A one-day symposium titled “Translating Ahmet Ümit into Foreign Languages” will be held on April 7 in Istanbul at Okan University’s Beyoğlu campus. The symposium will be attended by 11 translators from various countries, according to a report in Hurriyet Daily News. For a Turkish writer of fiction, Ümit (阿赫梅特·乌米特) has been fairly widely translated … Continue reading Ahmet Ümit Translation Forum: No Chinese Presence?
Boubacar Boris Diop and His Wolof Publication Initiative
Boubacar Boris Diop, Senegalese author of Doomi Golo which he wrote in Wolof (and later translated into French), has launched the “Céytu” initiative to publish major works of francophone literature in Wolof. The language is spoken by about 11m people in Sénégal, Mauritania and the Gambia. In this interview with Anne Bocandé of africultures.com, he explains the … Continue reading Boubacar Boris Diop and His Wolof Publication Initiative
非漂出版专讯: 2017.4 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs
Chimamanda Ngozi, the Afropolitan: . . . because she has walked so confidently into the realm of non-fiction, and has agreed on multiple occasions, to take up the mantle of “spokesperson,” there is an increasing expectation that she is up to the task; that she can in fact authentically speak on behalf of the fans who … Continue reading 非漂出版专讯: 2017.4 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs
非漂出版专讯: 2017.3 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs
Call for Papers Workshop on Strategies for the Promotion of African Language Literature. To be held at the University of Vienna May 2-4. Deadline for abstracts: March 15, 2017. Topics J.O.J. Nwachukwu-Agbada's Nigerian Written Literature Since 1914: . . . to write a piece of African literature without the injection of African traditional materials is … Continue reading 非漂出版专讯: 2017.3 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs
Extract from Chi Zijian’s New Novel, “Peak among the Mountains” (群山之巅)
The Saber When livestock catch sight of Xin Qiza, the Butcher of Longzhan Town, they realize that this is their doomsday sun. They take fright, even though that isn’t a butcher knife strapped at his waist — it’s just his beloved pipe. Winter or summer, as long as it’s sunny, Xin Qiza needn’t light his … Continue reading Extract from Chi Zijian’s New Novel, “Peak among the Mountains” (群山之巅)
非漂出版专讯: 2017.2 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs
Potpourri Five greatest Old African novels to read before you die . . . cheveux naturels in Sénégal, Men may say they don’t like it and of course they hate the cost but they are attracted to the look . . . resident Chinese in Africa by the numbers . . . interview with Abubakar Adam … Continue reading 非漂出版专讯: 2017.2 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs
Backgrounder: Contemporary Ethnic-themed Fiction out of China
For several years after I arrived in China, I was treated like the “Other,” constantly quizzed on my nationality, what my compatriots ate for breakfast and my impressions of China. When visiting small towns or the countryside, at times I was ogled, which made me feel I was somehow, well, odd. That was a new … Continue reading Backgrounder: Contemporary Ethnic-themed Fiction out of China
Quote of the Week: What’s on the Curriculum for Students in South Africa?
One tweet in reaction to the Abantu Book Festival's opening tweet designed to restart the decoloniality conversation:
非漂出版专讯: 2017.1 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs
Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built is the business book that most inspired Nigeria’s Iyinoluwa ‘E’ Aboyeji — co-founder of Flutterwave and Andela — last year: There are so many parallels between the intrigues of startups in China and our nascent African Startup ecosystem, he says. Evan Mwangi reviews John Mugane’s The Story of Swahili and … Continue reading 非漂出版专讯: 2017.1 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs
Quote of the Week: On Swahili Literature Denigrating Slaves
Much of Swahili literature, including proverbs and canonical works like Utendi wa Mwana Kupona, denigrate watumwa (slaves) as if blacks were not forcibly captured, raped, castrated, and uprooted from their cultures. The casualness with which slavery is treated, even by progressive poets like Muyaka, is the biggest scandal in Swahili letters. (Evan Mwangi, in his … Continue reading Quote of the Week: On Swahili Literature Denigrating Slaves
Altaic Storytelling 