Novels from East African Writers
African Titanics by Abu Bakr Khaal is a lyrical, harrowing, and deeply moving novel that chronicles the perilous journeys of African migrants attempting to reach Europe across the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. Written by Eritrean author Abu Bakr Khaal who experienced these precarious transit routes firsthand the novel is structured around the memories …
Introduction African Short Stories, selected and edited by the legendary Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe and the prominent scholar C. L. Innes, was first published in 1985 in the Heinemann African Writers Series (AWS 270). The anthology serves as a curated map of the rich, diverse, and rapidly evolving landscape of modern African short fiction. In …
Africa39: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara is a landmark literary anthology published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Curated under the auspices of the Hay Festival and in celebration of Port Harcourt’s selection as the UNESCO World Book Capital 2014, the collection brings together thirty-nine of the most promising and distinctive writers …
Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Admiring Silence is a profound and intricate narrative exploring themes of identity, displacement, the weight of history, and the transformative (and often deceptive) power of storytelling. The novel follows an unnamed narrator, a forty-two-year-old teacher from Zanzibar who has lived in England for twenty years, as he navigates a life built on a …
In Across the Bridge by M. Gicheru, the narrative serves as a gritty and cynical exploration of the vast chasm between the social classes in post-independence Kenya. The story is told through the eyes of Symon Chuma, a man who views himself as a “factory reject” of creation, possessing the “brain of a chicken and …
Moses Isegawa’s Abyssinian Chronicles is a sprawling, multi-generational epic that charts the turbulent history of modern Uganda through the eyes of its narrator, Mugezi. The novel is structured into seven “books,” spanning from the early 1970s to the late 20th century, juxtaposing the intimate domestic dramas of Mugezi’s family with the violent political upheavals of …
Henry Kyemba’s A State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin provides a chilling, first-hand account of the terror that gripped Uganda from 1971 to 1977. As a high-ranking official who served as Idi Amin’s Principal Private Secretary, Cabinet Secretary, and Minister of Health, Kyemba writes with the unique authority of a man who …
In Diana Anyango’s novel A Small-Town Girl, the story unfolds in the rural town of Oyugis, Kenya, where the protagonist, Lucy Akinyi, has returned to her childhood home to recover from a series of personal tragedies. The narrative explores themes of traditional societal expectations, the pursuit of justice for the vulnerable, the lingering trauma of …
The Genesis of an Arranged Disaster: Raya and Bakari Abbas The narrative arc of Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft begins in an atmosphere of paternal panic and revolutionary upheaval. The protagonist Raya’s marriage is not born of love, but of her father’s desperate need to preserve “respectability and honor”. This panic is triggered by Rafik, a childhood …
Summary of Salutation Road by Salma Ibrahim Introduction: The Earlobe of London and the Weight of Nostalgia The narrative of Salutation Road begins with a meditation on geography and the stillness of time. The protagonist, Sirad Ali, a twenty-three-year-old Somali-British woman, views the Greenwich Peninsula as being “shaped like an earlobe”. Growing up on Salutation …
Summary of Only Because It’s You by Rebecca Fisseha I. The Accidental Discovery and the Engagement Panic The narrative of Only Because It’s You begins in August in Toronto, on a sweltering afternoon that sets the stage for a chaotic chain of events. The protagonist, Mizan (Miz) Begashaw, a thirty-four-year-old physiotherapist, is in her bedroom …
I. The 2019 Frame: The Nature of Obsession The novel’s narrative begins in the present day (around August 2019), centered on the birthday of the protagonist and narrator, Ruth. As she blows out her candles in a small town in upstate New York, she is struck by a sudden, jarring epiphany: “without an obsession life …
The narrative of Everything Is Fine Here follows the coming-of-age journey of Aine Kamara, a Senior Six student in Uganda, as she navigates family tragedy, the complexities of queer identity within a conservative society, and the burgeoning realization of her own voice as a writer. The story is told through Aine’s perspective, moving between her …
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas is a profound collection of essays and tributes that explores the enduring impact of linguistic and cultural imperialism on the colonized world, particularly in Africa. The book is divided into two major sections: “Part One: Decolonizing Language,” which establishes the theoretical and historical foundations for his …
The narrative of Daughters of Silence centers on Dessie, a flight attendant for CanAir who finds herself unexpectedly grounded in her birthplace of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The story unfolds through a dual timeline: the present-day layover in Addis (2010) and a series of vivid, often painful flashbacks spanning Dessie’s childhood in Addis Ababa, her adolescence …
The book A Fledgling Abiba by Dilman Dila is a work of fantasy that follows the journey of a young girl named Kuri, who possesses rare spiritual gifts in a world where magic and ancestral worship are often suppressed by modern religions like m’Ondetta. The story explores themes of identity, destiny, and the blurred lines …
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat is a seminal work of African literature that explores the complex psychological and social landscape of Kenya on the precipice of its independence from British colonial rule. Set in the four days leading up to December 12, 1963, the novel moves fluidly between the present-time preparations for Uhuru …
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s A Girl is a Body of Water is a sweeping, multi-generational epic set in Uganda, primarily spanning from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The novel follows the life of Kirabo Nnamiiro, a young girl raised by her paternal grandparents in the village of Nattetta, as she searches for her absent mother …