Great African Reads discussion

Are you up for a Bingo challenge?
The rules are simple: You can go for one row, two rows, three rows or a full Bingo card - you decide. You can use books you are reading for other challenges, but not the same book twice for the bingo. (Challenge runs from today to the end of 2020)
Set up a discussion with your book list in this folder - and declare how many rows you aim for.
This thread is for general discussion of the challenge, possible books etc. Have fun!

Here is the bingo as a list:

Award Winning book
From the Horn of Africa
Regional Group Read
Written in French

Published 2010-2020
Translated (Non-English / French)
Free Choice
African Writers Series

Genre fiction: Sci-fi, Horror, Mystery
Non-fiction
50 African Women List
Published by small / indie press

New author under 30
Published 1970-80
Female African Author
Theme: Migration / Displacement

Clarification and links:

Award Winning book - any award winning book
From the Horn of Africa - by an author (or set in) Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, or Somalia.
Regional Group Read - any book read as a regional read in 2020.
Written in French - but you can read it in any language

Published 2010-2020 - a book from this period
Translated (Non-English / French) - written in Afrikaans, Portuguese, Spanish, an African language - basically anything not written in Engilush or French
Free Choice - any African og Africa-related book, you choose (or you can decide on your own extra difficult category if you like)
African Writers Series - any book from the series, see this list https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

Genre fiction: Sci-fi, Horror, Mystery - a 'genre book' of your choice
Non-fiction - by an African author or about Africa
50 African Women List - any books from the list https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
Published by small / indie press - in any language

New author under 30 - a young author
Published 1970-80 - a book from this period
Female African Author - any book written by...
Theme: Migration / Displacement - A book about this theme

For those of you looking for translated authors not written in English/French, the following Afrikaans authors are translated and may be an option for you:
Andre P Brink (he translated his own books)
Elsa Joubert's The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena is regarded as a classic. She has other translated works.
Karin Brynard's writes excellent police procedurals. Try Weeping Waters.
Martin Steyn also writes excellent crime novels.
If you are tempted to try Deon Meyer, I would read Blood Safari. It probably translates better than some of his other books.
Marita van der Vyver's books are also translated.
Irna van Zyl for more crime.
Etienne van Heerden is also an option

I'll add more if they come to mind.

Dalene Matthee needs to be on here. She's written some beautiful books.

Thanks for these suggestions Carolien!

Carolien wrote: "For those of you looking for translated authors not written in English/French, the following Afrikaans authors are translated and may be an option for you..."

Thanks for the ideas Carolien - always great with some inside info :)

Does anybody have ideas for Author under 30? I can find some under 40, but am struggling with this one.

Carolien wrote: "Does anybody have ideas for Author under 30? I can find some under 40, but am struggling with this one."

This is really a difficult one! So far, I have only found Okwiri Oduor. She won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2014 for My Father's Head. She was born in 1989, so she will turn 31 but she is the youngest I have found so far...

30 at the time they wrote the book should do, I think - but I haven't looked into it. Maybe Laura has some ideas (it was her suggestion)?

Carolien wrote: "Does anybody have ideas for Author under 30? I can find some under 40, but am struggling with this one."

That is a challenging one, but it might be easier if it is under 30 at the time of writing. I wil probably read Chibundu Onuzo's Welcome to Lagos for this one.

I also find this website which might provide some inspiration: https://singlestory.org/africas-young...

Thank you, Valerie. This is already useful. 30 at the age of writing would probably help. I've been wanting to read Homegoing for a while. This may be the opportunity.

Chibundu Onuzo was born in 1991 so she still is under 30. I was also thinking of her and plan to read The Spider King's Daughter.

Anetq wrote: "30 at the time they wrote the book should do, I think - but I haven't looked into it. Maybe Laura has some ideas (it was her suggestion)?"

That sounds more doable :)!

This Bingo challenge as well as Women In Translation month brought to my attention just how much African literature (at least that I’m aware of) is written in English or French. Beyond that, I can find hardly any books not written in a European language (including Afrikaans) or Arabic. I know Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o wrote some of his work in Gikuyu rather than English. Are there more works written in African languages? Or are such works rarely translated to English?

Very true, Erin. There are some South African authors who write in Zulu/Xhosa, etc. They tend not to appear on Goodreads. Here are some:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphete... (Sepedi)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolfes_... (Zulu)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaya_G... (Zulu)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazisi_... (Zulu)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._S._M... (Venda)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenda_M... (Venda)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gcina_M... (Zulu/Xhoza)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibusis... (Zulu)

South Africa has a literary award for contributions in all elevent official languages. Information here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_A...

An alternative is African Storybook. They provide free books to schools in Africa and the stories are translated in numerous African languages. https://www.africanstorybook.org/

Right on cue, Erin, an article on the state of multilingual publishing in South Africa: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/artic...

Carolien wrote: "Very true, Erin. There are some South African authors who write in Zulu/Xhosa, etc. They tend not to appear on Goodreads. Here are some:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphete... (Sepedi)
https:..."

Carolien wrote: "Right on cue, Erin, an article on the state of multilingual publishing in South Africa: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/artic...-..."

Thank you so much for the info and links! =D Sometimes I expect that Goodreads should have a record of every book anyone today has record of, but if course there are many not to be found, especially if they haven’t been translated to English. I also found that it is not always easy on Goodreads to find what language a book was originally published in! I feel like it should be, that it should be a field that you could even display or sort your shelves by if you so desired.

For anyone interested, here are several books originally published in indigenous African languages:
Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter's Saga by D.O. Fagunwa (Yoruba)
Wrath of the Ancestors by A.C. Jordan (Xhosa)
Chaka by Thomas Mofolo (Sotho)
The Strange Bride by Grace Ogot (Luo)
Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Gikuyu)
The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg by Sibusiso Nyembezi (Zulu)

Thank you Erin and Carolien for these suggestions of books written in African languages!

As Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o pointed out eloquently in his essay Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, African authors as products of a colonial education have a tendency to write in colonial languages.

Luckily some exception exist and new phenomena arise, such as the love literature in Hausa in Northern Nigeria. Audio books also open opportunities for literature in African languages.

Seasonal greetings Bingo Challenge Winners!
Yes, Everyone is a winner here, if this challenge made you read anything you otherwise wouldn't - whether you completed any squares, rows or a full bingo plate - though extra congratulations are in order to those who did - and good luck to those still working on their challenges :)

Would you like to see a new bingo challenge for 2021?

If so, please add any suggestions for categories / challenges / bingo squares below! (And when doing so please check that categories aren't too slim, so allow readers some choice for each square)
Any suggestions and Ideas are welcome (and feel free to elaborate or suggest twists or amendments to other's suggestions if you get creative)!

I would definitely be up for another bingo challenge next year as I have really been enjoying doing them the past couple of years.

Here are some first suggestions:
- I liked the regional focus and decade focus that we had in this year's bingo, so maybe we could keep this but pick another region and decade
- about family/a family saga
- a classic
- a genre fiction (historical fiction, crime/thriller, sci-fi, fantasy etc.)
- a memoir or biography
- a translated book
- about mythology or folklore (F or NF)
- a new-to-you country
- a diaspora author
- about colonialism (F or NF)
- recently published (so 2020 or 2021)

I look forward to seeing other people's suggestions!

This year was my first to participate in this Bingo challenge and I must say it made me read such a lot of different books that I definitely would not have read (or heard about) without this fantastic challenge - so THANK YOU, Anetq, for setting this challenge up and YES! I am in for a Bingo in 2021!!!

As for the suggestions:
- I also liked the regional focus and the decade focus!
- the translated book (non-E, non-French) category was rewarding as was the author under 30 category; both categories were not the easiest to tackle but that was exactly the point!
- I was not a great fan of the African Writers Series category due to the fact that a lot of titles are not available any more (which is a pity, of course)
- As opposed to Valerie, I would go for a "non-diaspora" author category :)) I have the feeling that esp. the more famous writers I read this year do not really live in Africa any more but in the States, the UK or France but maybe that's only me. Anyway, I like either of the two options as a category as it makes you think about this issue as such
- written in Portuguese would be an alternative to this year's written in French and would shift the focus to different countries
- a Nobel-Prize winner
- I like all the categories Valerie has suggested!

I am looking forward to this challenge!

I would also be up for another Bingo challenge, like Orgeluse find that it pushes me beyond my comfort zone.

To the above proposals I would add as options:
- By an author from or set on an African island;
- An author included in the Africa39 project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa39)
- A non-fiction book about Africa

Great suggestions, I like all of them!
Most of the squares this year were easy to fill with our regional reads, already. So if regional, then it has to be more specific (islands, horn of Africa, Maghreb, etc.).

Some other ideas:
- Translated book, but then from non colonial languages (so not English, French, Portuguese or Spanish)
- A book from Lusophone Africa would be great!
- Poetry
- A non-fiction anthropology book
- A book about decolonization / post-colonialism (non fiction)

Thank you all so much for your great input! I've mixed, matched and adapted a little, to ensure that the categories are not too narrow. So I went with "A prize winner", rather than Nobel Prize winner, which would have left everyone with just a handful of authors.
But anyone who want's to do a more narrow interpretation of the categories, please feel free to declare that with your 2020 Bingo Challenge!
I'll make a 2021 thread with all the info!

Also: I detect an interest in some non-fiction categories from some of you - but as most of the group leans toward fiction I didn't want to include too much specific non-fiction in the bingo - but I was wondering if anyone else wants to put together a non-fiction challenge?

Anetq wrote: "Thank you all so much for your great input! I've mixed, matched and adapted a little, to ensure that the categories are not too narrow. So I went with "A prize winner", rather than Nobel Prize winn..."

I think "A prize winner" is a good idea. It gets very specific otherwise.

Definitely interest in non fiction.

New bingo for 2021 is ready here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...