I don’t know about you but I love to read books and especially about faraway places. It’s my form of escapism – the minute you get sucked into the story you are miles away, on an adventure, exploring new places and experiencing new things. Reading can give you an in-depth understanding of a place and its people which is why we have come up with a fantastic reading list for Africa. It’s a varied list with some historical and fact based, some light fiction, some children’s books, adventure yarns and some more serious heart-rending true stories. Not all the books are for everyone but there is bound to be at least one you enjoy! These are some of our favourites:
Factual
Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles – Richard Dowden
The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence – Martin Meredith
Africa: A Biography of the Continent – John Reader
These are lengthy books that cover a huge amount of history and politics in detail. Brilliant for getting a really good idea of how Africa has come to be the way it is today. Africa : A Biography even starts with the geology of Africa so truly a full history!
Fiction
No 1 Ladies Detective Agency – Alexander McCall-Smith
When the Lion Feeds – Wilbur Smith
Out of Africa – Karen Blixen
A Bend in the River – VS Naipaul
Dark Safari – John Bierman
What is the What? – Dave Eggers
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
The Famished Road – Ben Okri
The Map of Love – Ahdaf Soueif
Blood River – Tim Butcher
Dark Star Safari – Paul Theroux
Born Free – George Adamson
These books are a mix of styles from the gentle story set in Botswana of Alexander McCall Smith to the fast-moving blockbuster of Wilbur Smith. VS Naipaul has written about being an Asian in Idi Amin’s newly independent Uganda whilst John Bierman’s book is about Stanley’s search for Dr Livingstone in the Victorian era. Dave Egger’s book is about his friend who as a young boy travelled thousands of miles on foot to escape Sudan. The Poisonwood Bible is about a family of missionaries in the Congo in the Sixties whilst the Map of Love is a two-tiered story about life in Egypt in modern and Victorian times. Blood River is an excellent travelogue about travelling down the Congo River, Dark Star Safari is an epic trip across Africa and Out of Africa is a romantic story set in colonial Kenya. And not forgetting the book that led to the film Born Free and the subsequent Born Free Foundation, all about raising Elsa the lion cub.
Children’s
The Baboons Who Went This Way And That – A McCall-Smith
The Girl Who Married a Lion – A McCall-Smith
Stories of Africa – Gcina Mhlophe
The Fire Children – Eric Maddern
These are a range of fantastic stories covering many of the most popular African myths and fables including the Fire Children which is a West African creation myth. These books are great fun to read with children and offer a great insight into the local cultures of Africa.
