Artists & Reviews

“My dad worked overtime to preserve our childhood,” Ms. Moore said. Gunshots in the distance became “dragons fighting” and dead bodies on the streets were people “sleeping on the road.”

In Wayétu Moore’s Ambitious Debut Novel, Liberia Is Reborn

May 23, 2019May 23, 2019 admin2

“She Would Be King” reframes the country’s history in magical terms. By Lovia Gyarkye When Wayétu Moore was 5 years old, she and her family fled Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. It was 1989 and the country was caught in a violent civil war. Ms. Moore, her father and two sisters took refuge in her maternal grandmother’s home village near Liberia’s border with Sierra Leone. “My dad worked overtime to preserve our childhood,” Ms. Moore said. Gunshots in the distance became “dragons fighting” and dead bodies…

A gentle breeze blew across the garden, the flowers swaying gently as the sun rose. The house was as quiet as a deathbed. Musue heard a bee buzzing in the next room; it was the only sound in the house that could be heard. Her husband was unusually quiet the last few days. Even though he was not talkative, she realized he his woeful disposition was too uncomfortable, and this broke her heart; the more she thought about him. He was still doing his best to cheer her, but the weight of the situation as it appears was beyond him. She had reached the point where she wanted to tell him what was bugging her.

Artists & Reviews

A Checkpoint Away From Dying: R. Cherbo Geeplay

April 16, 2019April 20, 2019 admin2

A SHORT STORY Musue wore a colorful green and yellow cotton lappa, large, silver hoop earrings, and silver bangles to match. She stretched her slender arms and sighed loudly, “Oh Lord!” as she stood facing the street. She glanced at her face reflected in the window-pane. Her image stared back at her, flushed with sorrow and pain. She peered through the window again looking out. Birds and bees were flirting with the flowers in the courtyard, the morning was early. The sunlight poured over her and filled the room. She…

Romeo-Mark grew up in the West Indies, where her family drifted from island to island looking for work. In a series of gripping poems, she takes us inside the uneasy tapestry of immigrant cultures that form the Caribbean islands: a pastiche of hunger and oppression that makes survival a daily struggle.

Artists & Reviews News

Althea Romeo-Mark: The Nakedness of New

April 25, 2018May 5, 2018 admin2 African book, Althea Romeo-Mark, Caribbean writer

In this remarkable collection, Althea Romeo-Mark uses poetry like a lance, a magnifying glass, and a soothing balm. Her verse gives the reader a close-up view of life as an immigrant in the Caribbean and details her experiences in England after fleeing the violence of the Liberian civil war. Romeo-Mark grew up in the West Indies, where her family drifted from island to island looking for work. In a series of gripping poems, she takes us inside the uneasy tapestry of immigrant cultures that form the Caribbean islands:…

In 1974, she was imprisoned for six months for violating her banning order by lunching with her two children and another banned person. The government was relentlessly sadistic. In 1975, after 13 years of banning, there were 10 months of "freedom", but then came five more months of prison. In 1977, she was banned again for give years, and in 1982 for another five years. In 1986, Winnie Mandela was released at last. For the first time in a quarter of a century, she was as free as a Black person ever gets in South Africa.

Artists & Reviews News Tributes

The Complicated Legacy of Winnie Mandela

April 8, 2018April 8, 2018 admin2 Aparthied, South Africa, Winnie mandela

When Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died from illness at age 81 on Monday, she left behind a fraught legacy. The woman who gained fame as Nelson Mandela’s wife earned her place by her own right as a leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, an aggressive and outspoken champion of poor blacks in the country under the repressive hand of the white minority government. But she also gained notoriety for episodes of corruption and, more notably, her behind-the-scene role in violence that terrorized her own community and left her fending off…

Okpewho is one of the finest and prolific scholars in the field of oral literature in Africa and Europe in the last three decades

Artists & Reviews News

Okpewho orature and African literature

March 19, 2018March 19, 2018 admin2 African Literature, Okpewho

The land of the living was not far removed from the domain of the ancestors. There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and also when an old man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors.A man’s life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors (Chinua Achebe, 1958:97).” The above excerpt from Chinua Achebe is a fitting tribute to Professor Isidore Okpewho, the doyen of African oral literature who departed…

Artists & Reviews News Tributes

PHOTO ESSAY: HUGH MASEKELA: JAZZ LEGEND, 1939-2018

January 24, 2018January 24, 2018 admin2 Hugh Masekela, Jazz lgend, Tribute

April 4th 1939—January 23, 2018 Hugh Masekela, a world-renowned flugelhornist, trumpeter, bandleader, composer, singer and defiant political voice who remains deeply connected at home, while his international career sparkles. He was born in the town of Witbank, South Africa in 1939. At the age of 14, the deeply respected advocator of equal rights in South Africa, Father Trevor Huddleston, provided Masekela with a trumpet and, soon after, the Huddleston Jazz Band was formed. Masekela began to hone his, now signature, Afro-Jazz sound in the late 1950s during a period…

Artists & Reviews Op-ed

From Barbados to Liberia: A deep look into the first Barbadian settlement in Liberia

January 17, 2018 admin2

It was Edward Wilmot Blyden in consultation with President Daniel Bashiel Warner who developed the plan to encourage emigration to Liberia from the West Indies. Blyden was Secretary of State. He organised a Commission to the West Indies in 1862 to encourage West Indians to return to the Fatherland and to the first free black republic as Liberians identified their new homeland. Blyden had gone back to his birthplace, St. Thomas, and launched a circular appeal throughout the islands. Soon, he was receiving hundreds of letters enquiring about…

Artists & Reviews News

Why the black press is more relevant than ever

December 27, 2017December 27, 2017 admin2

For years, newsrooms across America have had a problem with a lack of diversity and inclusion. People of color are underrepresented among news organizations, which do not reflect the makeup of the general population and have made little progress in the past decade. Although non-whites make up about 40% of the US population, journalists of color comprise only 16.55% of newsrooms’ staff in 2017, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey. Larger newsrooms and digital news organizations are a little better — 23.4%…

Artists & Reviews News

Mae Azango debut book expected soon

October 29, 2017October 29, 2017 admin2 Journalist, Liberia, Mae Azango

Mae Azango, an award-winning Liberian female journalist, said she is almost done with her debut book, ‘Voice of the Trumpetess.’The book, which is expected to be a must read, chronicles her life from childhood to adulthood and the difficulties she endured during this period.‘Voice of the Trumpetess’ depicts the physical abuses she went through as a child, her failed marriage and many more complicated life struggles she was able to stand tall to. The book’s title is the result of her work as a journalist and the impact her stories…

Artists & Reviews News

The Good The Bad And The Blues is a wicked band!

October 15, 2017October 15, 2017 admin2

The Good The Bad And The Blues is the 2011, 2012, 2013 winners of the prestigious Black Swamp Blues Society blues challenge. The band recently performed in Edmonton, Alberta and one of our editors watched them played. below is a brif bio of the band members. Aayan Naim, playing lead guitar and singing is his thing, he grew up in Chicago started playing and singing in the 7th grade, turned pro in the 9th and never looked back By the way he grew up directly across the street from Muddy…