Popular African Historical Books
Find historical books written by authors from Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (54)
31.
Soundjata : ein Mandingo-Epos by Djibril Tamsir Niane DE
GuineaDescription:
D. T. Niane (1932 - 2021), Historiker aus Guinea, lässt das alte Afrika zu uns sprechen. Er ist zu einem der Griots (nämlich Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté) gegangen, und hat aufgezeichnet, was diesem - zwar fantastisch ausgeschmückt, aber im Kern unverfälscht - über Generationen von dem Leben und den Taten des legendär gewordenen Großkönigs Soundjata überliefert wurde. Wir erfahren die Geschichten des "Helden mit den vielen Namen", Sohn des Büffels und des Löwen, der im 13. Jahrhundert zum Begründer des mächtigen Mandin... continue
32.
Sundiata : An Epic of Old Mali by Djibril Tamsir Niane EN
Description:
"The son of Sogolon, the hunchback princess, and Maghan, known as 'the handsome', Sundiata grew up to fulfil the prophesies of the soothsayers that he would unite the twelve kingdoms of Mali into one of the most powerful empires ever known in Africa, which at its peak stretched right across the savanna belt from the shores of the Atlantic to the dusty walls of Timbuktu." "Retold by generations of griots - the guardians of African culture - this oral tradition has been handed down from the thirteenth century and captures all the mystery and majesty of medieval African kingship. It is an epic ta... continue
33.
The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara, Susan McClelland EN
Country: Africa / 
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Description:
When Mariatu set out for a neighborhood village in Sierra Leone, she was kidnapped and tortured, and both of her hands cut off. She turned to begging to survive. This memoir is a testament to her courage and resilience.
34.
CameroonDescription:
From a bold voice in African fiction comes a satirical and unputdownable reimagining of an overlooked episode in Cameroon's colonial past. Cameroon, 1929. As colonial powers fight for influence in Africa, French military surgeon Eugène Jamot is dispatched to Cameroon to lead the fight against sleeping sickness there. But despite his humanitarian intentions, the worst comes to pass: seven hundred local villagers are left blind as a result of medical malpractice by a doctor under Jamot's watch. Damienne Bourdin, a young white woman, ventures to Cameroon to assist in the treatment effort. Reelin... continue
35.
The Death of Comrade President by ALAIN. MABANCKOU EN
CongoDescription:
In Pointe-Noire, in the small neighbourhood of Voungou, on the family plot where young Michel lives with Maman Pauline and Papa Roger, life goes on. But Michel's everyday cares - lost grocery money, the whims of his parents' moods, their neighbours' squabbling, his endless daydreaming - are soon swept away by the wind of history. In March 1977, just before the arrival of the short rainy season, Comrade President Marien Ngouabi is brutally murdered in Brazzaville, and not even naïve Michel can remain untouched. Starting as a tender, wry portrait of an ordinary Congolese family, Alain Mabanckou ... continue
36.
The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed EN
SomaliaDescription:
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2022 'Chilling and utterly compelling, The Fortune Men shines an essential light on a much-neglected period of our national life' Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland Mahmood Mattan is a fixture in Cardiff's Tiger Bay, 1952, which bustles with Somali and West Indian sailors, Maltese businessmen and Jewish families. He is a father, chancer, some-time petty thief. He is many things, in fact, but he is not a murderer. So when a shopkeeper is brutally killed and all e... continue
37.
The House at Sugar Beach : In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper EN
LiberiaDescription:
The author traces her childhood in war-torn Liberia and her reunion with a foster sister who had been left behind when her family fled the region.
38.
The Night Will Have Its Say by Ibrahim al-Koni EN
LibyaDescription:
International Booker Prize finalist and "one of the Arab world's most innovative novelists" (Roger Allen) delivers a brilliant retelling of the Muslim wars of conquest in North Africa The year is 693 and a tense exchange, mediated by an interpreter, takes place between Berber warrior queen al-Kahina and an emissary from the Umayyad General Hassan ibn Nu'man. Her predecessor had been captured and killed by the Umayyad forces some years earlier, but she will go on to defeat them. The Night Will Have Its Say is a retelling of the Muslim wars of conquest in North Africa during the seventh century ... continue
39.
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell EN
ZambiaDescription:
Electrifying, playful, ambitious, brilliant - a Zambian debut novel that follows three generations of three families, telling the story of a nation, and the grand sweep of time 'In turns charming, heartbreaking, and breathtaking, The Old Drift is a staggeringly ambitious, genre-busting multigenerational saga with moxie for days... I wanted it to go on forever. A worthy heir to Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude." Carmen Maria Machado On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there was once a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. He... continue
40.
The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed EN
Description:
From the author of The Fortune Men, longlisted for The Booker Prize 2021... 'From Somaliland's bitter past blooms a moving and mature novel of conflict and survival' Independent It is 1988 and Hargeisa waits. Whispers of revolution travel on the dry winds but still the dictatorship remains secure. Soon, and through the eyes of three women, we will see Somalia fall. Nine-year-old Deqohas left the vast refugee camp she was born in, lured to the city by the promise of her first pair of shoes. Kawsar, a solitary widow, is trapped in her little house with its garden clawed from the desert, confined... continue