Popular African Memoir Books
Find memoir books written by authors from Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (71)
1.
A Woman of Firsts by Edna Adan Ismail EN
SomaliaDescription:
'The Muslim Mother Teresa' Huffington Post Imprisonment. Mutilation. Persecution. Edna Adan Ismail endured it all - for the women of Africa.
Uganda3.
Adjusting Sights by Haim Sabato EN
EgyptDescription:
This book brings us inside the deepest thoughts, fears and feelings of a yeshiva student turned soldier.
4.
Algerian White by Assia Djebar EN
AlgeriaDescription:
In Algerian White, Assia Djebar weaves a tapestry of the epic and bloody ongoing struggle in her country between Islamic fundamentalism and the post-colonial civil society. Many Algerian writers and intellectuals have died tragically and violently since the 1956 struggle for independence. They include three beloved friends of Djebar: Mahfoud Boucebi, a psychiatrist; M'Hamed Boukhobza, a sociologist; and Abdelkader Alloula, a dramatist; as well as Albert Camus. In Algerian White, Djebar finds a way to meld the personal and the political by describing in intimate detail the final days and hours ... continue
5.
Amkoullel, l'enfant peul by Amadou Hampâté Bâ FR
MaliDescription:
Amkoullel, tel est le surnom que porte le jeune Hampâté Bâ quand, au début du XXe siècle, il s'initie aux traditions familiales séculaires. Fréquentant l'école française en même temps que la coranique, courant la savane alors que des proches partent pour une guerre que l'on dit mondiale, mais qui les concerne si peu, à l'écoute des grands maîtres de la parole, il devient lui-même, à son insu, un griot, garant et dépositaire d'une civilisation orale en pleine mutation. A la fois roman d'aventure, tableau de mœurs et fresque historique, ce livre restitue dans une langue savoureuse et limpide tou... continue
6.
Amkoullel, the Fula Boy by Amadou Hampâté Bâ EN
Description:
Born in 1900 in French West Africa, Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ was one of the towering figures in the literature of twentieth-century Francophone Africa. In Amkoullel, the Fula Boy, Bâ tells in striking detail the story of his youth, which was set against the aftermath of war between the Fula and Toucouleur peoples and the installation of French colonialism. A master storyteller, Bâ recounts pivotal moments of his life, and the lives of his powerful and large family, from his first encounter with the white commandant through the torturous imprisonment of his stepfather and to his forced a... continue
7.
Nigeria8.
Birth of a Dream Weaver : A Writer's Awakening by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o EN
KenyaDescription:
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
South Africa10.
Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftin EN
Description:
Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop and watching action films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines landed in Mogadishu to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered the arrival of these Americans, who seemed as heroic as those of the movies. Sporting American clothes and dance moves, he became known around Mogadishu as Abdi American, but when the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab rose to power in 2006, it became dangerous to celebrate Western culture. Desperate to make a living, Abdi used his language skills... continue