Memoir books from Kenya
Recommended memoir books (9)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into memoir here are some memoir books from Kenya for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
A Month and a Day : A Detention Diary by Ken Saro-Wiwa EN
Description:
The moving last memoir of the outspoken critic of the Nigerian regime and international oil companies he held responsible for the destruction of his homeland-who lost his life in the campaign for the basic rights fo the Ogoni people of Nigeria.
2.
Birth of a Dream Weaver : A Writer's Awakening by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o EN
Description:
From one of the world's greatest writers, the story of how the author found his voice as a novelist at Makerere University in Uganda as a student In this acclaimed memoir, Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o recounts the four years he spent at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda--crucial years during which he found his voice as a journalist, short story writer, playwright, and novelist just as colonial empires were crumbling and new nations were being born--under the shadow of the rivalries, intrigues, and assassinations of the Cold War. Haunted by the memories of the carnage and mass incarcera... continue
3.
Dreams in a Time of War : A Childhood Memoir by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o EN
Description:
Recounts the story of the author's childhood, covering his early years in World War II-era Kenya as the fifth child of a third wife, his thirst for learning that singled him out, and the political struggles that shaped his life.
4.
Facing Mount Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta EN
Description:
Facing Mount Kenya, first published in 1938, is a monograph on the life and customs of the Gikuyu people of central Kenya prior to their contact with Europeans. It is unique in anthropological literature for it gives an account of the social institutions and religious rites of an African people, permeated by the emotions that give to customs and observances their meaning. It is characterised by both insight and a tinge of romanticism. The author, proud of his African blood and ways of thought, takes the reader through a thorough and clear picture of Gikuyu life and customs, painting an almost ... continue
5.
One Day I Will Write about This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina EN
Description:
A groundbreaking memoir by the acclaimed Kenyan Caine Prize winner.
6.
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris EN
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A shining portrait of a presciently modern political genius maneuvering in a gilded age of wealth, optimism, excess and American global ascension.”—San Francisco Chronicle WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY • “[Theodore Rex] is one of the great histories of the American presidency, worthy of being on a shelf alongside Henry Adams’s volumes on Jefferson and Madison.”—Times Literary Supplement Theodore Rex is the story—never fully told before—of Theodore Roosevelt’s two world-changing terms as President of the United States. A hundred years befo... continue
7.
Through the Leopard's Gaze by Njambi McGrath EN
Description:
In her captivating memoir Through the Leopard's Gaze, Njambi McGrath details the harrowing circumstances of her life as a young girl in Kenya, who one fateful night was beaten to a pulp and left for dead. Thirteen-year-old Njambi, fearing her assailant would return to finish her, courageously escaped, walking through the night in the Kenyan countryside, risking wild animals, robbers and murderers, before being picked up by two shabbily dressed but safe men. She buries the memories of that fateful day and night, and years later ends up in London with a British husband and children. Then one day... continue
8.
Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai EN
Description:
Born in a rural Kenyan village in 1940, Wangari Maathai was already an iconoclast as a child, determined to get an education even though most African girls then were uneducated.
9.
Une histoire d'amour africaine by Daphné Sheldrick, Johan Frédérik Hel-Guedj FR
Description:
Daphné Sheldrick, celle qu’on surnommera « la mère des éléphants », voit le jour en juin 1934 dans une ferme de colons britanniques, au Kenya. Tout la prédestine à vivre au plus près de la nature, surtout son extraordinaire empathie envers les animaux. Mais rien n’annonce qu’elle se lancera à corps perdu dans la guerre contre les chasseurs d’ivoire, ni qu’elle consacrera sa vie aux bébés orphelins victimes du braconnage. Le récit de cette femme d’exception traverse le XXe siècle et rend compte des soubresauts de l’histoire : les guerres mondiales, la révolte mau-mau, l’indépendance kényane... ... continue