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George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm are classics in more ways other than literary. His exploration into the intricacies of politics, the psychology of politicians, and the eventual outcome of revolutions provides conclusions that are themselves revolutionary and almost incomparable. The former is the book that gave us words like Newspeak and Big Brother, whose frequency of use has shot up in this period of massive surveillance and draconian government agencies [1] . If the recent National Security Agency's (NSA) global surveillance has increased interests in Nineteen Eighty-Four , then the series of uprisings and pseudo-revolutions across Africa and the Middle East, christened Arab Springs by the Media, should equally force us to reread Animal Farm , as this book - more than any other - shows the effects of uncontrolled and unfocussed revolutions.  One can cite the Egyptian uprising which toppled the Mubarak regime and its successor Morsi government,...

Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished. [4] Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labour tills the soil, our dung fertilizes it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin. [4] And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. Among us animals let there be prefect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All ...

As I pointed out in an earlier post, the discourse or specifically the debate in African literature currently is about the poverty-porn (death, more death, disease, hunger, war, famine, and anything with shock-value) and Afropolitanism. This debate came about when it became obvious that the only stories by Africans that gain headlines and about which all the buzz is made are those that deal with the former. Most often the quality of the prose is sacrificed for the macabre theme, sidelining authors who write differently. However, irrespective of which side of the debate you stand, the fact that " Africa now has the fastest-growing middle class in the world [with] some 313 million people, 34 percent of Africa's population, spending USD 2.2 a day, a 100 percent rise in less than 20 years " [ The Network for Doing Business ] means that one story cannot represent all the complexities and contradictions the continent poses, like the abject poor and the super-rich occupying t...

Waiting for the Wild Beast to Vote (Vintage, 2003; 445) is a quintessential Ahmadou Kourouma. Like the previous book, Allah is not Obliged , it is about political failures on the African continent.  Like Wizard of the Crow , it mixes voodoo and African mysticism with politics to satirically tell the story of the evolution of dictatorship and its subsequent metamorphoses into questionable democracies, on the continent of Africa. The story traces how Koyaga developed from a pro-French soldier to become the president and dictator of Republique du Golfe, through a series of prophecies, coups and counter-coups. Fricassa Santos became the president of Republic du Golfe, after independence following an election whose supervision by the United Nations and with Fricassa's own sorcery prevented the French from rigging it to suit their preferred candidate, J.-L Crunet, who had been the country's Prime Minister for the last ten years of colonial rule. Having assumed power, Fricassa...

When the partridge takes flight, its fledgling does not linger on the ground. [3] Though he may sojourn long in the branches of the baobab, the partridge will never forget the nest of lowly brush where he was hatched. [3] So then, though a man know not whither he is going, let him remember whence he came. [3] The bush-fire that burns at the edges of the plains can be contained; the fire that burns at its heart cannot be extinguished. A man may take a bullet in the leg and yet live, but not a bullet through the heart. [8] The chief weapon of the White Man, of the civilised man, is not his repeating rifle but his patience. [11] It is with the end of the old rope that we begin to weave the new. [15] You may plough on a day of rest but lightning keeps its words in its belly. [15] You will escape the damp of the dew if you walk behind an elephant. [15] Transgression is like a tiny ember thrown on to the vast savannah at the height of the dry season. You can ...

African literature now has two unnecessary camps - Afropolitanism and Poverty Porn - and the discourse has been on which of the two represents the continent, sort of. But does it matter? Can one narrative represents the second largest and the second most populous continent of a whopping 1.033 billion grouped into "54 recognized sovereign states and countries, 9 territories and 2 de facto independent states with very little recognition"? [ World Population Review , 2013]. That one theme cannot represent the continent is perhaps known by both 'camps'. So what incited this discourse? (By the way, there are several others who do not believe in either of the two and whose writings are not influenced by them.) African writers who wrote in a particular style about wars, poverty, deaths, hunger, and such depravities have often been singled out for awards, even when the quality of their prose does not support the award adequately. It became (and is) the magic formula to f...

About Nana Yaw Sarpong: Nana Yaw is a Poet, the Producer of Ghana's foremost Literary magazine programme, Writers Project on Citi FM , and handles media relations for  Writers Project of Ghana . He is also the curator of Creative Writing Ghana and a Literary activist. I have read a lot of African novels, plays and poetry. Having to pick ten is a challenge, particularly because I've to recall titles and authors. I do not keep a unified library at this point in time and that made it harder. But in no order of preference, here is my list*.  1. Anthills of the Savannah - Chinua Achebe .  I read Anthills while in Secondary School, before I even read Things Fall Apart . It represented for me the shattered opportunities of independence and a leadership of dictatorships. It was not so much the form of government that stood out for me: it was the neglect of people and the delusion of those military empty-heads. I will pick this book over Things Fall Apart for generatio...