There is insidious fear across Kenya from rising costs of living, rampant spectacular crime, bizarre terrorist events and a sense that the future is clouded. The fear is making people angry and hateful, as depicted in this fictional account.

The book is a tale of opportunism, spoliation, misappropriation and dispossession. The arrival of Chinese in Africa in drovees lately is arguably the latest chapter in a very long narrative of empire building through emigration.

Besides giving a good general description of what it is like to grow up in a mud hut in the rural African countryside, with barely enough money to eat or to attend school, the book also describes the unique culture and political setting of Swaziland, Africa’s last absolute monarchy.

Bangui,
Who could remember to smile
when those guns fed us lead
In Bangui our hearts bled
Crying for sanity
Bangui,
Who remember's Stanley's fatal whip on our backs
Chopped arms, now firearms in Bangui
Lighting Ubangi with flowing dead blood
Bangui never dies
Determined to silence the ghosts of Brazza
Leopold, Bozize and Bokassa
I stand bold with African pride
I have died many times before
Made to kiss the aroma of mother Congo
And still I germinate
Bangui, I am a seed
I will never die
I will never wither
I will gyrate in the rhythms of Cavacha, Rhumba and Samba
Let the dust of the boots drown in Ubangi
Bangui

'Strive to be Happy' is an inspirational work replete with didactic messages. Throughout this book Lamnyam’s voice sounds like that of a quiet peace-maker calling for non-resistance as a modus operandi needed to ward off the pangs of pain occasioned by social injustice, exploitation and disenfranchisement.

Unbeknown to many people, some powerful conservative Somali clerics are strong-arming famous musicians into ending and disowning their own musical careers, on spurious claims that the music is prohibited in Islam. Music is very important in Somali culture and in Islamic traditions. Extremists must not be allowed to go on with this senseless eradication of heritage.

The Gambia, ruled for the last 20 years by an eratic and brutal tyrant, is one of the worst places on earth to work as a journalist. One prominent journalist who lived under the Yahya Jammeh regime has placed on record his own harrowing experiences and those of others – plus insights into media history and operations in the tiny West African nation.

Nigeria is not lacking in literary talent, yet there still aren't many Nigerian books freely available in the country, and they aren't quite as easy to find as foreign books. However, all is far from lost: There is a movement that is breathing new life into Nigerian storytelling.

The new $15,000 literary prize will be awarded to the best Kiswahili unpublished manuscripts or books published within two years of the award year across the categories of fiction/short fiction collection, poetry and memoir and graphic novels.

There is a lot going on in Africa: Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria, the Ebola crisis, armed conflict in South Sudan, rhetoric of ‘Africa arising’, the dramatic exit of Blaise Compaore, presidential elections... Many of these are issues that tend to make people get too serious and stressed. Uganda’s star comedia Anne Kansiime is offering people some respite.

Retired Professor Hirji, a book addict, has bought copies with frayed, half-torn or missing pages. He has on occasion received via mail a book other than the one ordered. But buying a fake book? Only in Dar es Salaam!

cc pz How much are Tanzania’s artists giving voice to the varied and changing cultural landscape of identity, values and beliefs in this globally influenced but locally anchored, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world?

Protest art may not necessarily spur revolutions, but as a change agent its immense value lies in speaking truth to power. It is also educational, cathartic and empowering in situations of injustice.

Ugandan women rights activist Hope Turyasingura is dead. Turyasingura is former chairperson of Center for Domestic Violence Prevention. This poem celebrates her.

The poetry is a journey into the quest for self-determination. Resonating with Ngugi's ‘Re-membering Africa’, Onsando's text focuses on selves that constitute Africa's dismembered self.

A new book called ‘The Coming Revolution’, argues that, contrary to the dominant narrative in western media, the South African revolution remains incomplete.

Blake and this writer created the Black Music Association’s Toronto Chapter in 1984 to plug African-Canadian music makers into the international music market. It was a huge success.

What is your body? What is it to you, to others and to the whole world? Who makes decisions about your body and why? Here’s one woman’s deep thoughts on these fundamental questions

Kenya's top singers no longer attract the crowds they once did in central Europe, where in the first place, the population is scant and spread out, forcing event organisers to think twice before inviting any.

The new scholarly book discusses three key developments in human rights law that could unlock the blockages currently encountered in attempts to seek adequate redress for corruption: limitations on the concept of state sovereignty, expanded notions of standing of complainants, and rejection of strict rules of causation which dominate national criminal legal systems