New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Nane)
Akashic Books, 2021
The limited-edition box set is an annual project started in 2014 to ensure the publication of up to a dozen chapbooks by African poets through Akashic Books. The series seeks to identify the best poetry written by African poets working today, and it is especially interested in featuring poets who have not yet published their first full-length book of poetry. This box set features art by Admire Kamudzengerere and contains the following chapbooks: Invocations by Kolawole Samuel Adebayo, Handrails by Cynthia Amoah, The Hope of Floating Has Carried Us This Far by Precious Arinze, dust to dust by Lameese Badr, Field of No Justice by Sara Elkamel, Dugsi Girl by Edil Hassan, Miryam Magdalit by Jeremy Teddy Karn, like a gift unto ourselves by Hauwa Shaffi Nuhu, Keep the Bodies Buried by Selina Nwulu, Bitter and Sweet by Ayan M. Omar, A Chagossian Woman’s Lament by Saradha Soobrayen, Koola Lobitos by Ajibola Tolase, and My Poets Don’t Die by Qutouf Yahia.
But there is a key difference between derivation and that which is derivative, and that lies in the approach. A derivation is a creative practice: one comes to something, sees the use of a form as a container, as a guide, as a road map, and uses said cartography to position and channel new ideas and new possibilities—reggae is such a thing.
Kwame Dawes & Chris Abani, from the introduction
There are so many Englishes within West Africa alone. No one can hear any of these Englishes and think they are derivative. They are artistic interventions, innovations, endlessly expanding, within the system of English but with permeable borders.
Kwame Dawes & Chris Abani, from the introduction
Any genuine engagement with African poetry should appreciate that the expression of this poetic tradition is complex and manifests itself in myriad ways. That the poetry of Africa has emerged as all poetry emerges in all societies and cultures: through the dynamic of cultural dialogue, and through the varied ways in which language has survived and thrived.
Kwame Dawes & Chris Abani, from the introduction
They are drawing on oral traditions, proverbial traditions, the sophisticated exploration of many languages, the historical realities behind their art, and the tyranny of the present moment—the news, if you will. These poets are opening up landscapes that are reconsidering the philosophical implications of modernity, of sexuality, of faith, of beauty, of landscape. And as we explore these paths of influence and dialogue, we are indeed unearthing evidence of originality, the peculiar, unpredictable mapping of the personal in these works. In their defiantly distinctive voices, these poets are laying the groundwork for how we speak of Africa and African.
Kwame Dawes & Chris Abani, from the introduction
