In the spirit of celebrating African literature in 2016, we have compiled what we call our Best African Literature on the Net in 2016. This list is not definitive, it is a reflection of our taste at EXPOUND and mostly, the choice of some of our friends and readers.
We appreciate the efforts of our friends like Brittle Paper, Jalada, Saraba, Praxis Magazine, Afridiaspora, Enkare, Olisa Tv and Bakwa Magazine and others for their exceptional support for African writers beyond stereotype in 2016. As we look forward to more success for African writers in 2017, we want to use this list to remind the world and our African audience what a great year 2016 was for Africa.
Akwaeke Emezi’s: The Texture of Joy: A Stowaway Story in Adda
Bineh Ndefru: Farming, Tending in EXPOUND
Chibuihe-Light Obi: Of Wars, Photographs and Memories in EXPOUND
Dami Ajayi: Modern Juju Music in Bakwa Magazine
David Ishaya Osu: Together in Up The Staircase Quarterly
Gbenga Adesina: How to Paint a Girl in The New York Times
Hawa Jande Golakai: Fugee in Granta
Petina Gappah: A Short History of Zaka the Zulu in New Yorker
Ikhide R. Ikheloa: Jollof Rice Wars, Cultural Appropriation, and the Ugly Heart of the Other’s Darkness in Enkare Review
JK Anowe: In a Descent into Madness I Rarely Roam in Praxis Magazine
Kenechi Uzor: Infidel in Afridiaspora
Ladan Osman: For the Woman Whose Love Is a Bird of Passage in Natalie Jabbar
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright in Jalada
Okwudili Nebeolisa: C’est Grande Monde Panorama
Oris Aigbokhaevbolo: How Not to Write a Review: On Tope Folarin’s Genesis and the Caine Prize in Olisa Tv
Petina Gappah: A Short History of Zaka the Zulu in New Yorker
Pwaangulongii Dauod: Africa’s Future Has No Space for Stupid Black Men in Granta
Rasaq Malik Gbolahan: How My Mother Spends Her Nights in Rattle
Rasaq Malik Gbolahan: Where a Poem Begins in CoAL
Rumbi Makanga: Maybe This is How I die in EXPOUND
Saddiq Dzukogi: I Checked My Husband’s Black Skin and Remembered to Call My Son in Heart Magazine
Saddiq Dzukogi: Parenthesis in Cleaver Magazine
Safia Elhillo: At the Intersection in Elephant Media
Sefi Atta: Unsuitable Ties in EXPOUND
Suzanne Ushie: Let’s Talk About Something Else in Saraba
TJ Benson: In the Spirit of Ake in Praxis Magazine
TJ Benson: The Spirit and the Chi in Brittle Paper
Tom Jalio: A Red Scar on African poetry: Anatomy of a Serial Plagiarist in African Arguments
Wale Owoade: After in The Indianola Review
Wale Owoade: Because Your Body Took the Wrong Way Home in Brittle Paper
Image Credit: @fatou2002 via Twitter