african literature — Stories-Shayera Dark

Why I Withdrew My Short Story From The 2024 Caine Prize

Or, the brazen grift of Troy Onyango, founder and editor of the literary site Lolwe.

Double Review: How Beautiful We Were|Imbolo Mbue; The Dragons, the Giant, the Women|Wayétu Moore

Moore’s memoir and Mbue’s novel celebrate and centre women as subjects of their own stories, capable of propelling and making history just like their male counterparts.

If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English|Noor Naga

Noor Naga’s debut novel explores the tensions around identity and othering through the eyes a destitute Egyptian man living in Cairo and a middle-class Egyptian-American “returning” to Egypt, a country she’s visiting for the very first time.

In Every Mirror She's Black|Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström

In Åkerström's engaging, fast-paced debut novel, the weight of blackness threads the lives of three women who wind up in Stockholm under the influence of Jonny von Lundin, scion of a highborn family with close ties to Sweden's monarchy.

Ogadinma: Or, Everything Will Be All Right|Ukamaka Olisakwe

Abortion, family honour and liberation take centre stage in this novel that follows the titular teenage protagonist as she struggles to still herself against the buffeting tide of marital and societal expectations.

Efuru|Flora Nwapa

Published in 1966, the novel follows the eponymous protagonist as she and other female characters bend, twist, implement and break gender norms in colonial Nigeria.

Book ReviewShayera Dark14 June 2020flora nwapa, oguta, efuru, feminist literature, african literature

Whitefly|Abdelilah Hamdouchi

Whitefly follows Detective Laafrit’s investigation into the deaths of four young men found floating in the Mediterranean. The dead are irregular Moroccan migrants en route to neighbouring Spain, or at least that’s what Laafrit thinks until he discovers one of them was shot four times at close range.

Beneath the Lion's Gaze|Maaza Mengiste

In Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, each character contends with a violent dictatorship, with none emerging guiltless or unscathed. Set in Addis Ababa in the mid-seventies, Maaza Mengiste’s debut novel gives a glimpse into the surveillance state perpetuated by Mengistu Haile Mariam’s military regime, which deposed Emperor Haile Selassie and effectively ended Ethiopia’s three-thousand year-old monarchy.

Book ReviewShayera Dark9 December 2019maaza mengiste, ethiopia, african literature, addis ababa, the derg, recent

Black Moses|Alain Mabanckou

“Tokumisa Nzambe po Mose yamoyindo abotami namboka ya Bakoko,” which means “Thanks be to God, the black Moses is born on the earth of our ancestors” in Lingala, is a mouthful for most. Instead, everyone—excluding the priest who christened the titular protagonist and orphan—settles for “Moses” after the biblical character who frees the Israelites, from slavery. To this end, Moses spends his teenage years examining the meaning of his name and how it guides his destiny, if at all.