Featured Article
- April 30, 2026
- Inkazi Blogpost
- Siona Lootu
There is a specific kind of embarrassment that every Kenyan who grew up in a certain household knows. You are…
There is a specific kind of embarrassment that every Kenyan who grew up in a certain household knows. You are at school. The teacher has announced, with the energy of someone delivering divine law, that English only will be spoken within these walls. You nod. You agree because you know the punishment would be walking […]
- Siona Lootu
- Apr 30, 2026
So, you’ve heard the buzz about African literature. Maybe you saw Americanah on a bestseller list, or a friend couldn’t stop talking about The Middle Daughter. You’re intrigued, but perhaps a little unsure of where to start. Well, you’ve come to the right place! Welcome. Think of African literature not as a single, monolithic entity, […]
- Siona Lootu
- Mar 26, 2026
The Stories That Belong to Us There is a particular silence that settles over a story told by the wrong voice. You can feel it. Something is slightly off, like a translation that knows all the words but none of the music. That silence has lived too long inside African literature. Not because the stories […]
- Siona Lootu
- Mar 25, 2026
We Are Listening Now The manuscript you have been sitting on, the one that doesn’t fit neatly anywhere, that is precisely the one we want to read. A story finds its true shape only when it meets an editor who understands what it is trying to become. Too many African manuscripts have been handed to […]
- Siona Lootu
- Mar 25, 2026
We need to talk about descriptions. Specifically, we need to talk about how we describe skin, and the subtle, often unintentional ways that language can reinforce harmful stereotypes, even in our favourite romance novels. Recently, a specific line in a book by Elsie Silver sparked a necessary conversation in the bookish community. The description in […]
- Siona Lootu
- Mar 25, 2026
