Great African Reads discussion

I update and play around with my votes on the Africa Listopia list all the time, but here's my top five recommendations. I think.

Things Falls Apart - Chinua Achebe
The Joys of Motherhood - Buchi Emecheta
Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa - Katherine Dettwyler
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa - Adam Hochschild
Rural Development: Putting the Last First - Robert Chambers

Like with Beverly's list, I've only read two of these!

Nice list - I have read three of the books. Have not read the Dettwyler and Chambers book.

Dettwyler and Chambers both reflect my interest in agriculture, malnutrition, and aid. I was really torn which to choose, and didn't want my general 'top five' to be filled with Western researchers writing about famine. But I would have added Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa by Alex de Waal and The New Famines: Why Famines Exist in an Era of Globalization by Stephen Devereux if I'd been given extra spaces!

Thanks, Millicent, for the good suggestions on aid and development. I read "The Joys of Motherhood" many years ago and really thought it was heartbreaking. Her style is not particularly innovative or anything, but she just knows how to help readers understand an unfamiliar point of view.