TEBOHO MASAKALA (South Africa)

"Writing is a very serious business, and it is the same in Africa.  You can trace the trajectory of the born writers' as they start creating and writing from a very early age. Like Ama Atta Aidoo (of Ghana) and Ben Okri of Nigeria. They were writing fiction from a very young age - and also the great Ayi Kwei Armah of Ghana too," So says literary aficionado, Leke Giwa.

Certainly Teboho Masakala of South Africa began writing impressive short stories from a very young age too. By the age of 20 he was already well known for his intriguing short fiction which was already being published in newspapers, journals and on the internet. Of course he continued to grow by leaps and bounds. 

He hails from Thaba Nchu town, from the Free State in South Africa. As a kid ge was already very much interested in books and writing, inter alia basking in the Harry Potter series, and in quality African books written by the likes.of Chinua Achebe. Masakala has frequented libraries since he discovered the magic of Reading!

Masakala, born in 1988,  among many literary circles, is regarded as something.of a compulsive writer, a creative one, largely versatile. Short stories continue to be his forte - reminiscent of.kindred African writers like Leseli Mokhele (Lesotho), Maxwell Perkins Kanemanyanga (Zimbabwe) and Matshidiso Taleng (South Africa)

Books by Teboho Masakala

Mind, Pen, Paper, and Ideas (2010)

Through It All (2011)

The Fall of Marcus Desmond (2012)

Shout to the Lord (2013)

Shout to the Lord The Spiritual Corner (2014)

Restoring Everything Damaged (R.E.D) 2015

DE MA PLUME (2016)

Saved by an Angel (2020)

SARAH MKHONZA

By Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga

Women's Writing in Africa has obviously vivified and supplemented the much predominated patriarchal writing in the world of literature.  In Africa alone, this achievement can be clearly evinced by mentioning the sublime names of female writers like Miriam Tlali, Flora Nwapa, Ama Ata Aidoo, Danquah, Mabel, nee Dove, Grace Ogot, Mariam Ba etc.  Of course such wonderful women have contributed enormous corpus of literature that is radiantly gratifying.  

Because of their much fervent adoration for literature many generations that followed after them have emulated them, continually doing marvellous work in somewhat promoting African literature in the world.  Buchi Emecheta of the Joys of Motherhood, Yvonne Vera Butterfly Burning, Tsitsi Dangerembga Nervous Condition, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun and others have explicitly provided sheer evidence that African literature is exceptionally noteworthy. 

Although African political conditions have changed since the attainment of freedom and independence from colonial rule, yet other oppressive dimensions are still prevalent especially towards writers.  Apart from previous colonial domination, in stark contrast, the very same promises of freedom have veered.  It is absolutely known that in the past, Africans in Africa and Diaspora were very connected as they were experiencing a similar gruesome racial situation.  That’s why outstanding female writers like the first black female writer to win Nobel Prize in Literature, Toni Morrison will invariably be attached to Africa.  In her vigorous sacrifices, she also considered African literature by becoming an active literary wordsmith who eagerly championed black writing throughout the world.  By developing Contemporary African Literature (1972), a collection that showcases the work of Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and Athol Fugard etc was to her attention that Africa too was her motherland.  (Writers like Lorraine Hansberry, Lorna Goodison, Alice Walker from Diaspora are also black female writers whom Africa should reckon with pride.)  

Imperatively, in Europe over the years women's writing was not a common thing.  Pre-eminent female writers who broke up these barriers like Selma Lagerlof the first woman to win Nobel Prize in Literature, Mary Shelley, and American Edit Wharton who also became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize are celebrated with great zeal.   An obvious thing that is known to the world is that nothing can be a deterrent to women's writing especially today.  However, in contrast, Africa in particular countries female writing is often considered as precarious component to the authority.  It is very surprising to find out that in the 21st century where the world is remarkably modernized you will shockingly discover that women writing is denied an opportunity to truly blossom.  

Instead (especially in Africa) women writing might be regarded as subversive threat to authority.  To recall, Bessie Head suffered racial alienation in the country of her birth during apartheid.  On the basis of such racism the highly talented literary genius Bessie Head opted to permanently leave her country South Africa and ultimately she ended up living in Botswana where she stunningly thrived as a great African female writer.

Notwithstanding, today in a tiny country and a last remaining monarchy in Africa Swaziland, the world is dumbfounded by what is called stygian experience women writers are faced with.  An acclaimed African literary woman and academic, Sarah Mkhonza is now living in exile because she was unfairly rejected in her own country Swaziland.  She is or her writings are generally pondered as journalistic fiction.  Without any other alternative Sara Mkhonza because of the situation of her country, she decisively preferred to express her opinion by writing.  As a professional, she has achieved a lot in her career.  However, instead she received an unpalatable treatment from Swaziland authorities. 

 Unflinching Mkhonza would declare: “I didn’t attach writing to politics; I just thought it was important to inform Swazi’s about certain simple things that can be harmful.” In 1996, Sarah Mkhonza earned her Ph.D. at Michigan State University.  Sarah Mkhonza is a talented female African writer whose unswerving audacious demeanour under a macabre situation does not dishearten her to be outspoken about the grim conditions which continue to beset her country.  Ostensibly, today the world may think the prospect of literature is congenial and exists without any hurdles induced by the powers that be in the world. 

Alas, it is astonishing to see an African female writer being maliciously inflicted with retribution because she is writing about whate believes is absolutely unacceptable in her country.  Sara Mkhonza's complete efforts to promote African literature will of course never be thwarted by any unscrupulous authority in the world.   Likewise, Newal El Saadawi of Egypt experienced the same grim situation in her country as a female African Arab writer.  Enthusiastically, Sarah Mkhonza constantly produced impressive literature in the world and she is playing a very important role in advocating African literature abroad.  In her country she was a journalist who was an exponent cum spokesperson for the disenfranchised and impoverished people.  

While living in Swaziland she published two novels, What the Future Holds and Pains of a Maid. Subsequent books by her published in the United States unclude Two Stories, Woman in a Tree, and Weeding the Flowerbeds.  Patently, the dismal question which will be continually asked will be “for how long Africa will shun its own intellectuals - including its glittering female wordsmiths - by resorting to bestial persecution?”   

Works by Sarah Mkhonza

What the Future Holds

Pains of a Maid

Two stories 

Woman in a Tree

Weeding the Flowerbeds

CHARLES MUNGOSHI (Zimbabwe)

Charles Lovemore Mungoshi was one of Africa's most polished and salient writers.  He was a superb writer of fiction, both novels and the shorter variety. During his lifetime, he garnered both plaudits and significant laurels.

Like South Africa's Gomolemo Mokae, Mungoshi excelled in creating and writing in both his mother tongue (Shona) and in a major European language (English). From a very early age, his formidable literary talent was obvious to aficionados.

Mungoshi also wrote fine poetry, which can be gleaned from his general works, especially in his last major published work, Branching Streams flow  in the  dark. He also wrote books targeting
children. 

His work straddled the past and present, and his early book, Coming of the Dry Season, is regarded as something of a masterpiece by many. He went on to publish drama too; with his work always invariably impressing the pundits. He was also conferred with honorary degrees. 

Remarkably, he won the Noma Award in 1992 and the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region) twice in the years 1988 and 1998. He also garnered the International PEN Award - again, twice!

Alas, many years before he breathed his last  in February last year (2019) there was concern in the literary world over his deteriorating health. Apparently, he also had some difficulty in publishing Branching Streams Flow In The Dark, although when the work finally came out, it was not only well received but garnered awards too.

Zimbabwe has produced quite a number of world class writers, male and female, and Charles Mungoshi has gone down as one of the best. 

SELECTED WORKS 

•       Coming of the Dry Season (1972)
•       Ndiko Kupindana Kwamazuva (1975)
•       Waiting for the Rain (1975)
•       Inongova Njake Njake (1980)
•       Kunyarara Hakusi Kutaura? (1983)
•       The Setting Sun and Rolling World (1987)
•       One Day Long Ago: More Stories from a Shona Childhood (1991)
•       Walking Still (short stories; 1997)
•       The Milkman Doesn't Only Deliver Milk (1998)
•       Branching Streams flow in the dark (2013)

MABEL SEGUN (Nigeria)

THE PIONEERS. One of the first quality female creative writers in Africa - that is Mabel Segun of Nigeria. Well educated, talented from a young age, she has made her mark over the decades as adroit poet, fiction writer, biographer, and essayist.

Mabel Segun's writings are marked by sparseness interspersed with a deft, sure hand as far as the prose itself is concerned, sensitivity, an equipoise of focus, with didactic undertones. A grand matriarch in the niche, she garners colossal respect across the board. 

For the majority, she will always be synonymous with her work, My Father's Daughter, which remains one of the classics of Nigerian literature, often categorised as juvenile, but universal in many other sweeping respects. It is a famous work that many pundits have stressed should never be allowed to go out of print (like Robert Wellesley Cole's Kossoh Town Boy)

Mabel Segun has not produced the type of striking, lengthy creative works that the likes of Chinua Achebe or Flora Nwapa are renowned for. But there are parallels in their writings, especially with Nwapa, an early female writer like Mabel Segun

Consider Segun 's work, Surrender and Other Stories (1995)  for example.  The book comprises shorter writings that reflect the variegated lives and experiences of women. Nwapa has also produced shorter fiction which focus on women in this way too; arguably no male writer would be able to write in this vein, as the works are unequivocally genuine, presented realistically from the prism of a woman. Such short vignettes are convincing and authentic.

Indeed, Mabel Segun is noted for her convincing writings, even when they are biographical, autobiographical. Of course her work, My Father's Daughter, comes to mind here.  But so also does the later work, My Mother's Daughter. The writer directly and indirectly pays tribute to her parents, mammoth influences in her life.

A formidable part of her literary repertoire includes her copious writings for the young, including the very young. This distinguished award winning writer has also evinced competent interest in Education, Sports, and Broadcasting. A Living Legend at almost 90! 
- O Bolaji

SELECTED WORKS

My Father's Daughter 

Olu and the Broken Statue

Sorry No Vacancy

Conflict and Other Poems

My Mother's Daughter

Ping Pong (on Table Tennis)

The First Corn

The Twins and the Tree Spirits

Surrender and Other Stories 

Reader's Theatre ((plays)

Under the Mango Tree

JEANNETTE D. AHONSOU (Togo)

Jeannette Délali Ahonsou from Togo is a highly respected writer from Togo. An author of a number of striking, imaginative works, she was born in Lavie in 1954.

She was educated at neighbouring country, Benin where she bagged an English
Degree from the University of Benin (now University of Lomé). Thereafter she was a teacher and academic, working on various works. She writes in French essentially and put her country on the map.

Her novels are fecund, with fine characterisations presenting convincing slices of life and situations. The English speaking world might not be too familiar with her books, but she has carved a niche for herself as a talented African wordsmith.

Le Trophee de Cristal was published in 2005. "The heroine of the novel has found her soul and the love of her life after crossing the desert. It is a novel that invites to struggle, to pray and hope.”

Le Piège à Conviction (2013) was also a success. "In this novel the author discusses various topics from the power of money to the power of love. The author speaks of wickedness, infidelity, lies ...”

Un Tunnel sans Bout (2015) is her most recent creative work. In sum, Ahonsou has published four remarkable books, her earliest work thrusting her into the literary limelight.

This was the celebrated Une Longue Histoire, which earned her the Prix Littéraire France-Togo in 1995.

This cerebral lady writer is deservedly known in many quarters as the "Voice of Togo". How apt!

Bibliography

Ahonsou, Jeannette (1999). Une Longue Histoire. Lomé:
Editions Akpagnon.

(2005). Le Trophee de Cristal (in French). Lomé: Les Editions de
la Rose Bleue.

Le Piège à Conviction (2013). Lomé: Editions Awoudy.

Un Tunnel sans Bout (2015). Lomé: Editions Les Continents.

AMAKA AZIE

By Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga (South Africa)    

The genre of Romance in literature is not actually something nascent in literature. It is part and parcel of literary genre that has been enjoyed with great appreciation by many people in the world for centuries.

However, the blatant mistake committed in some circles for donkey years is when literary romance is associated only with white people! This type of concept contributed in misleading and giving a wrong impression about the central meaning of literature, associating Africa in particular with dark deeds and feelings.

Yes of course romance writers over the decades have flourished successfully in Europe and United States. The romance books which these writers have produced have received wonderful appreciation both by general readers and by literary pundits (think the Mills and Boon series; or even Barbara Cartland)

Imperatively some literary pundits have even offered their literary appraisal to promote romance literature.
As far as the world is concerned there is written evidence that shows that literary romance used to be relished with glee by the Greeks when the world was not accustomed to formal written language. In Europe over the year’s, books like Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte to name but few are regarded as romance literature. This is how the Europeans have viewed their literary development and it is really inspiring. Yet in similitude Africa has also exquisite romance writers who produce stupendous romance literature.

In Africa where communities are deeply immersed in tradition and religion one might even tentatively
surmise that aspects of literary romance are possibly not tolerated. That in such communities any attempts by any African writer to propagate literary romance will obviously trigger turbulence which might even lead to violence upheaval or a writer will unfortunately be labeled as "iconoclastic".

In fact, this is a sheer delusion cum hypocrisy which emanated from colonial mentality which used to suffuse
lies that Africans are not different from animals! Africans are not animals and they too have feelings like any other human beings in the world. None can exclude the pleasure of love and relationships from any mortal being. It is no longer stupefying today to see the world experiencing interracial romantic affairs blossoming with great enthusiasm. Dramatically the proverbial sensuous romantic features like love and relationships are not neologism words among African people.

These  cognate sexual connotations  are not surreal to Africans; for millenniums and centuries, Africans indulged in love and relationships like elsewhere in the world. Therefore, the dimensions of literary romance in modern times underpin what existed for many years between men and women in love and exhilarating relationships. In essence, one needs to ponder that African communities have evolved from the period of ancient times where aspects of love and relationship were strictly organized and guided by the elders until colonial control wrought havoc in the very same tribal formidable organization.

Today Africa has big modern cities which have a strong influence on people’s lives. The potent of
education and technology also has a perennial impact that is appealing to the ordinary people and the society in general. Therefore, things need to improve and accommodate us; Africans themselves need to play a leading role to advance anything pertinent to their lives. For instance, Romance literature in Africa must be
the product of Africans which reflects African romance.

It is therefore gratifying that the award-winning Nigerian/African literary Romance writer,  Amaka Azie has
done exceptionally well in illustrating her literary deft with great enthusiasm and prolificacy. In her fascinating literary journey, she has brilliantly resolved and firmly promotes romance literature with profound vigor.

Nevertheless, her romance writing cannot be interpreted as parochial because in her writing, African characters are vividly dazzling. Imperatively she is an internationally recognized romance African writer who is proud about her African people. Her extraordinary didactic literary dexterity which she employs in
her writing does endow the world with the knowledge that Africans do engage in love and relationships.

Amaka Azie has been an avid reader and writer since from her teen years. Over the years especially in her
school days she used to mesmerize her peers in school and her teachers with her magical literary flair. It cannot be disputed that she is enamoured with romance literature and from the onset she has shown her fervent passion about African romance that she embellishes by depicting African characters in her romance writing.

By her own account, it was a fillip to her after a long search when subsequently she discovered African romance writers like Helen Ovbiagele of the Pacesetter fame. In one of her interviews she explicitly stated that “she wants to be a part of brave authors showcasing that romance occurs in Africa too. The continent is not only riddled with poverty, wars and political instability. Africans fall in love too."

Inevitably, modern Africa needs writers who can steer their society to somewhat delineate certain day to day aspects of life like love and relationships with creative significant meanings.

Romance literature has inspired guidance so that it can be imbibed with gusto. For instance, when one reads a romance literature one is obviously expecting to be inspired by the heroine's reaction and by the chivalrous depiction of a hero-that can be fascinating.  Features like kissing, touching and sex cannot be avoided in romance literature. Literary romance can show the beauty of love and its myriad repercussions. It can also give vivacious sense of didactic teaching where male characters will be expected to be courtly to the damsel.

Moreover, the world cannot avoid the reality of love and relationships. We are living in a world where
our society is becoming recalcitrant, refusing to conform to normal decent societal behaviors. Gruesome acts such as rape, sexual abuse, divorce, sardonic sexual behavior and neophyte sexual relationship which
sometimes end up in unwanted pregnancies are very dire issues that now ravage our societies . Specifically, it cannot be expected that literary romance can be a panacea to societal problems, however to show noteworthy interest in reading romance can provide understanding on issues of love and relationship.

Key African romance writers like Dr. Amaka Azie deserve to be commended for their sterling efforts in endowing the world with pertinent African romance literature that is relished with fascinating passion. Azie in particular continues to garner lots of praise for her powerful plots and settings, convincing characterization, and denouements. Already, there are dozens of perceptive, positive reviews of her work on goodreads (website), for example. Here is a scintillating African writer who can walk with head held high! 

BOOKS BY AMAKA AZIE    

 Thorns and Roses 

The Governor's Wife

Melodies of Love

 The Senator's Daughter

Love At First Sound. 

Starting Over Again