Blogs in February 2020

Nine Hills to Nambonkaha 17th February 2020

The village of Nambonkaha in the Ivory Coast is a place where electricity hasn’t yet arrived, where sorcerers still conjure magic, where the tok-tok sound of women pounding corn fills the morning air like a drumbeat. As Sarah Erdman...

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Allah Is Not Obliged 17th February 2020

Birahima’s story is one of horror and laughter. After his mother’s death he travels to Liberia to find his aunt but on the way gets caught up in rebel fighting and ends up with a Kalashnikov in his hands....

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Aya: Love in Yop City 17th February 2020

“Aya: Love in Yop City comprises the final three chapters of the Aya story, episodes never before seen in English. Aya is a lighthearted story about life in the Ivory Coast during the 1970s, a particularly thriving and wealthy...

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Aya of Yop City 17th February 2020

For the residents of Yopougon, everyday life is good. It is the early 1970s, a golden time – work is plentiful, hospitals are clean and well equipped, and school is obligatory. The Ivory Coast is as an island of...

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Chiquinho 7th February 2020

Originally published in Portuguese in 1947, Baltazar Lopes’s Chiquinho offers a rich and compelling exploration of Cabo Verde’s unique identity. Tracing the arc of its young protagonist’s life as he approaches adulthood, the novel follows Chiquinho as he leaves...

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