The Arts-Muse Fair

Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation has announced a shortlist of eighteen for the Babishai 2017 Haiku Prize with eight Nigerians on the list “The shortlist is filled with unwavering talent, intricate African imagery and recognizable brilliance” organisers say in a release this evening. The shortlisted poets are:- 1. Charlotte Akello from Uganda 2. Usman Karofi from Nigeria 3. Kariuki wa Nyamu from Kenya 4. Anthony Itopa Obaro from Nigeria 5. Ahmad Holderness from Nigeria 6. Fred Kweku Forson from Ghana 7. Acen Miriam Carolyne from Uganda 8. Kwao Jonathan Tetteh from Ghana 9. Nnedi Ezenwa Ohaeto from Nigeria 10. Alawonde Theophilus Femi from Nigeria 11. Justice Joseph Prah from Ghana 12. Osemwengie Zion Nigeria 13. Abubasam Fahad Mutumba from Uganda 14. Akor Emmanuel Oche from Nigeria 15. Dan’bala Umar from Ghana 16. Obaji-Nwali Shegun from Nigeria You may read the full winning haikus from here http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/19/babishai-haiku-2017-shortl

Growing up in the 1980s, my young mind mostly burrowed in my father’s modest collection of books at home whenever I was not out playing with friends. It was always easy for me to mark out, at a glance, books published by Dillibe Onyeama’s Delta Publications (Nigeria) Ltd from books by other Nigerian Publishers – aesthetics!. Perhaps because he was first an author (with works such as Nigger at Eton, Sex is a Nigger’s Game, Night Demon, Secret Society, Revenge of the Medicine man ) before fully taking up publishing, his books come in high quality paper, inimitable creative cover designs and readable text prints that showed they were printed outside Nigeria. He was Abubakar Gimba’s first publisher, enjoying the distinction of releasing the late novelist’s debut novel, A Trial of Sacrifice in 1985 and many others that followed. He marketed Gimba’s works with panache, describing him as “the Northern answer to Achebe and Soyinka”.   But that is a story from the dying years of the l

As Etisalat Nigeria drops its name to formally assume a new identity as 9mobile following the exit of the Etisalat brand from Nigeria after terminating its management agreement with local partner EMTS, many Nigerian subscribers of the Telco are left wondering what becomes of the services they were used to enjoying from Etisalat. The Nigerian Writers’ community is doubly fazed, almost to the point of agony and the reason is not farfetched; Etisalat Nigeria was active in the Arts space, concretising its patronage with the sponsorship of the first ever pan-African literary prize, the Etisalat Prize for Literature since 2013. The Prize is awarded annually for debut published African writers of fiction books. Etisalat Nigeria also sponsors the annual Etisalat Flash Fiction Award, an online-based short story writing contest open to African writers.   Friday – John Abba, a Nigerian writer encapsulated the mood of writers in his despairing facebook post this morning, “Biko,