Yewande Omotoso’s The Woman Next Door explores the intricacies of gender, identity, and tradition, using post-apartheid South Africa as a case study. Centring the plot around the lives of two octogenarian neighbours from different racial and social backgrounds in Cape Town’s wealthy suburb of Katterijn; Hortensia James, a sharp-tongued Black woman of Caribbean descent, and…
“Run, Àjàyí, Run” is the apprehensive and lyrical title of the opening part of the posthumously published Biyi Bándélé’s Yorùbá Boy Running. When readers reach the passage that reveals the context of the phrase, one hardly escapes the nostalgia from the ending of Orwell’s Animal Farm, “Àjàyí looked at Ìjí and Ìjí looked at Àjàyí”…
The irony of Ogadinma’s title recalls Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood. Both novels hint at comfort and resolution, yet offer little relief to the reader. In Ogadinma, the name itself suggests that everything will be alright. And because it’s the protagonist’s name, the reader holds on to that hope, waiting for a turning point…
In a society where women are constantly blamed for infertility, author of A Spell of Good Things, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, writes a thrilling novel that details the plights of women whose husbands are vividly aware that the problem of infertility lies with them. Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s debut novel, Stay with Me, is a poignant exploration of marriage,…
Half Open Lid tells a story of ruffled Ameze, a community whose values and cultural heritage collide with westernisation, a word often used interchangeably with modernisation, albeit wrongly. The narrative attempts to paint the negative effects that often come with westernisation in both its socio-cultural and ethno-religious dimensions. Written by Uzoamaka J. Eze, Half Open…
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