Category: Books

  • Tuku Files: Humanizing the Superstar

    Add caption Book: Tuku Backstage Author: Shepherd Mutamba Publisher: Mhotsi Uruka ISBN: 978-0-7974-6211-2 When discussing Oliver Mtukudzi, it is not necessary to look up superlatives: the name autonomously signifies brand value. Four decades of Tuku Music are enough to form impressions about the man who evolved from an obscure ghetto artist to Zimbabwe’s foremost cultural…

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  • Shona Masters and Innovators

    Add caption Book: Chibarabada Author: Tinashe Muchuri Publisher: Bhabhu Books (2015) ISBN: 978-0-7974-6439-1 Tinashe Muchuri signs into the league of disruptive innovators with his new novel, “Chibarabada.” The accomplished debut from the award-winning journalist, themed after an illicit one-day brew, is an aggregation of potent devices. The title “Chibarabada” (not to be confused with that…

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  • The Politics of Inequality

    Add caption Book: Inequality – What Can Be Done? Author: Anthony B. Atkinson  Publisher: Harvard University Press (2015) ISBN: 978-0-674-50476-9 The middle wall between the haves and the have-nots occupies real estate in the cultural imagination of every generation. It has drawn a storm of intellectual sledgehammers in the lapse of history yet it still…

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  • Building Web-Based Educational Tools

    Add caption The educational facility of the search engine came into question when Google last week released an infographic mapping top searches across the world in 2015. Digital footprints worldwide indicate that the search engine is principally wired around entertainment, with education surfacing as an afterthought. Google’s cloud outlines provide an interesting perspective into the…

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  • Counter-Extremes of the Black Identity

    Add caption Book: Black Prophetic Fire Author: Cornel West Publisher: Beacon Press ISBN: 978-0-870-0352-7 Dancehall sing-jay Bugle plays back a thumbnail sequence of Pan-Africanist father-figures, tagging in the first black U.S president Barack Obama as the high point of the freedom train. “The Journey” video by Bugle is an example of the excitement occasioned by…

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  • Missing Angles in African Narratives

    Add caption Book: The Bright Continent  Author: Dayo Olopade  Publisher: Houghton Mifflin ISBN: 978-0-547-67831-3 The United Nations (UN) solicits European entries for a poster design competition to mark the tenth anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).   The winning entry by Stefan Einarsson from Iceland merges barefooted African children, apparently queuing for food at…

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  • A Modest Proposal for Motivational Writers

    A navigable screen, in computing, usually points back to a dirty floor and a crowded workspace at the head of software development.  This necessary contrast is equally visible in the creation and reception of literature in its various categories.  There are works which lend themselves seamlessly to their audience and claim the foremost stacks.  Yet…

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  • Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the Abolition of God

    The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novels prefigure mankind’s progress through history with a depth of field which goes light years beyond time travel.    The novelist considers the implications for the future from ideas which started routing for establishment during his time. By the time his native Russia became the world’s first officially atheist state, the…

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  • Chigozie Obioma’s Star-Crossed Fishermen

    Chingozie Obioma’s The Fishermen “The Fishermen,” a notable debut by Nigerian novelist Chingozie Obioma, multiphases unsettling threads of a dark childhood to process the mistakes of history. Obioma registers touches of genius in this critically acclaimed debut and stakes his claim among the masters of African literature – no mean feat at the age of…

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  • Soyinka Reads Terrorism Between the Headlines

    Wole Soyinka: (Photo: chinadailyasia.com) Book:  Climate of Fear  Author: Wole Soyinka  Publisher: Random House (2005)  ISBN: 978-0-307-43082-3 Wole Soyinka’s creative thread is principally a duel between people and power. The controversial dramatist has levelled his verbal facility, from both the cultural front and the civic sphere, against the abuse of power. He has remained devoted…

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