Great African Reads discussion

Our last read of 2021 will be from Eastern Africa (as defined by the UN geoscheme)

Nominate great reads from any of these countries:
Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Try to keep nominations to one pr. person - and you're welcome to second someone else's nomination.

Our last choices from this region are not eligible in this round:
(the Jan/Feb read)
Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai
(but the threads are open if you want to read and discuss those titles).

Authors! Please note: We to not allow selv-nomination - but if you are an author and would like to promote your book, please feel free to do so in this folder. Thank you for your understanding!

Hi all!
The longlist for the International Booker Prize was announced yesterday and among the titles is The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. He wrote it in Gikuyu (his native language) and then he translated it into English. So I would like to nominate it 😊

Anetq wrote: "Our last read of 2021 will be from Eastern Africa (as defined by the UN geoscheme)

Nominate great reads from any of these countries:
Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagasca..."
I would like to nominate the Jungo, Stakes Of The Earth by Abdul Aziz Baraka Sakin. Not sure if it exactly fits into this group. It about seasonal workers on the boarders with Ethiopia and Eritrea. Abdul Aziz Baraka Sakin’s work has been banned in Sudan. Whether it “fits” in here or not it is worth reading.

That brings up a good question. How do you classify a book from Sudan? The two countries of Sudan are in different regions, but used to be one country. Could it count in either the Northern or Eastern Regions?

The Promised Land by Grace Ogot is at #4 on my personal to-read list, so I will nominate that. Ogot is from Kenya and the book is in the "50 Books by African Women" list. I know Wim and Diane have read it. I bought my copy from eBay $8.

Joseph wrote: "That brings up a good question. How do you classify a book from Sudan? The two countries of Sudan are in different regions, but used to be one country. Could it count in either the Northern or East..."

Good question - and not that an unusual problem in this group, however the general objective here is to read more books - so most things count; Diaspora, general area etc. If you nominate it, it may get selected :)
- with the former Sudan now being divided across two of our regions I'd say feel free to nominate it here if you think it fits (or wait for the next months, where I'm pretty sure we move onto Northern Africa again)

I would like to nominate Neighbours: The Story of a Murder by Mozambican writer Lília Momplé. I have been looking in vain for the original version, but the English translation is widely available.

So what about todays winner of the Nobel Prize? He is from Zanzibar though working in London. Abdulrazak Gurnah. Maybe his book Memory of Departure

I'd like to second Nike! was just commenting on that in the general ideas thread and Wim pointed out Tanzania is on the list! I think it's fantastic that African authors are finally recognised for their incredible contribution to literature. I hope there will be a wider public now interested in this amazing continent in its many facets.

Laura wrote: "I'd like to second Nike! was just commenting on that in the general ideas thread and Wim pointed out Tanzania is on the list! I think it's fantastic that African authors are finally recognised for ..."

Thankyou Laura =)

Oh, my God! I just went online to reseve a book by this author on the local library and there is alredy 390 people before me in line!!!!!! Everyone just went nuts after the Nobel Prize was announced! =D

Ah finally another African author getting the Nobel Prize! This group read his Desertion in 2017, the old discussion can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
So great to nominate one of his other titles Nike :)

It is great news indeed. I really loved Desertion, but haven't read any other book by Gurnah.
The downside is the lower availability of his books in librairies for the coming months...

Wim wrote: "It is great news indeed. I really loved Desertion, but haven't read any other book by Gurnah.
The downside is the lower availability of his books in librairies for the coming months..."

In one of my other groups, somebody mentioned that when they put in an order at their local library, there were 399 other people suddenly wanting to read him as well!

His books are hard to get everywhere - here they apparently were translated but now are totally out of print and now the publishers are rotating :))
I would like to join the last group read no matter what title will be chosen :))

Maybe there'll be digital re-issues as well?

Anetq wrote: "Maybe there'll be digital re-issues as well?"

Yes, there are! Thankyou for reminding me, I didn't think about that at all =)

His debute novel Memory of Departure is available on kindle. The most famous books such as Paradise and By The Sea not yet it seems...

On my local library there are several e-books by him - not "Paradise" and "By the sea" though - but guess what, even with the e-books there are a few months of waiting since there are so many reservations. Maybe we'll have to wait and I have to postpone my nomination until later.

Reminder: If there are any more nominations (we only have a few) for this region, please add them very soon! Vote upcoming

Yes I have also had trouble accessing Gurnah's books here in Australia. Local libraries have zero!
But i have some nominations for Zimbabwe: Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah, The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu and also We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo

Ian wrote: "Yes I have also had trouble accessing Gurnah's books here in Australia. Local libraries have zero!
But i have some nominations for Zimbabwe: Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah, The Ha..."

Hi Ian! All great authors, but adhering to the rules above, can I ask you to nominate just one of those, please? :)

I will nominate Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petna Gappah.
Thanks Anetq.

Ian wrote: "I will nominate Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petna Gappah.

Thanks Ian - I've personally liked all the Gappah I've read so far :)
Should anyone else feel like nomination some of the others, or something else, now is the time!

Thank you all for your nominations! The poll is now up and ready, so please vote for the book you'd like to read: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...