Popular African Memoir Books
Find memoir books written by authors from Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (111)
91.
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris EN
KenyaDescription:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A shining portrait of a presciently modern political genius maneuvering in a gilded age of wealth, optimism, excess and American global ascension.”—San Francisco Chronicle WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY • “[Theodore Rex] is one of the great histories of the American presidency, worthy of being on a shelf alongside Henry Adams’s volumes on Jefferson and Madison.”—Times Literary Supplement Theodore Rex is the story—never fully told before—of Theodore Roosevelt’s two world-changing terms as President of the United States. A hundred years befo... continue
92.
There Was a Country : A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe EN
NigeriaDescription:
From the legendary author of Things Fall Apart comes this long-awaited memoir recalling Chinua Achebe's personal experiences of and reflections on the Biafran War, one of Nigeria's most tragic civil wars Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, was a writer whose moral courage and storytelling gifts have left an enduring stamp on world literature. There Was a Country was his long-awaited account of coming of age during the defining experience of his life: the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War of 1967-1970. It became infamous around the world for its impact on the Biafran... continue
93.
They poured fire on us from the sky by Benson deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak EN
Country: Africa / 
South Sudan
South Sudan
Description:
A stunning literary survival story of three young Sudanese boys, two brothers and a cousin—hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a “moving, beautifully written account, by turns warm and tender.” Between 1987 and 1989, Alepho, Benjamin, and Benson, like tens of thousands of young boys, took flight from the massacres of Sudan's civil war. They became known as the Lost Boys. With little more than the clothes on their backs, sometimes not even that, they streamed out over Sudan in search of refuge. Their journey led them first to Ethiopia and then, driven back into Sudan, toward Kenya. They walked n... continue
94.
Things I Don't Want to Know : A Response to George Orwell's 1946 Essay 'Why I Write' by Deborah Levy EN
Country: Africa / 
South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Taking George Orwell's famous essay, 'Why I Write', as a jumping-off point, Deborah Levy offers her own indispensable reflections of the writing life. With wit, clarity and calm brilliance, she considers how the writer must stake claim to that contested territory and shape it to her need. It is a work of dazzling insight and deep psychological succour, from one of our most vital contemporary writers. This first volume of the trilogy focuses on the writer as a young woman - the confusion and turbulence of youth, and the uncertainties of carving an identity as a writer. The second volume, The Co... continue
95.
This Tilting World by Colette Fellous EN
TunisiaDescription:
"Fellous's creative memoir delves into the history Tunisia's Jewish community, sweeping readers onto a lyrical journey from Tunisia to Paris to a Flaubertian village in Normandy, full of the voices of loved ones now silent" -- Provided by publisher.
96.
Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87 by Thomas Sankara EN
Country: Africa / 
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Description:
Under Sankara's leadership, the revolutionary government of Burkina Faso in West Africa mobilized peasants, workers, women, and youth to carry out literacy and immunization drives; to sink wells, plant trees, build dams, erect housing; to combat the oppression of women and transform exploitative relations on the land; to free themselves from the imperialist yoke and solidarize with others engaged in that fight internationally. Sankara speaks as an outstanding revolutionary leader of working people and youth the world over. Second edition includes a new introduction by editor Michel Prairie, fo... continue
97.
Through the Leopard's Gaze by Njambi McGrath EN
Description:
In her captivating memoir Through the Leopard's Gaze, Njambi McGrath details the harrowing circumstances of her life as a young girl in Kenya, who one fateful night was beaten to a pulp and left for dead. Thirteen-year-old Njambi, fearing her assailant would return to finish her, courageously escaped, walking through the night in the Kenyan countryside, risking wild animals, robbers and murderers, before being picked up by two shabbily dressed but safe men. She buries the memories of that fateful day and night, and years later ends up in London with a British husband and children. Then one day... continue
98.
To My Children's Children by Sindiwe Magona EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
This powerful and widely acclaimed autobiography of Sindiwe Magona's early years in South Africa, announced the arrival of a major new black writer. Here she gives an account of her eventful first 23 years and tells a candid, unself-pitying story of triumph and endurance in the face of hardships relentlessly reinforced by the apartheid system.
99.
Traces of Enayat by Īmān Mirsāl EN
EgyptDescription:
Cairo, 1963: Enayat al-Zayyat's suicide becomes a byword for talent tragically cut down, even as Love and Silence, her only novel, languishes unpublished. Four years after al-Zayyat's death, the novel will be brought out, adapted for film and radio, praised, and then, cursorily, forgotten. For the next three decades it's as if al-Zayyat never existed.Yet when poet Iman Mersal stumbles across Love and Silence in the nineties, she is immediately hooked. Who was Enayat? Did the thought of her novel's rejection really lead to her suicide? Where did this startling voice come from? And why did Love ... continue
100.
Twin Ambitions : My Autobiography by Mo Farah EN
SomaliaDescription:
The remarkable story of a boy from Somalia who came to Britain at the age of 8, leaving behind his twin brother, speaking only a few words of English, and with a yearning to play for Arsenal. Fortunately his PE teacher spotted his talent for speed on the pitch and began to steer this human cheetah towards the racetrack. Here, Mo reveals all the highs and lows of his life and sporting career to date.