Five English-language novels by African women

These past months, I read five novels, all written in the last ten years by African women from different English-speaking countries/regions.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf Doubleday, 2013)
Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi (New York Penguin Press, 2013)
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue (Penguin Random House, 2016)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Penguin Random House, 2016)
The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016)

They were all interesting and engrossing, and cover a large swath of issues, especially the relationship between Africa and the United States of America (more directly in three of the novels).



 
 Americanah and Ghana Must Go both feature protagonists who live and/or have lived in the United States and in their African home country, in the United States for a long enough time to have enjoyed American success stories. Americanah describes especially well the tensions in the relationships: between Africans from the recent diaspora and African-Americans, between blacks and whites, between African returnees to the "homeland" and those who never left.
Behold the Dreamers, on the other hand, stars an immigrant family yearning for the American dream, and the lengths to which an immigrant will go to hold on to this goal.
Homegoing was one of my personal favorites, although not all may concur with me. It weaves together the story of two branches of a family - one remains in Africa, the other, through slavery, ends up in the United States.
The Book of Memory is the least entwined with the world outside Africa, in this case Zimbabwe. However there are many references to the Western world (which can be confusing, especially towards the beginning of the book); but one of the main leitmotivs is the experience of being an albino in a land where the majority has dark skin.

I thank Dr. Faith Adiele, Professor of African Literature at the California Center for the Arts, for introducing me to several of the books, and on clarifying the academic viewpoint on these novels.

Professor Faith Adiele introducing the author
 Yaa Gyasi at the CCA

The author of Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi, autographing
her book at the CCA.
New York Times article: May 8, 2017: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young African Immigrant

Update! Oprah Winfrey selected Behold the Dreamers for her book club.
Another update in 2020: The Vilcek Foundation rewarded Yaa Ngasi: https://vilcek.org/prizes/prize-recipients/yaa-gyasi/

Comments

Post a Comment

Please let me know your thoughts and questions. Also, if you feel that anything is incorrect, please let me know.
I need to moderate the comments, as in recent years there has been a spike in spam.

Popular posts from this blog

Recipe: Okra stew, adapted

Image
This is an adaptation of okra stew for Western kitchens. Okra is called "gombo" in Duala language (like "Gumbo" in the United States; the word arrived with the African slaves that were brought to the country). Fresh raw okra Ingredients Smoked turkey (drumsticks or wings) OR beef for stew   Onions, chopped Canned tomatoes (crushed) Bouillon cube 1-2 tbsp natural peanut butter (for example from health food store) with no added sugar Okra (fresh or frozen) – chopped, cap removed Salt/pepper If desired , scotch bonnet hot pepper, preferably red     Sauté chopped onions; add turkey or beef cut in pieces. Add chopped okra (part can be put in a blender with the tomatoes if preferred), crumbled bouillon cube, salt (not too much because of the bouillon cube and possibly salt in the turkey and peanut butter), pepper and some water; dilute peanut butter with some water and add to pot. Add hot pepper (whole) if desired. Cook over medium heat (after liquid boils) for a
Read more

Bibi Seck, Industrial Designer in New York City

Image
Ayse,  Bibi, and daughters  Bibi Seck is an industrial and product designer of Senegalese and Martiniquais descent,  introduced from afar by Fatimata Ly, a Senegalese ceramics designer I wrote about last year. As a matter of fact, I had been hearing about him and his spouse, Ayse Birsel, for a while already: the New York African design community is not that large, and especially an African married to a fellow Middle Easterner (Turks are Middle Easterners as well as Europeans, with literally a foot in both worlds; and of course we had the Ottoman Empire for six centuries!). Moroso-M'Afrique collection Bibi’s stools, made in Senegal, of recycled plastic, are currently exhibited at the Museum of Art and Design’s Global Africa show. I interviewed him last week to find out what his path had been to this point. Bibi was raised between Europe and Senegal.He had planned on studying architecture at first, but then found his true vocation in Industrial Design at the Ec
Read more

West Cameroon - festive traditional dress

Image
Women dancing in celebration, wearing matching "kabas" The neighborhood chief speaking to the community In December, I was invited to a weekend of festivities in Bamendjou, West Cameroon. The occasion was the honoring of my friend, Jeanne Ntopa, to the title of Mafeu. This title appears to have been the title for the Queen Mother, but as I understood it, can now be given to women who have done much good to their community and thus are elevated to Queen Mother status. Among the Bamileke from the region called the Grasslands by the German colonialists, there are many (related) languages. Thus the language spoken in Bamendjou is only barely understood by our Mafeu's own spouse, who is from the Dschang area. I understood nothing at all on the first day; however, I could sense the joy and pride during the Mafeu's neighborhood community celebration. On the second day, the Bamendjou traditional chief, in this title since over 60 years, spoke in French as he ackno
Read more