Disappearing Act

Kaleidoscope Shards

This particular magic trick snuck up on you subtly; gradually.

First, the taps stopped running in your area. They would run one week and dry up the next, till they dried up all together. You took it for granted that the problem would be fixed; but it is still here, rubbing its long fingers on just about everything.

Then your electricity supply became erratic. They said the water level of the Akosombo Dam had reduced. Then they blamed the turbines. And then they said the Electricity Company was in debt. You discovered that the country’s disco light crisis had been christened “dumsor”. Like everyone else, you lacquered your disappointment with dumsor jokes. You believed beyond doubt that the problem would be fixed. But now, during your power-less days prayer finds your tongue more easily than laughter. On light-less nights, you shake the problem’s grip off your boundless optimism, becoming faintly…

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King Khalid University Honors Professor Baldwin for his E-Lit Global Efforts

arabicelit

King Khalid University, one of the leading Saudi universities, bestowed its highest honors on Sandy Baldwin, Professor of English at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), for his global efforts in developing electronic literature.

King Khalid University held a conference entitled “The Arabic Language and the Literary Text on the World Net” in the period 14-16 Feb. 2017.

“Global Electronic Literature: Challenges and Tactics” is the title of the lecture presented by Prof. Baldwin via Skype in the conference.

Professor Baldwin is the vice president of the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) and one of the pioneers in the field. The honor by King Khalid University comes as an honor to Prof. Baldwin for his leading projects in promoting e-lit all over the world and specifically Arabic e-lit, and the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) in general as the first and most important organization interested in e-lit.

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A CALL TO ACTION: Wake up Middle and Upper Class Kenyans!

The New Mau Mau Revolution

by Eunice Songa

Let me take a few minutes of your time.

Kenya is a beautiful place, isn’t it? Opportunities abound for those willing to work hard; the land where you can be born in a small village, work hard and enjoy your lifetime in lush suburbs of Nairobi.

But we get caught up in that rat race don’t we? The never ending pursuit to get a bigger, flatter TV, a smarter phone, a more expensive car and holidays to those exotic destinations we see on our friends’ timeline. While we make sure our children are in elite private school “A”, that our houses are on the right side of the CBD, while we are sipping our 500 shilling mojitos with colleagues at the hottest after work watering holes in the city, our beloved Kenya, our land of opportunity is crumbling right around us.

We the lucky few in this…

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In Conversation with Eric Gyamfi: ‘The Idea of Erasure is Scary’

Kwabena On Assignment

Eric Gyamfi (Courtesy: Eric Gyamfi) 

Eric Gyamfi is mainly a photographer. His body of work comprises self-portraits and portrait series shot in monochrome. His work interrogates societal complexities and even, paradoxes. His portraits have been shown in many exhibitions, most recently, in Lagos and have been featured on Huffington Post and the BBC website.

Like his self-portrait series ‘Asylum’, the ‘See Me See You’ exhibition highlights the queer life in Ghana. I, KAY, speak to him on his art of photography and work of documenting queer lives.

KAY: Your series ‘Urban Nomads’ surprised me a bit. I thought it would be photos of only people. There were concrete buildings and kiosks too.  To think about it, these physical structures are nomads as they are exchanged among owners and caretakers.

EG: To a degree they are. The kiosks, in this case, assumes a little more. They come to represent, in some ways…

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The Game is the Ground: Public Lecture at Amherst College

Enjoy a public lecture I gave at Amherst College on examples of electronic literature from Ghana in November 2016.

Colonialist Criticism by Chinua Achebe

Anang Tawiah

Colonialist Criticism by Chinua Achebe: Critical Commentary Chinua Achebe in ‘Colonialist Criticism’ vehemently criticizes the failure of European criticism to understand the African literature on its own terms. He powerfully attacks the sense of superiority found in colonialist critic who sees the African literature on its own terms.

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CARER FATIGUE

Our God in the valley

I  have Carer Fatigue.

I’m sure there is a more official sounding name for it, but that’s what I call it. There comes a time when  as a carer of a child with special needs, you’ re just overwhelmed by the amount of thinking, strategising, campaigning, researching and just plain hard work you have to do for the child to have as good a life as you can give them. And what’s more, you’re tired of feeling that overwhelmed.

Sometimes it is the fear that I have hit a plateau of ideas; I’ve done everything I can think of, everything that will not hurt my Paps. Lately I have decided that as long as the thing does not harm him, I will try it, even if it doesn’t help. But I do feel like we’ve plateaued now. I don’t see what more I can do, I don’t see much improvement…

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