Popular African Biography Books

Find biography books written by authors from Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (43)

1.

A Woman of Firsts by Edna Adan Ismail EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
'The Muslim Mother Teresa' Huffington Post Imprisonment. Mutilation. Persecution. Edna Adan Ismail endured it all - for the women of Africa.

2.

Adolfo Kaminsky : A Forger's Life by Sarah Kaminsky EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Algeria flag Algeria
Description:
The gripping true story of a life-long forger working for the French Resistance and clandestine organizations, told to his daughter.

3.

Black Spartacus : The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Mauritius flag Mauritius
Description:
A biography of the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture.

4.

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah EN

Rating: 4 (71 votes)
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than one million copies sold! A “brilliant” (Lupita Nyong’o, Time), “poignant” (Entertainment Weekly), “soul-nourishing” (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid “Noah’s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes his comedy, while illuminating a dark and brutal period in South Africa’s history that must never be forgotten.”—Esquire Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and an NAACP Image Award • Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Time, USA Today, San Francisco... continue

5.

Brief aan Cooper en de wereld by Dalilla Hermans NL

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Rwanda flag Rwanda
Description:
Ik wil je meenemen in mijn levensverhaal, zodat je je eigen verhaal beter zult snappen en zult kunnen plaatsen. Ik wil met de wereld delen wat het doet met een mens, opgroeien in een zee van wit als een wolkje bruin. Ik schrijf deze verhalen voor jou en voor mezelf. Voor de samenleving en voor mijn zoon.'

6.

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Nigeria flag Nigeria
Description:
Based on interviews with young women who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, this poignant novel by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani tells the timely story of one girl who was taken from her home in Nigeria and her harrowing fight for survival. Includes an afterword by award-winning journalist Viviana Mazza. A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband--these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren't too far out of reach. But the girl's dreams turn to nightmares when her village is att... continue


8.

Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Rwanda flag Rwanda
Description:
Mukasonga unsparingly resurrects the horrors of the Rwandan geocide while lyrically recording the quieter moments of daily life with her family—a moving tribute to all those who are displaced, who suffer. Mukasonga’s extraordinary, lyrical, and heartbreaking book … is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about the endurance of the human spirit and who hopes for a better world. — Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Los Angeles Review of Books Scholastique Mukasonga’s Cockroaches is a compelling chronicle of the author’s childhood in the years leading up to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In a spare and pen... continue

9.

Desert Dawn by Waris Dirie EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
Fashion model, UN ambassador and courageous spirit, Waris Dirie is a remarkable woman, born into a traditional family of tribal desert nomads in Somalia. She told her story - enduring, at five years old, the ancient and savage custom of female circumcision; running away at twelve on foot through the desert in order to escape an arranged marriage; being discovered by Terence Donovan as she worked as a cleaner in London; and becoming a top fashion model - in her book, the worldwide bestseller, Desert Flower. Although Waris Dirie fled her homeland, she never forgot the country and culture that mo... continue

10.

Desert Flower : The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad by Waris Dirie EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
Waris Dirie ran away from her oppressive life in the African desert when she was barely in her teens, illiterate and impoverished, with nothing to her name but a tattered shawl. She traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu—the first leg of a remarkable journey that would take her to London, where she worked as a house servant; then to nearly every corner of the globe as an internationally renowned fashion model; and ultimately to New York City, where she became a human rights ambassador for the U.N. Desert Flower is her extraordinary story.