My favourite things to read are books written by women, especially those by African women. As a book lover, I’m always on the lookout for new releases by African women for the upcoming year. One that I’ve been particularly excited about is We Were Once Girls by Aiwanose Odafen. I’ve been eagerly awaiting Odafen’s next work ever since I read her debut novel, Tomorrow I Become a Woman, back in 2022. The novel delved into the complex relationship between a mother and daughter as they grappled with tremendous loss. I was drawn to the way Odafen presented the struggles of women with care and sensitivity, as well as her portrayal of friendship among women.
All these reasons aside, I’ve been eagerly anticipating her next book since she offered a peek into it in a 2022 interview with The Republic. In the interview, she expressed her eagerness to ‘explore the lives of the daughters of the three main characters [in Tomorrow I Became a Woman]’ in her next book, which she was working on at the time. ‘I cannot wait for readers to get to know Ego, Zina, and Eriife better, and perhaps see themselves in these terrific women,’ Odafen added. To my utmost satisfaction, her second novel, We Were Once Girls, will be released later this year. The novel follows the lives of best friends Ego, Zina, and Eriife as they navigate strikes and political turmoil, ultimately taking separate paths. United by their shared past, this novel seeks to answer the question: can they, and their country, overcome the challenges they encounter?
This year, I’m also excited about other offerings from women across the continent. Abi Daré returns after her widely read 2020 novel, The Girl with the Louding Voice. Her forthcoming novel, And So I Roar, is about a young girl who must advocate to save not only herself but the young women in her village. Additionally, in An African History of Africa, Sudanese-British journalist, Zeinab Badawi, guides us through Africa’s remarkable history. This year, Sierra Leonean author, Namina Forna, also presents the finale to her young adult fantasy series, Deathless. In the third and final book, The Eternal Ones, Forna takes us through her protagonist’s attempts to kill the gods, whose ravenous competition for power is bleeding her kingdom dry.
From exciting novels to thought-provoking non-fiction, these new book releases by African women promise to captivate readers with their stories, shedding light on the multifaceted experiences, cultures, and struggles of African women. They are as follows:
WHERE SLEEPING GIRLS LIE
Author: FARIDAH ÀBÍKÉ-ÍYÍMÍDÉ
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2024
Sade Hussein, transitioning from home-schooling to the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy, faces unexpected challenges when her roommate, Elizabeth, disappears after the first night. Amid rumours implicating her, Sade gains attention from the popular ‘Unholy Trinity’ and gets drawn into their circle. Juggling class catch-up, grief from family tragedies, and an investigation into Elizabeth’s disappearance, Sade discovers hidden secrets at Alfred Nobel Academy that rival her own, especially as a student is found dead, revealing a complex web of mysteries. In Where Sleeping Girls Lie―a young adult contemporary mystery by Faridah Àbíké–Íyímídé―a girl new to boarding school discovers dark secrets and coverups after her roommate disappears.
CHILDREN OF ANGUISH AND ANARCHY
Author: TOMI ADEYEMI
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JUNE 2024
When Zelie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zelie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland. Then everything changes when Zelie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zelie’s strength sends Zelie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands. But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges on Orisha’s shores. It will take everything Zelie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good. Children of Anguish and Anarchy is the last novel in Tomi Adeyemi’s fantasy trilogy, Legacy of Orisha.
GHOSTROOTS
Author: ‘PEMI AGUDA
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MAY 2024
’Pemi Aguda opens her collection of twelve stories with the chilling tale of a woman who uncannily resembles her sinister, deceased grandmother. When the woman shows a capacity for deadly violence, she wonders—can evil be genetic, passed from generation to generation?
Set in Lagos, Nigeria, Aguda’s collection of short stories, Ghostroots, unfold against a spectral cityscape where the everyday business of living—the birth of a baby, a market visit, a conversation between mothers and daughters—is charged with an air of supernatural menace. In ‘Breastmilk’ a new mother’s inability to lactate takes on preternatural overtones. In ‘24, Alhaji Williams Street’ a mysterious disease wreaks havoc with frightening precision. In ‘The Hollow’, an architect stumbles on a vengeful house.
AN AFRICAN HISTORY OF AFRICA: FROM THE DAWN OF HUMANITY TO INDEPENDENCE
Author: ZEINAB BADAWI
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 2024
In An African History of Africa, Zeinab Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history, from the origins of humanity, through ancient civilisations and mediaeval empires with powerful queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence. Seeking out occluded histories from across the continent, meeting with countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, and travelling through more than thirty countries, Badawi weaves together a fascinating new account of an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves.
MY PARENTS’ MARRIAGE
Author: NANA EKUA BREW-HAMMOND
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JULY 2024
Determined to avoid the pain and instability of her parents’ turbulent marriage, Kokui marries a man far different from her loving, philandering, self-made father—and tries to be a different kind of wife from her mother. But when Kokui and her husband leave Ghana to make a new life for themselves in America, she finds history repeating itself. Her marriage failing, she is called home to Ghana when her father dies. Back in her childhood home, which feels both familiar and discomforting, she comes to realize that to exorcize the ghost of her parents’ marriage she must confront them, not only to enable her own healing, but for the sake of her daughter who is considering a marriage proposal of her own. Tender and illuminating, warm and bittersweet, My Parents’ Marriage by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is a compelling story of family, community, class, and self-identity from an author with deep empathy and a generous heart.
AND SO I ROAR
Author: ABI DARÉ
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: AUGUST 2024
When Tia accidentally discovers her terminally ill mother’s long-hidden secret in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, she embarks on a desperate quest. Meanwhile, Adunni, a fourteen-year-old runaway dreaming of education, finds refuge with Tia in Lagos. Their lives intertwine as a harrowing ordeal unfolds, forcing Tia to choose between protecting Adunni and uncovering the truth. Adunni, with her ‘louding voice’, becomes a crucial advocate for the young women of her village, Ikati, aiming to transform it into a place where girls can claim the bright futures they deserve and share their stories with the world. And So I Roar is the sequel to Abi Daré’s widely-read debut novel, The Girl with Louding Voice.
SOMEONE BIRTHED THEM BROKEN
Author: AMA ASANTEWA DIAKA
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 2024
In a vivid collection of short fiction, Ama Asantewa Diaka paints a compelling picture of contemporary Ghanaian youth. The stories intertwine the lives of characters facing challenges in friendship, passion, hope, and heartache. From Opoku Sr., struggling to sustain the family cocoa business, to Opoku Jr. dealing with relationship complexities, and characters like John, Baaba, and Ayeley navigating various aspects of life, Diaka explores themes of corruption, economic hardship, trauma, and more. Through thirteen interconnected stories, Someone Birthed Them Broken illuminates the everyday triumphs of hope, freedom, and redemption found in the bonds between women, the joys of love, art, and dancing.
BRIGHT RED FRUIT
Author: SAFIA ELHILLO
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: FEBRUARY 2024
No matter how hard Samira tries, she can’t shake her reputation. She’s never gotten the benefit of the doubt—not from her mother or the aunties who watch her like a hawk. Samira is determined to have a perfect summer filled with fun parties, exploring DC, and growing as a poet—until a scandalous rumour has her grounded and unable to leave her house. When Samira turns to a poetry forum for solace, she catches the eye of an older, charismatic poet named Horus. For the first time, Samira feels wanted. But soon she’s keeping a bigger secret than ever before—one that could prove her reputation and jeopardize her place in her community. In this gripping coming-of-age novel Safia Elhillo, a young woman searches to find the balance between honouring her family, her artistry, and her authentic self.
THE ETERNAL ONES
Author: NAMINA FORNA
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: FEBRUARY 2024
Weeks after confronting the Gilded Ones—the false beings she once believed to be her family—Deka is on the hunt. In order to kill the gods, whose ravenous competition for power is bleeding Otera dry, she must uncover the source of her divinity. But with her mortal body on the verge of ruin, Deka is running out of time—to save herself and an empire that’s tearing itself apart at its seams. When Deka’s search leads her and her friends to the edge of the world as they know it, they discover an astonishing new realm, one which holds the key to Deka’s past. Yet it also illuminates a devastating decision she must soon make. The Eternal Ones is the finale to the New York Times bestselling series, Deathless.
WITH LOVE, MISS AMERICANAH
Author: JANE IGHARO
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JUNE 2024
Seventeen-year-old Enore Adesuwa, cautious by nature, relocates from Nigeria to America with her mother and sister after her father’s death. Determined to navigate American high school successfully, she relies on rules gathered from teen movies recommended by her cousin Adrian. Armed with these survival guidelines, Enore faces senior year, grieving but ready. However, meeting Davi Santiago challenges her resolve, as he not only proves thoughtful and attractive but also encourages her to embrace her singing talent. Despite her mother’s strict rules, Enore, with the support of Davi and unexpected friends, aims to conquer senior year with newfound passion, boldness, and love.
CROOKED SEEDS
Author: KAREN JENNINGS
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 2024
Deidre van Deventer, residing in a deteriorating public housing complex, receives a call from the South African police, revealing her family home as the site of a criminal investigation. Bodies buried for decades on her reclaimed land prompt detectives to question her about her brother’s alleged involvement in a pro-apartheid group and terrorist activities. With no answers, Deidre grapples with a denied life, overshadowed by her brother and abandoned by her emigrated daughter. As the investigation unveils disturbing family secrets, Deidre confronts her shattered memories in a quest for redemption in post-apartheid South Africa. In Crooked Seeds, South African author, Karen Jennings, crafts a powerful novel exploring fractured families, collective guilt, self-imposed prisons, and the journey to break free.
BESAYDOO
Author: YALIE SAWEDA KAMARA
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JANUARY 2024
In Besaydoo, Yalie Saweda Kamara serves as griot for the Freeborn in Oakland, the Sierra Leonean in California, the girl straddling womanhood, and the woman re-discovering herself. Kamara psalms from the nexus of many languages—Krio, English, French, poetry’s many dialects—to highlight mechanisms not just for survival, but for abundance. ‘I make myth for peace,’ she writes, as well as for loss, for delight, for kinship, and most of all for a country where Black means ‘steadfast and opulent’, and ‘dangerous and infinite’. In this poetry collection, there is no partition between the living and the dead. There is no past nor present. There is, instead, a joyful simultaneity—a liberating togetherness sustained by song.
THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS
Author: SHUBNUM KHAN
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JANUARY 2024
Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Now, nearly a century since it was built, it stands in ruins: an isolated boarding house for misfits, seeking to forget their pasts and disappear into the mansion’s dark corridors.
Until Sana. She and her father are the latest of Akbar Manzil’s long list of tenants, seeking a new home after suffering painful loss. Unlike the others, who choose not to look too closely at the mansion’s unsettling qualities, she is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion. To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects—and to the locked door at its end, unopened for decades. The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a haunting, a love story, and a mystery, all twisted beautifully into one young girl’s search for belonging.
RINSING MUKAMI’S SOUL
Author: NJAMBI MCGRATH
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: FEBRUARY 2024
An incisive novel laying bare the contradictory societal response to gender, sex and redemption. Rinsing Mukami’s Soul looks at revenge as a powerful tool for reclamation when young Mukami’s carefully ordered life is cruelly thrust into scandal. Njambi McGrath’s debut novel examines the validity of fury as response when a young Kenyan girl’s mistakes in first love are ruthlessly held against her by a paternalistic society.
Mukami is a young scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school. She has a clear path ahead of her, but a deceptive smile, a school expulsion and an impossible pregnancy see her well ordered life hurtling towards complete and utter disarray. Facing disappointment from her family and finding that innocence is not a strong enough place from which to mount a defence, she declares revenge. This charged novel asks us to question why girls and women are often left to fight for justice from lonely places in societies that prefer them silenced.
THE WORLD WAS IN OUR HANDS: VOICES FROM THE BOKO HARAM CONFLICT
Author: CHITRA NAGARAJAN
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: AUGUST 2024
A moving, often provocative, and ultimately vital collection of first-hand accounts of people living through the Boko Haram conflict. From abducted girls to brash soldiers, and from community leaders to simple fishermen, this collection provides an insight into the realities of those living through the conflict, making this an essential cultural archive. The World Was in Our Hands covers themes of patriarchy, the economy, climate change, and corruption, to paint a picture that is much broader than what has been captured through news coverage.
ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF
Author: ONYI NWABINELI
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MAY 2024
In Allow Me to Introduce Myself, Anuri’s stepmother, Ophelia, is the ultimate ‘mumfluencer’. Throughout Anuri’s childhood, she catalogued every minute, milestone and carefully curated family outings on social media, cultivating a devoted following. Now twenty-five years old, life looks pretty perfect on the outside. Ophelia’s fans could be forgiven for wondering why Anuri spends much of her time insulting men online for money, battling the call of alcohol, running from a PhD application, and reminding herself that she is now allowed to choose her own outfits. But when she sees her little sister being pushed down the same rocky path by Ophelia, she decides to take back control. Her stepmother, however, isn’t giving up without a fight.
BETWEEN FRIENDS & LOVERS
Author: SHIRLENE OBUOBI
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JULY 2024
Instagram sensation Dr. Jojo, known for her health and self-love advice, finds her influencer career underwhelming and grapples with unrequited feelings for her best friend, Ezra. Meanwhile, debut novelist Malcolm Waters faces social challenges at a swanky penthouse party until Dr. Jojo comes to his rescue. As their connection grows beyond social media, they question whether they can risk it all for a genuine relationship in a world where lines between private and public, friendship and love, are blurred. Between Friends & Lovers is Shirlene Obuobi’s sophomore novel.
WE WERE GIRLS ONCE
Author: AIWANOSE ODAFEN
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 2024
Destined to be best friends since their grandmothers met in the 1940s, Ego, Zina, and Eriife’s bond is shattered by a terrible assault in modern Nigeria. As they navigate strikes and political turmoil, their lives take separate paths. Ego, now a successful London lawyer, grapples with loneliness and escapes into a secret online life. Zina pursues acting, sacrificing family ties. Eriife transforms from a doctor to a politician’s wife. When Ego returns home, their lives intertwine amid Nigeria’s political fractures. United by their shared past, the question remains: can they, and their country, overcome the challenges? We Were Girls Once is Aiwanose Odafen’s second novel.
PRIDE AND JOY
Author: PRIDE AND JOY
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2024
Overwhelmed after her recent divorce, life coach Joy Okafor plans her mother’s seventieth birthday weekend alone. When Mama Mary unexpectedly passes away, Auntie Nancy insists on a premonition that Mama Mary will rise again on Easter Sunday. The family shifts plan to welcome the Nigerian-Canadian community, spreading the belief in a miracle. Sceptical Joy struggles with her mother’s loss, navigating funeral preparations amid her aunt’s denial. Filled with humour and relatable characters, Pride and Joy explores the Okafor’s desperate hope for a miracle and the impact of Mama Mary’s loss on each family member.
PARASOL AGAINST THE AXE
Author: HELEN OYEYEMI
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JANUARY 2024
For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline, and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie. Little does she know she’s arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her the text changes depending on when it’s being read and who’s doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humour, and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie’s past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends’ different accounts of the past reach a new level. An adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, Parasol Against the Axe considers the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation, and weighs the risks of attaching too firmly to the stories of a place, or a person, or a shared history.
LIKE WATER LIKE SEA
Author: OLUMIDE POPOOLA
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MAY 2024
It is the ten-year anniversary of her sister’s death, and Nia is grappling with her grief, and balancing the complicated relationships weaving through her life. There is smart and sexy Temi; Melvin, her teenage love; and her new yet intimate friendship with Rahul and Crystal. But looming large over everything is her mother SuSu, whose battle with bipolar disorder continues to cast a profound shadow over Nia. Delving deep into the intricate tapestry of Nia’s life, Like Water Like Sea is a poignant tale of self-discovery and resilience, sexuality and motherhood, and falling apart to become truly whole.
WOMB CITY
Author: TLOTLO TSAMAASE
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JANUARY 2024
Nelah seems to have it all: wealth, fame, a husband, and a child on the way. But in a body her husband controls via microchip and the tailspin of a loveless marriage, her hopes and dreams come to a devastating halt. A drug-fueled night of celebration ends in a hit-and-run. To dodge a sentencing in a society that favours men, Nelah and her side-piece, Janith Koshal, finish the victim off and bury the body. But the secret claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave. As her victim’s vengeful ghost begins exacting a bloody revenge on everyone Nelah holds dear, she’ll have to unravel her society’s terrible secrets to stop those in power and become a monster unlike any other to quench the ghost’s violent thirst.
Womb City imagines a dark and deadly future Botswana, rich with culture and true folklore, which begs the question: how far must one go to destroy the structures of inequality upon which a society was founded? How far must a mother go to save the life of her child?
THESE LETTERS END IN TEARS
Author: MUSIH TEDJI XAVIERE
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2024
Bessem first notices Fatima on the soccer field, captivated by her athleticism and charm. In Cameroon, a country where same-sex relationships are illegal, their love faces harsh challenges. Fatima’s brother discovers their affair, leading to a violent incident and a subsequent police raid at the town’s only gay bar. After days in jail, Fatima vanishes, leaving Bessem with rumours about her fate. Thirteen years later, Bessem, now a university professor, quietly dates other women but remains haunted by memories of Fatima. A chance encounter with a mutual friend reignites her search for the lost love that still lingers in her heart.
OUTRIDERS AFRICA: ESSAYS ON EXPLORATION AND RETURN
EDITORS: LAYLA MOHAMED AND BIBI BAKARE-YUSUF
eXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: NOVEMBER 2024
It is Spring 2020, and 10 writers of African heritage, travelling in pairs, set out on journeys across Africa. It is a strange time to be travelling, and the shifting state of the world is reflected in temperature checks at borders, hand sanitiser outside churches, and truncated journeys. Against this backdrop, their travels take them from the tourist beaches of Madagascar and Comoros to the Rastafarian town of Shashamane in Ethiopia, and from questions of renaming amongst the flora and fauna of Cape Town to learning to walk in circles and embrace sensuality in The Gambia. Through essays, travel diaries, letters and poetry, Outriders Africa is an evocative and enthralling exploration of forgotten family histories, reckoning with grief (both personal and historical), and what it truly means to return. Contributors include Emmanuel Iduma, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and more.