The first full-length book study of the digital literary world in Africa has received lots of attention from academics. African Literature in the Digital Age: Class and Sexual Politics in New Writing from Kenya and Nigeria explores the role of the Internet and other new media in identifying and creating new readers for literature. We questioned the book’s writer, journalist, scholar of literature, as well as the editor of The New Black Magazine and associate professor of African studies, Shola Adenekan, about the book.

What inspired you for this essay?

The idea for the book was born from my personal experiences with the internet, particularly my interactions with thinkers and writers who became friends and acquaintances via mail listservs (electronic mail lists) as well as websites for social networking. It all started around the turn of the century, as I was a journalist in London. I saw a rise in the number of writings being published online by African writers on websites owned by Africans, blogs, MySpace, and later Facebook and Tumblr. I decided to establish an online platform – the New Black Magazine – to publish and, in a few cases, reuse some of the innovative ideas being advocated by these emerging voices.

Their work was more organic than the work printed in the early days. It was organic in that the main audience was the growing African digital populace, not traditional publishers such as Macmillan or Random House. Many of the most innovative writers and thinkers were women and lesbian Africans whose work was not considered worthy of publication by the traditional media.

I can remember that Nigerian writer Jude Dibia had a blog, along with Nigerian photographer, activist, and writer Sokari Ekine, blacklooks.org, which has since been shut down. The blog of Ekine was a literary and literary community where queer writers such as Kenya’s Shailja Patel and Keguro Macharia, British Somali writer Diriye Osman and South African photographer and activist Zanele Muholi were gathering. Ekine is the most powerful networker whose work provides a glimpse into quirks in Africa and the diaspora outside the stories of violence.

Another fantastic online networker is Professor Wambui Mwangi, one of the founding members of Concerned Kenyan Writers, a listserv that is hosted on Gmail. She was the one who introduced me to numerous Kenyan writers and also encouraged me to pursue a Ph.D. and write a book on the exciting new developments. This is the reason my book begins with a chapter about literary networks.

What has the internet done to Kenyan or Nigerian literature?

The online world is a good base for any discussion on the current state of African writing. For instance, a few papers by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s earlier work were first published online. Kenyan journalist Billy Kahora‘s non-fiction ebook“The True Story” of David Munyakei was born from a story that was posted online on Mwangi’s deleted blog, The Diary of the Mad Kenyan Woman.

In addition to blogs, there are also pioneering digital African magazines such as African Writers, African Writing, Kwani, and Chimurenga. They offered a platform to expand for a lot of the established voices today. Listservs also helped them develop their talents. A few African publishing houses were regular members of these listservs. Nowadays, there are hundreds of magazines online, such as Afreada, which publishes exciting short stories.

What is this got to do with anything to do with queer lives?

If it seems like literary networks tend to be centered around queer activists, that’s because they were often among the pioneers of the internet’s African networks. Many left Africa for Europe and America because of homophobia, which is why they also faced transphobia and racism. A lot of queer writers remain in the country to fight homophobia.

The internet provides a platform to express this experience and also to demonstrate queer African lives are more than violence. Queer Africans are devoted, caring and are awed by everyday activities that homosexuals love. From blogs to digital magazines, online publications, and social platforms, activism by queer people across Africa finds a place in the digital world. The most compelling writing about queer bodies and politics can be found here.

The queer can be seen as being the most fundamental element of twenty-first-century African literature. Macharia’s works, Ekine, Patel, Unoma Azuah, and Romeo Oriogun, provide a foundation to think about digital Africa. Their writings offer a deep analysis of the ways queerness, political thought, and civil rights are interspersed. In addition, the notions of privilege, visibility, or marginalization, as well as omission and silence, are all defined through an analysis of their writing.