African Short Stories and the Online Writing Space

Abstract

For many young African writers access to new media technology, with its faster and more advanced means of communication, marks the beginning of a new wave of writing and an exchange of ideas. While they are using the traditional media for longer outputs, such as novels, the web provides the space for more immediate and shorter productions. Arguably, publishing online allows African writers to break away from the politics of postcolonial literary production which expects them to adopt certain styles, treat themes in particular ways and publish books to certain markets. In the online space, authors can choose to side-step the judgements of publishers and journal editors. For example, some young African writers are forming online publishing collectives such as Storymoja, Kwani? and Saraba, probably to avoid the old postcolonially framed distribution and publishing networks, thus writing in new voices to new audiences alike. There are also numerous ‘unguarded’ outlets in the form of blogs and social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. This last platform has encouraged the growth of African flash fiction — very short stories fitting into two SMS (Short Message Service) or two tweets. Following the spirit of innovation of these writers, we have taken a broad definition of short fiction, assuming, like Clare Hanson, that it has ‘no inherent, determining characteristics’ (5).