Books are timeless, captivating readers across generations with their narratives and insights. Looking back into the African literary archives, there are books published a decade ago that remain excellent choices for today’s readers.
In our latest book recommendation, we have curated a list of seven books published in 2014 that you’re sure to enjoy reading this year. Spanning fiction and non-fiction, these selections come from authors across Africa, offering engaging stories about relevant figures, cities, and historical or contemporary events.
Read our recommendations below.
THE MOOR’S ACCOUNT
Author: LAILA LALAMI
Genre: FICTION
In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez sailed from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda with a crew of six hundred men and nearly a hundred horses. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as wealthy and famous as Hernán Cortés.
But from the moment the Narváez expedition landed in Florida, it faced peril—navigational errors, disease, starvation, as well as resistance from indigenous tribes. Within a year there were only four survivors: the expedition’s treasurer, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca; a Spanish nobleman named Alonso del Castillo Maldonado; a young explorer named Andrés Dorantes de Carranza; and Dorantes’s Moroccan slave, Mustafa al-Zamori, whom the three Spaniards called Estebanico. These four survivors would go on to make a journey across America that would transform them from proud conquistadores to humble servants, from fearful outcasts to faith healers.
The Moor’s Account was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist in 2015. The novel is a fictional memoir of Estebanico, the Moroccan slave who survived the Narvaez expedition and accompanied Cabeza de Vaca.
KINTU
AUTHOR: JENNIFER NANSUBUGA MAKUMBI
GENRE: FICTION
Kintu offers a multilayered narrative that reimagines Uganda’s history through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan. Structured into six sections, the novel begins in 1750, with Kintu Kidda’s journey to the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda Kingdom. Along this path, he inadvertently unleashes a curse destined to afflict his family for generations. Jennifer Makumbi weaves together an ambitious tale, interlacing the narratives of Kintu’s descendants as they grapple with breaking free from the weight of their collective past and reconciling the traditions of inheritance.
ALL OUR NAMES
AUTHOR: DINAW MENGESTU
GENRE: FICTION
All Our Names is the story of two young men who come of age in Uganda during a revolt against the post-colonial regime in the early 1970s. As the line between idealism and violence becomes increasingly blurred, the friends are driven apart—one into the deepest peril as the movement gathers inexorable force, and the other into the safety of exile in the American Midwest. There, pretending to be an exchange student, he falls in love with a social worker and settles into small-town life. Yet this idyll is inescapably darkened by the secrets of his past: the acts he committed and the work he left unfinished. Most of all, he is haunted by the beloved friend he left behind, the charismatic leader who first guided him to revolution and then sacrificed everything to ensure his freedom. Switching back and forth between Africa and America, the novel illuminates the intricate landscapes of our physical and emotional existence. Dinaw Mengestu delivers not just a political narrative but also a captivating depiction of love, resilience, and the complexities of identity.
FOREIGN GODS, INC.
AUTHOR: OKEY NDIBE
GENRE: FICTION
Foreign Gods, Inc., tells the story of Ike, a New York-based Nigerian cab driver who sets out to steal the statue of an ancient war deity from his home village and sell it to a New York gallery.
Ike’s plan is fueled by desperation. Despite a degree in economics, his strong accent has barred him from the corporate world. Forced to eke out a living as a cab driver, he is unable to manage the emotional and material needs of a temperamental African American bride and a widowed mother demanding financial support. When he turns to gambling, his mounting losses compound his woes. And so he travels back to Nigeria to steal the statue, where he has to deal with old friends, family, and a mounting conflict between those in the village who worship the deity, and those who practice Christianity.
A meditation on the dreams, promises and frustrations of the immigrant life in America; the nature and impact of religious conflicts; an examination of the ways in which modern culture creates or heightens infatuation with the ‘exotic’, including the desire to own strange objects and hanker after ineffable illusions; and an exploration of the shifting nature of memory, Foreign Gods illuminates our globally interconnected world.
THE REACTIVE
AUTHOR: MASANDE NTSHANGA
GENRE: FICTION
The Reactive follows Lindanathi, a young man living with HIV, as he struggles to come to terms with the death of his brother, burdened by a sense of guilt. Alongside his companions—Cecelia and Ruan—they navigate a world of menial jobs and the underground trade of anti-retroviral drugs, a lifeline in pre-distribution South Africa. Amidst their daily struggles, they seek solace in substance abuse, drifting through the vibrant yet harsh streets of Cape Town, where stark inequalities persist.
Their lives take an unexpected turn when a mysterious figure emerges, offering to buy their surplus medication. This proposition dangles the promise of escape from their troubled existence but also forces Lindanathi to confront the choices that have led him to this point and the unresolved ghosts of his past.
Rendered in lyrical, bright prose and set in South Africa, The Reactive is a poignant story about secrets, memory, chemical abuse and family, and the redemption that comes from facing what haunts us most.
ANOTHER MAN’S WAR: THE STORY OF A BURMA BOY IN BRITAIN’S FORGOTTEN AFRICAN ARMY
AUTHOR: BARNABY PHILLIPS
GENRE: NON-FICTION
In December 1941 the Japanese invaded Burma. For the British, the longest land campaign of the Second World War had begun. 100,000 African soldiers were taken from Britain’s colonies to fight the Japanese in the Burmese jungles. They performed heroically in one of the most brutal theatres of war, yet their contribution has been largely ignored.
Isaac Fadoyebo was one of those ‘Burma Boys’. At the age of sixteen he ran away from his Nigerian village to join the British Army. Sent to Burma, he was attacked and left for dead in the jungle by the Japanese. Sheltered by courageous local rice farmers, Isaac spent nine months in hiding before his eventual rescue. He returned to Nigeria a hero, but his story was soon forgotten. Barnaby Phillips travelled to Nigeria and Burma in search of Fadoyebo, the family who saved his life, and the legacy of an Empire. Another Man’s War is Isaac’s story.
OXFORD STREET, ACCRA: CITY LIFE AND THE ITINERARIES OF TRANSNATIONALISM
AUTHOR: ATO QUAYSON
GENRE: NON-FICTION
In Oxford Street, Accra, Ato Quayson analyzes the dynamics of Ghana’s capital city through a focus on Oxford Street, part of Accra’s most vibrant and globalized commercial district. He traces the city’s evolution from its settlement in the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. He combines his impressions of the sights, sounds, interactions, and distribution of space with broader dynamics, including the histories of colonial and postcolonial town planning and the marks of transnationalism evident in Accra’s salsa scene, gym culture, and commercial billboards. Quayson finds that the various planning systems that have shaped the city—and had their stratifying effects intensified by the IMF-mandated structural adjustment programs of the late 1980s—prepared the way for the early-1990s transformation of a largely residential neighborhood into a kinetic shopping district. With an intense commercialism overlying, or coexisting with, stark economic inequalities, Oxford Street is a microcosm of historical and urban processes that have made Accra the variegated and contradictory metropolis that it is today.