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Reading Africa: These five books from the continent will move you

In the spirit of Africa Day which is celebrated today, why not pick up a book from a fellow African country?

library books

Image: Adobe Stock

South Africans are often accused of being ignorant of other countries on the African continent, which put me on a mission to read books from every African country. 

Here is a brief review of the ones that stand out for both plot and setting.

1. ‘When Rain Clouds Gather’ – Bessie Head

  • Author: Bessie Head
  • Country: Botswana 
  • First published: 1969

When Rain Clouds Gather stars Makhaya and the lively Botswanan community around him. It echoes some of Head’s own experiences in the country, where she lived for more than twenty years after immigrating from South Africa.

The novel follows Makhaya as he builds a new life for himself in a small Botswanan village, after fleeing apartheid South Africa.

As he gets further and further involved in a radical community farming project, he finds love and ponders the fate and future of the continent-wide struggle. 

When the Rain Clouds Gather has both a well-developed plot and a natural, gentle flow that makes it easy to read right to the end. The pastoral setting, far from the agonized country Makhaya left, doesn’t hurt either. 

2. ‘Kintu’

  • Author: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
  • Country: Uganda
  • First published: 2014

Many contemporary works of African literature are marketed as telling an entire nation’s story. Kintu is one of the few that come close to fulfilling this promise.

It tells the lives of four members of different generations of the Kintu family, all bound by the fallout from one disastrous decision made by their ancestor almost three hundred years previously. 

Although it is the setting for just one part of the book, Kintu‘s vivid, relatable portrayal of pre-colonial African society is particularly noteworthy. The characters’ (sometimes unwilling) experiences with indigenous religion are also enthralling. 

3. ‘The Shadow King’

  • Author: Maaza Mengiste
  • Country: Ethiopia
  • First published: 2019

Ethiopia’s hard-fought war against Italian colonialism is brought vividly to life by Maaza Mengiste, in this Booker-shortlisted novel. 

At the heart of the novel are two women: Hirut, the downtrodden servant who becomes an integral part of the resistance army, and fiery Aster who leads Ethiopian women into battle. 

The Shadow King tells this African story in the terms of Western culture: opera and Greek mythology are used repeatedly to bring the characters, especially Emperor Haile Selassie, to life. You’ll especially enjoy this one if you like a feminist revision of African colonial struggles. 

4. ‘Nervous Conditions’

  • Author: Tsitsi Dangarembga
  • Country: Zimbabwe 
  • First published: 1988

In Nervous Conditions, all the tension of a Zimbabwe on the brink of independence spills into one family to be recorded by one of its daughters. 

As she comes of age after moving to the mission station from the deep rural areas, Tambu must try to understand her cousin’s increasing politicisation, family rebellion and mental health struggles. 

Nervous Conditions is very intersectional as it weaves together the burdens of being Black, being a woman and being from the rural areas. The pertinent reflections on these topics, and the mental health fallout, are likely to resonate with many South Africans.

5. ‘The Memory of Love’

  • Author: Aminatta Forna
  • Country: Sierra Leone 
  • First published: 2010

The Memory of Love is another novel that comes close to telling a national story. It’s also a heartbreaking, and at times heartwarming, love story. The betrayals revealed in the course of the story will haunt you for years to come. 

Fresh from a brutal civil war, Kai, Mamakay, Elias and Adrian grapple with past betrayals, broken relationships and what it means to be complicit in oppression and war.

By linking the political repression of the 1960s with the outright Civil War at the turn of the millennium through its characters’ experiences, the novel brings depth and humanity to conflict in Sierra Leone. If you’re a believer in “the personal is political”, you’ll find a good example here.