Works of art are of an infinite loneliness and with nothing to be so little reached as with criticism. Only love can grasp and hold and fairly judge them. — Rainer Maria Rilke
African unity is at present merely an emotion born of a history of colonialism and oppression.
— Julius K. Nyerere
When we studied Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine in high school, we relished the sound of the names—Ihuoma, Emenike, Ekwueme, Madume. . . .
[In 1968] it was normal for all newspapers to be sold out at 6a.m., while millions tuned in daily, with great expectations, to the most daring radio commentators, such as Milan Weiner and Jiri Dienstbier, and . . .
My grandfather says we can eat what we kill.
We wade into the water and find a shark.
In the latent night, we carry it home across
the mountain. I memorize the way your feet step
before mine, . . .
It was dark and I could hear the cicada out the window, where there is a lawn, several very large pine trees, and a pond, and it was going like crazy—dur-rip, dur-rip. Sometimes dur-rip-a-rip, but in no . . .
A version of this conversation was broadcast on Writers & Company on CBC Radio One in 2020, produced by Sandra Rabinovitch.
Maaza Mengiste was born in Addis Ababa in 1971, just a few years before the overthrow of Emperor Haile . . .
