Africa Reading Challenge

[snurri]

Yup, still doing this. I had to track down a couple more books to add to the ones I had around; I picked up the Hari and the Halperin based on mentions in other people's lists. Here's mine:

Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali by D.T. Niane, trans. G.D. Pickett

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari

I Laugh So I Won't Cry: Kenya's Women Tell the Stories of Their Lives by Helena Halperin

The Heart of the Ngoni: Heroes of the African Kingdom of Segu by Harold Courlander and Ousmane Seko

Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi Wa'Thiong'O

I'll post about each book as I finish it.

Comments

[jocelina.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to hear what you think of the Halperin book. A professor recommended it to me and I've been meaning to read it myself.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I will definitely be posting about it! I wanted more books on Kenya, like on the recent political situation, but apparently the only region of the world that Americans are expected to read about is the Middle East. I was looking for books before Karen's reading, where we met, and the "Current Events" section was all Iraq, Iraq, Why America Has to Kill the World Before They Kill Us, Iraq, Pakistan, Iraq.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

Wizard of the Crow currently also links to Heart of the Ngoni.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Oops. Fixed, I think! Thanks for the heads-up.

not doing the full challenge

[rsheslin.livejournal.com]

Cool stuff! I really liked Washing of the Spears (although I admit to skimming over some of the nitty gritty -- the thing was about a gazillion pages long), but that's because I've been pretty South African/Zulu-centric in my interests (comes from idolizing Johnny Clegg.)

Of course, I've recently picked up Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, so we'll see if I move northward.

[experimeditor.livejournal.com]

I received an MA in African History at UW. I distinctly remembering reading Ngugi as a part of that (though it was many years ago) - what a marvellous writer! My guilty secret - I like him better than Achebe.

I don't have any further recommendations on fiction, except to read more Ngugi. If you want some non-fiction recommendations, though, I've got others . . .