Kopano Matlwa is a South Africa medical doctor and author. While studying Medicine at the University of Cape Town, she wrote her first novel, Coconut, which was published in 2007. Her debut novel is one that confronts uncomfortable issues facing youth in the post-Apartheid era. It is a thorough and somewhat disturbing commentary on life [...]
In the sequel to his world famous Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe tells the story of Obi Okonkwo whose foreign education has separated him from his African roots and made him part of a ruling elite whose corruption he finds repugnant. Available here
Restless Nation is William Gumede’s (author of Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC) collection of opinion pieces on the political landscape of South Africa. With all the controversy surrounding the ongoing strike at Lonmin’s Marikana Mine, questions of the country’s leadership and what this all means for South Africa’s future; [...]
Bobo Omotayo after spending years in the United Kingdom moved back to Nigeria. Using the nom de plume, ‘The Renaissance Man’, Bobo wrote a column on the popular Nigerian website, Bella Naija. London Life, Lagos Living is essentially an expansion of this column. It documents his experiences – work, life, love and social circles in [...]
Mariama Ba was a Senegalese author and feminist. In So Long A Letter, her first novel, she conveys her frustration and ultimate acceptance of the fate of African women. Her work focused on stories of the female condition. So Long A Letter went on to win the first Noma prize for African literature in 1980. [...]
Steve Bantu Biko (RIP) was one of the key figures in South Africa’s struggle against Apartheid. He helped found the Black Conciousness movement which held that black people in South Africa could not be liberated until they were united. I Write What I Like contains a selection of Biko’s writings from 1969, when he became the [...]
Houseboy was first published in French by Cameroonian author, Ferdinand Oyono, in 1956 then later translated to English. It was published at a time before many African countries gained Independence but Houseboy very frankly examines the complex and varied relationships Africans had with colonialist settlers. SYNOPSIS Houseboy” is written in the form of a diary [...]
This is a great read from one of our favorite contemporary authors, Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It tells a compelling story and gives a bit of history lesson. You’ll want to finish reading it before the film adaptation is released! SYNOPSIS Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the [...]
Nigerian author, Ben Okri published The Famished Road in 1991. Synopsis The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. The life he foresees for himself and the tale he tells is full of sadness and tragedy, but inexplicably he is born with a [...]
Written as a letter from a Zimbabwean mother to her daughter, a student at Harvard, J. Nozipo Maraire evokes the moving story of a mother reaching out to her daughter to share the lessons life has taught her and bring the two closer than ever before. Interweaving history and memories, disappointments and dreams, Zenzele tells the tales [...]