December GeoCAT - Sub-Saharan Africa

The literature of Sub-Saharan Africa is diverse, encompassing both African languages, such as Swahili and Hausa, and European languages as a legacy of colonial influence. Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa seem to have the most associated authors. I discovered that this is because the publishing industry is strongest in these countries.

Literary awards such as the Booker Prize have raised international awareness of African authors writing in English. These include:
Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart; Nigeria)
Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka (The Interpreters; Nigeria)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Half of a Yellow Sun; Nigeria)
Ben Okri (The Famished Road; Nigeria)
Ayi Kwei Armah (The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born; Ghana)
Buchi Emecheta (The Joys of Motherhood; Nigeria)
Aminatta Forna (The Memory of Love; Scottish with Sierra Leone ancestry)
Tsitsi Dangarembga (Nervous Conditions; Zimbabwe)
Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Wizard of the Crow; Kenya)
M. G. Vassanji (The In-Between World of Vikram Lall; Kenya)
Lola Shoneyin (The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives; Nigeria)
NoViolet Bulawayo (We Need New Names; Zimbabwe)
Abdulrazak Gurnah (Paradise; Tanzania)
Ama Ata Aidoo (Changes: A Love Story; Ghana)
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (I Do Not Come to You By Chance; Nigeria)
Uwem Akpan (Say You’re One of Them; Nigeria)
Gaile Parkin (Baking Cakes in Kigali; Zambia)

French-speaking West African authors include:
Ferdinand Oyono (Houseboy; Cameroon)
Mongo Beti (The Poor Christ of Bomba; Cameroon)
poet Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal)
Camara Laye (The Radiance of the King; Guinea)
Ousmane Sembene (God’s Bits of Wood; Senegal)
Mariama Ba (So Long a Letter; Senegal)

Well-known authors of European origin include Kenyan residents Isak Dinesen (Out of Africa), Elspeth Huxley (The Flame Trees of Thika), Joy Adamson (Born Free), and Beryl Markham (West With the Night).

Mystery fans may want to try crime novels by one of these authors:
Kwei Quartey (The Wife of the Gods; Ghana)
Elspeth Huxley (Murder at Government House; Kenya)
Tamar Myers (The Witch Doctor’s Wife; Democratic Republic of Congo)
M. M. Kaye (Death in Kenya, Death in Zanzibar)
Dorothy Gilman (Mrs. Pollifax on Safari)
Suzanne Arruda (Mark of the Lion; Kenya)

For readers who prefer non-fiction, how about something by or about one of Africa’s non-literary Nobel Prize winners, Kofi Annan (Ghana), Leymah Gbowee (Liberia), or Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia)?

The Africa Book Club blog is a good resource for learning more about African authors and their books.

Focus region: Southern Africa - Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland

Literary prize-winning authors from this region include:
J. M. Coetzee (Disgrace; South Africa)
Damon Galgut (The Good Doctor; South Africa)
Andre Brink (A Dry White Season; South Africa)
Nadine Gordimer (July’s People; South Africa)
Zakes Mda (The Heart of Redness; South Africa)
Laurens van der Post (Venture to the Interior; South Africa)

American prizewinners who write about this region include:
Norman Rush (Mating; Botswana)
Mark Owens & Delia Owens (Cry of the Kalahari; Botswana)

Other authors who appear on “best books” lists include:
Bessie Head (South Africa & Botswana)
Thomas Mofolo (Lesotho)
Alan Paton (South Africa)
Olive Schreiner (South Africa)

There are quite a few genre authors from or with connections to this region, including:
Lauren Beukes (science fiction/fantasy)
Athol Fugard (drama)
Jassy Mackenzie (crime)
Rian Malan (travel)
Alexander McCall Smith (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series set in Botswana)
James McClure (crime)
Deon Meyer (crime)
Beverley Naidoo (children’s & YA)
Malla Nunn (crime)
Wilbur Smith (thriller/adventure)
Michael Stanley (crime)

Non-fiction choices could include works by or about South African Nobel winners Nelson Mandela, F. W. de Klerk, Albert Luthuli, and Desmond Tutu, or biographies/memoirs by Mark Mathabane.

What books do you plan to read for the December GeoCAT? Add your plans and suggestions here, and don't forget to update the wiki.

My December shortlist includes:
Dead at Daybreak by Deon Meyer
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
Murder on Safari by Elspeth Huxley

I've got Devil's Peak cued up for December.

Aaaaah! I need to get my November books read! All the December topics are up!

But I have a nice children's picture book that I'm feeling guilty about because I bought it at last year's BuchWIEN and I was just at this year's.

Das Schnarchen der Ungeheuer : Sasabonsam ; afrikanische Drachengeschichte Patrick K Addai is a Ghanan living in Austria.

That should do for this.

I have The Headhunter's Daughter by Tamar Myers scheduled because it was already on my TBR pile, but those are a lot of good suggestions that I'm going to make note of for future reading, Carrie.

I'm going with Tears of the Giraffe.

Think I might reread Mrs Pollifax on Safari, which I think takes place in Zambia, or one of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books at my parents' place.

I have The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut set aside for this, but will also try to read The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini, which is set in Zimbabwe.

I have a couple set aside for next month, The Great Karoo by Fred Stenson, which is about the Boer War and a mystery, Dead Before Dying by Deon Meyer.

I'm planning on We are all Zimbabweans Now by James Kilgore. This will also check off Zimbabwe on my global reading list.

I do have Rwanda books on my tbr, but I'm thinking I'd rather focus on animals. I have one other more "serious" option that's been on my tbr, as well, but I'll likely try for the animal books first:

- Bonobo Handshake / Vanessa Woods
- Through a Window / Jane Gooall
- Copper Sun / Sharon M. Draper

This thread is going to be full of book bullets for me, but for the immediate read, I'll probably end up reading something by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Zakes Mda, or J.M. Coetzee. I have works on my tbr mountain by all three, and I've really enjoyed their work in the past. I'm really looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks of the reads they go for, though!

My plan is to finally get around to reading The Book of Chameleons by Angolan writer José Eduardo Agualusa. It's been sitting unread on its shelf for far too long!

I'm planning to read No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe, which I think is a sequel to Things Fall Apart. I read Things Fall Apart several times in school, and I'd definitely recommend it!

I am planning to read Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee. And I think I will try to get to We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo.

Pulled this one off my TBR shelves -

Aman: the Story of a Somali Girl by Virginia Barnes

Suggestions -

Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer
The Pickup Nadine Gordimer

I had this one on my TBR shelves -
Aman: the Story of a Somali Girl Virginia Barnes

Das Schnarchen der Ungeheuer : Sasabonsam ; afrikanische Drachengeschichte was fun.

Starting The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta, a Nigerian author.

COMPLETED The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

My review:

After her childless first marriage breaks down, Nnu Ego is sent to Lagos by her family to marry the feckless Nnaife, just before the start of the Second World War. She has nine children by him, seven of whom survive. Although cultural ideals see motherhood, especially motherhood of sons, as the peak of a woman's achievement and the key to her happiness, Nnu Ego finds motherhood a continual struggle to make ends meet and without the position of honour and respect in the family her upbringing led her to believe she would have.

I approached this book with some trepidation, not at all sure it was really going to be my cup of tea (it was a present from somebody who doesn't know me very well) but found it quite gripping and moving.

I've started Devil's Peak.

I've finished Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman. This was a lot of fun, will have to go back and start the series from the beginning now. I've also just started Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor which takes place in a post-apocalyptic, fictional African country.

I finished We Need New Names and I am reading Elizabeth Costello. They actually are good companion reads. I am looking forward to reviewing them.

I'll be reading two older South African novels: Alan Paton's classic Cry, the Beloved Country and Mary Benson's anti-apartheid novel set around a generation later, At the Still Point.

I'm about to start No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe, which is set in Nigeria. It's also a good read for December, because the title is taken from the poem "The Journey of the Magi" by T.S. Eliot!

I am really enjoying the Kwei Quartey series about Inspector Darko Dawson. Set in Ghana, the mysteries are good and I like learning about the country.

I just finished We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo. My review here.

Just finished Devil's Peak. Quite good!

I read A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. This is a memoir written by a man who was forced to serve as a soldier in the Sierra Leonian army during their civil war in the 1990's when he was a young teen. I had an audio version. There was no reader listed, so I am assuming it was read by the author. Very good American English with almost no accent and the African names and phrases pronounced very confidently. An horrific story, but a very good book.

I saw Mr. Beah speak with Stephen Colbert. His English was very good with only a little accent.

Just finished Chinua Achebe's No Longer at Ease, which is set in Nigeria in the late 1950s. The protagonist is a Nigerian man who has been educated in England and is now in the civil service back home. In the opening chapter, it is revealed that he has accepted a bribe, and the rest of the book goes back in time to explain why this happened. Achebe's prose is clear and direct, and he asks some very interesting questions about the role of the colonial system in the protagonist's actions. Definitely recommended!

I have also just finished Devil's Peak by Deon Meyer and thought this thriller set in South Africa was very well done. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series at some point.

#34 by DeltaQueen50> I liked it quite a bit too.

>35 majkia: Just what we need, right, Jean - another series!!!

Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo / Vanessa Woods
4 stars

The author was young and didn't really know what she wanted to do with herself beyond have adventures. She met her fiancee, Brian, at a chimpanzee sanctuary and he convinced her to come with him to Congo to do some research on bonobos, a type of chimp. The book includes memoir of her and Brian + info about both chimps and bonobos + info on Congo and the political upheaval that has gone on there throughout its history.

I really enjoyed this. I love reading/learning about animals, and I have an undergraduate degree in anthropology (cultural, but I also took some primate classes). The Congo info was interesting, as well. Being a neighbour to Rwanda, much of the Tutsi/Hutu genocide carried over into Congo, as well. I will say, though, that I wasn't crazy about the author, herself - I didn't like her much. However, I still really enjoyed the book.

I'm about a fourth of the way into Summertime by J. M. Coetzee--it's not quite gripping me as his other works have in the past, but I'm enjoying it.

I also read Deon Meyer - Dead at Daybreak. Former cop turned private investigator Zatopek van Heerden has just a week to locate a missing will. He stirs up a hornet's nest in the process, and the book is filled with police, military/special forces, and mercenaries. It's a well-written crime thriller and it would be worthwhile seeking out his books if you like this genre. The violence, sex, and profanity ended up being a bit much for me so I probably won't be picking up any more of his books.

I just finished The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba. I'm pretty sure this was a book bullet from Carrie (cbl-tn). This is a memoir of a young man who was able to bring power to his village in Malawi by the building of a windmill. Quite an inspiring read.

I book talked this book to some classes just recently but couldn't get any takers. I was so impressed by the book I sent a copy to my dad who is an engineer and has a wind generator on his house.

I finished Chris Cleave's Little Bee. It's about a Nigerian refugee living illegally in England and is partly set in Nigeria. I thought it was a very moving and readable novel but it didn't give me a good feel for Nigeria as much of it was set in England. It did, however, convey the horrible situation that many refugees from that country faced.

I've just finished The Headhunter's Daughter second in a series that takes place in the Belgian Congo in the early 1950s. I think maybe it was supposed to e a cozy, but I didn't get that vibe. Just a so-so read.

>43 dudes22:
Sorry to hear that. I really liked the first in the series - The Witch Doctor's Wife

I just finished Tears of the Giraffe, the second book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I thought it was OK, but didn't live up to the first book.

COMPLETED Teatime for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith

My review:

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is asked to investigate possible match-fixing in the local football league.

More of the same, but that's not a criticism for this series :-).

I read The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, my first time with this author, and I was charmed.

Finally finished Summertime by J. M. Coetzee--Not as engaging as some of his other work, but still really fascinating. Full review written, adding it to the wiki now...

I squeezed in one last book, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith for Botswana. I actually didn't finish the last few pages until this morning, but since I read most of it in December I'm going to count it!

I managed to finish my last book of 2014 a few hours before midnight on the 31st, so Angolan The Book of Chameleons gets to be counted in this CAT! Happy new year everybody and see you over in 2015!