Popular African Memoir Books
Find memoir books written by authors from Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (89)
1.
A Long Way Gone : Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah EN
Country: Africa / 
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Description:
My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life. “Why did you leave Sierra Leone?” “Because there is a war.” “You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?” “Yes, all the time.” “Cool.” I smile a little. “You should tell us about it sometime.” “Yes, sometime.” This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them... continue
2.
A Month and a Day : A Detention Diary by Ken Saro-Wiwa EN
KenyaDescription:
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.
3.
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.
Uganda5.
Adjusting Sights by Haim Sabato EN
EgyptDescription:
This book brings us inside the deepest thoughts, fears and feelings of a yeshiva student turned soldier.
6.
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
7.
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
8.
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
9.
And Still Peace Did Not Come: A Memoir of Reconciliation by Agnes Fallah Kamara-Umunna (Author) EN
LiberiaDescription:
When bullets hit Agnes Kamara-Umunna's home in Monrovia, Liberia, she and her father hastily piled whatever they could carry into their car and drove toward the border, along with thousands of others. An army of children was approaching, under the leadership of Charles Taylor. It seemed like the end of the world. Slowly, they made their way to the safety of Sierra Leone. They were the lucky ones. After years of exile, with the fighting seemingly over, Agnes returned to Liberia--a country now devastated by years of civil war. Families have been torn apart, villages destroyed, and it seems as th... continue
10.
Nigeria