Category Archives: Culture

Watched this after teaching Monday night.  I had mixed feelings.  The art was not compelling for me, and the artists seemed unable to articulate what they were doing.  Or perhaps the filmmaker did not let them.  At the same time, … Continue reading →

The sad news from the crash.  Among many others, the owners of the Hotel Ricardo lost their lives.  Leslie and I both knew Paulina, who worked for a long time as the nurse at the U.S. Embassy. She was a … Continue reading →

I have three tianhoun in my office… stop by and give them a try!

  David Pace has been teaching photography in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 20 years. As resident director of Santa Clara University’s study abroad program in West Africa, Pace spends up to ten weeks each year in … Continue reading →

This entire analysis of what to “learn” from Google Ngram strickes me as deeply misguided…  making much out of change in incidence of words over time with no consideration for the self-selection of books published in what was an industry. … Continue reading →

E.C Osondu’s Waiting, a short story published in Guernica, was awarded the 2009 Caine Prize for African Writing. The story is about young African refugees waiting to be adopted by white westerners. A Caine Prize judge complimented the story for … Continue reading →

Du Maghreb à l’Afrique du Sud et du Sénégal à Djibouti, de Léopold Sédar Senghor aux contemporains – Ahmadou Kourouma, Yasmina Khadra, Emmanuel Dongala et bien d’autres –, le Panorama des littératures francophones d’Afrique parcourt la littérature écrite en français … Continue reading →

Ancien président du Sénégal, maintenant secrétaire général de l’Organisation internationale de la francophonie, mais il semble ne pas avoir lu aucun roman africain depuis ses jours de collegien… Et Mabanckou?  Monénembo? Kourouma? Khadra? Achebe?  Oubliez-les… chez M. Diouf c’est toujours … Continue reading →

I was reminded of what a colleague who had left a university after 23 years replied when I asked him if it was difficult to do. He said, “It was like checking out of a motel.” via Moving On – … Continue reading →

C’est l’histoire d’un jeune que je connais qui a été menacé avec un pistolet pour cause d’histoire de petit trafic de drogue et qui a failli en fait se faire tuer. C’est ça l’histoire. C’est parti de cette histoire vraiment … Continue reading →

Seul réalisateur africain en lice pour la Palme d’or, le Franco-Tchadien Mahamat-Saleh Haroun est appelé par certains à représenter toute l’Afrique au Festival de Cannes 2013. Après le prix du Jury pour Un homme qui crie en 2010, il présente … Continue reading →

A Conakry on ne se rend pas à la plage pour faire du surf, ni même pour se baigner. Encore moins pour bronzer. Comme sur la plupart des plages de Conakry (Rogbané, Tokonko, Camayenne, Kipé etc.), la propreté de l’eau … Continue reading →

I am enjoying watching The Day He Arrives immensely… maybe I just needed to see something really intelligent in black and white… god how long has it been!

The Six Dollar Fifty Man from NZ Shorts on Vimeo.

The other day I met with Hermann Some director of L’Harmattan Burkina.  They have a nice little bookstore and office on Ave. Mouamar Kaddafi (!) after the echangeur on the left.  Great selection of books, and he has published several … Continue reading →