As the cradle of early humanity, the continent of Africa has one of the longest (and most mysterious) histories in the world. While the western world tends to view Africa as a monolith, over the millennia Africa has developed a cultural landscape as diverse as its natural landscape. African authors have gifted us amazing narratives like Things Fall Apart and Cry, the Beloved Country. In an effort to expand my literary knowledge (and, I hope, bring you all along with me), I put together this list of books by authors from Africa.
Finding books by African authors can be quite challenging. In the case of small island nations like St. Helena, lack of literature has more to do with a small population than anything else. But for many other nations, it boils down to a lack of distribution and translation, and frankly, complete ignorance on the part of the Western literary machine. As noted by Ainehi Edoro-Glines in LitHub, the NYT’s best book of the 21st century list released in 2024 included not a single book written by an African author. For this list, I used three main sources: A Year of Reading the World, the list of the Best African Novels of the 20th Century, and African literary prizes including the Grand prix littรฉraire d’Afrique noire.
Please note: the links. to bookshop.org are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase through that link. Amazon links are not affiliates, as I typically do not support purchasing through Amazon, however in the case of the books listed below, many do not have wide distribution and are easier to find on Amazon.
Books by Authors from North Africa
- Algeria – Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar
- Djibouti – In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman Waberi
- Egypt – Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
- Eritrea – Gratitude in Low Voices by Dawit Gebremichael Habte
- Libya – Gold Dust by Ibrฤhฤซm al-Kลnฤซ
- Morocco – The Sacred Night by Tahar Ben Jelloun
- Somalia – Maps by Nuruddin Farah
- South Sudan – Making Peace & Nurturing Life by Julia Duany
- Sudan – Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
- Tunisia –The Scents of Marie-Claire by Habib Selmi
- Western Sahara – Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Insha-Allah by Sara Cheikh
Authors from Eastern Africa
- Burundi – Weep Not, Refugee by Marie-Therese Toyi
- Comoros – A Girl Called Eel by Ali Zamir
- Ethiopia – The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
- Kenya – A Grain of Wheat by Ngลฉgฤฉ wa Thiong’o
- Madagascar – Beyond the Rice Fields by Naivo
- Malawi – The Jive Talker by Samson Kambalu
- Mauritius – The Sky Above the Roof by Nathacha Appanah
- Mozambique – Woman of the Ashes by Mia Couto
- Rรฉunion – The Rarest Fruit by Gaรซlle Bรฉlem
- Rwanda – We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families by Philip Gourevitch
- Seychelles – Voices by Glynn Burridge
- Tanzania – Broken Reed by Sophia Mustafa
- Uganda – Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
- Zambia – A Cowrie of Hope by Binwell Sinyangwe
- Zimbabwe – Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Books By Authors from Middle Africa
- Angola – The Utopian Generation by Pepetela
- Cameroon – Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono
- Chad – Told by Starlight in Chad by Joseph Brahim Seid
- Congo – The Stone Breakers by Emmanuel Dongala
- Democratic Republic of the Congo – Full Circle by Frederick Yamusangie
- Equatorial Guinea – By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomรกs รvila Laurel
- Gabon – Mema by Daniel Mengara
- Sao Tome & Principe – No Gods Live Here by Conceiรงรฃo Lima
Authors from Southern Africa
- Botswana – The Screaming of the Innocent by Unity Dow
- Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) – Weeding the Flowerbeds by Sarah Mkhonza
- Lesotho – Chaka by Thomas Mofolo
- Namibia – Born of the Sun by Joseph Diescho
- South Africa – Evening Primrose by Kopano Matlwa
Books by Authors from Western Africa
- Benin – As She Was Discovering Tigony by Olympe Bhรชly-Quenum
- Burkina Faso – The Parachute Drop by Nobert Zongo
- Cabo Verde – The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araรบjo by Germano Almeida
- Cรดte d’Ivoire – Mamy Wata and the Monster by Veronique Tadjo
- Gambia – Folk Tales and Fables from The Gambia by Dembo Fanta Bojang & Sukai Mbye Bojang
- Ghana – Sosu’s Call by Meshack Asare
- Guinea – The Lives and Deaths of Vรฉronique Bangoura by Tierno Monรฉnembo
- Guinea-Bissau – Unity and Struggle by Amilcar Cabral
- Liberia – This Child Will Be Great by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
- Mali – The Fortunes of Wangrin by Amadou Hampรขtรฉ Bรข
- Mauritania – The Desert and the Drum by Mbarek Ould Beyrouk
- Niger – The Epic of Askia Mohammed as told by Nouhou Malio
- Note: because Malio was a griot (or traditional storyteller), this edition is sometimes credited to transcriber and translator Thomas A. Hale.
- Nigeria – Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- Saint Helena – To Befriend an Emperor by Betsy Balcombe
- Senegal – So Long a Letter by Mariama Bรข
- Sierra Leone – The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
- Togo – An African in Greenland by Tรฉtรฉ-Michel Kpomassie
If you’re trying to diversify your reading tastes, I hope this list helps widen your horizons further south than Europe! Literature from around the world deserves to be read and loved. While I focused on authors born in Africa for this list, black authors all over the world deserve our eyeballs, too!
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