Great African Reads discussion

Updated post: Here is a list of lists of books set in & about each African country and region. Many of these lists could really use some love! Help us curate lists so that whenever anyone searches for a country in Listopia on Goodreads, they find a long list of good books to read. The starred lists have less than 5 books on them.

Countries:
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Cape Verde
- Central African Republic
- *Chad
- *Comoros
- Congo (both DRC and Republic of)
- *Cote D'Ivoire
- *Djibouti
- Egypt
- Ethiopia
- Equitorial Guinea
- *Eritrea
- *Gabon
- *Gambia
- Ghana
- *Guinea
- *Guinea-Bissau
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- *Liberia
- Libya
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Morocco
- *Mozambique
- *Namibia
- *Niger
- Nigeria
- Rwanda (genocide only)
- *São Tomé and Príncipe
- *Senegal
- *Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- *Swaziland
- Tanzania
- *Togo
- Tunisia
- Uganda
- *Western Sahara
- *Zambia
- Zimbabwe

Regions:
- West Africa
- North Africa
- Southern Africa
- East Africa
- Central Africa

Continent: Africa

Original post: What are some of the listopia lists you like on books about Africa or by African authors, or lists of books by region, country, or other related topic?

It's interesting...I don't think that feature existed when I joined goodreads in 2008...and now I never remember that it's there. :/

I always forget these are here too. These lists have lots of great books I have long wanted to read. Now, to just remember these lists are there.... Thanks for sharing!

If you vote on a list, it shows up on your profile page, on the right side down if you scroll a bit. I like them because you can link to your personal list as well as the one with many people's votes, so it's a good way to keep track of your own recommendations/favorites as well as find new ones.

I do love listopia when it's used properly. (Am not so keen on authors voting only for their own books!) If you do a listopia search for 'Africa', or for the name of a particular country, you're likely to turn up multiple interesting lists.

Obviously listopia can be handy for other subjects as well, but I love going into a random country list and finding books I've never heard of before.

This West Africa list could use some more voters.

Do you think it'd be useful to start country lists for more African countries? At this point for many of them the only way to find lists of books on GR is through the shelves and discussion threads here (which is why this group is such a great resource!).

I would love to see more country lists.

For what it's worth, here are lists for Central Africa (new list; please add to it!), Southern Africa, and East Africa. The more people add to them, the more comprehensive they'll be.

I will try to increase my technical savviness...
;)

I love a good categorizing project! Thanks Liralen!

I started a list for Mali, but haven't read enough books from any other individual country to be able to start a new list for those.

Nigeria, Kenya, and Ethiopia already have lists.

And don't forget North Africa. The rules say 'no Egypt' but I think we should include it so they're all in one place.

It's a true 'procrastinate from work' day...

Countries without individual lists:
* Chad
* Comoros
* Cote D'Ivoire
* Djibouti
* Eritrea
* Gabon
* Gambia
* Guinea
* Guinea-Bisau
* Liberia
* Madagascar
* Mauritius
* Mozambique
* Namibia
* Niger
* Rwanda (genocide only)
* São Tomé and Príncipe
* Seychelles
* South Sudan
* Sudan
* Swaziland
* Togo
* Tunisia
* Western Sahara
* Zambia

Countries with individual lists:
* Algeria
* Angola
* Benin
* Botswana
* Burkina Faso
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Cape Verde
* Central African Republic
* Congo (both DRC and Republic of)
* Egypt
* Ethiopia
* Equitorial Guinea
* Ghana
* Kenya
* Lesotho
* Libya
* Malawi
* Mali
* Morocco
* Nigeria
* Senegal
* Sierra Leone
* Somalia
* South Africa
* Tanzania
* Uganda
* Zimbabwe

Tinea, I think we spent the last ten minutes doing the same thing...

Algeria: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Angola: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Benin: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Botswana: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Burkina Faso: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Burundi: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Cameroon: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Cape Verde: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Central African Republic: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Chad
Comoros
Democratic Republic of the Congo: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Republic of the Congo: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Djibouti
Egypt: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/29...
Equatorial Guinea: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/41...
Eritrea
Ethiopia: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Ivory Coast
Kenya: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Lesotho: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/31...
Liberia
Libya: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Madagascar
Malawi: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Mali: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/40...
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Rwanda
São Tomé and Príncipe
Senegal: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/18...
Seychelles
Sierra Leone: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/12...
Somalia: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/30...
South Africa: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/13...
South Sudan
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...
Zambia
Zimbabwe: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/89...

As an aside, some of those lists are really pretty empty, but the groundwork's there for people to add to them.

LOL!!

<3

It would be a nice goal to get to the point where, when someone searches Listopia for any specific country in Africa, they get a link to both a list of books on the country, and a list of books about the region.

Marieke, some group owners will link to their groups in the comments of relevant listopias-- it's a little bit self-promotional, but it also helps people searching for books on a topic find more resources. This group is incredibly helpful for finding discussion and reviews of English-language books on different African countries. I think it'd be worthwhile and connect folks who may not think to search in the groups sections when they're looking for books on specific countries, but I didn't want to link to this group without checking in first.

Tinea, feel free to link! I will try to figure out how to contribute, but if its easy for you to link, go for it.

Thanks Tinea and Liralen for all your efforts. I had seen the lists for Ghana and Nigeria, and the West Africa one too. Listopia can be fun!

I added Equatorial Guinea - http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/41...

Updating this list of lists of books set in & about different African countries. I created placeholders for any that didn't have a list that I'd read at least 1 book about, but those could really use more books and voters. And a few still need lists!. :)

Countries:
* Algeria
* Angola
* Benin
* Botswana
* Burkina Faso
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Cape Verde
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Comoros
* Congo (both DRC and Republic of)
* Cote D'Ivoire
* Djibouti
* Egypt
* Ethiopia
* Equitorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Gabon
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Guinea
* Guinea-Bisau
* Kenya
* Lesotho
* Liberia
* Libya
* Madagascar
* Malawi
* Mali
* Morocco
* Mozambique
* Namibia
* Niger
* Nigeria
* Rwanda (genocide only)
* São Tomé and Príncipe
* Senegal
* Seychelles
* Sierra Leone
* Somalia
* South Africa
* South Sudan
* Sudan
* Swaziland
* Tanzania
* Togo
* Tunisia
* Uganda
* Western Sahara
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

Regions:
* West Africa
* North Africa
* Southern Africa
* East Africa
* Central Africa

Continent:
* Africa

Hi, you might want Nathacha Appanah to the list. She is from Mauritius. Her book The Last Brother is worth reading. I five starred it.

Fantastic work, thanks!

This is a great resource, thank you!

Updating this list of lists of books set in & about different African countries. Many of these lists could really use some love! I've added Chad, Eritrea, Madagascar, Swazliand, and the Gambia.

Countries:
* Algeria
* Angola
* Benin
* Botswana
* Burkina Faso
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Cape Verde
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Comoros
* Congo (both DRC and Republic of)
* Cote D'Ivoire
* Djibouti
* Egypt
* Ethiopia
* Equitorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Gabon
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Guinea
* Guinea-Bisau
* Kenya
* Lesotho
* Liberia
* Libya
* Madagascar
* Malawi
* Mali
* Morocco
* Mozambique
* Namibia
* Niger
* Nigeria
* Rwanda (genocide only)
* São Tomé and Príncipe
* Senegal
* Seychelles
* Sierra Leone
* Somalia
* South Africa
* South Sudan
* Sudan
* Swaziland
* Tanzania
* Togo
* Tunisia
* Uganda
* Western Sahara
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

Regions:
* West Africa
* North Africa
* Southern Africa
* East Africa
* Central Africa

Continent:
* Africa

I see what you mean. I randomly opened Namibia and there is exactly one book listed. How about we pick a few countries each month and focus on adding books to those specific lists in the month?

I've edited the top post in this thread with an updated list of lists. We have a lot of new members with much broader reading knowledge than when we started curating these lists, so please consider adding and voting on books to help future "Around the World" and other readers find your favorites.

I have added books to several countries, focusing in particular on those that had few resources and francophone Africa. A couple of countries seem to be missing from the list though (Mauritania and Mauritius) and maybe Swaziland should be updated to 'Eswatini' (or at least put in brackets)?

This is a great project, Tinea! Yesterday I added "my" titles to Cote D'Ivoire to try and figure it out how it works in the first place (last time I wanted to add titles to a list it did not work out so I was a bit put off). This time it worked perfectly well and I will add more titles when I have time at hand :))