Brittle Paper

Brittle Paper is a weekly online literary magazine that serves as an "African literary blog" published in English. Its mission is to cultivate a lively African literary community. The magazine was established in 2010 by Ainehi Edoro, who was a doctoral student at Duke University and is currently an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Since its inception, Brittle Paper has featured a diverse range of works, including fiction, poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, and photography from both well-known and emerging African writers and artists from the continent and beyond. Recognized as a member of The Guardian Books Network, it has been hailed as "the village square of African literature," "Africa’s leading literary journal," and "one of the most talked-about literary publications in Africa." In 2014, Publishers Weekly named it a Go-To Book Blog, highlighting it as "an essential source of news about new works by writers of color outside of the U.S."

English

Online/Digital

Outlet metrics

Domain Authority

Ranking

Global

#592590

Nigeria

#14188

Articles

Excavation Confirms Griot Stories of Historic West African Kingdom

4 days ago | brittlepaper.com | Ainehi Edoro

Griots are oral historians who transmit history and ideas through stories, poetry, and music. For centuries they have passed on stories of Kaabu, an influential precolonial kingdom in West Africa. The stories cover its rise and spectacular destruction of its capital, Kansala. Now, new archaeological work is uncovering the remains of that legendary city in present-day Guinea-Bissau. According to NPR, the excavation is being led by Sirio Canós-Donnay, an archaeologist at the University of Valencia.
Four African African Writers Remember Pope Francis

1 week ago | brittlepaper.com | Ainehi Edoro

Pope Francis passed away on April 21, 2025 and the funeral held a week later. There has been mourning worldwide for a man who many believed to be a spiritual leader and who affected the lives many beyond the walls of the Church. For some African writers—Okey Ndibe, Chika Unigwe, Yvonne Owuor, and Enuma Okoro—they remember the Pope specifically as a reader, who loved poetry and believed that writers help us think about the human condition and draw nearer to truth.
Encounters with a Quiet Philosopher: Remembering V. Y. Mudimbe

1 week ago | brittlepaper.com | Ainehi Edoro

(V. Y. Mudimbe passed away on April 22, 2025.)I took a course with V. Y. Mudimbe while I was a doctoral student at Duke University sometime in the early 2010s. It was a course on Existentialism. We read Descartes and Husserl, but much of the semester was spent on a page-by-page study of Sartre’s Being and Nothingness and his play No Exit. It was an intense course, once a week for about three hours, in a sun-drenched classroom on East Campus. Mudimbe taught in the Comparative Literature department.
From Sirens to Galaxies: The Wild Visuals of Omenana’s Issue 32

2 weeks ago | brittlepaper.com | Ainehi Edoro

Omenana released Issue 32 on March 31, and while the stories are great, the images deserve real attention too. For over a decade, Omenana has been pairing short fiction with visual art, and in that time, they’ve developed a signature feel. Some readers treat artwork in stories as simple decoration, an afterthought that just mirrors what’s already in the text. That’s fine. But those who know, know: the graphic work is its own act of world-building. It does serious work in storytelling.
The African Con Man Who Outsmarted Presidents: Review of Yepoka Yeebo’s Anansi’s Gold

1 month ago | brittlepaper.com | Ainehi Edoro

Anansi’s Gold by Yepoka Yeebo (Bloomsbury) is one of those books you approach the way you would a Netflix true crime series. You grab your popcorn and soft drinks, sink into the comfiest spot on the couch, and prepare to lose your entire Friday night because bingeing is the only option. The book tells the unbelievably wild tale of Dr. John Ackah Blay-Miezah—or “our man,” as he is sometimes affectionately, sometimes derisively called.
Former Nigerian Head of State Ibrahim Babangida Releases Long-Awaited Memoir, A Journey in Service

2 months ago | brittlepaper.com | Ainehi Edoro

After decades of speculation, former Nigerian military president Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) has finally released his autobiography, A Journey in Service. The 420-page memoir, published in February 2025 by Bookcraft Africa, presents Babangida story of his life, military career, and tenure as Nigeria’s leader from 1985 to 1993. The book comes with high expectations and no shortage of controversy.
Looking Is Free: A Stone Town Story | Joe Ruzvidzo | Creative Non-Fiction

2 months ago | brittlepaper.com | Joe Ruzvidzo

Seven years. That’s how long it’s been since I last set foot on African soil. Seven years of French chaos and Swiss order. I’ve forgotten what proper heat feels like, until Zanzibar’s air wraps around me like a warm, damp towel. The humidity hits first, in a way only Africa – or the Caribbean – can welcome me back. With no hesitation, no apologies. We’re driving east from the airport, and the island unfolds slowly before me.
Being Funny in Stories: A Look at Adwoa A. Opoku-Agyemang Typologies of Humor in African Literatures

2 months ago | brittlepaper.com | Ainehi Edoro

Humor is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when we think about African literature. This is likely because scholars have largely focused on the history of colonialism and its aftermath. As Ghana-based academic Adwoa A. Opoku-Agyemang reminds us, they have typically followed the lead of writers like Chinua Achebe, who saw literature as a means of teaching people about their past, their worth, and their place in the world. Humor doesn’t always fit neatly into that framework.
The Exhaustion of Explaining Oneself: Nnedi Okorafor and the Battle to Define Africanfuturism

2 months ago | brittlepaper.com | Ainehi Edoro

For writers like Nnedi Okorafor, storytelling is not just about crafting worlds and characters. It involves staking a claim to creative freedom in a literary world eager to simplify and mislabel. Okorafor has spent years correcting misconceptions about her work and insisting that she writes Africanfuturism, not Afrofuturism. The distinction is not trivial, as she explains in this piece in which she defines Africanfuturism and lays out its broader stakes.
Finding Myself Between Life and Death | Ismaila Biliaminu Manne | Poetry

2 months ago | brittlepaper.com | Biliaminu Manne Ismaila

I find myself between life and deathin defeat, headaches wearing me out,after throwing myself at the moon,it admired my heart like a child withfingers scorned by a raging firebeckoning my busy bad days,and stroppy sounds seize my ears. I find myself striving sore to survive, andthe busyness bans the breath of my healthy heart,hulking huge hours pass through my mind,I buried my head to free the ferocity,after self-suffering in the truest test of sincerity.