James Murua

Chimeka Garricks is a lawyer, editor, and ghost copywriter. His fiction includes the acclaimed novel, Tomorrow Died Yesterday and the collection of short stories, A Broken People’s Playlist. The collection which he wrote with the aid of music while trying to avoid working on another novel is coming in June. The Lagos-based writer shared with us why he turned to the short form to get his writing mojo back, how the Nigerian and African literary scene has changed since his last book came out ten years ago and his expectations of being a guest at the Afrolit Sans Frontieres festival currently running online. This podcast is a part of our role as media partner of the Afrolit Sans Frontières.,

Joe Khamisi has had a long history of public service in Kenya. For many years he worked as a journalist before transitioning into civil service and then parliament. When his legislative career ended, he wrote the nonfiction titles The Politics of Betrayal: Diary of a Kenyan Legislator (2011), Dash Before Dusk: A Slave Descendant’s Journey In Freedom (2014), The Wretched Africans (2016), and Looters And Grabbers: 54 Years of Corruption and Plunder by the Elite, 1963 – 2017 (2018). His latest book The Bribery Syndrome: How Multinational Corporations Collude with Dictators to Raid Africa's Natural Resources was published in 2019. In an in-depth interview, Khamisi shared why he had to write a book about the slavery on the East African coast, how a dysfunctional Kenyan publishing industry forced him to go the self-publishing route, and how a pirated copy of his book Looters And Grabbers started circulating in Kenyan WhatsApp groups. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast.

The African Literary Podcast, sponsored by Nairobi-based Prestige Books, interviews Kenyan novelist Makena Maganjo. A few weeks ago, Makena Maganjo’s debut novel South B’s finest about life in a Nairobi estate over a few decades launched at the Goethe-Institut. The book has since gotten rave reviews from a writer very few had heard about before then. We speak to Makena at a Nairobi restaurant about her new book, how excited she is that the book has resonated with Kenyans and the writers who inspire here like Ayobami Adebayo and Zadie Smith. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast. Prestige Books is your favourite bookstore for African and other literatures with branches on Mama Ngina Street in the Central Business District and at the Lavington Mall.

Lauren Beukes is the author of the books Maverick: Extraordinary Women From South Africa's Past (2004), Moxyland (2008), Zoo City(2010), The Shining Girls (2013), Broken Monsters (2014), and Motherland (2019). Her comics include The Wonder Woman, All The Survivors Club, The Pretty Ponies, and The Hidden Kingdom. She has won many awards for her writing including the Mbokodo Awards, the Strand Critics Award, and the Arthur C Clarke Award, the biggest award for science fiction in the world, for Zoo City in 2011. She is the only African to have won it so far. The Cape Town resident spoke to us during the Sharjah International Book Fair in 2018 about the importance of art (prescient in ythe Covid19 world we now live in), the anger that inspired The Shining Girls and the positive effect of the Arthur C Clarke Award on her writing career. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast. Prestige Books is your favourite bookstore for African and other literatures with branches on Mama

In Episode 12, we interview with Kenyan writer of fiction for all ages Kinyanjui Kombani. Kombani has two novels in The Last Villains of Molo and Den of Inequities has written several books for children and young adults. In this interview conducted at the beginning of the year, Kombani speaks about his career so far, why Kenyan fiction hasn’t been forthcoming over the last few years, and the need to have a more Pan African approach to publishing. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast. Prestige Books is your favourite bookstore for African and other literatures with branches on Mama Ngina Street in the Central Business District and at the Lavington Mall or online at https://prestigebookshop.com/.

This is an exclusive interview with Kenyan novelist Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor conducted in a little café by Lavington Mall, Nairobi. She talks about her relationship with the late great Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, the China that she writes about in her book The Dragonfly Sea. She also shares some of her favourite women writers. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast. Prestige Books is your favourite bookstore for your African and other literatures with branches on Mama Ngina Street in the Central Business District and at the Lavington Mall.

 South African writer Mohale Mashigo talks about her work on her novel The Yearning, how she got to work on South Africa’s first comic superhero Kwezi, writing a book from a movie as well as a few writers she recommends. 

In the African Literary Podcast Season 2 Episode 3 we eulogise Zimbabwe author, poet and actor Charles Mungoshi who passed away on February 16, 2019.

In Episode 2 Season 2, we give you the lecture that was given by author, poet, and scholar Mukoma Wa Ngugi at the St Paul's University in Limuru on Thursday, February 7, 2019. The address was on the relationship between Africans and African Americans.

The African Literary Podcast by James Murua returns for season 2 after a few months. This first episode follows what happened in 2018 saying goodbye to those who passed on, new books and festivals of note.

Sierra Leone novelist, short story writer and academic Pede Hollist speaks about his book So The Path Does Not Die with a focus on how he breathed life into a female character as a man, researching on the American Dream, his membership of the African Literature Association and how the organisation helps African letters. He gives his impression of the Sierra Leone Literary Scene including the Sierra Leone Writers Series and the Sierra Leone writers do we need to be reading? He also talks about his work as a Fulbright scholar in Sierra Leone and his opinion on the Caine Prize that was announced last week.

Interview with Zambian writer Kafula Mwila on the sidelines of the Time of the Writer 2018 in Durban, South Africa. Kafula is writer of Kafula’s Essentials a short story collection, "Deflowered" a novel and "Growing; The Beginning of journey to success" a motivational book. She talks about the nascent Zambia literary scene, her writing and how to get her work.

James Murua interviews Angela Makholwa on her books "Red Ink", "The Thirtieth Candle," "The Black Widows Society" which might soon be on a movie theatre near you and lastly "The Blessed Girl."

Welcome to Episode 3. Thank you everyone for liking and sharing the podcast on all social media platforms so far. Just like in previous episodes, I’ll start with the news section followed by an interview with Barbados/Nigeria/South Africa writer Yewande Omotoso from the side lines of Time of the Writer 2018. This will be followed by this week’s book review. Enjoy.

We interview Time of a Writer official Chipo Zhou, review "A General Theory Of Oblivion" by Angolan writer Jose Eduardo Agualusa and give news from literary festivals like Time of the Writer 2018, Hargeysa Book Fair and more. You can read the full podcast notes at the following address: http://www.jamesmurua.com/african-literary-podcast-episode-2/

James Murua of African Literary blog JamesMurua.com's first podcast