African Writers and Artists
Selected by the Bookshop
In his new book on African anti-colonialism, Analogue Africa, Jeremy Harding writes:
‘Colonialism has a stubborn historical persistence, despite the attrition of time and the fickleness of memory. Whether in the arts or the human sciences, African or non-African, works that engage with it have a similar, antithetical resilience. And they open onto a world of parallel information, often more rewarding than journalists’ copy filed from the continent in the late-colonial era.’
Inspired by Analogue Africa, for this week’s staff picks we've selected some of our favourite books by African artists and writers which contribute to what Harding calls ’the anti-colonial imagination’.
From the publisher:
A trailblazing collection of writing from Binyavanga Wainaina's extraordinary life, featuring an introduction from his long-time friend, Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieBinyavanga Wainaina was a seminal author and creative force, remembered as one…
From the publisher:
First published in 1967, Ernest Cole’s House of Bondage has been lauded as one of the most significant photobooks of the twentieth century, revealing the horrors of apartheid to the world for the first time and influencing generations…
From the publisher:
The new novel from the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature - 'a maestro' (Guardian). A captivating story of the intertwined lives of three young people coming-of-age in postcolonial East AfricaSelected as a book to look out for in…
From the publisher:
Too many of our convictions about the fifty-four nations of Africa come from non-African sources. Western media often treat the continent as a simulacrum of Western anxieties. In contrast, Jeremy Harding focuses on specific historical…
From the publisher:
Over the last three decades, the visual artist William Kentridge has garnered international acclaim for his work across media including drawing, film, sculpture, printmaking, and theater. Rendered in stark contrasts of black and white, his…
From the publisher:
Excavating the history of Marxism and Black revolutionary politicsRed Africa makes the case for a revolutionary Black politics inspired by Marxist anticolonial struggles in Africa. Contemporary debates on Black radicalism and…
From the publisher:
In The New Tribe, pioneering author Buchi Emecheta tells the tale of a young Nigerian boy adopted by a white family.Life changes overnight for the Arlingtons when an abandoned baby girl, Julia, arrives unexpectedly on their doorstep.…
From the publisher:
As Minister for Culture, the Honourable M. A. Nanga is ‘a man of the people’, as cynical as he is charming, and a roguish opportunist.At first, the contrast between Nanga and Odili, a former pupil who is visiting the ministry,…
From the publisher:
Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2022Discover an exhilarating novel about power and corruption set in a nation trapped in a cycle as old as time.‘A masterpiece for our times.…
From the publisher:
Translated from French by Mark PolizzottiWinner of an English PEN AwardShortlisted for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle/Gregg Barrios Prize for Translated Literature.A new masterwork of satire,…
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