Sentinel Nigeria

EDITORIAL: GREAT BRIDGES—SIGNPOSTS FROM SPACE

Nigerian fiction has been in the news over the last three months with the publication of short stories by two important Nigerian writers in the Guardian UK—first it was Helon Habila’s “The Second Death of Martin Lango” and then Chimamanda Adichie’s “Miracle” These stories demonstrate the versatility of Nigerian authors; they deal with global and local themes in a seamless, knowing manner—without the fussiness of artists unsure of their stage and without the superfluous flourishes that mark out the less talented, the ingénues. It is this familiarity with language and one’s story that sets better fiction apart from its kin—the bare, mere narrative. Continue reading >>

“I’m both a scientist and an artist because I was exposed to both quite early. I came to write the Blacksmith’s Daughter by happenstance. I was researching a novel about the Nigeria-Biafra civil war and came across Sao Tome Island which was a site of humanitarian  relief to the then blockaded Biafra. I found the ancient history of Sao Tome quite fascinating and so decided to write a different book altogether.”
Interview with Ngozi Achebe by Richard Ali

You knew. You didn’t care. That he didn’t believe your Jesus was son of God. That he smoked shisha. That he knew what you felt…Your Man by Elnathan John

The last entry in Silvanus Eze’s diary was a single sentence, quite ordinary, not by any chance thought-provoking but it would later cost him everything he was, and all that he was not. Ugobenna by Ifesinachi Okoli-Okpagu.