For us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass, and fight corruption and authoritarianism. It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian.

At the age of 15, a teacher had asked me what I wanted to do for a career, and without knowing why or even how I replied that I wanted to be a poet.

It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.

People are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics.

They had always told me that I wrote like a man.