Great African Reads discussion

1. The Joys of Motherhood - Buchi Emecheta
2. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
3. The Maestro, the Magistrate and the Mathematician - Tendai Huchu
4. We Need New Names - NoViolet Bulawayo
5. Midaq Alley - Naguib Mahfouz
6. Ambiguous Adventure - Cheikh Hamidou Kane
7. Open City - Teju Cole
8. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives - Lola Shoneyin
9. Changes - Ama Ata Aidoo
10. Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangarembga
11. So long a letter - Mariama Ba
12. Woman at point zero - Nawal El Saadawi
13. The Open Door - Latifa al-Zayyat
14. Efuru - Flora Nwapa
15. Neighbours: The Story of a Murder - Lília Momplé
16. The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales - Bessie Head
17. A Cowrie of Hope - Binwell Sinyangwe
18. Secret Son - Laila Lalami
19. Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe - Doreen Baingana
20. Our Sister Killyjoy - Ama Ata Aidoo
21. The Fishermen - Chigozie Obioma
22. Where rain clouds gather - Bessie Head
23. Houseboy - Ferdinand Oyono
24. A Grain of Wheat - Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Great list!

Diane wrote: "Great list!"

Thanks Diane, this is a great idea. Thank you for setting this up!

January: Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El-Saadawi

As expected, this was a difficult read. Firdaus’ life is composed of a series of events rooted in misogyny that reduce her to a sexual object, whether it is the sexual abuse she faces as a child and later on during her marriage to a much older man or at the hands of unknown men in Cairo. She is eventually “rescued” by a woman who pushes her into a life of prostitution. There are fleeting moments in Firdaus’ life where she exercises agency but they never last until the final and cataclysmic event that lands her in prison.

I think a couple of things may have been lost in translation though: I didn’t enjoy the repetitiveness and some sections seemed heavy-handed. This may have read better as just Firdaus’ story without the superfluous prologue and epilogue.

Points: 1