My introduction to African literature came by way of my Nigerian father, who insisted I read Chinua Achebe’s classic, Things Fall Apart. He said it showed how Igboland was before the British colonized it. Through some of the cleanest, tightest prose I’ve ever read, I got a sense of what the area was like before colonialism. Since then, I’ve seen works by African authors like Akwaeke Emezi and Trevor Noah be read widely, but there is a whole of African authors who are being slept on, which is why the 23rd task for our Read Harder Challenge is to Read a book by an African author.
Below you’ll find the classic that got me started on my journey of reading work by authors from the Motherland, as well as authors from other parts of the continent that I think we should all get into. Many of them are bestselling, award-winning authors who you need to get into ASAP.
Related
|
English (US)