Read Around Africa Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Africa.
Best books from Africa (620)
121.
The Shameful State by Sony Labou Tansi EN
Country: Africa / 
Congo, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Democratic Republic of
Description:
Set in a fictitious African nation, this novel by the distinguished writer Sony Labou Tansi takes aim at the corruption, degeneracy, violence, and repression of political life in Africa. At the heart of The Shameful State is the story of Colonel Martillimi Lopez, the nation's president, whose eccentricity and whims epitomize the "shameful situation in which humanity has elected to live." Lopez stages a series of grotesque and barbaric events while his nation falls apart. Unable to resist the dictator's will, his desperate citizens are left with nothing but humiliation. The evocation of this de... continue
122.
Mask Off : Masculinity Redefined by J. J. Bola EN
Country: Africa / Congo, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Democratic Republic of
Description:
What is masculinity? Dominating the world around us, from Trump's twitter outbursts to deadly gun violence, from male suicide rates to incels on Reddit and 4chan, masculinity is perceived to be 'toxic', 'fragile' and 'in crisis'. In Mask Off, JJ Bola exposes masculinity as a performance that men are socially conditioned into. Using examples of non-Western cultural traditions, music and sport, he shines light on historical narratives around manhood, debunking popular myths along the way. He explores how LGBTQ men, men of colour, and male refugees experience masculinity in diverse ways, revealin... continue
123.
In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi EN
DjiboutiDescription:
Djibouti-born Waberi's brief and concentrated tale-part satire, part fable, part fever-dream-imagines the world turned upside down: a war rages between Quebec and the American Midwest, and all of "Euramerica" is a dark, barbaric hellhole.
124.
Transit : A Novel by Abdourahman A. Waberi EN
Description:
Waiting at the Paris airport, two immigrants from Djibouti reveal parallel stories of war, child soldiers, arms trafficking, drugs, and hunger. Bashir is recently discharged from the army and wounded, finding himself inside the French Embassy. Harbi, whose wife, Alice, has been killed by the police, is there too—arrested earlier as a political suspect. An embassy official mistakes Bashir for Harbi's son, and as Harbi does not deny it, both will be exiled to France, Alice's home country. This brilliantly shrewd and cynical universal chronicle of war and exile, translated into English for the fi... continue
125.
The Land Without Shadows by Abdourahman A. Waberi EN
Description:
Originally published in France in 1994, this newly translated collection presents stories about the precolonial and colonial past of Djibouti alongside those set in the postcolonial era. With irony and humor, these short stories portray madmen, poets, artists, French colonists, pseudointellectuals, young women, aspiring politicians, famished refugees, khat chewers, nomads struggling to survive in Djibouti's ruthless natural environment, or tramps living (and dying) in Balbala, the shantytown that stretches to the south of the capital--Cover.
126.
Pasaje de lágrimas by Abdourahman A. Waberi ES
Description:
Jibril abandonó Yibuti hace años. En Montreal se convirtió en un hombre nuevo. El país de su infancia ahora es para él tan sólo una tierra extraña. Contratado por una agencia de información, debe regresar durante unos días para llevar a cabo una misión. Francia, Estados Unidos, Dubái y los islamistas se disputan este trozo de basalto. A Jibril le tienen sin cuidado sus querellas, pero se siente traicionado por este país que nació, como él mismo, un 17 de junio de 1977, el día de la independencia. Las heridas se abren, los fantasmas de los suyos le atormentan, su investigación se atasca. Día tr... continue
127.
Harvest of Skulls by Abdourahman A. Waberi EN
Description:
In 1994, the akazu, Rwandan's political elite, planned the genocidal mass slaughter of 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi and Hutu who lived in the country. Given the failure of the international community to acknowledge the genocide, in 1998, ten African authors visited Rwanda in a writing initiative that was an attempt to make partial amends. In this multidimensional novel, Abdourahman A. Waberi claims, "Language remains inadequate in accounting for the world and all its turpitudes, words can never be more than unstable crutches, staggering along . . . And yet, if we want to hold on to a glimmer of ... continue
129.
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz EN
EgyptDescription:
Palace Walk is the first novel in Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz’s magnificent Cairo Trilogy, an epic family saga of colonial Egypt that is considered his masterwork. The novels of the Cairo Trilogy trace three generations of the family of tyrannical patriarch al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who rules his household with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence. Palace Walk introduces us to his gentle, oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija, and his three sons—the tragic and idealistic Fahmy, the dissolute hedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching in... continue
130.
A Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif EN
Description:
In 1900 Lady Anna Winterbourne travels to Egypt where she falls in love with Sharif, and Egyptian Nationalist utterly committed to his country's cause. A hundred years later, Isabel Parkman, an American divorcee and a descendant of Anna and Sharif, goes to Egypt, taking with her an old family trunk, inside which are found notebooks and journals which reveal Anna and Sharif's secret.