Comments on: Suggestions for an Africa reading list

By: Aminah Sijaya

Aminah Sijaya — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:11:07 +0000

I will add: “Gatekeepers: The Quest for Clues to an Age-Old Rddle”, by Kobina Fynn. Interesting religious fiction set in Ghana. Available in all major bokshops around the world.

By: Helena Halperin

Helena Halperin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:02:59 +0000

Your list, while quite good, is heavy on Western perspectives. I urge your readers to look harder for indigenous perspectives, too.

ASnd, once again, I suggest “I Laugh so I
Won’t Cry: Kenya’s Women Tell the Stories of Their Lives”

By: Makokha

Makokha — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:50:16 +0000

The Case of the Socialist Witchdoctor by Hama Tuma (Ethiopia)

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by Vassanji (Kenya/Tanzania)

Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Zanzibar)

By: Helena Halperin

Helena Halperin — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 02:06:41 +0000

I Laugh so I Won’t Cry: Kenya’s Women Tell the Stories of Their Lives is based on oral histories of women from all the major ethnic groups. They discuss family life, work, the government, women’s self-help groups, genital cutting.

By: kifimbocheza

kifimbocheza — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 19:00:16 +0000

The Gunny Sack, by M G Vassanji.

By: sipakv

sipakv — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:10:03 +0000

From the point of view of French speaking African women, I recommend
-the classic “So Long a Letter” of MAriama Ba (Senegal)
-”Le ventre de l’Atlantique” (The belly of the Atlantic) of Fatou Diome
- “Segu” of Maryse Conde (Well she is not an African technically but this magnificent novel is set in Mali…)

And also novels by the great Tanzanian writer, Abdulrazak Gurnah, especially “Desertion”

By: Lars Smith

Lars Smith — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:06:44 +0000

Sembene Ousmane’s God’s Bits of Wood is excellent. I don’t understand why it isn’t famous.

By: Tracey

Tracey — Sun, 20 May 2007 08:34:04 +0000

I would also include Zakes Mda (South Africa), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), and Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya).

By: Joanne

Joanne — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 12:53:49 +0000

Hello Ethan.
Interesting blog, and great idea! I’m off to Africa for the first time next month – to Ghana. Would you have any Ghanaian books to recommend?
Many good suggestions here; I’ve enjoyed /learned from Achebe, wa’ Thingo, Kapuscinski, Wrong, Gourevitch. I’d add –
a) Wole Soyinka’s memoir Ake, The Years of Childhood b) Anything by Camara Laye, a Guinean writer. His best-known books are the novel The Radiance of the King and the memoir The African Child – but I would particularly recommend his wonderful retelling of the Malinke epic, The Guardian of the Word (Le Maitre de la Parole – Kouma Lafolou Kouma). All these books have been published in English.
c) Amos Tutuola’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. By far the weirdest book I’ve ever read, it reveals something of the Western African world of magic and witchcraft.
If I can squeeze in a fourth, the Somalian Nuruddin Farah (Gifts is the one I’ve read)
Thanks!

By: Janet

Janet — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 20:31:01 +0000

For interactions between Europeans and Africans, read Thomas Parkenham’s Scramble for Africa and The Boer War — neither light reading (particularly the BW, yeesh)– but well worth it. And of course, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the original Europeans-in-Africa novel is always worth picking up again. Also for fiction, I second (or third?) Rachel’s suggestion of The Poisonwood Bible.