If you love food and also love to read, a great way to feed your interests is by reading books about food! Through cookbooks, essays, memoirs, and even works of fiction you can explore the diversity of African cuisine. Books about food also incorporate personal stories as well as tradition, culture, and history of cities and countries. In a continent where each dish has a story and convey the cultural heritage of people and places, books can help you learn more about African food.
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of seven African books for every food lover. These books explore food across Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Senegal, Ethiopia, as well as the African diaspora. The authors of these books emphasize that African food is beyond sustenance, but a vibrant expression of identity, community, and celebration.
Read our recommendations below.
ZOE’S GHANA KITCHEN
Author: ZOE ADJONYOH
Genre: NON-FICTION
Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen was a pop-up restaurant in the UK that grew into a huge success by word-of-mouth. In her cookbook, Zoe Adjonyoh takes readers on a tour of homemade Ghanaian dishes. She shares origins of these dishes with readers; focusing on traditional flavours while adding personal twists. Adjonyoh also takes these traditional Ghanaian recipes (such as a fish stew from her grandmother’s hometown) and re-mixes them for the modern kitchen.
HOW TO COOK YOUR HUSBAND THE AFRICAN WAY
AUTHOR: CALIXTHE BEYALA
GENRE: FICTION
How to Cook Your Husband the African Way is the story of Aissatou, a Paris-based Cameroonian woman, who falls in love with her neighbour, Mr Bolobolo. Bolobolo has issues, however. He chases far too many girls and lives with his mother who expects visitors from outer space. Aissatou, wants a husband who is also a lover. Remembering her mother’s wisdom and the traditions of Africa, she sets out to cook her way to his heart. But it will take more than exotically cooked fish to make Bolobolo a proper man. Reading this enchanting story will make one wonder what Aissatou will cook next to get Bolobolo where she wants him to be. But in the end, it is not food that keeps him to her.
THE SETTLER’S COOKBOOK: A MEMOIR OF LOVE, MIGRATION AND FOOD
AUTHOR: YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN
GENRE: NON-FICTION
This book offers a mouthwatering exploration of Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s East African Indian roots through the shared experience of cooking. Through the personal story of Alibhai-Brown’s family and the food and recipes they’ve shared together, The Settler’s Cookbook tells the history of the Indian migration to the UK, via East Africa. Her family was part of the mass exodus from India to East Africa during the height of British expansion, fleeing famine and lured by the prospect of prosperity under the imperial regime. In 1972, they were one of the many families expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin who moved to the UK, where Alibhai-Brown has made her home with an Englishman. The food she cooks now combines the traditions and tastes of her family’s hybrid history.
LONGTHROAT MEMOIRS: SOUPS, SEX AND NIGERIAN TASTE BUDS
AUTHOR: YEMISI ARIBISA
GENRE: NON-FICTION
Longthroat Memoirs presents a sumptuous menu of essays about Nigerian food. This book also offers a mouth-watering appraisal of the cultural politics and erotics of Nigerian cuisine. It is also a series of love letters to the Nigerian palate. From innovations in soup, fish as aphrodisiac and the powerful seductions of the yam, Longthroat Memoirs examines the complexities, the peculiarities, the meticulousness, and the tactility of Nigerian food. This book utilizes Nigeria’s strong culture of oral storytelling to express one’s love language of appetite and nourishment.
HIBISCUS
AUTHOR: ABDULRAZAK GURNAH
GENRE: NON-FICTION
Hibiscus is the debut cookbook from Lopè Ariyo. This cookbook contains fresh, stress-free meals that are full of flavour. With chapters including fruits, vegetables and tubers; grains and pulses; meat and poultry and baking and desserts, there’s something for every occasion and for everyone. Whether it’s experimenting with new ingredients (hibiscus chicken), reimagining old favourites (baked kuli kuli cod with cayenne yam chips), exploring different techniques or finding alternatives to everyday staples, this book will help you discover all that modern Nigerian food has to offer.
VEGAN AFRICA: PLANT-BASED RECIPES FROM ETHIOPIA TO SENEGAL
AUTHOR: MARIE KACOUCHIA
GENRE: NON-FICTION
Drawing from the cultures and traditions of more than 15 countries, years of cooking expertise, and memories from her own childhood on the Ivory Coast, Marie Kacouchia takes us on a tour of flavorful, healthy, naturally plant-based African dishes. In this book, you can explore over 70 recipes for main courses, rice dishes, sauces, snacks, desserts, and drinks. Vegan Africa provides a guide through diverse vegan cuisine from Ghana to Ethiopia, and Nigeria to South Africa. Kacouchia also shines a spotlight on the superfoods—like cacao, garlic, ginger, and sweet potato—that make these recipes both mouthwatering and packed with vital nutrients.
MY EVERYDAY LAGOS
AUTHOR: YEWANDE KOMOLAFE
GENRE: NON-FICTION
My Everyday Lagos features 75 dishes all served in Lagos, revealing two distinctive qualities of Nigerian cuisine—its singularity and accessibility. Through informative essays contextualizing ingredients historically, Yewande Komolafe explains how a cuisine has evolved that transcends tribal boundaries in a country where dozens of ethnic groups interact. Her personal narrative is interwoven throughout the book, cautioning against being burdened by notions of authenticity.
For those in the African diaspora, this book highlights foods that have been adapted and integrated into the cuisines of their respective locales. From the bustling bukas of London to those in Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, and Newark, each city offers its unique interpretation of Nigeria reflected in its culinary offerings. The featured recipes, including classics like Jollof Rice, Puff Puff, and Groundnut Stew, serve as a starting point for home cooks, guiding them to achieve the diverse flavors emblematic of Nigerian cuisine. Through photographs capturing the vibrancy of the city and its people, this book invites readers into the energy and pulse of Lagos, offering an in-depth exploration of its cuisine while revealing the nuances of regions, peoples, diaspora, and return. Komolafe also shares her personal journey of self-discovery through understanding her home country and its food.