women's Writings, Black Feminism, Masculinity Studies, Gender Studies and Postcolonialism. Nonye Chinyere Ahumibe is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies, Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria. Her research interests are in Gender Studies, Post-colonial and Diasporic Literatures. Chikwurah Destiny Isiguzo is a Lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature, Abia State University, Uturu. His research interests are in Environmental Humanities (Literature) and Film Studies (Nollywood). Kazeem Adebiyi-Adelabu is a Senior Lecturer, Department of English, University of Ibadan, where he teaches African literature. His major areas of research interest are poetry, post-apartheid literature and the medical humanities. Alexandra Negri is a teacher of English and French language and literature. She is also a Lecturer in Academic Writing for PhD Students at the Language Centre of Stuttgart University. Her research interests include Postcolonial Literature, Gender Studies, and the Ethics of Writing Violence. Christophe Sékène Diouf has a PhD in African Literature from Gaston Berger University of Saint-Louis, Senegal. He is the author of Spiritualité et Messianisme Révolutionnaire dans l'œuvre romanesque de Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Editions Universitaires Européennes, 2018), and has published articles about migration, cultural diplomacy, revolutionary movements, spirituality and religious syncretism. Benedicta Adeola Ehanire holds a PhD in English and Literature from the University of Benin, Nigeria. A veteran broadcaster she retired from the Nigerian Television Authority, after 35 years as News Manager. She now lectures at the Department of English and Literature, University of Benin, where she is also the institution's Public Relations Officer. She has published widely in a number of journals. Sani Gambo is a Nigerian poet and literary scholar. He teaches African Literature, Postcolonial Literature, and Literary Theory and Criticism at Kogi State University. He has published journal articles and co-edited (with Remi Akujobi) Plumes on a Red Cap: Essays on Language and Literature for Obu Udeozo at Sixty (2017). TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU was a Junior Research Fellow in African and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford, UK. John Uwa is in the Department of English, University of Lagos. He was a Cultural Archivist and Project Researcher with 'The Cultural Politics of Dirt in Africa'. He has peer-reviewed publications in journals including African Literature Today, Social Dynamics, The Routledge Handbook on Interdisciplinary Research Methods and Okike. Tijan M. Sallah is the Gambia's foremost poet and short story writer and one of Africa's most significant writers. A former professor of economics and retired World Bank executive, his most recent books are Saani Baat (a work of literary and cultural criticism) and I Come From A Country (poems). Razinat T. Mohammed is Professor of English and Literary Studies at the University of Abuja. The award-winning author of A Love Like a Woman's and other Stories (2006), her publications also include Intra-gender Relations between Women: A Study of Nawal El-Saadawi and Buchi Emecheta's Novel (2012). Kasimma is a Nigerian writer and poet, whose short stories and poems have been published in many journals and anthologies. She has had residencies at Wole Soyinka Foundation, Abeokuta; Faberllull, Spain; Sinthian Cultural Center, Senegal; Ebedi hills, Iseyin; Study Abroad, Lebanon. She is a MFA student at University of Kentucky. Eugen M. Bacon is an African-Australian novelist, whose work has won, been shortlisted, longlisted or commended for awards, including the Foreword Indies Awards, Copyright Agency Prize, Australian Shadows Awards and Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans. Her works include Ivory's Story, shortlisted in the 2020 BSFA Awards. H. Obiageli Okolocha is a Professor of African Literature, Theory and Gender Studies in the Department of English and Literature, University of Benin, Nigeria.