Popular African Poetry Books
Find poetry books written by authors from Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (30)
Tanzania22.
Teaching My Mother how to Give Birth by Warsan Shire EN
SomaliaDescription:
"Arts Council England"--Page facing title page.
23.
The Careless Seamstress by Tjawangwa Dema EN
BotswanaDescription:
This dazzling debut announces a not-so-new voice: that of the spoken-word poet Tjawangwa Dema. Winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, Dema’s collection, The Careless Seamstress, evokes the national and the subjective while reemphasizing that what is personal is always political. The girls and women in these poems are not mere objects; they speak, labor, and gaze back, with difficulty and consequence. The tropes are familiar, but in their animation they question and move in unexpected ways. The female body—as a daughter, wife, worker, cultural mutineer—moves continually acr... continue
24.
The Nomads, My Brothers, Go Out to Drink From the Big Dipper by Abdourhaman A. Waberi EN
DjiboutiDescription:
Few of us have had the opportunity to visit Djibouti, the small crook of a country strategically located in the Horn of Africa, which makes The Nomads, My Brothers, Go Out to Drink from the Big Dipper all the more seductive. In his first collection of poetry, the critically acclaimed writer Abdourahman A. Waberi writes passionately about his country's landscape, drawing for us pictures of "desert furrows of fire" and a "yellow chameleon sky." Waberi's poems take us to unexpected spaces--in exile, in the muezzin's call, and where morning dew is "sucked up by the eye of the sun--black often, pin... continue
25.
The Perfect Nine : The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o EN
KenyaDescription:
A dazzling, genre-defying novel in verse from the author Delia Owens says “tackles the absurdities, injustices, and corruption of a continent” Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s novels and memoirs have received glowing praise from the likes of President Barack Obama, the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, and NPR; he has been a finalist for the Man International Booker Prize and is annually tipped to win the Nobel Prize for Literature; and his books have sold tens of thousands of copies around the world. In his first attempt at the epic form, Ngũgĩ tells the story of the founding of th... continue
26.
The Price of Memory : After the Tsunami by Mildred Kiconco Barya EN
UgandaDescription:
The price of Memory is a collection of 63 poems. The poems in vivid imagery uncover what happens when the pleasurable thrill of being alive is lost in the pain that settles among the familiar and refuses to say goodbye, as in the poems 'Baggage' and 'Maybe.' The subject of memory, remembrance and forgetfulness resound throughout the collection, from the private nostalgic experiences in 'Wastelands, ' 'The Island, ' to the collective 'Africa re-disappointed, ' 'Borderless Africa, ' and 'Child of the Universe In this poetry, we witness what comes out of keeping dreams in trouser pockets ridden w... continue
27.
Ivory Coast28.
Madagascar29.
When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me by Ananda Devi EN
MauritiusDescription:
Includes interview with the poetess and a critical review of french poetry.
30.
Woman, Eat Me Whole by Ama Asantewa Diaka EN
GhanaDescription:
A bold, mesmerizing debut collection exploring womanhood, the body, mental illness, and what it means to move between cultures Renowned for her storytelling and spoken-word artistry, Ama Asantewa Diaka is also an exultant, fierce, and visceral poet whose work leaves a lasting impact. Touching on themes from perceptions of beauty to the betrayals of the body, from what it means to give consent to how we grapple with demons internal and external, Woman, Eat Me Whole is an entirely fresh and powerful look at womanhood and personhood in a shifting world. Moving between Ghana and the United States,... continue