Recommended African Literature Reading List

Mentioned by authors at the 2005 Ilkley Literature Festival:

Flora Nwapa – Efuru, Idu, Never Again, One is Enough, Women are Different

Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart (1958), Arrow of God (1964), Anthills of the Savannah (1987)

Njabulo Ndebele – The Cry of Winnie Mandela

Ama Ata Aidoo – No Sweetness Here (1970), Our Sister Killjoy (1977), The Girl who Can and other stories (1999)

Charles Mungoshi - Stories from a Shona Childhood 1989), The Milkman doesn't only deliver Milk (1998), Walking Still (1997)

Helon Habila – Waiting for an Angel

Sefi Atta – Something Good Comes

Lesogo Rampolokeng – The Bavino Sermons, White Heart – prologue to hysteria

For other suggestions for further reading see:

The Think Africa Books brochure (this can be posted out if you email arts@africacentre.org.uk)

Africa ’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century http://www.zibf.org.zw/awards/100bestbooks.html

The Reading Africa project: 30 books selected by SABDET and purchased by many UK libraries last year – for more info see www.sabdet.com

To keep up to date with some of Africa’s brightest young writers – see The Caine Prize www.caineprize.com

Think Africa Books

Unexpected Joy at Dawn – Alex Agyei-Agyiri

The Icarus Girl – Helen Oyeyemi

Boy – Lindsey Collen

Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Season of Migration to the North – Tayeb Salih

Seventh Street Alchemy – Caine Prize Winners

The Major Plays 2 – Femi Osofisan

The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New & Selected Poems – Jack Mapanje

Middle East and North African Immigrants in Europe – ed. Dr Ahmed Al-Shahi

The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil War – Douglas H. Johnson

Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains – Luli Callinicos

The Devil that Danced on the Water – Aminatta Forna

The Street – Biyi Bandele

Some of my best friends are…- Yasmin Alibhai Brown

Face Value – Catherine Johnson

Web of Lies – Beverley Naidoo

The Bush – Bernard Ashley & Lynne Willey

The Little Boy Blue – Fatou Keita

An African Christmas: Making my Own Masquerade – Ifeoma Onyefulu

The Story of the Crow and the Crab – Walter Bgoya

Kwani – journal of contemporary African literature

To purchase any of these books contact:

The Africa Book Centre www.africabookcentre.com

or The African Books Collective www.africanbookscollective.com