7 Enlightening Novels about Africa Book List for the Cultured Reader

Want to know about the novels about Africa book list every seasoned reader should have? These are some new, critically acclaimed and award winning books on Africa you need to know about.

Having an extensive book collection is the dream of so many readers, and these days books about Africa are being bought like never before. As avid readers we know all about the best books about Africa and here we are giving you a stacked novels about Africa book list.

You are going to learn about Africa book by book, from the African story book to fiction books about Africa. In this post you will find a well rounded collection of books; spanning from storybooks, memoirs and academic texts.

After learning about all of these books, you are going to be cultivated, bringing forward enlightening ideas to the world table. These best books about Africa non-fiction or not, will surely be excellent additions to your Africa book shelf.

This post is all about the best novels about Africa book list that every reader should know about. 

The Best Africa Book List

The African Story Book List

The first book on the list is Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Americanah tells the story of many immigrants in search for a “better life”. But Adichie’s story is more than that: it incorporates various contemporary themes her expertly crafted characters navigate. Many of you will recognize them as familiar characters in your lives, and even as yourself. 

Americanah is mainly set in the early 2000s in Nigeria and America. It is a fictitious story of the real life experiences of (Nigerian) immigrants.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche who is widely considered the best female writer in Africa is an acclaimed Nigerian-American author. In 2013 she won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction for Americanah, she has also won over 15 other awards including the O. Henry Prize (2003) and the PEN Pinter Prize (2018). Adichie holds 16 honorary doctorate degrees from universities such as Yale University and The Université catholique de Louvain.

Best Places to get Americanah:

• Jumia : https://www.jumia.co.ke/jumia-books-americanah-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-130227940.html
• Konga: https://www.konga.com/product/americanah-nlp-edition-with-vlisco-ankara-design-6015507
• Exclusive Books: https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9780007356348

Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing is one of those fiction books about Africa that have recently made waves in the book readers’ world!

Published in 2016 and arguably the most loved and read during the 2020 (pandemic), this book is culturally enriching. Homegoing is a touching story detailing some of Ghana’s recent history through the lens of a set of diverse characters belonging to a range of eras.

This story makes you desire to know more about the fate of certain characters as well as major historical events, like Ghana’s precolonial history, the transatlantic slave trade, and Ghana’s legacy to America.

In 2017 alone Homegoing won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Audie Award for Literary Fiction & Classics and the American Book Award. Yaa Gyasi wrote about an important part of Ghana’s – and the world’s – history in the impactful Homegoing.

Best Places to get Homegoing:

• Jumia : https://www.jumia.co.ke/jumia-books-homegoing-yaa-gyasi-43894348.html
• Exclusive Books: https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9780241980446

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

“The popularity of Things Fall Apart in my own society can be explained simply … this was the first time we were seeing ourselves, as autonomous individuals, rather than half-people, or as (Joseph) Conrad would say, ‘rudimentary souls’.”

– Chinua Achebe

Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo

Dead Aid is a New York Times bestseller by Dambisa Moyo. With content as provocative as its title Dead Aid has prompted much needed discourse on the subject of foreign aid disbursed into African economies. To understand more on the economic (and political) history of Africa, a book to read is Dead Aid.

Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa is about aid sent to African countries. Aid has been sent to African governments from the time the bulk of them became nominally independent nations. This help, in the form of large sums, has been sent quite liberally to African governments. In the last 60 years over $1 trillion USD has been sent as aid into Africa to surmount problems such as poverty and underdevelopment – yet poverty has only worsened. Does aid really save lives?

The main points of the Dead Aid book surround the inefficiencies of systematic aid in the context of the African continent. The book questions whether corrupt leaders and ineffective aid policies for developing countries are ruining Africa. Dead Aid is for anyone willing to understand what’s wrong with Africa.

Dead Aid was fore-worded by author Niall Ferguson who along with Kofi Annan and Steve Forbes publicly acclaimed Moyo’s work in Dead Aid.

Baroness Dambisa Moyo is an economist and author from Zambia. She holds a PhD in Economics from Oxford as well as an MPA from Harvard University. Dambisa Moyo has worked at Goldman Sachs and for the World Bank (as a consultant).

Best Places to get Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa:

• Exclusive Books: https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9780141031187

Dreams in a Time of War by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Dreams in a Time of War is about Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s childhood. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was one of the first African authors; his novel Weep Not Child was the first novel out of East Africa. Thiong’o’s literary works have always been impactful. He was jailed in 1977, by then Vice-President Arap Moi, for writing Ngaahika Ndeenda. And while imprisoned he wrote his novel Devil on the Cross (on toilet paper!). 

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was born in 1938, before his country’s independence, in colonial Kenya. As a child Thiong’o saw change like the arrival of Asians and Europeans but also the assimilation of his people into a new life. Reading Dreams in A Time of War will immerse you in little Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o adventures and discoveries as a young boy alive to witness the drastic shift in his people and later his nation.

In his memoir, Thiong’o describes the sound and sight of the first trains in his area, in which “Africans” could only ride as third class passengers. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was a curious and intelligent boy, in the story, we follow him as he notices the divisive lines that grew within his community. The stark differences between those who somewhat embraced colonialism, and those who did not. And how Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s family was an odd mix of the two. 

Still Dreams in a Time of War encompasses more: in it we read about pre colonial Kenyan practices, notably, the importance of Kikuyu oral traditions for Thiong’o through which he even learned about the then ongoing second World War in Europe and its effect on Africa.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o currently resides in the United States where he teaches as a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. 

Best Places to get Dreams in a Time of War:

• Kibanga Books: https://kibangabooks.com/product/dreams-in-a-time-of-war-a-childhood-memoir-book-by-ngugi-wathiongo/

An Introduction to African Politics by Alex Thomson

An Introduction to African Politics is one of the best books on African politics out there. This textbook was first published in 2000, by Alex Thomson a Senior Lecturer in Politics and Governments at the University of Central Lancashire, however, An Introduction to African Politics retains its relevance as it covers a fundamental time in Africa’s post-independence period.

Tiré du livre – Features and benefits of An Introduction to African Politics:

• It is thematically organised, with individual chapters exploring issues such as colonialism, ethnicity, nationalism, social class, ideology, legitimacy, sovereignty, and democracy
• It identifies key recurrent themes such as the competitive relationships between the African state, its civil society, and external interests.
• It contains useful boxed case studies of countries at the end of each chapter, including: Kenya; Tanzania; Nigeria; Botswana; Côte d’Ivoire; Uganda; Somalia; Ghana; Zaire; and Algeria.
• Each chapter concludes with key terms and definitions as well as questions, advise on further reading, and useful notes and references.
• It is clearly and accessibly written by an experienced teacher of the subject.

This textbook will deepen your understanding of Africa. An Introduction to African Politics goes over issues pertaining to some of Africa’s failures and successes. Learn about the early continent-wide wave of African socialism and decolonisation but also neo-colonisation, dictatorships and the effects of tribalism in politics.

Various political systems can be found in Africa, it is an immense continent and incredibly diverse, however, similar recurring patterns can found across the continent. Remember that Africans are not failures, as the author affirms, and they have made massive efforts and achievements for change. Particularly, efforts to maintain peace and security within and between state borders despite externally placed challenges pitted against them.

Best Places to get An Introduction to African Politics:

• Exclusive Books: https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9780367468927

White Malice: The CIA and the covert recolonization of Africa by Susan Williams

White Malice: the CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa is one of those books on African politics you absolutely adore. While the title alone should entice you to get your hands on this book ASAP, there are certain subjects raised that are sure to captivate you – the reader.

White Malice, by Susan Williams is an excellently researched historical analysis on the United States’ presence in key areas of freshly independent Africa. At the start of the book, Susan William, instantly invites you in to the life of the likes of Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba in the 1957 heat of Accra. Throughout the book you will be immersed in the political atmosphere of the time, without Williams ever losing track of factuality.

Learn more on the Central Intelligence Agency’s influence on the continent of Africa. How authoritative politicians, such as Tom Mboya and Mobutu, and “Pan-African” NGO’s (used as fronts) were actually, or are now, known to have had extremely close ties to the CIA.

Though White Malice covers numerous African regions like Ghana, Kenya and Guinea it has a particular focus on Congo, Lumumba’s powerful influence on the continent, and the horrific end of his life. It is primarily set in the Cold War period, when the American and Soviet superpowers fought for African power, influence and resources.

Among the reasons White Malice: the CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa is one of the best books about Africa in the non-fiction genre, is how displayed in the middle of the book are about 20 pages worth of images of people and places mentioned in White Malice AND you just might be introduced to le Grand Kalle and l’African Jazz, some giants of Congolese rumba! 🎵🎵

Susan Williams is a senior research fellow in the School of Advances Study, University of London.

Best Places to get Dreams in a Time of War:

• Konga: https://www.konga.com/product/white-malice-the-cia-and-the-covert-recolonization-of-africa-5919505
• Exclusive Books: https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9781787385559

That was the novels about Africa book list hyento created and how you can purchase these fantastic books for yourself!

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