What Was African Fiction?

Mukoma Wa Ngugi was born in 1971 in Evanston, Illinois, and grew up in Kenya. He may be the son of worldrenowned and iconic African writer Ngũgı̃ wa Thiong’o, but in his own right has made a huge impact as both writer and scholar. For example, in 2013,New Africanmagazine named him one of the 100 most Influential Africans. He is Associate Professor of English at Cornell University and the author of the novels Mrs. Shaw, Black Star Nairobi, Nairobi Heat, and two books of poetry, Logotherapy and Hurling Words at Consciousness. His most recent work of fiction, Unbury Our Dead with Song, is forthcoming from Cassava Republic Press. The Rise of the African Novel is his first extended work of literary scholarship and criticism, but it comes from a long-standing participation in the literary life of the continent and its diaspora. For example, he is a member of the African Literature Association’s Executive Council, and the cofounder of the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature. A former co-editor of the open access, pan-African site Pambazuka News he’s also been a political columnist for the BBC’s Focus on Africa Magazine. His literary and public work has also appeared in numerous international venues including, The Guardian, The International Herald Tribune, Ebony.com, Chimurenga, Los Angeles Times, The LA Review of Books, The South African Labour Bulletin, Wasafiri, Africa is a Country among many others. He has been a guest on Democracy Now, NPR, Al Jazeera, and the BBC World Service amongst others. We thank him for his patience as we organized this roundtable and thank our esteemed guests for responding to his important work.