Jaaziyah Satar

Wanner is a Zambian journalist, literary writer and editor based in Nairobi, Kenya. ‘The Madams’ through humour, examines the shock and dismay expressed by the people in Thandi’s life with her decision as a black South African woman to hire a white maid. Read More

Soueif, an activist, a rebel, a woman with a cause, a storyteller, can express to her audience that real love can conquer all - including differences in background. In my opinion, Ahdaf Soueif’s The Map of Love could give Nicholas Sparks’s The Notebook a run for its money. Read More

Laila Lalami is a renowned French-Arabic writer, and her novel, The Other Americans, written in 2019, years after her initial writing success, centres around the story of impoverished and immigrant Moroccans. The Other Americans takes a dark, tragic tone focusing on “the effects of violence on the human psyche.” Read More

Born in 1940 in Fez, Morocco into a Muslim family, Fateema Mernissi grew up in a harem around her female relatives. Her matriarchal upbringing led her down the path of discovery and discussion on sexual and gender identity within the Arab/Islamic communities. Read More

The Mau Mau in Kenya were viewed as terrorists instead of freedom fighters for the better part of the 20th century. Dedan Kimathi, an imprisoned freedom fighter, only got his letters published after his death. During colonisation, racism was systemic to the point that schools in Kenya were racially segregated (yes, it happened here too) This led to white children and black children receiving completely different standards of education, with black kids struggling for the bare minimum while white kids thrived. Read More

They are expected by some to be grateful for the right to do things: such as eat, swim, live and work where they like in their own country. They are expected to be grateful for the opportunity, if they had the money, to share the facilities that white people have enjoyed freely for decades. Read More

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is one of many African authors building a robust, nuanced literary tradition in Africa that actually speaks to the realities of living in the post-colony. Read More