Language: Igbo

The Representation of African Languages: A Conversation with Munyao Kilolo

We must write in the language we are most comfortable with, without being constantly questioned.

Led by founder and Editor-in-Chief Munyao Kilolo, Ituĩka Literary Platform is an online and print platform pioneering original works in African languages; producing translations from, into, and between African languages; and cultivating a network of instructors to promote education in African languages. Named from the Gikuyu word meaning rapture, revolution, transformation, and transition, Ituĩka Literary Platform aims to transform African societies by centreing and bringing greater visibility to African languages in their literary canons. In this interview, Asymptote Editor-at-Large for Kenya, Wambua Muindi, sits down with Editor-in-Chief Munyao Kilolo to discuss his career and the path that brought him to his current position at Ituĩka. This conversation seeks to review the platform’s current engagements as well as what lies ahead, hence the conversation will be two-fold: concerning the present and the future.

Wambua Muindi (WM): How has the transition been, coming from Jalada Africa Collective, where you were Managing Editor, to the founding of Ituĩka?

Munyao Kilolo (MK): Jalada was founded by a collective of writers whose vision was very clear: to publish African writers widely and effectively. However, that vision was not specific to African languages. Even so, while I worked as their Managing Editor, I conceptualized the language and translation project for them, and this is what birthed the translation project that went on to make literary history. The inaugural edition led to the single most translated short story in the history of African writing. The story, which is called The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, was translated into one hundred languages from around the world.

For several years after that, I thought a lot about this story and how African languages are represented in African literature, and it became apparent that we needed a platform that was solely devoted to African languages and translation if we were to enhance the work—work that would include publications, translations, and supporting projects enabling the production of literary material in African languages. So, I envisioned holding workshops, having databases, spotlighting people who are working in different African languages, and engaging in the formulation of theory in African languages—especially translation between one African language and another.

I spoke a lot with my friend Professor Mukoma wa Ngugi at Cornell University about these things, and eventually, the Ituĩka Literary Platform started to take shape. READ MORE…

Weekly Dispatches from the Frontlines of World Literature

New Guatemalan publications, a feminist conference, as well as awards in translation feature in this week's literary updates!

This week brings notable translations of up-and-coming Guatemalan authors, an insightful conversation between two Nigerian writers, and the announcement of highly-regarded translation prizes in the UK. If you’ve been searching for exciting new writers and translators, look no further!

José García Escobar, Editor-at-Large for Guatemala, reporting from Guatemala

In early December, Ugly Duckling Presse (UDP) put out No Budu Please, a selection of poems by the Guatemalan and Garifuna author Wingston González, translated by the Puerto Rican poet Urayoán Noel. No Budu, which has been favorably reviewed by Columbia Journal, Verse, and PANK, marks the first time Wingston’s work has been published in the United States. Additionally, Wingston’s book place of comfort has been incorporated into artist Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa’s performance and installation Heart of the Scarecrow, which will be on exhibit through March 9 at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

Across the pond, independent publishing house Charco Press is bringing another Guatemalan author into the English language. Celebrated short story writer Rodrigo Fuentes published a collection called Trucha panza arriba in Guatemala in 2017. Since then, the book has been reissued in Bolivia by Editorial El Cuervo and in Colombia by Laguna Libros. Trucha was even longlisted for the Premio Hispanoamericano de Cuento Gabriel García Márquez. And as of February 7, thanks to researcher and translator Ellen Jones, Trucha is now available in English as Trout, Belly Up. You can read one of the stories from the collection in our Winter 2019 issue.

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Weekly Dispatches from the Frontlines of World Literature

This week, our Editors-At-Large from Nigeria and Indonesia tell us more about the latest in literary news.

 Join our Editors-at-Large as they reflect on this week’s most important literary news—and look ahead to exciting upcoming events! From Nigeria, Olufunke Ogundimu reports on festivals in Lagos and beyond. Norman Erikson Pasaribu, writing from Indonesia, discusses a renowned Toba Batak author and a promising young translator.

Olufunke Ogundimu, Editor-At-Large, reporting from Nigeria:

Autumn is the season of literary festivals in Nigeria, beginning in September with the Kaduna Book and Arts Festival, which aims to celebrate and increase access to arts and literature in northern Nigeria. October ushers in the Aké Arts and Book Festival and the Lagos International Poetry Festival, and the season ends in November with the Lagos Book and Arts Festival.

The theme of this year’s Aké Arts and Book Festival was “Fantastical Futures.” From October 25-28, visitors attended events, exhibitions, and conversations that focused largely on a re-imagined African future. The first two days of the festival were devoted to Project Inspire, an initiative that involved featured authors visiting schools to read to pupils and talk to them about books, reading, and careers in writing. The festival also hosted two panels in Yoruba and Igbo languages for the first time; in the past, panels were held in English only. The “Divinity and Spirituality in Igbo Tradition” panel discussed the demonization and criminalization of traditional practices in Igboland, while the Yoruba panel focused on “Entertainment, Education and Technology in the Mother Tongue.”

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Announcing the Summer 2018 Issue of Asymptote

Introducing our thirtieth issue, which gathers never-before-published work from 31 countries!

We interrupt our regular programming to announce the launch of Asymptote’s Summer 2018 issue!

Step into our bountiful Summer edition to “look for [yourself] in places [you] don’t recognize” (Antonin Artaud). Hailing from thirty-one countries and speaking twenty-nine languages, this season’s rich pickings blend the familiar with the foreign: Sarah Manguso and Jennifer Croft (co-winner, with Olga Tokarczuk, of this year’s Man Booker International Prize) join us for our thirtieth issue alongside Anita Raja, Duo Duo, and Intizar Husain, and our first work from the Igbo in the return of our Multilingual Writing Feature.

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