Readers' Top Ten

Readers' Top Ten is a series that will feature the top 10 African books - written by Africans - as selected by identified readers. Each participating reader will pick his or her top 10 favourite African books and briefly discuss the books - why he or she like it, what it means to him or her (if any) etc. The reader will make his or her own decision considering the definition of an African. At ImageNations it includes citizenship of an African country, naturalisation, or dual citizenship. Also if an author has African ancestry and do identify himself or herself to the continent, she or he is considered an African.

The other condition is that the book should have a literary merit, even if it is non-fiction. No other imposition is made and this literary merit will be determined by the selector and not ImageNations.

The aim of this project is to introduce to readers of ImageNations the rich literature the continent has to offer.  It is meant to move beyond the 'one-novel African literature', which seems to have come to define literature in Africa. It is also to promote African literature to both Western audience and Africans who hardly read from the continent or are unsure of where to start.

Readers' Top Ten will be a weekly publication on ImageNations - possibly on every Monday but not necessary so. A participant need not necessarily be African. If you are interested in sharing your Top 10 African books, contact me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Help Improve the Blog with a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

69. The Clothes of Nakedness by Benjamin Kwakye, A Review

Image
Title: The Clothes of Nakedness Author: Benjamin Kwakye Publishers: Heinemann African Writers Series Genre: Fiction/Novel/Class Pages: 212 Year of First Publication: 1998 Country: Ghana For the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa Region Winners Reading Challenge Benjamin Kwakye 's novel The Clothes of Nakedness  is a compelling narrative directed at a Ghanaian audience, in particular. It reveals the economic hardships existing in our society; it also reveals the intricately woven relationships between the rich and the poor and how the 'seemingly' rich manipulate the poor to further that wealth-dom in this dual economic society where absolute riches exist side by side with abject poverty. The latter scenario is even more stark and pathetic if one knows that Nima and Kanda Estates, two neighbourhoods presented in the story, are real and not just fictional representation made concrete by Kwakye's brilliant mind. The story revolves around thr
Read more

10. Unexpected Joy at Dawn: My Reading

Image
Title: Unexpected Joy At Dawn Author: Alex Agyei-Agyiri Genre: Novel Publisher: Sub-Saharan Publishers Pages: 331 Year: 2004 Country: Ghana Unexpected Joy at Dawn is a story of two siblings, Nii and Mama Orojo, during the 1983 deportation of Ghanaians from Nigeria under the Shehu Shagari government. Nii, who is a Nigerian by blood but a Ghanaian by birth, was left in Ghana by his parents as they made the tortuous journey to Nigeria when Ghana enacted the Aliens Compliance Order of 1969, which made every person living in Ghana without the required papers an alien. His name was changed to reflect the name of his adopted parents. After fourteen years of living in hardship in Ghana, which involves living in slums even though he was an Assistant Manager at a bank, taking on multiple jobs, not being able to bury a wife and being chased around by market women for purported 'fraud', he decided to go to Nigeria in search of his roots. Besides, he entertained the fears of being
Read more

Pre-Colonial* and Post Colonial African Literature - Is Writing the Path to Development

Pre-colonial African Literature concerned itself with the fight for independence. Writings that were churned out during this period (before the 1960s) addressed colonialism and occupation and its tone was vitriolic. Such books as Ngugi's Weep Not Child sought to put the fight for independence into perspectives. So drunk were the people with the struggle of the day that the people (of Africa) began to confuse independence with development. And as a matter of fact development, by a people for the same people according to their likes and dislikes, is truly a function of independence. However, when those who position themselves to enjoy the fruits of independence behave like the oppressors, against whom the masses struggled, then the people's development becomes a mere word not a philosophy. Dissolved in the quest-for-independence euphoria, the people - the freedom fighters , those whose real blood fetched freedom - forgot to ask questions of those who were window-sitting expe
Read more