Great African Reads discussion

Here is a place for members to talk about specific places in Africa. Some of us may be from these places, some of us may have visited them, some of us may have spent time living there, and some of us just might like to know more about what these places are like--the people, sights, sounds, traditions, new trends, politics, you name it. and of course, recommend books to read!

Wonderful idea!! Thanks for setting this up, Chief Chatterbox! ;)

I'm currently reading a book about Somalia and all its associated struggles and (few) successes in modern times to do it's system of governance. I figured I might as well read it because there seems to be a large population of Somali immigrants in Minnesota. This book explains a lot, actually.

by Ismail Ali Ismail

Hi I am currently travelling the world by reading a book from every country. I have been travelling since 2009 when I started off in the UK. I am currently in Chad, but am looking for a book for Gabon. My book rules are to be set no earlier than 1990 and in English. Any suggestions welcome, thanks! (PS my full list is at: www.readingtheworld.co.uk)

Hi John, have a look at our Gabon bookshelf to start. There are seven books shelved there but not all of them meet your criteria.

I'll check our old discussion that we had in preparation for reading Gabon and come back here to link to it. Maybe there will be some good suggestions in there. I cannot remember...

Hi again John! I don't know if this will be helpful in your quest or not, but here is our discussion from a couple of years ago: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

Perhaps some others will chime in with ideas for you.

That's great, many thanks Marieke. I currently have Mema by Daniel Mengara on my list, but i believe this may be set in the 1960s - can anyone who has read this confirm?

Thanks as always

I was wondering if anyone here has ever read a book about Angola? If so, what was the book? Did you like it?

I'm reading by Ondjaki. This is the second time I'm reading something by an Angolan Author and I'm loving it.
Unfortunately I think this book is quite recent and hasn't been translated into English yet :)

Hi Iris. I read a book by Lara Pawson, In the name of the People, Angola's forgotten massacre. I think it's a heavily under discussed nation, but now as it rises to better economic standards (for some at least) I'm hoping in a revival of literature and non-fiction. The book by LP is very good but deals with a minor historic uprising in the country. Still it's compelling.

Thank you, Laura. I'll check it. I live in Angola and I have a deep interest in trying to understand the culture through their literature, I think that right now it's the closest I can come to understand people here.

Iris I totally agree with you. I'm sure other people here will give you a better insight.

A Brazilian literary scholar whom I met at the ALA conference in Johannesburg asked me to prepare a video on Why Brazilians should be reading novels by African writers. I looked first for novels in Portuguese. My initial search at amazon.com.br was disappointing. However when I searched on authors' names the result was quite different. For Jose Eduardo Agualusa I found 14 titles, mostly Kindle versions. Only one, O Vendedor de Passados, seems to have been translated into English (as The Book of Chameleons). 12 by Pepetela, of which only Jaime Bunda, Secret Agent, seems to be available in English. 10 by Ondjaki, none in English. There are more leads at the website of the União de Escritores Angolanos (UEA) www.ueangola.com.

I was going to suggest The Book of Chameleons for Angola.

Guinea?

Valerie, you would like a thread for Guinea?

Oh, yeah! Iyo.

No problem; I will set one up :)