Five Essential African Novels To Read

“Want to hide something from an African? Put it in a book“- As hillarious as this quote seems, it does not apply to every black out there and we have put together, five essential African novels of all time, for book lovers, going by popular demand. Enjoy!

“Things Fall Apart” By Chinua Achebe
More than five decades after its publication, “Things Fall Apart” is still making waves, not just amongst its peers but even with relatively newer literary works. “Things Fall Apart,” explores life and African traditions before and during the colonial days. The story revolves around Okonkwo, who in the end committed suicide after killing a Whiteman.

“A Grain of Wheat” By Ngugi wa Thiong’o
“A Grain of Wheat,” is the second novel published in English by one of Africa’s foremost authors, Ngugi wa Thiong’o. This novel was an evaluation of the impact of democracy on the lives of ordinary Kenyans, at the time.

“Harvest of Skulls” by Abdourahman A. Waberi
Djiboutian writer, Abdourhman A. Waberi, writes from personal experience, about the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994 that resulted in more than a million deaths.

“The Famished Roads” By Ben Okri
First book in a trilogy that continues with “Songs of Enchantment” and “Infinite Riches.” Okri’s story revolves around Azaro, the defected spirit child, who for love of his mother has chosen not to die as is destined for his kind to. The tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits propels this latter-day Lazarus’s story. Ben Okri, is the African answer to Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

“Disgrace” By J.M. Coetzee
A middle-aged professor of Romantic poetry finds himself observing the ritual of a relatively happy life in which his sexual needs are adequately taken care of. But he soon finds himself disgraced, when his affair with a young student becomes public knowledge.
J.M. Coetzee, is the 2003 Nobel Prize winner and two-times Booker Prize winner.

By: Emeka Nwakobi