West Africa Report Managing Editor, Ejiroghene Barrett, wrote this piece in 2009, reflecting on Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s powerful call for African languages to break free from colonial dominance. The article, originally published after Thiong’o’s remarks at Nigeria’s Garden City Literary Festival, held in Port Harcourt, has been shared again to honour his legacy following his…
By Lindsay Barrett The mid-February launching in Abuja of “A Journey In Service”, the memoirs of the former military President of Nigeria, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, popularly called IBB, was a remarkable event. The attendance of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the incumbent President of Nigeria, accompanied by several ex-Presidents of West African nations including two former…
By Ejiroghene Barrett Ousmane Sembène’s God’s Bits of Wood (original title: Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu) is a seminal work in African literature that was first published in 1960. The novel is a powerful portrayal of the 1947-1948 railroad workers’ strike on the Dakar-Niger Railway, which connected Senegal and Mali during the French…
If there is a compelling and multifaceted exploration of one of Africa’s most iconic revolutionary figures, then this is it. This engaging book, “A Certain Amount of Madness: The Life, Politics, and Legacies of Thomas Sankara” brings together a diverse range of voices and perspectives to examine the life of Thomas Sankara, the former president…
