It is December and many of us have already started to look forward to the holiday season. As part of my wrap-up of 2025, my next few blog posts will be a review of books I’ve read this year. Today I’ll be focusing on books written by authors from the continent of Africa.
We have many talented writers on our continent, and often they are not recognized with the exposure they deserve, at least in my opinion. I have probably read books from fewer African countries this year than I typically do, and only Two of those are new countries to me in terms of reading, those being Sierra Leone and Zambia.
As I skim through the list, I observe that the books come from several diverse genres including speculative fiction, memoir, historical fiction and literary fiction. While the genres differ, the strong focus on storytelling is something they share.
Below is the list of the books I’ve read in this category during 2025. I hope you’ll give one or two of them a try in the coming year.
- Khan, Saffura: A Mosaic of Memories (South Africa)
- Seirlis, Ari: Wheels of Fire – A Story of Courage, Triumph over Adversity and Civil Action (South Africa)
- Forna, Aminatta: Happiness (Sierra Leone)
- Obioma, Chigozi: An Orchestra of Minorities (Nigeria)
- Mengiste, Maaza: Addis Ababa Noir (Ethiopia)
- Sempell, Namwali: The Old Drift (Zambia)
- Forna, Aminatta :The Devil that Danced on the Water: A Daughter’s Quest (Sierra Leone)
- Moeng, Gothataone: Call and Response (Botswana)
- Lotz, Sarah: The Three01 The Three (South Africa)
- Mengiste, Maaza: Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (Ethiopia)
- Darkmoon, Belladonna:Practical Magic (South Africa)
- Mda, Zakes: The Sculptors of Mapungubwe (South Africa))
- Tshuma, Novuyo Rosa:The House of Stone (Zimbabwe)
- Mda, Zakes: Little ?Suns (South Africa)
I have one more book to add to this group, which I hope to complete before the year runs out. That is Nigerian author Nnedi Okorafor’s book The Death of the Author.
Next week I’ll be looking at books I’ve read related in some way to the topic of disability and also books by authors from diverse backgrounds, many of them in translation from their original languages.
