Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
African Literature in African Languages: Orality and the Burden of Modernity
CHIJI AKỌMA & NDUKA OTIONO

ARTICLES
Pictures of Materialism in the Benin Ecological Worldview: Eco-Critical Poems of Osemwengie Ero
KOLA EKE AND EDAFE MUKORO

The Swahili Mtapta: Exploring Translation in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise
IDA HADJIVAYANIS

Ikponmwosa Osemwegie's Ọrọ Epic and Translation: The Past and Prospects of Edo Literature
UYILAWA USUANLELE

The Panegyric of the Champion: How Wolof Wrestlers Borrowed from Female Oral Genres to Win in and Outside the Arena
MARAME GUEYE

"A People's Firewood Cooks for them": The Contextual Prosody of Igbo Mask Poetry and Mbem Poetics
CHIKE OKOYE and JULIET IFUNANYA OKEYIKA

Reclaiming the Muted Voices of Xhosa Literature: A Personal Testament
JEFF OPLAND

LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Five Poems
'Monologue Written After Watching a Robin Lift from a Tree Branch'
'I Am on a Road and My Mouth is Full of Questions'
'What the Lord Said'
'Uriah in the Bardo'
'Witness as a Foot Mat'
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto

Three Poems
'Lockdown in Biafra'
'The Prison Door'
'Kyphosis'
Amaka Blossom Chime

Four Poems
'Ambitious'
'Shake It Off'
'Academia'
'Ahoa, 2022'
Blessing Ezinne Okah

'Pulse on Martin Niemöller' (Poem)
Alexander Opicho

Two Poems
'Eons Before'
'What?!'
Stephen Oladele Solanke

'Wild Grief' (Poem)
Aisha Umar

'Ties that Gag' (Short Story)
Felicia Moh

FEATURED ARTICLES
Costume as Mystico--Metaphoric Communication in Toni Duruaku's A Matter of Identity: A Semiotic Analysis
UKACHI WACHUKU

Decolonizing Trauma Studies: The Recognition-Solidarity Nexus in Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them
CHIJIOKE ONAH

TRIBUTES
Remembering Gerald Moore
JAMES GIBBS

REVIEWS
Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Do Not Burn My Bones & Other Stories
KUFRE USANGA

Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Broken Bodies, Damaged Souls
KUFRE USANGA

Al-Bishak, BLACK PAPYRUS: Global Origins of Writing and Written Literature Traced to Black Africa
INIOBONG I. UKO

Olu Obafemi, Ajon! (The Legend Who Made a King/Dom)
KUFRE USANGA

About the Author

ERNEST N. EMENYONU is Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. He is Series Editor of African Literature Today. His publications include A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017), Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi (2010), and the children's book Uzoechi: A Story of African Childhood (2012). Nduka Otiono is a writer, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University. He is the author and co-editor of eight books of creative writing and academic research, including His works include (co-ed with Chiji Akoma) Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021). Chiji Akọma is Professor of English and Chair of Global Interdisciplinary Studies Department at Villanova University. His works include (co-ed with Nduka Otiono), Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021). Jeff OPLAND held appointments at the University of Cape Town, University of Durban-Westville and Rhodes University and taught at the Universities of Toronto, Yale, and Leipzig as well as Vassar College before his retirement.