64. A Woman Alone by Bessie Head

Title: A Woman Alone

Author: Bessie Head

Genre: Non-Fiction/Autobiography

Publishers: Heinemann African Writers Series

Year of Publication: 1990

Country: South Africa/Botswana

For the Africa Reading Challenge

A Woman Alone is a quasi autobiography of the South African cum Batswana writer Bessie Head. Filled with essays, letters, and short stories written as analogies to issues she wants to talk about, A Woman Alone tells the struggles of a writer at different phases of her life and career as she struggles to maintain her sensibilities in an otherwise oppressed apartheid regime. The writings in the book, posthumously published, was arranged to coincide with the major incidents in her life.

The first section of the book deals with stories concerning her birth and letters and essays on her early life in South Africa. According to Head, she was born in a mental home where her mother was consigned to until she died, because her family could accept the disgrace of a white woman from a respected family being impregnated by a black native South African in a period where inter-racial marriages were illegal. Thus, from the first day Bessie Amelia Emery drew in her first breath she was delinked from all familial contacts, becoming a loner - something she mentioned many times in her writings. Growing up in foster homes and mission houses, Bessie was later to work as a primary school teacher. She however quit and became a journalist. It was during this period that she became involved in the struggles against the apartheid government. Later, she was to leave the country to Botswana on an exit permit with the implication that she would never be allowed to re-enter the country of her birth, thus further alienating an already lonely woman.

The Botswana government denied her of her initial citizenship request, granting it later. Most of Bessie's stories are set in Botswana, specifically Serowe, the village she settled at. She was barely surviving and at this time she had a son. She told of how she struggled with the local people in order to survive, how pitiful the people were. She also talked about how and why the British did not colonise Botswana but took it as a protectorate because the seemingly drought-stricken country with no known mineral resources (at the time) served as a passage into Zimbabwe and other colonised nations. Her first story was When Rain Clouds Gather, followed by Maru and then A Question of Power. She began experiencing nervous breakdowns, moving in and out of mental homes.

As a writer Bessie was a keen observer and even though she was brought up a Christian she left that religion long before it got hold on her mind. In 'God and the Underdog', Bessie questioned the relationship that exists between man and God, highlighting on her beliefs. Does the good God dislike all the bad things in this world? Is that why he has neglected black people? 

After obtaining her Batswana passport she began travelling and meeting other writers of renown, speaking at conferences and more. A Woman Alone also contains notes on some of her stories and how they came to be written. Though Bessie loved her adopted home, she never forgot South Africa, even feeling in her heart that their (South Africa's) Pharaoh had already being born, perhaps referring to Mandela.

I feel in my heart that our Pharaoh has already been born. It may be that I shall not live to see Pharaoh's day but I want all those who now live in anguish to be comforted. For one day, due to the length of his roots and the depth of his wisdom, all nations shall dwell under his shadow. (Page 71) 

This little book is serves as the entry point to the wondrous life of a woman who lived and died all alone. I recommend it to all those who really want to know about the human impact of apartheid. If you also want to study Bessie's works this is the beginning.

____________________________________________

Bessie Head

Brief Bio: Bessie Amelia Head (1937-1986) never knew her real parents — an unstable white woman and an unknown black man. She was born and raised in apartheid South Africa. There she suffered from poverty, racial segregation, and gender discrimination. She also had to worry about her own "delicate nervous balance".

As a young woman she left South Africa to come to Botswana. She lived the rest of her life in this country, mostly in Serowe. Bit by bit she overcame her many formidable obstacles. One of her passions was letter-writing; she corresponded with hundreds of people from many countries during her life. At the end she was a famous writer known all around the world. Bessie died of hepatitis after a period of heavy drinking in April 1986 in Serowe at the age of 49. (Source: Thuto; Wikipedia)

ImageNations Rating: 4.5 out of 6.0

247. Tales of Tenderness and Power by Bessie Head*

Tales of Tenderness and Power (144) is a collection of twenty-one short stories by the South African-born Botswana writer Bessie Head published posthumously by Heinemann African Writers Series (1989). All the stories, with the exception of three were published in various magazines prior to her demise. In this collection, the beauty and tenderness of Bessie's writings, her keen observation, and her ability to relate her environment to occurrences in lives of the people come to the fore. She does not set out to tell a totally fictitious tale as fiction is sometimes interpreted to be; she writes about the lives of real people who lived those lives - their hardships, their aspirations, their fears, their hopes - in as direct a manner as possible. In addition, some of the stories are are not stories at all but historical, but not necessarily ancient, narratives.

The story has been arranged to begin with why and how she wants to tell her stories. It then moves on gradually to describe neighbourhoods in South Africa and Botswana and through that opens up to the politics. The politics also begin with the traditional rulers and then transitions to national politics.

The anthology opens with Let me tell a story now... in which Bessie argued about why she writes the kind of stories she writes or more specifically the (racial) themes she writes about. She however is not oblivious of the ideal situation, where she would simply tell stories and be damned with colour, black or white. But it happened that the ideal is far from her grasp, an utopia that the happenings of the time (even today) loudly contradicts. Bessie might never have believed that her native South Africa would be free, that the shackles of oppression and apartheid (which are the same thing, by the way) would be broken in less than a decade when she died in 1986. 

If I had to write one day I would just like to say people is people and not damn White, damn Black. Perhaps if I was a good writer I could still write damn White, damn Black and still make people live. Make them real. Make you love them, not because of the colour of their skin but because they are important as human beings. [Let me tell a story, 17]

But most writers' works are usually influenced by the environment in which they live. They replicate, reflect, project the occurrences and incidences of their times into their works, consciously or unconsciously; more so for an author like Bessie Head whose entire life - birth, life, death - was a direct result of the diabolical and inimical political system South Africa operated at the time. She was a product of a supposed 'illegal' union between a native Black man and a White woman; her mother was incarcerated in a psychiatric institution for suspicion of psychosis (because of the incident) until her eventual death; she was herself made to live in several foster homes and not until a cruel principal of a missionary school inform her that her foster parents were not her real parents, she had always thought so. She was given an exit only visa with a caveat not to return to South Africa and she lived in poverty with her son in Serowe, a village in Botswana, for fifteen years before the government offered her citizenship.

Thus, these indelible marks of discrimination, evil, and extreme human wickedness  from both political and religious figures offered Bessie a unique understanding of the soul and mind of people, which she shares in all her writings. Knowing what the politicians are up to, and how the people turn upon themselves in their frustrations, made it impossible to stick to the ideal.

Well there it is. I would like to write the story of the man and his wife who never took the train, but I can't. When I think of writing any single thing I panic and go dead inside. Perhaps it's because I have my ear too keenly attuned to the political lumberjacks who are busy making capital on human lives. Perhaps I'm just having nightmares. Whatever my manifold disorders are, I hope to them sorted out pretty soon, because I've just got to tell a story. [Let me tell a story, 18]

This set the pace for a fantastic collection of short stories set in either in Botswana or South Africa traversing wide-ranging themes of politics - traditional, apartheid, independence; religion; love; history - South African, and Botswana; and traditional communal life and the cycle of change. Though these themes are varied, Head's realist approach to storytelling is present in each one of them.

Oranges and Lemons is a story about life in a neighbourhood in South Africa. It looks at the influence of apartheid on the character of men and women in the township; the frustrations that result from it; the crime that results when a mass of individuals are struggling for a living and for absent opportunities. In that quiet neighbourhood, where everybody knew everybody and where crime is common, a certain kind of balance was established which if disturbed indicated the onrush of far bigger problems.

In Snowball, Bessie Head used a character to tell the story of the life of a whole community. Here, she shared her ideas of religion, that one could still be open-minded even if religious. She is disgusted by religious dogmatism and all these are portrayed by Snowball, an ex-convict turned Christian.

Sorrow Food tells of how politics is practiced - as a means of robbing the people under the cover of representing their interests. Politics breeding crooks or the crooks entering politics; people with little or no chance of making it in other fields suddenly find themselves in politics. Most often those who fought against the oppressors and later became the oppressors.

Botswana was not colonised as most African countries were; they were a British Protectorate and had fairly been a peaceful country even if they shared border with one of the most oppressive countries on the continent. Consequently, the people never witnessed or suffered the numerous torturing most Blacks in other countries, especially those in southern African, suffered at the hands of the colonialists. This made their sentimentality towards independence different from that which other African countries, like South Africa, attached to liberation. Chibuku Beer and Independence set on the eve of Botswana's independence showed this lack of euphoria or enthusiasm. The people are described as being quiet, somewhat morose; there is no jubilation because they do not want to upset the white folks. They pride themselves in the fact that they are different. In the midst of this is a group of South African students discussing the political realities of the southern Africa region and whether the new Botswana leader is an African nationalist or would succumb to the dictates of the colonialist. This is also the subject in Tao. So reserve were the people of Botswana that there were those who thought that the government aids the colonialists in its fight against the African nationalists.

Bessie's politics was not limited to the national level. She also discussed local-level politics especially as they relate to chieftaincy issues. Because all institutions of power are human institutions, issues of struggle for control are common, even at the traditional level. Sometimes the struggle becomes fatal, leading to the death of one party, usually the less wicked or more humane one. In A Struggle of Power, the more humane Davhana had to escape the town because he wanted to live. This is similar to A Period of Darkness, which is somewhat based on the history of the Tswana people. In spite of this, the author commented that people had always lived with true democracy because the people held their leaders (chiefs) to account or that the people are more important than the chief because they can live without him but he cannot rule without them. In both stories, the struggle for power succumbed to the people's will to determine who would lead them. In the first story, the people migrated and left the chief in limbo, and to rule over the empty space, to the one they believed and could trust; in the latter, the people murdered the murderous and wayward king.

But in that brief pause a triumphant statement was made - that people had always held a position of ascendancy in matters of government, that people had always lived with the glimmerings of a true democracy. [A Period of Darkness, 83]

The General is about a leader who morphed into a dictator and was overthrown in a coup. Thus, Bessie seemed to project into the present the story of the people who killed their evil chief. In this and A Period of Darkness, Bessie shows that the will of the people should prevail either in every form of governance system (post-independence democracy or traditional kingdoms) and that in all situations where the peoples' common interest are suppressed and neglected by a few individuals who appropriate the wealth and freedoms only to themselves, then the people must come together to oppose any of such authority.

Son of the Soil is a historical account of the genesis of suppression and oppression of blacks in South Africa and the imposition of apartheid, with footnotes and references. It is a heart-wrenching story of how a people were suddenly dispossessed of their land and made to become squatters and non-paid labourers on their own lands. Bessie referenced several laws that were put in place to ensure the total subjugation of the black man. An Act of Parliament passed on a day in June 1913 reads:

No Native shall have the right to hire or purchase farm, grazing or ploughing rights from a landowner. Any landowner who hires or purchases (sic) farm, grazing or ploughing rights to a Native is subject to a fine of 100 pounds or six month's imprisonment. All Native squatters on white farm land should be immediately evicted with their livestock and consigned to the road immediately the order of eviction is given. Cattle so evicted should remain without food or water till they are sold by their Native owner. A Native may lawfully find employment under a white farmer. Once a wager-earner, a Native's cattle may henceforth work for the landowner, free of charge... No Native may wander about without a proper pass. A Native's pass must be signed by a white employer to prove he is in legal employment. A Native's basic wage as a farm laboureer shall be one shilling per day; a Native's basic wage as a mine labourer shall be one shilling and six pence per day...' [Son of the Soil, 120]

In this story, Bessie discussed how the Boers inclination and principle was to oppress and dehumanise the black man. This led to a division of South Africa between the British and the Boers; however, the unification that followed the civil war saw the Boer principle of subjugation gradually constitutionalised and which finally ended in the institution of apartheid and the natives were taken out of the constitution. Personally, the post-apartheid leaders of South Africa and the governing African National Congress (ANC) - including Nelson Mandela - would be analysed by posterity on the extent to which they solve the thorny land issue.

Discrimination and oppression birth resistance. It is said that when the frog is overfilled with water, it would at all cost croak. Hence, not all blacks folded their hands in between their thighs and stared infinitely into space; similarly, not all of them chose or accepted the non-violent posture as a means of lifting the people or fighting that humongous oppressive system. In The Coming of the Christ-Child some of the black political activists were fed-up with the docile non-violent attitude towards the struggle for black liberation. The few blacks who have had some form of education were perhaps unprepared to sacrifice their ivory-towered position to the cause and so fully advocated non-violence in the face of violence. However, there were those who were eagerly anti-non-violence and were prepared to meet violence with violence. In response to one of such pleadings, one of such folks who would later form his own organisation argued:

I wish that the truth be told ... Our forefathers lived on this land long before the white man came here and forced a policy of dispossession on us. We are hardly human to them! They only view us as objects of cheap labour! Why is the word violence such a terrible taboo from our side! Why can't we state in turn that they mean nothing to us and that it is our intention to get them off our backs! How long is this going to go on? It will go on and on until we say: "NO MORE" ... Gentle men! I am sick of the equivocation and clever talk of this organisation. If anyone agrees with me, would they please follow me... [The Coming of the Christ-Child, 137]

The young-man who retorted scathingly has been identified as Robert Sobukwe, the founder of the Pan-African Congress (PAC). The PAC with communist leanings was to be a splinter political organisation (more probably the African National Congress). The two organisations were at crossroads several times. The major tenets of the PAC was to first work on the psyche of the natives by letting them know that they are not inferior as they have been made to believe. And the people's traditional movement would counter by describing members of the PAC was considered as upstarts and soft gentlemen who wanted to be 'Sir-ed' and 'Madam-ed'.

Arrest and imprisonment of Blacks were a common occurrence and a direct response to the struggle against White-minority oppression. Bessie showed in The Prisoner who Wore Glasses that intelligence has nothing to do with colour and that one does not become a 'Baas' or necessarily superior because of his skin colour and some damned constitution. This story is about the way a group of imprisoned political activists negotiated around the rigid rules in prison to get what they wanted. It also portrays how human we all are, be it black or white.

Bessie, in most of her stories, appropriates the landscape and the elements of the weather as metaphors for the hardships, hopelessness, poverty, and impotence of the people. In Village People Bessie Head's realist/modernist approach to story-telling and her use of these metaphors shone through in telling the lives of the people in a village. Her descriptions of village life is spot-on and her understanding of events and the complex interrelationships is unrivalled. She unequivocally stated what the problems are and called upon those in authority - politicians, gods - to do better. Thus, it is in searching for solutions to these problems that makes her write about politics and religions and challenges her belief in a supreme being; for she can't comprehend a supreme being who can look on whilst innocent people die of hunger even though he is supposed to be omnipotent.

Bessie's life percolates into her stories. The reader could easily see her as the lady who was helped in The Woman from America.

Chief Sekoto holds Court is embedded in her full novel When Rain Clouds Gather. Though Bessie wrote about traditional or village life, she never romanticised it. She saw the obstacles embedded in it that hampers the development of the people and the positives - the social capital - which when harnessed would liberate and empower the people. For instance, she saw chieftaincy - not as in the institution, but with the powers it offers and how these powers are used - as an obstacle to development. In this story, Chief Sekoto was a quasi-modern chief who relied not on hearsay but on science to address cases. The changes in traditional life, especially after the introduction of formal education, is also the subject of Property. In it, a young man chose education over marriage and the sustenance of traditional norms. This was the period where marriages were arranged without the knowledge of the two to be married and where women were mostly seen as properties of their husbands and men were expected to treat them with iron-fist. In The Lovers a young man went contrary to societal and familial norms to reject the woman his parents had arranged for him in favour of one he himself had chosen. This sent a huge chaotic ripples through the community and the people reacted against the young lovers. It shows the other side of communal living in Africa, that though you live as an individual, your are intricately linked into the community and are expected to play your part to keep the balance. Any behaviour that would throw this balance into confusion would not be countenance.

There is a kind of tenderness in Bessie's writings; tenderness that begs to be listened to. Ironically, it is with this tenderness that Bessie shows the rottenness of the human soul, the wickedness of man and how insane we can be. It is this, and her unique understanding of power as it relates to people and the politics they play, that perhaps influenced the title of this collection. 

This collection is necessary for anyone who really wants to study Bessie Head.

_____________
Read about the author here. Read Quotes from the anthology here.

The stories in the anthology are:

1. Let me tell a story now...
2. Oranges and Lemons
3. Snowball
4. Sorrow food
5. Chibuku Beer and Independence
6. Village People
7. The Old Woman
8. Summer Sun
9. The green tree
10. Tao
11. The Woman from America
12. Chief Sekoto holds Court
13. Property
14. A Power Struggle
15. A Period of Darkness
16. The Lovers
17. The General
18. Son of the Soil
19. The Prisoner who Wore Glasses
20. The Coming of the Christ-Child
21. Dreamer and Storyteller

________________

Read for the Bessie Head's Celebration Week.

250. The Cardinals with Meditations and Short Stories by Bessie Head

Gradually Bessie Head is becoming my most read author. It all started after the Writers Project of Ghana held its twitter discussion on her book A Question of Power. I had earlier read the book (and two others: A Woman Alone and Maru), even before it was chosen and had had it reviewed on this blog. However, the discussion got me thinking about that woman, her beautiful spirit, her audacious writings, and her sense of humour even in the midst of dire adversity. Thus, I picked three of her books, including Tales of Tenderness and Power and When Rain Clouds Gather.

The Cardinals with Meditations and Short Stories (1993; 141) contains a novella and seven short stories and meditations. It is a story about the effects of racial discrimination and how it breaks down families and flings their members about to the ways of the storms of life. In The Cardinals, set in South Africa, not only are the lives of the natives battered by poverty and destroyed by lack, politics, and racial discrimination and abuse, but even within the blacks there is a class system. The semi-privileged blacks do not commingle with the pool of blacks sprawling in their polythene littered slums. They think of themselves as better, perhaps next after the white folks. Johnny a young man, who himself had to escape the negative influences which emanates from such surroundings from people struggling to make a living at all cost, finds himself fall in love with a girl of such privileged class. This relationship resulted in a pregnancy. But the girl's parents had a different life for her; she must marry within her class and the pregnancy must be hidden from Johnny and the baby given up for adoption.

Years later Mouse (or Miriam) finds herself in a newsroom as a reporter where she met Johnny. The two became close, though the relationship was an uneasy one; their conversation was filled with tension but also with love. Mouse who had moved from the slum into several foster homes and had tutored herself had developed into an extreme introvert and it is the effect of what her environment had done to her that Johnny had to contend with.

Some of stories in the meditations and short stories section are poetic in their rendering. They capture Bessie Head's feelings towards Africa; her hatred or dislike for politicians and religion. It also shows her practical approach to life, cutting through problems and difficult situations with her razor-sharp logic. They are also about her inner struggles of self-discovery, her purpose in life, and above all her unwillingness to be controlled, that is an inward search for freedom that would manifest outwardly in her freedom to exist and choose.

However, the meditations and the short stories also alluded to her loneliness and her loveless life and her brief contact with love. She yearned for something but that thing was far away from her. She wanted love and her internal conflicts. Bessie talked about her relationship with a man who himself lives a double life and who wanted their relationship to be kept secret, and though she loved this man completely, she complied. She described him as 

a man who has great need of their bodies, yet being so intensely proud, he cannot bear to be a slave of the sex organs. There is in him a vicious pleasure in forming a relationship with a woman and then abruptly and ruthlessly destroying it. [Where is the Hour of the Beautiful Dancing of Birds in the Sun-wind?, 132]

The point of convergence between the novella and the meditations (or short stories) is the commonality in the traits, experiences, struggles, and expectations between Mouse (Miriam) and Bessie Head. 

The writing in this is uniquely Bessie Head. It has all the metaphors and her keen sense of observation. She showed acute understanding of people and her environment. Her hatred for labels also came through. She disliked being bogged down by them. However, if there should be any label, then it should be of her making or choice.

Who am I? What am I? In past and present, the answer lies in Africa; in part it lies within the whole timeless, limitless, eternal universe. How can I discover the meaning and purpose of my country if I do not first discover the meaning and purpose of my own life? Today there are a thousand labels. One of them is 'crazy crank'. I do not mind being a 'crazy crank', as long as I am sure that I am a crank of my own making, as long as I resist environmental, societal, and political attempts to control and suppress my mind. [A Personal View of the Survival of the Unfittest, 127]

The meditations are Bessie's personal views of the world and of its issues. And any Bessie fan could include this into Bessie's works. However, I enjoyed the meditations (short stories) better than the novella. The turn of phrase is surprising and there are several beautiful lines in there. A recommended reading.

_____________________

Read about Bessie Head here

Half-Year Review & Projections for July

Reflections on the First Half of the Year
The end of June also marks the end of the first half of the year and an assessment of progress has to be made. But a friendly one. For this activity is only a hobby and rakes in no financial benefits. However, whatever thing that is worth doing is worth doing well. That said, lets jump straight to what I set out to do from the beginning of the year and what I have achieved so far.

It is good to talk about successes first and failure last. I set out to read 70 books by year-end December 31, 2013, at an average of almost 6 books a month,  repeating what I did in the year 2012. However, when I saw the kind of books I had to read for the Year of Russian Literature (a challenge I had set for myself), I swiftly readjusted it to 60, averaging exactly 5 books per month. So far I have read exactly 30 books and 1 Single Story, which is half of the total books to be read at half of the year. Comparatively, a year ago by this time I had read 37 books and 15 single stories but at a lower total number of pages (June 2012: 9,862; June 2013: 10,695). But all these numbers are vain. The blog and the stats I keep are to help me not to slack in my reading.

On the Year of Russian Literature, I have read some very interesting and fulfilling books like Crime and Punishment and The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, and The Government Inspector by Nikolay Gogol. I am glad I did and I know it might not have been possible without this blog since there would be no commitment. I have learnt a lot from these books and I am a better person from reading it. I hope to read a total of 12 Russian books (novels, play, poetry anthology, creative non-fiction, collection of essays etc. whichever I get). I would also, accessibility permitting, like to spread it across the years so there would be the 18th, 19th, and 20th Century writers and some contemporary authors.

On the Non-Fiction I set out to read around the themes of Development, Culture and the Human Mind; Thought and Language; and Philosophical, Political and Economic Writings about Nation States and Humanity. However, I have hardly touched upon a book that addresses any of this. I am nowhere near fulfilling this challenge.

On other African (Alain Mabanckou, especially) and Non-African (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Kobe Abe, Umberto Eco, Mario Vargas, Bogdan Tiganov, and Yudit Kiss) writers and titles I listed to read, I am again sad to say that I have failed woefully. First, I have not actively searched for the books and so have even partially forgotten about them. I hope the second half of the year will bring in something better.

Review June

I read a total of six books in June, three of which were part of the four books I projected to read. I continued with the Year of Russian Literature project reading The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky.  Also I read three of Bessie Head's books - When Rain Clouds Gather, Tales of Tenderness and Power  and The Cardinals, with Meditations and Short Stories- towards the commemoration of her birthday. But that was not the first reason for reading that many Bessie Head. The Writers Project of Ghana's Book and Discussion Club discussed A Question of Power in May. The book received great acceptance among the discussants. That book was dichotomous: the part that took place entirely in the author's mind or which addressed her psychotic visions and the part that concerned the physical environment, the real part. Though I have read Maru (about discrimination among the tribes of Botswana especially against the so-called Bushmen) and A woman Alone (essays, short stories, letters about Bessie Head), I thought the two are not enough to understand which part of Bessie dominates or pervades her writings: the psychological or the realist (for lack of a proper word). Hence, I decided to explore her writings. It also happened that Kinna was proposing to read Bessie to commemorate her birthday, so I joined her and killed two birds with a stone. The following were the books read:

• Infinite Riches by Ben Okri. [394 p.] This book is the last in the Okri trilogy that began with The Famished Road. It concludes the story of the spirit child Azaro. However, it is also about the struggle of the people with the political elites and political parties. Okri's stories are fantastic and show the vastness of the African's belief.
• The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola. [125 p.] This was the selection of the Writers Project of Ghana for the month under review. This is a folkloric tale about a Palm-Wine Drinkard who embarked on a long seemingly impossible journey to Deads' Town to bring back his dead Palm-Wine Tapster. Though the scenes and the stories seemed impossible, this is the characteristics and elements of folklores. There is also a moral lesson in it.
• Tales of Tenderness and Power by Bessie Head. [144 p.] This is a collection of stories that speak on issues of politics, general life and set in either South Africa or Botswana. The stories are diverse, steeped in Bessie's realist approach to writing. They are wide and contain historical essays on apartheid and traditions of the Tswana people. In politics, she showed that the people are more important than the rulers and it is the willingness of the people that creates a leader.
• When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head. [199 p.] Set in a village in Golema Mmidi, this story tells of the life of livestock and crop farmers and their problems with drought and progress. Again, Bessie showed the contrast between apartheid South Africa and protectorate Botswana, albeit subtly. She also showed that progress is possible and people yearn for it, pointing out that black and white can live together harmoniously that it is systems that create problems; systems like apartheid, like traditional superstitions and the power associated with chieftaincy.
• The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky. [870 p.] A beautiful book that explores human suffering, thoughts, actions, and the overall good of human kind. It analyses the effects of getting trapped by a single idea and how one's cumulative behaviour could lead to people forming wrong impressions and judging you by it. Its section titled The Grand Inquisitor provides an deeper exploration of life and the importance or otherwise of religion. This is a definitive work, or so I presume, on human psychology.
• The Cardinals with Meditations and Short Stories by Bessie Head. [144 p.] This book is set in racial South Africa and talks about repression and its consequences such as the destruction of the family system, and also workplace sexism. Like a typical Head, it is based on realism and it is here that Bessie somewhat discussed how she believe short stories should be: it should be based on real people. The sections on meditations are brilliantly written and explores the author's deepest thoughts on such issues as Africa and politics.

Projections for July

In July, I will continue with the Russian books and hope to read the books as and when they become available. The following books are projected to be read:

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. This obviously goes to the Year of Russian Literature project. 
2. A Heart's Quest by Elikplin Akorli. This is a poetry anthology by a Ghanaian.
3. Ama - a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Manu Herbstein. I scheduled this book for last June but I failed to read it. I hope to pick it up this time round.
4. God Dies by the Nile by Nawal El Saadawi. This is the Writers Project of Ghana's book for the month of July. The Writers Project of Ghana holds a monthly book discussion on twitter and also at a physical location. You can follow us @WritersPG. All tweets on the book and about the discussion could be obtained using the hashtag #wpghbookclub. You are kindly invited to join us.

I will read these and one or two other books I can't foretell. Keep following ImageNations and together lets promote reading and African Literature.

Additions to the Library

EPP Bookshop Legon

After a thorough discussion of A Question of Power by Bessie Head on the WPG's Twitter Book Discussion, I decided to read more of her works. I was fascinated by the depth of this discussion and how wide the story is and how varied the issues people took from the book. In addition to Bessie Head, I added one more book to Soyinka's pile and the WPG book for its discussion in June. The following therefore are the books purchased:

1. Kongi's Harvest by Wole Soyinka. Soyinka's plays are not easy to breakthrough. However, they are still worth the read. From the blurb: Kongi's Harvest is to be the official of the Five Year Plan. President Kongi has the spiritual leader King Danlola under preventive detention. He is anxious that Danlola should be seen by the people at the festival to bring him the new yam with his own hands. With Danlola and Kongi increasingly involved in image building, the festival comes to a shattering climax. [...]
2. Tales and Tenderness and Power by Bessie Head. I picked this because of the what I gleaned from A Question of Power. Bessie's understanding of power relations is marvelous and unfathomable. Tales of Tenderness draws on writings which have roots in the author's own experience in Botswana. It reflects her fascination with the country's people and their history and her identification with individuals and their conflicting emotions. 'She enjoyed observing, smiling, forgiving or raging and then recording.' These tales reveal her affinity with human goodness and tenderness and her fear and resentment of the misuse of power. [...]
3. The Cardinals with Meditations and Short Stories by Bessie Head. Bessie Head seems to leave a part of herself in every book she writes. Her experiences are found scattered in them and her role as a victim of this discriminatory world coupled with other equally unfair variables have expanded her understanding of this world. This is Mouse's world, but she is blind to it, living only for her books. A job as a reporter on African Beat forces her to open her eyes. Newsroom sexism combines with everyday stories of racial repression and political muck-raking to radically alter Mouse's perception. But it is her relationship with the cynical newshound Johnny that is the greatest challenge to her loveless solitude.
4. When the Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head. Again, like all her novels, the setting is a rural village in Botswana where she settled after she left South Africa with a no-reentry visa and where she remained stateless for fifteen years. In the heart of rural Botswana, the poverty-stricken village of Golema Mmidi is a haven to exiles from far and wide. A South African political refugee and an Englishman join forces to revolutionise the villagers' traditional farming methods, but their task is fraught with hazards as the pressures of tradition, opposition from the local chief and the unrelenting climate threaten to divide and devastate the fragile community.
5. The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola. The Palm-Wine Drinkard is WPG's selected book for the month of June. This is a fantastic tall tale of the Palm-Wine Drinkard. ... brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching... written in English by a West African... Nothing is too prodigious or too trivial to put down in this tall, devilish story - Dylan Thomas in the Observer.

Perhaps reading these would enable me better understand Bessie Head, her works and her travails. A Question of Power - that phenomenal book - is comparable to most of the exalted books that discusses human psyche. For Head, this is more relevant not only because she understands what she writes, but because she also suffered it and overcame it. If her works have not garnered the excitement all such Kafkaesque literature obtain, it wouldn't be because it is less exciting, or that she is a woman. It would be because she is African and African literature are also limited to Africa. For instance, to digress, Achebe is considered the greatest African writer, even though his works have world impact.

I will be bringing you, my readers, what I think of the books as and when I read them.

Author's Country

For other categories, see Review

I have sought to read from as many parts of Africa as possible. This index categorises authors by country. The categorisation is such that authors are listed according to the nationality they possessed when their works became famous. Thus, Bessie head is considered a Motswana from Botswana rather than a South African and Coetzee, a South African rather than an Australian. Non-African authors are listed under 'Other Countries'. Always, the author's last name comes first. Anthologies: If it is a single-authored anthology, the author's name appears under the country where the author comes from. For multiple-authored anthologies only the editor('s') name(s) are (are) used. If the anthology is multiple-editored and the editors come from the same country, only the name of the editor which comes first at the back of the book is used (example Ivor Hartmann and Emmanuel Sigauke both come from Zimbabwe, only the former is used); if both (or all) editors come from different countries (as in Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) and C.L. Innes (Australia), then each editor's name appears under the country of origin. Under Australia, C.L. Innes name will come first followed by Achebe's. 

ANGOLA

Agualusa, Jose Eduardo: The Book of Chameleons
Pepetela: The Return of the Water Spirit

ALGERIA
Boudjedra, Rashid: The Repudiation
Djebar, Assia: The Foreigner, Sister of the Foreign Woman in Contemporary African Short Stories

BOTSWANA

Head, Bessie: A Question of Power

Head, Bessie: A Woman Alone
Head, Bessie: The Cardinals with Meditations and Short Stories
Head, Bessie: Maru
Head, Bessie: Snapshots of a Wedding in African Short Stories
Head, Bessie: Tales of Tenderness and Power
Head, Bessie: When Rain Clouds Gather
Kubuitsile, Laurie: In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata

CAMEROON

Doh, A. B.: The Spaces in-Between in African Roar 2013
Kwa, Dipita: In Bramble Bushes in African Roar 2013
Mongo Beti: The Poor Christ of Bomba
Mutia, Ba'bila: The Miracle in Contemporary African Short Stories
Oyono, Ferdinand: Houseboy

CONGO

Dongala, E.B.: The Man in Contemporary African Short Stories

COTE D'IVOIRE

Kourouma, Ahmadou: Allah is not Obliged
Kourouma, Ahmadou: Waiting for the Wild Beasts to VoteTadjo, Veronique: As the Crow Flies

Tadjo, Veronique: Away from My Father in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Tadjo, Veronique: The Betrayal in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Tadjo, Veronique: The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda

EGYPT

El-Bisatie, Mohammed: A Conversation from the Third Floor in African Short Stories
Mahfouz, Naguib: Palace Walk
Rifaat, Alifa: Distant View of a Minaret
El Saadawi, Nawal: Searching
El Saadawi, Nawal: God Dies by the Nile

GABON

Mengara, Daniel: Mema

GAMBIA
Sallah, Tijan M.: Weaverdom in Contemporary African Short Stories

GHANA

Acheampong, Sophia: Growing Yams in London
Acheampong, Sophia: Ipods in Accra
Adzei, Mawuli: TabooAgambila, G.a.: Journey
Agyei-Agyiri, Alex: Unexpected Joy at Dawn

Aidoo, Ama Ata: Certain Winds from the South in African Short Stories
Aidoo, Ama Ata: Changes
Aidoo, Ama Ata: Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories
Aidoo, Ama Ata: No Sweetness HereAidoo, Ama Ata: The Girl Who Can in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

Akorli, Elikplim: A Heart's Quest
Akpabli, Kofi: A Sense of Savannah: Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana
Akpabli, Kofi: Tickling the Ghanaian: Encounters with Contemporary Culture
Annan, Kofi: Interventions - A Life in War and Peace
Anyidoho, Kofi: The Place we Call Home and Other Poems
Armah, Ayi Kwei: The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born

Armah, Ayi Kwei: Fragments

Armah, Ayi Kwei: The Healers

Armah, Ayi Kwei: Two Thousand Seasons

Asibon, Aba Amissah: The Lump in her Throat
Asibon, Aba Amissah: Salvation in Odd Places in African Roar 2013
Badoe, Yaba: True Murder
Baezie, Camynta: African Agenda
Bedwei, Farida N.: Definition of a Miracle
Brew-Hammond, Nana Ekua: Powder Necklace
Busia, Abena P.A.: Traces of a Life: A collection of Elegies and Praise Poems
Busia, Abena P.A.: On Locations: A Letter to my Father in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Busia, Abena P.A.: Of Memory and Loss in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Darko, Amma: Faceless

Darko, Amma: Not Without Flowers
Darkoa-Sekyiamah, Nana (Editor): Women Leading Africa - Conversations with Inspirational African Women 

Damoah, Nana Awere: Excursions in my Mind
Damoah, Nana Awere: Through the Gates of Thought
Damoah, Nana Awere: Truth Floats in African Roar 2010

de-Graft Aikins Ama: The Three Little Girls of Anamaase in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Egblewogbe, Martin: Mr. Happy and the Hammer of God

Egblewogbe, Martin: Look Where You Have Gone to Sit (Co-Editor)
Harruna Attah, Ayesha: Harmattan Rain

Harruna Attah, Ayesha: Tamale Blues in African Roar 2010

Heward Mills, Marilyn: Cloth Girl

Kabu, Mamle: The End of Skill

Kabu, Mamle: Mr Oliver in A Life in Full and Other Stories

Kwakye, Benjamin: The Clothes of Nakedness

Kwakye, Benjamin: The Other Crucifix

Laing, Kojo: Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters

Laing, Kojo: Search Sweet Country
Laing, Kojo: Vacancy for the Post of Jesus Christ in Contemporary African Short Stories

Mahama, John Dramani: My First Coup D'etat - Memories from the Lost Decades of Africa
Marshal, Bill: Permit for Survival
Myers, James Robert (Editor): Breaking Silence - A Poetic Lifeline from Slavery to Love
Neequaye, Isaac: Water Wahala in African Roar 2011
Nkrumah, Kwame: Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism

Parkes, Nii Ayikwei: Tail of the Blue Bird

Quayson, Ato (Editor): Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

Quayson, Ato: Bobo, the Snowflake Catcher in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Ribeiro-Ayeh, Ayebia: The Wake-Up Call in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

Sekyi, Kobina: The Blinkards

Sumprim, Alba Kunadu: The Imported Ghanaian

Ulzen, Papa Kobina: Accra! Accra! More Poems about Modern Afrika

KENYA

Amlani, Alnoor: Soul Safari in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Gikandi, Simon: A Voyage Round my Daughter in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Hassan, Abdulghani Sheikh The Faces of Fate in African Roar 2013
Kibera, Leonard: The Spider's Web in African Short Stories
Kantai, Parselelo: You Wreck Her
Kahora, Billy: Urban Zoning
Kenyatta, Jomo: The Gentlemen of the Jungle in African Short Stories
Mabura, Lily: How shall we Kill the Bishop in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Matata, Lydia: Cut it Off in African Roar 2013
Mativo, Kyalo: On the Market Day in Contemporary African Short Stories
Munene, Samuel: The David Thuo Show in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Ogot, Grace: Green Leaves in African Short Stories
Oluoch Chianga Clifford: Set me Free in A Life in Full and Other Stories
wa Ngugi, Mukoma: How Kamau wa Mwangi Escaped into Exile
Sitawa Namwalie: Cut off My Tongue
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: A Grain of Wheat
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Dreams in a Time of War - a Childhood Memoirwa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Matigari

wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Minutes of Glory in African Short Stories
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: The River Between
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Weep Not, Child
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Wizard of the Crow

LESOTHO

Mofolo, Thomas: Chaka

Morojele, Morabo: How We Buried Puso

MALI

Dao, Anna: A Perfect Wife in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

MALAWI
Chimombo, Steve: The Rubbish Dump in Contemporary African Short Stories
Kenani, Onjezani Stanley: Happy Ending in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Kenani, Onjezani Stanley: Love on Trial
Mapanje, Jack: Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison
Mapanje, Jack (Editor): Gathering Seaweed: Africa Prison Writing
Mkandawire, Dango: The Times in African Roar 2011
Zeleza, Tiyambe: Smouldering Charcoal
Zeleza, Tiyambe: Memories of Birth and Other Anectodes in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

MAURITIUS
Collen, Lindsey: The Enigma in Opening Spaces: Contemporary Women's Writing

MOZAMBIQUE

Couto, Mia: The Birds of God in Contemporary African Short Stories
Couto, Mia: Voices Made Night

Couto, Mia: Every Man is a Race
Honwana, B.L.: Papa, Snake, and I in African Short Stories
Momplé, Lília: Neighbours: The Story of a Murder
Momplé, Lília: Stress in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

NAMIBIA

Andreas, Neshani: The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
Jafta, Milly: The Home-Coming in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

NIGER
Soumana, Boureima Igodiame: Near But Far in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora

NIGERIA

Abiola, H.: Smooth Lanes in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Achebe, Chinua: A Man of the People
Achebe, Chinua and Innes, C.L. (Editors) African Short Stories

Achebe, Chinua: Anthills of the Savannah
Achebe, Chinua: Arrow of God
Achebe, Chinua: Civil Peace in African Short Stories
Achebe, Chinua & Innes, C.L. (Editors): Contemporary African Short Stories

Achebe, Chinua: No Longer At Ease

Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart
Achebe, Chinua: The Trouble with Nigeria

Adagha, Ovo: The Plantation in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: Half of a Yellow Sun

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: Purple Hibiscus

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: The Thing Around Your Neck

Ajumeze, Henry: Dimples on the Sand

Akpan, Uwem: Say You're One of Them
Atta, Sefi: A Bit of Difference
Balogun, Odun: The Apprentice in African Short Stories
Chigbo, Okey: The Housegirl in Contemporary African Short Stories
Dibia, Jude: A Life in Full in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Ekwensi, Cyprian: Burning Grass

Ekunno, Mike: Anti Natal in African Roar 2013
Emecheta, Buchi: The Joys of Motherhood

Garuba, Harry: Letters to a Lost Daughter in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Habila, Helon: Three Seasons in in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Iduma, Emmanuel: Out of Memory in African Roar 2011
Irele, Abiola F: Me and My Daughters in in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Izundu, Uchenna: God No Go Vex in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Kalu, Anthonia C: The Initiation in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Maja-Pearce, Adewale: The Hotel in Contemporary African Short Stories
Mazi-Njoku, Chimdindu: Snake of the Niger Delta in African Roar 2011
Morocco-Clarke, Ayodele: Silent Night, Bloody Night in African Roar 2011
Morocco-Clarke, Ayodele: Nestbury Tree in African Roar 2010 
Myne Whitman (a pseudonym): A Heart to Mend
Nubi, Ola: Green Eyes and Old Photo in African Roar 2013
Nwokolo, Chuma Jnr: Diaries of a Dead African
Nwokolo, Chuma Jnr: The Ghost of Sani Abacha
Nwokolo, Chuma Jnr: Quaterback and Co in African Roar 2010
Oguibe, Olu: Obiageli Okigbo in Conversation with Olu Oguibe in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Okoye, Ifeoma: The Power of a Plate of Rice in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Okri, Ben: Converging City in Contemporary African Short Stories

Okri, Ben: The Famished Road
Okri, Ben: Incidents at the Shrine
Okri, Ben: Infinite Riches
Olaniyan, Tejumola: My Girls in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

Olofintuade, Ayodele: Eno's Story
Onuzo, Chibundu: The Spider King's Daughter
Osofisan, Femi: Women of Owu
Osondu, E.C.: Waiting
Owoyele, David: The Will of Allah in African Short Stories
Rotimi, Babatunde: Bombay's Republic
Rotimi, Ola: Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again

Rotimi, Ola: The Gods are not to Blame
Saro-Wiwa, Ken: A Month and a Day & Letters
Saro-Wiwa, Zina: His Eyes were Shinning Like a Child in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Soyinka, Wole: Death and the King's Horseman
Soyinka, Wole: Kongi's Harvest
Soyinka, Wole: The Lion and the Jewel
Soyinka, Wole: Madmen and Specialists

Soyinka, Wole: You Must Set Forth at Dawn
Tubosun, Kola: Behind the Door in African Roar 2010 
Tutuola, Amos: The Palm-Wine Drinkard
Uche, Peter: Lose Myself in African Roar 2011
Ugwu, Georgia Ijeoma: African Queen in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Wood, Molara: Indigo in A Life in Full and Other Stories

SENEGAL
Ousman, Sembène: False Prophet in African Short Stories
Bâ, Mariama: So Long a Letter

SEYCHELLES
Amla, Hajira: Longing Home in African Roar 2011

SIERRA LEONE
Olufemi, Terry: Stickfighting Days in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Bockarie, Kalunda: Lunar Slam in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora

SOMALIA
Herzi, Saida Hagi-Dirie: Government by Magic Spell in Contemporary African Short Stories

SOUTH AFRICA

Abrahams, Peter: Mine Boy
Aucamp, Hennie: For Four Voices in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Barris, Ken: The Life of Worm in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Bauling, Jayne: Business as Usual in African Roar 2013
Biko, Steve: I Write What I Like
Boetie, Dugmore: Familiarity is the kingdom of the Lost in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Breytenbach, Breyten: The Double Dying of an Ordinary Criminal in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Brink, Andre: Praying Mantis

Brink, Andre: Before I Forget

Charles, Herman: Bekkersdal Marathon in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Coetzee, J.M.: Duskland

Coetzee, J.M.: In the Heart of the Country
Cope, Jack: Escape from Love in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present

Essop, Ahmed: The Hajji in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Essop, Ahmed: The Betrayal in African Short Stories
Golightly, Walton: AmaZulu
Gordimer, Nadine: Amnesty in Contemporary African Short Stories

Gordimer, Nadine: Bridegroom in African Short Stories
Gordimer, Nadine: Burger's Daughter
Gordimer, Nadine: The Conservationist
Gordimer, Nadine: July's People

Gordimer, Nadine: Six Feet of the Ground in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present

Gwala, Mafika: Reflections in a Cell in African Short Stories

Havemann, Ernst: Bloodsong in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Presentvan Heerden Etienne: Mad Dog in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present

Herbstein, Manu: Ama - A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Hirson, Denis with Martin Trump (Editors): South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present 

Hope, Christopher: Learning to Fly in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Jacobson, Dan: The Zulu and the Zeide in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Karodia, Farida: The Red Velvet in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Kitson, Norma: Uncle Bunty in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Mabuza, Lindiwe: Wake... in Contemporary African Short Stories
Magona, Sindiwe: A State of Outrage in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Mandela, Nelson: No Easy Walk to Freedom
Maqutu, Andiswa: A Yoke for Companionship in African Roar 2013
Maseko, Bheki: Mamlambo in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Medalie, David: The Mistress's Dog
Morgan, Alistair: Icebergs
Mphahlele, Ezekiel: The Coffee-Cart in African Short Stories
Muller, Elise: Night at the Ford in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Mutwa, Vausamazulu Credo: Indaba, My Children
Myburgh, Constance: Hunter Emmanuel
Ndebele, S. Njabulo: The Prophetess in Contemporary African Short Stories
Nkosi, Lewis: Underground People
Paton, Alan: A Life for a Life in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Paton, Alan: Cry, the Beloved Country
Schierhout, Gill: Invocations to the Dead in A Life in Full and Other Stories

Seripe, Vuyo: Almost Cured of Sadness in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Smit, Barto: I take Back my Country in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Smith, Alex: Soulmates in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Themba, Can: The Suit in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Tshabangu, Mango: Thoughts in a Train in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Vladislavic, Ivan: The Brothers in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Wanner, Zukiswa: A Writer's Lot in African Roar 2011
Wicomb, Zoe: A Trip to the Gifberge in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present

SUDAN
Aboulela, Leila: The Museum in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Aboulela, Leila: Fathers and Amulets in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Mahjoud, Jamal: Road Block in Contemporary African Short Stories
Salih, Tayeb: A handful of Dates in African Short Stories
Salih, Tayeb: Season of Migration to the North

TANZANIA
Gurnah, Abdulrazak: Bossy in African Short Stories
Mollel, Tololwa Marti: A Night Out in Contemporary African Short Stories
Vassanji, M.G.: Leaving in Contemporary African Short Stories

UGANDA

Baingana, Doreen: Tropical Fish, Tales from Entebbe

Bwesigye, Brian: Through the same Gate in African Roar 2013
Dila, Dilman: The Puppets of Maramudhu in African Roar 2013
Lamwaka, Beatrice: Butterfly Dreams
Nsengiyunva Nambozo, Beverley: Unjumping
Sifuniso, Monde: Night Thoughts in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

ZAMBIA
Moyo, Dambisa: Dead Aid - Why Aid Makes things Worse and How there is another Way for Africa 
Serpell, Namwali: Muzungu in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Sinyangwe, Binwell: A Cowrie of Hope
ZANZIBAR
Gurnah, Abdulrazak: Cages in Contemporary African Short Stories

ZIMBABWE

Brakash, Jonathan: Running in Zimbabwe in Writing Free
Chikowero, Murenga Joseph: Uncle Jeffrey in African Roar 2011
Chikwava, Brian: The Wasp and the Fig Tree

Chikwava, Brian: Harare North
Chinodya, Shimmer: Dew in the Morning
Chinodya, Shimmer: Harvest of Thorns
Dangarembga, Tsitsi: Nervous Conditions

Dangarembga, Tsitsi: The Book of Not
Erlwanger, S. Alison: Home in African Roar 2013
Gappah, Petina: Miss McConkey of Bridgewater Close in Writing Free
Hartmann, W. Ivor & Sigauke, Emmanuel (Editors): African Roar 2010 
Hartmann, W. Ivor & Sigauke, Emmanuel (Editors): African Roar 2011
Hartmann, W. Ivor: Diner Ten in African Roar 2011
Hartmann, W. Ivor: Lost Love in African Roar 2010
Hove, Chenjerai: Shadows
Huchu, Tendai: The Hairdresser of Harare
Huchu, Tendai: Crossroads in Writing Free
Kerstein, Donna: The Situation in Writing Free
Kwabato, Ethel: Time's Footprints in Writing Free
Mabasa, Ignatius: The Novel Citizen in Writing Free
Mandishona, Daniel: A Wasted Land in Contemporary African Short Stories
Mandishona, Daniel: An Intricate Deception in Writing Free
Manyika, Sarah Ladipo: Girlfriend in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Marechera, Dambudzo: Protista in African Short Stories
Matambandzo, Isabella: The Missing in Writing Free
Mhangami-Ruwende, Barbara: Transitions in African Roar 2013
Mlalazi, Christopher: A Cicada in the Shimmer in African Roar 2010
Mlalazi, Christopher: When the Moon Stares in Writing Free
Mupfudzo, Ruzvidzo Stanley: Witch's Brew in African Roar 2011
Musarir, Blessing: Eloquent Notes on a Suicide: Case of the Silent Girl in Writing Free
Musengezi, Chiedzi: Crocodile Tails in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Musoda, Masimba: Yesterday's Dog in African Roar 2010 
Musiyiwa, Ambrose: Danfo Driver in Writing Free
Myambo Tandiwe Melissa: La Salle de Départ
Myambo Tandiwe Melissa: Deciduous Gazzettes in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing 
Ncube, Mbonisi P.: Chanting Shadows in African Roar 2011
Ndlovu, Gugu: The Barell of a Pen in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
NoViolet Bulawayo (pseudonym) : Hitting Budapest
NoViolet Bulawayso: Main in African Roar 2011
NoViolet Mka (pseudonym): Shamisos in Writing Free
Nzenza, Sekai: The Donor's Visit in Writing Free
Sasa, Fungiyasi: Eyes On in Writing Free
Sigauke, Emmanuel (Editor): African Roar 2013

Sigauke, Emmanuel: African Wife in Writing Free
Sigauke, Emmanuel: Return to Moonlight in African Roar 2010 
Sigauke, Emmanuel: Snakes Will Follow You in African Roar 2011
Staunton, Irene (Editor): Writing Free
Tapureta, Beaven: Cost of Courage in African Roar 2010
Tshuma Novuyo Rosa: Big Pieces, Small Pieces in African Roar 2010 
Tshuma Novuyo Rosa: The King and I in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Tagwira, Valerie: The Journey in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Yvonne Vera (Editor): Opening Spaces: An Anthology of Contemporary African Women's Writing

OTHER COUNTRIES

Afghanistan
Hosseini, Khaled: The Kite Runner

America

Adams, Eleanor: Along Racial Lines in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Asimov, Isaac: The Foundation Trilogy
Bass, Sarah: To Rest in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Beare, Emma (Editor): Speeches that Changed the World
Brown, Dan: The Lost Symbol
Bryant, Sarah: Sand Daughter
Carroll, Jeff: No World Order in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Carter, Jimmy: Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
Cather, Willa: Death Comes for the Archbishop
Daghetto, Arose N.: Rendezvou with Poverty in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Dike, W. Virginia: Birds of Our Land
Faulkner, William: Absalom, Absalom!
Ferris, Joshua: The Pilot
Fitzgeral, Scott F.: The Great Gatsby
Foer, Jonathan Safran: Here We Aren't, So Quickly
Franzen, Jonathan: The Corrections
Glaysher, Frederick: The Parliament of Poets 

Hall, Manly P.: The Secret Destiny of America

Harvey, Joan C. with Cynthia Katz: If I'm So Successful Why do I Feel Like a Fake, The Impostor Phenomenon
Heller, Joseph: Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man
Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
Henry, Veronica (Editor): Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Henry, Veronica: My Soul to Free in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Herbert, Frank: Dune Hill, Carrick Laban (Co-Editor): Look Where You Have Gone to Sit
Hill, Raymond: Fein, the Jew in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Hughes, Langston: The Best of Simple
Jones, Larrysha: Black in Love in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Jones, Ronald T.: Skyboat Strangers in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Kerouac, Jack: On the Road
Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
Mark, Eddie: The Other Wife of Cranston Livingston in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Meyer, Philipp: What do You do Out There, When You're Alone
Moore, Lorrie: The Best American Short Stories
Morgan, C.E.: Twins
Morrison, Toni: Beloved
Morrison, Toni: The Bluest Eye
Morrison, Toni: Home

Morrison, Toni: Song of Solomon
Morrison, Toni: Sula

Nin, Anais: Delta of Venus

Obama, Barack: Dreams from my Father
Packer, ZZ: Dayward
Pearl, Matthew: The Dante Club
Puzo, Mario: The Godfather
Salinger, J.D.: The Catcher in the Rye
Scibona, Salvatore: The Kid
Shteyngart, Gary: Lenny Hearts Eunice
Sterling, Dorothy: Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman
Trudeau, G. B.: That's Doctor Sinatra, You Little Bimbo!

Vonnegut, Kurt: Cat's Cradle
Williams, Tennessee: A Streetcar Named Desire

Australia
Carey, Peter: Oscar and Lucinda
DBC Pierre: Vernon God Little
Innes, C.L. and Chinua Achebe (Editors): Contemporary African Short Stories
Leonard, Fiona: The Chicken Thief
Zusak, Markus: The Book Thief

Austria
Musil, Robert: The Confusions of Young Torless

Britain

Austen, Jane: PersuasionAusten, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane: Northanger Abbey

Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights

Byatt, A.S.: Possession
Faulks, Sebastian: Devil May Care
Golding, William: Lord of the Flies

Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Hardy, Thomas: Jude the Obscure
Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World
Jenkins, Barbara: That Old Black Magic in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Maugham, W. Somerset: Theatre
McEwan, Ian: Amsterdam
McEwan, Ian: Atonement
McEwan, Ian: On Chesil Beach
McEwan, Ian: Saturday

Orwell, George: 1984
Orwell, George: Animal Farm

Ridley, Matt: The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
Rooney, David: Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy
Shelley, Mary: Frankenstein

Smith, Zadie: White Teeth
Watson, Winifred: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway

Bulgaria
Canetti, Elias: Auto da Fe

Canada

Atwood, Margaret: Oryx and Crake
Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid's Tale
Galchen, Rivka: The Entire Northern Side was Covered with Fire
Martel, Yann: Life of Pi
Ondaatje, Michael: The English Patient
Thomas, Catt: Such a Cold Country in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

Chile
Bolano, Roberto: The Last Evenings on Earth

China
Sun Tzu: The Art of War

Cuba
Moore, Carlos: Fela, This Bitch of a Life

Germany

Kafka, Franz: The Castle
Kafka, Franz: The Trial

Greece
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex

India
Desai, Kiran: The Inheritance of Loss
Roy, Arundhati: The God of Small Things
Rushdie, Salman (also British): Fury
Rushdie, Salman (also British): Midnight's Children

Iran
Nafisi, Azar: Reading Lolita in Tehran

Italy
Levi, Primo: The Periodic Table

Lebanon
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (also American): Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (also American): The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Norway
Ibsen, Henrik: An Enemy of the People

Portugal
Saramago, Jose: Blindness

Russia
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Karamazov Brothers
Gogol, Nikolai V.: The Government Inspector
Tolstoy, Leo: War and Peace (Volume I, II, III & IV)
Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina

Scotland
Smith, Alexander McCall: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 

Trinidad and Tobago
Naipaul, V.S. (also British): A Bend in the River

Naipaul, V.S. (also British): A House for Mr. Biswas