WEALTH OF IDEAS

Just some thoughts on a topic that comes up every now and then, regarding who can write better about Africa, the writer on the continent or the one based in the Diaspora. In reading the articles or debates on the topic I often find myself trying to see which category I fit in. Although I am based in the Diaspora, I have noticed that the writer in me hasn't departed Africa, and the default setting of my stories tends to be Zimbabwe. This might be because writing seems to follow the stages of my experience, and right now, the narrators are still in Mazvihwa, that place in Southern Zimbabwe, where I grew up: it's a rich setting, which I believe has much to offer the world. My stories in that place are inexhaustible and they are more interesting to me than those set in Harare (where I did my A-Level, attended university and taught high school). In fact, I have the feeling that before I capture Harare (the setting), I may skip to Chimanimani or Chipinge, then Mutare and w...

In this post, Elaine Hirsch comes back with another enriching essay and this time she shares her knowledge of the kente fabric and its significance in Ghana and elsewhere in the [flat] world. Elaine learned about the kente fabric when she travelled to Ghana. The fabric, as Elaine points out, is commonly used in African and African-American themed celebrations in the United States and throughout the rest of the African Diaspora. I know it features prominently in graduation events such as the Los Rios Community College's Celebration of Excellence for students of African Descent, and conferences such as the California's Umoja Community, and other events that celebrate cultural diversity. Here is Elaine's informative essay: What is Kente Fabric? by Elaine Hirsch Kente fabric or cloth is a symbolic textile woven by the Ashante and Ewe people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. According to Ashante legend, two warriors saw a spider spinning her web, observed her for days, and ...

In my first hosting event of 2012, I will feature Emily Hughes and her friend Lauren Norton, both from Davis, California. I have featured Emily before, and I am glad she is returning to the SPC in January. The reading is on January 9 at 7:30PM at the Sacramento Poetry Center. Emily W. Hughes is a poet, educator, and backpacker from Sonoma, California.   Recent work has been published in the Sacramento News & Review .   She has been featured on “Dr. Andy Jones’ Poetry & Technology Hour” on KDVS.   Her blog, thealleysoflife.blogspot.com features posts on day trips, hiking, and recipes. Emily received an M.A. in Creative Writing from UC Davis, and teaches English at American River College and Cosumnes River College. Love Poem.   I love you like the moon loves the sun. Maybe that’s a cliché.   I don’t care.   Here, in the coffee shop, I sit across a couple playing cribbage. There’s a Bob Dylan song on. I look past them, and see...

Light and After , by Kobus Moolman Deep South Publishers (Grahamstown: 2010) ISBN: 978-0-9584915-7-0 Kobus Moolman’s Light and After is his fifth collection of poetry. Lyrically evocative and engaging, this collection reintroduces readers familiar with Moolman’s poetry to his confident lines, unique images, memorable language, and impressive narrative voice. In this collection Moolman uses a mixture of prose poems and short/lyric poems to explore themes that encompass public and private dimensions. Divided into four sections, the book opens appropriately with “Moving,” a haunting poem that uses a collage of images and an observant narrative voice to unravel the mystery of what appears to be a dream. In this poem we are introduced to a new homeowner’s obsession with his new home and the promise that comes with owning a new home. This observation becomes clear to us as the speaker declares: “It was their new house/With all the lights on /Their shiny, new, empty house / With large room...

Once in a while, I check  the search engines terms that are driving the most traffic to my blog, Wealth of Ideas, and the searches are often revealing of what kinds of information people are looking for  at any time. Today, of the several interesting ones,  "the importance of African languages in African literature" stood out. It's a topic I too am passionate about. I have written about it before in a post entitled " Language in African Literature ", but even this doesn't begin to cover the most important facts about the issue. Perhaps one day I will write treatise on the topic of language in African literature, and mini posts like this are my way of mapping a project description. But now let's go to some serious stuff on African languages in African Literature. Let me start by saying that I am annoyed by glossaries. Their intent seems to be to appeal to a foreign audience, or, most importantly, to any speakers for whom the glossaried language is for...

I like all the things happening in African writing (of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc). There are on-going debates on topics such the definition of an African writer, the subject of African literature, how to write about Africa, and literary awards for African writers. These are healthy developments for the literature of the continent, and in these times of change, we need more debates, discussions, writers' groups, literary anthologies, and so on.  And I just discovered two important African writing pages on facebook, the African Science fiction (AfroSf) writers and the Romance Writers of West Africa (RWoWA ). I know there are more interesting developments, but this post's focus is RWoWA.  This group have monthly book give aways, and currently a contest is underway for the December giveaway. Below are the contest rules, copied from the group's blog: Contest Rules: 1. *Subscribe to the RWOWA website by completing the Email Subscription form on the top right-...

Like a lot of busy people I know, I try to read several books at once. Believe it or not, I am re-reading Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Marlow keeps transforming each time I read the book, but that's not why I am reading it. I am reading the book with particular attention to craft, and yes, reading this way shows me how Conrad was putting the story together, and the effect he was trying to get from the words he chose, the phrases he crafted. This edition has footnotes that show the tranformation of the text from when it first appeared in a magazine to when it was published in England as a book, to the first authoritative American edition. Certain offensive or insensitive passages were removed, either by Conrad himself or by editors. When describing Kurtz's African girlfriend, Conrad, or is it Marlow, had been indulgent, the ambivalence of the language choice rising rapidly with the accumulation of prose (to praise or not to pra...

 C onsider contributing your creative work to the sixth annual edition of Cosumnes River College’s literary publication  The journal is looking for creative work in the following areas: • short stories (up to 2,500 words) • essays (up to 2,500 words), including autobiographical narrative, criticism, interviews, & mini-essays (250 words) on the theme: “When I opened my mouth to sing…” • poems • art: photos, drawings, etc. Submissions: Please forward your contributions to crc-ljsubmit@crc.losrios.edu Include no more than 5 poems or photos per entry; limit your short stories & essays to 2 contributions per year Format: Please send MS Word attachments for writing & jpeg files for the art For more information contact David Weinshilboum at: weinshd [AT] crc.losrios.edu Deadline for the Spring 2012 issue is March 15, 2012. "We are committed to publishing  emerging & established writers. We encourage the Cosumnes River Colleg...

Brad Henderson and Sharon Campbell Monday, December 12, 2011 at 7:30 PM 1719 25th Street Host: Emmanuel Sigauke Brad Henderson grew up as a city boy who summered on his granddad’s ranch in the Sacramento Valley foothills of California. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic State College in San Luis Obispo, and his masters in creative writing (MPW) from University of Southern California. His recently completed a poetry book manuscript, The Secret Cowboy: the life & times of the rebel poet Beau Hamel , was named a semi-finalist for University of Arkansas Press’ 2011 Miller Williams Poetry Book Prize. He is also the author of two chapbook– Speed, Horse-sweat, & Unboxed Sky and Split Stock: Selected Poems (with Andy Jones). This coming year, Brad will co-direct the poetry track at the San Francisco Writers’ Conference 2012. His poems have appeared individually (or will appear soon) in The Journal , Asheville Review...

MUROWA    This is not the truth, neither is it striving to become so. Shadow of an ancient baobab that has watched graves pile into hills. Wars of nations strife of tribes [this damn word]: knife to brother's throat knobkerrie splitting Reason's skull as wildcats, makora, lick to shining bareness the land upon whose belly the blood of generations has drawn the art of death. This cannot be the truth; shadows of ancient baobab  peering at the empty plains of Murowa begging for more blood—familiar blood of the village’s children who roam the earth without parents little killers left to their plains. Someone send the burst of life; command – someone – a season of rain that will last another thousand years. © Emmanuel Sigauke 2007 Together with some of my colleagues at CRC, I am reading my poetry to the college tomorrow, so here I am, going through old, weird little pieces produced some time ago. I am enjoying some of them...

Binyavanga Wainaina's interview on the Guardian and NoViolet Bulawayo's counter-argument are important pieces of literature. Such dialogue should be encouraged in all literature, but particularly in the thing we must all call African literature. Writers like Bulawayo and Wainaina, and, of course, Chimamanda, Gappah, including others who prefer to commucate only through their fictional writing, are very important. For one, they are arguing in a context that has awarded their works. The Caine does not mince words; it is designed to recognize the best of African short fiction  that's succeeding in doing something for the [African] literary world. If I was a winner of such an award, I wouldn't shy away from representing a large chunk of African literature; doing so is a  responsible thing, it's like putting my influence to work: Africa, this ONE place, needs such voices. Good job Binya and NoViolet. Your readers appreciate what you have done for yourselves and for Afric...

There was once a time when I would open a blank page and blog away. Any topic within the broad spectrum of books or ideas. A time when I followed the wealth of ideas concept closely. Such blogging was inspiring, it led to the discovery of new ideas, and as I blogged, I would hear echoes of other writers' sayings, echoes from such disparate names as Flannery O'connor, Charles Mungoshi, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ernest Hemingway, Dambudzo Marechera, Chinua Achebe, Robert Frost, E.M. Forster, James Joyce and others. Echoes such as: Don't write, follow the dream; how do you know what you are thinking unless you start writing; I write because I feel too much, start a story with a specific individual doing something and you will have a story, I write to discover what I am thinking, I write to capture the ideas I don't know I have. Hence, I was thinking of my blog, and the process of blogging, as tapping into a wealth of ideas. Yes, there was once such a time. And now, that time is comin...

Literary Agents. These are rare creatures in most African countries. But as the continent's writing continues to expand its global reach, it seems inevitable that continent-grown agents emerge to meet the growing need of the writers. The birth of Lumina Literary Agency in Nigeria is one important step in meeting this need. Coordinated by Lumina Foundation founder Ogochukwu Promise and US-based writer Unoma Azuah, this new agency is geared to connect emerging writers in Africa to publishing opportunities. Below are the details about the agency: The progress of any nation is inter-twined with the quality of the imagination of the people and Lumina Literary Agency has taken up the mandate to contribute to the sustenance of both the quality and quantity of Nigerian writers. It is this self-imposed cultural agenda that necessitated the birth of Lumina Literary Agency (one of the subsidiaries of the Lu ... mina Foundation) in Nigeria. The new agency is poised to aggressively scout for ...

    Presents Mary Mackey and Sharon Coleman Mon. Nov. 28 at 7:30 PM 1719 25th Street Host: Tim Kahl Mary Mackey was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. After receiving her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan, she moved to California to become Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS). She is married to Angus Wright, CSUS Emeritus Professor of Environmental Studies, with whom she frequently travels to Brazil. Mackey’s published works include six volumes of poetry (Split Ends, One Night Stand, Skin Deep, The Dear Dance of Eros, Breaking the Fever, and Sugar Zone); a short novel (Immersion—the first novel published by a Second Wave feminist press); and twelve other novels (McCarthy's List, Doubleday; The Last Warrior Queen, Putnam; A Grand Passion, Simon & Schuster; Season of Shadows, Bantam; The Kindness of Strangers, Simon & Schuster; The Year The Horses Came, Harper ...

Well and Poorly Translated Texts   One of the most overlooked and unsung heroes of literature is the translator. While not always authors, reviewers or critics, translators' labor allows millions of readers access to works they may otherwise never been able to enjoy. A great translation must not only remain true to the content and spirit of the original, but in some cases can even enhance and improve the literary work itself. Properly translating any text goes well beyond simply transmuting words from one language to another. Readers may not think translating requires a master's degree or even higher-level training, but it takes a deep understanding of both tongues, their vernaculars, cultural differences, and a thorough dissection of the original text. This is especially true of old or complex works such as philosophical texts, or the detailed worlds of fantasy literature. For instance, the Wiedźmin literary saga of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and translated int...

Here is some information on Contest deadlines harvested in cyberspace. I want to commit one day a week to posting contest information. Maybe Wednesdays? We shall see. There is already a very good resource that gives monthly deadlines at About.com. There is a wealth of other resources as well, but I am thinking that since we are already here at Wealth of Ideas, why not publish such information as well? So if you know of contests and deadlines out there, tell me and I will create an update. We will be doing something similar to what I show below, a November calendar I lifted  from this rich place. , the fiction writing section of About.com . I don't know if I will follow this format, but I know readers will find the information useful. Most US-based contests require an entry fee. This means that when you decide to enter a contest, make sure you have polished up your story. There are other contests where you don't have to pay, which, as one of my friends once said, will reject yo...