Ekari Writes

Meet Jember, the Ethiopian Superhero I had the privilege of chatting with an African comic book creator who is breaking out in a big way. Using the power of Kickstarter , he is raising funds to produce and distribute his brand new comic book from scratch. Since the popular Black Panther  movie, the doors have been opened for African superheroes (which have existed for years) to garner more global attention than ever before.  The strategic release of this creator's project duringUS Black History Month cannot be overlooked... The young man's name is  Beserat Debebe , and we discussed his brainchild;  Jember . Read more to find out more about the Ethiopian Superhero, and how you can be a part of bringing this exciting project to fruition. UPDATE: The Kickstarter fund surpassed its funding goals in just 4 hours! You can still contribute for the remaining days until the 4th of March for their stretch goal to do an epic comic book tour across Africa ... ...

Image Credit: Property of Disney - but aren't we all? I grew up in what I now consider a unique period, as I was really a member of one of the last generation to have no internet, and our options for recreation after school were "limited" to radio, CDs, the outdoors, and books. Between my twin sister and I, I was by far the introvert. So while we could play pretend together for hours (don't ask about the Blanket Fort, that's another post on its own), and listen to CDs on repeat until we knew all the wrong lyrics by heart, when it came to playing outdoors, I'd be more of the "Hmmm, how dirty is that though" inclination. So at times, when my sister decided she wanted to roam about to discover new trees to climb in the back yard, and wouldn't let the fact that I thought it was a terrible idea hold her back, I shrugged and retreated to the glorious, dry, clean indoors for my own adventures. With 5 bookshelves w e were never short of so...

I've been collecting a stack of fiction that centrally features black characters, so after spinning around with my eyes closed and picking one at random, I started with reading  Amber and the Hidden City .  The book is a fantasy adventure story by  African-American  author Milton J. Davis, centered around the titular character. Amber is a 13 year old African-American girl who discovers that her grandmother is actually from the mystical city of Marai, which is magically hidden in the Sahara. Amber has inherited her grandmother's talents as a seer, and is urgently needed to guide the elders of Marai to who the next leader will be. The only problem is, she has no idea that the city is real, and the knowledge turns her whole world view upside down... She embarks on a dangerous trek across the world with her grandmother, to Paris, Senegal, Timbuktu, and finally Marai - all the while pursued by the minions of a power-hungry Marai elitist with his eye on the ...

Something important happened when the Black Panther poster and subsequent trailer dropped (an unorthodox 8 months before the movie release date). The film was already greatly anticipated by comic book movie fans since the character's introduction in Captain America: Civil War, but the trailer for the 2018 solo film propelled it to new heights  I have felt from the moment Marvel's character Black Panther appeared in Civil War, that this was going to be something different, something special. Every now and then, a piece of art in the form of cinema changes movies, and even culture itself, forever.  I'm not saying Black Panther's solo movie will do that, but there are some aspects that it has already begun to affect in various degrees: 1. People call him the "First" Black Superhero Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther Now, many will dispute this and bring up Blade as the truly first black superhero. While he was iconic in his own right, the Da...

I'm a fan of behind the scenes specials, and I wish I could peep into the artistic process of all my favourite stories. So I'm going to attempt to offer some insight into how I came to write my short story "Montague's Last", an alternative history piece about a regretful slave seeking redemption in the final moments of his life.  First and foremost, if you have not yet done so, you may read the ebook on Amazon.com  before reading the article below, as it contains serious spoilers. You have been warned!  (Malawian readers can request an encrypted pdf version through ekarimbvundula@gmail.com) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Still proceeding? Ok then! I'll assume you've read the story. It took me three years (on and off) and 8 drafts to finish Montague's Last from conception to final draft. It started as just another one of my notes with raw ideas sp...

A website called  Kinna Reads  initiated an Africa Reading Challenge with a simple rule: read at least 5 African books in the period of January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015. I thought this was a great excuse to venture into a large range of quality African books which the world is finally starting to notice. It also fit in very conveniently with the personal challenge I had already given myself a few years ago to read more African books. The goal of my challenge was to begin to familiarise myself with African writing, since my intention is to be published amongst that group. I grew up preferring western novels for reasons I have discovered have more to do with the global industry (availability, advertising, what type of African books get published) than actual quality. Without venturing into what can and cannot be defined as an African book, I made my choice based on accessibility (to me) and  interest. I sourced them from a variety of places, ...