For anyone interested. This is my newsletter, where I will be sharing my thoughts on a variety of things, books, events, culture and everything in between. If you are curious, give us a subscription, it is free.

of the many people i interviewed while writing this essay, Sam's voice and face felt the most prominent to me. the way he would always remind me that "we are here to stay." and yet it was he who left first. his passing will be the most defining thing for me this year i imagine.

the last things he said to me was of a kind of resignation to the new order of things. a resignation that was both like and unlike him. i didnt know what to do with it. so i told him to keep the faith. i hope he finds rest on the other side.

since moving to the US, i have only met few people whose very essence affected me as Sam did. it wasn't accidental that i memorialized him in this essay. it was the kind of aura he exuded.

my friend Sam is now lost to memory. i have been in shock since the news was transmitted to me last night.

during this period, such works would have already been reviewed, categorized and cannonized in western imagination to the extent that what the average african reader is working with, is a second hand sense of what exists in the book.

the reason is because you cannot expect people to read things that are not available. everytime a new book by an African writer becomes available in the market, it takes roughly about 6 months for it to reach the average African reader.

i still remember the days when some so-called critics of African Literature made the claim that the real issue is that Africans dont read but time as shown those people to be charlatans and nonsense peddlers. I along with many others have constantly resisted that notion and will continue to.