This Writing Life: Making Chinua Achebe Ghanaian

So this month will be a bit heavy in terms of productivity as all the deadlines come due. For African Arguments I got to speculate about what makes a Great African Writer only to conclude that I don't know. If I did, I would certainly be doing my best to get myself some awards and prize money. But here's a thing: essayists don't get that kind of love. Writing might be writing but the truth is that without a novel under your belt you haven't quite arrived as a writer. 

You know what else helps? Not calling Chinua Achebe a Ghanaian writer. If there's one thing that is consistent about the gods of print, it is their perversity. No matter what amount of effort you put in your most elementary mistakes will always make it to print. Always. 

The Weekly Sneak: The New Constitution. Again.

Took a break from the East African for about a month but I have come back to that desk this week because I felt bad about punking out on Jenerali Ulimwengu. Tis a poor footsoldier who leaves their post and leaves their General unsupported. The good news is that journalists generally don't go all court martial on each other, the occupation is a bit too loose-limbed for that.  

So, this new constitution of ours, eh. There are only roughly 18 months left before our next general election if things go according to the normal schedule, and we are still messing around with this thing. I am concerned:

"The whole project is turning out to be more complicated than the folks in charge implied it would be. I still maintain that you can't fast-track a Constitution no matter how badly you need a winning outcome for an outgoing administration- these things have to be started nice and early. Now the Establishment is proposing to drag us all in the wake of further “deliberations” come August because ati how many governments does one Republic need. This is unwelcome, but perhaps typical of the sunset days of the Fourth Administration."

Basically, I want a younger President. Not because I believe in the magical powers of youth- there aren't any- but I am definitely ready for someone who has lived experience and a visceral understanding that politics the world over have evolved significantly since 1960. A peer would do nicely.