5 March 2005
Saturday 5 March 2005 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Ian McMillan presents a special programme recorded at the Hayward Gallery, celebrating African writing and performance. Ngugi Wa Thiong'O reads from his next novel, Jackie Kay performs new poetry and the Daara J trio showcase the best in Senegalese hip hop.
Playlist
The Verb Programme Details March 5th 2005
A special edition of the programme this week, recorded at the Hayward Gallery on London's South Bank, which is currently showing Africa Remix - the largest exhibition of contemporary African art ever seen in Europe.
Ian McMillan talks to Ngugi Wa Thiong'O - dramatist, scholar and the great novelist of Kenya's independence and post-colonial struggles. The author of 'A Grain of Wheat' and 'Petals of Blood' reads extracts from his next novel 'The Wizard of the Crow' (a world premiere in English) and discusses the politics of translation with writer, scholar and translator of his novel 'Matigari', Wangui Wa Goro.
There is music from Daara J - Senegal's celebrated rap trio, whose album Boomerang is, according to The Observer 'one of the hip hop albums of the century' - and new work from one of Britain's foremost poets, Jackie Kay.
Jackie was born in Glasgow and grew up knowing nothing of her father. Invited to Nigeria last year by the British Council, Jackie traced and finally met him. Her expectations of what she might find were confounded, and the impact of their encounter is vividly captured in poems Jackie reads on the programme.
And playwright and perfomance poet Dipo Agboluaje delivers three newly commissioned pieces. Dipo has been described by Time Out as 'an exciting, vital new voice' and by The Spectator as 'witty, astute and sublimely irresponsible'. His series 'A Nigerian Man' is a satirical take on a certain kind of immigrant experience, a rich and comic portrait in language.
