ALT 31 Writing Africa in the Short Story: African Literature Today

The success of the Caine Prize for African Writing and the growth of online publishing have played key roles in putting the short story in its rightful place within the study and criticism of African literature.

The success of the Caine Prize for African Writing and the growth of online publishing have played key roles in putting the short story in its rightful place within the study and criticism of African literature.

African writers have, much more than the critics, recognized the beauty and potency of the short story. Always the least studied in African literature classrooms and the most critically overlooked genre in African literature today, the African short story is now given the attention it deserves. Contributors here take a close look at the African short story to re-define its own peculiar pedigree, chart its trajectory, critique its present state and examineits creative possibilities. They examine how the short story and the novel complement each other, or exist in contradistinction, within the context of culture and politics, history and public memory, legends, myths and folklore.

Ernest Emenyonu is Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA; the editorial board is composed of scholars from US, UK and African universities

Nigeria: HEBN

Editorial Article - Ernest N. Emenyonu
'Real Africa'/'Which Africa?': the Critique of Mimetic Realism in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Short Fiction - Eve Eisenberg
Writing Apartheid: Miriam Tlali'sSoweto Stories - Mary Jane Androne
Articulations of Home & Muslim Identity in the Short Stories of Leila Aboulela - Lindsey Zanchettin
Ugandan Women in Contest with Reality: Mary K. Okurutu's A Woman's Voice & the Women's Future - Iniobong I. Uko
Snapshots of the Botswana Nation: Bessie Head'sThe Collector of Treasures & other Botswana Village Tales as a National Project - Louisa Uchum Egbunike
Widowhood: Institutionalized Dead Weight to Personal Identity & Dignity: A Reading of Ifeoma Okoye'sThe Trial & Other Stories - Regina Okafor
Feminist Censure of Marriage in Islamic Societies: A Thematic Analysis of Alifa Rifaat's Short Stories - Juliana Daniels
Diaspora Identities in Short Fiction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & Sefi Atta - Rose A. Sackeyfio
Exposition of Apartheid South African Violence & Injustice in Alex la Guma's Short Stories - Blessing Diala-Ogamba
Locating a Genre: Is Zimbabwe a Short Story Country? - Tinashe Mushakavanhu
Mohammed Dib's Short Stories on the Memory of Algeria - Imene Moulati
Ama Ata Aidoo's Short Stories: Empowering the African Girl Child - Hellen Roselyne L. Shigali
Interview with Ama Ata Aidoo - Maureen N. Eke and Vincent O. Odamtten
Reviews - James Gibbs