Heart-Stirring Books About Africa You Must Read
Although my literary taste is ever evolving, one genre I can’t get enough of are foreign memoirs and travelogues. This has led me to a collection of heart-stirring books about Africa.
One continent I specifically enjoy reading non-fiction about is Africa. This category of books mesmerizes me; they’re eye-opening, emotional and moving. At the same time, some of the following books may include disturbing elements.
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My Heart is Africa by Scott Griffin
Location(s): Mainly Kenya, but with small passages in a variety of countries across the African continent.Â
Scott Griffin volunteered his services to fly his own plane for the AMREF Flying Doctors Service for two years. During that time, he settled into life in Nairobi, and explored Africa on many small aviation trips.
Griffin had such a unique African experience. It’s interesting to read his reactions and perspectives as told by a white Canadian living in Kenya. If you are searching for new books about Africa, My Heart is Africa is a worthwhile and absorbing read.
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Location: Sierra Leone
When looking into non-fiction books about Africa, it’s hard to avoid those about child soldiers. In A Long Way Gone, IshmaeI Beah pens a heart-rending account of the loss of his family and his spiral into a child killer. Yet, I loved this book because of the way he wrote with such careful love of his humble beginnings, and his later rehabilitation and success beyond the violence he had been forced to participate in.
His writing style is calm and simple which works to his advantage. He’s skilled at portraying more by saying less. His vulnerability is touching, and more so yet by his upfront honesty.
An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina
Location: Rwanda
An Ordinary Man is the memoir of Paul Rusesabagina, manager of Hotel Rwanda, the man for whom the movie Hotel Rwanda was based upon. If you’re interested in books about Africa, you must read about the Rwandan genocide.
Once again, this book is another overwhelming true story. Written with humanity and candor, it covers unthinkable events that transpired during the short but devastating Rwandan Genocide of 1994. Rusesabagina is faced with unimaginable choices in the face of threatening violence yet somehow finds the courage to do what’s right.
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibigaza
Location: Rwanda
A survivor of the Rwandan genocide, Immaculee Illibigaza recounts her shocking and sorrowful experience in Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.
In her recollection, she does not shy away from the suffering she endured to survive. In addition to this she touches upon her relationship with God in the face of incomprehensible atrocities. She spends three torturous months hiding in a bathroom with other survivors within a local pastor’s home. And she survives.
Her story is profound, touching and unforgettable.
The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley
Location(s): Somalia, Rwanda
Born in Kenya, Aidan Hartley spent his school years at boarding schools far away in England. Nevertheless, his writing clearly conveys that he has always been and will always be a loyal African.
The Zanzibar Chest cleverly intertwines the telling of two stories. The author explains his personal experiences as a journalist covering some of the most notable African incidents in the 1990’s. He also tells the tale of Peter Davey, his father’s best friend.
As a journalist, Aidan was on the frontlines of significant news assignments. His spellbinding reports of what he witnessed during certain events compared to what the news agencies decided to release to the public do not always match.
The life and death of Peter Davey was interesting, but these chapters didn’t hold my attention very well and were not based in Africa. This section covers Peter Davey’s personal diary about his life as a British officer in what today is the country of Yemen.
I loved The Zanzibar Chest regardless for its eye-opening candor, but please note that at times this book was extremely disturbing to read due to the brutal and unthinkable crimes committed by humans against other humans.
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Blue Clay People by William Powers
Location: Liberia
In 1999, William Powers went to Liberia as an aid-worker for the Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Subsequently, he spent two years living and breathing this somewhat forgotten country, spiralling through many personal emotions surrounding miscellaneous issues. I loved the way Powers wove his inner debate around poverty, conservation and political corruption.
Blue Clay People was a fascinating and enjoyable read. It was captivating to learn about Liberia, its people and culture. We hear so little about them in the West, but for news tied mainly to war.
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Location: South Africa
Comedian, TV personality and actor Trevor Noah pens a beautiful retelling of his Johannesburg childhood in Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood. Poverty, success, love and hate fill the pages of his brilliant memoir, his words woven with his signature humour.
Noah is brutally honest and unafraid. This is one of the finest memoirs I’ve read.
Casting a Fragile Thread by Wendy Kann
Location(s): Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)
I went into this book hoping for a read similar to Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, listed below, but discovered a much different personal history instead. There are many books about Africa that center on growing up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but I highly recommend picking up Casting a Fragile Thread.
This memoir speaks of another class of ex-pats altogether, those who flourished in wealth and lived in the thick of things in notable cities. I admired the gentle and genuine way the author wound her childhood around the passing of her younger sister Lauren.
What begins as a memory of Lauren turns into a touching and forthright recap of Wendy Kann’s years living on various continents and her family’s own sensitive history. A wonderful, poignant, read.
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller
Location(s): Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Zambia, Malawi
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood is one of those books about Africa you don’t want to put down, and the pages nearly turn themselves.
The author’s style of prose is eloquent and artistic, much like how a painter carefully chooses and mixes different shades and tints and hues of color to create a perfect picture. That is what Alexandra Fuller manages to do in her writing.
Fuller’s childhood in Africa is memorable and captivating. Her parents moved back to Africa from England when she was two, and they then lived in Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi.
Beginning in the seventies, there is much discussion of Rhodesian and area history, of civil war and war between white Africans and black Africans, blatant prejudice, alcoholism, and a beautiful but scorching Africa. It’s yet again another engrossing read.
Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier by Alexandra Fuller
Location(s): Zambia, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), Mozambique
Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier follows Fuller’s first book Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood and is set after she’s married with children. She has migrated to the U.S with her American husband and settled in Wyoming, but she returns to her homeland to explore a war-wounded Africa alongside a white African man simply referred to as “K”, a former Rhodesian War soldier.
While Fuller rambles at times, Scribbling the Cat remains a compelling African tale about war and history. It also addresses the reality of soldiers returning home forever changed and struggling to fit back into everyday life.
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller
Location(s): Kenya, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Zambia
In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Fuller chronicles the life of her charismatic mother, Nicola, from childhood to marriage to motherhood, exploring her courage, independence and struggles.
Life in Africa is not easy, but her mother’s greatest challenge comes from losing multiple children, and her sobriety.
Fuller’s signature writing again flows seamlessly. She weaves words flawlessly, making it difficult to put the book down.
Leaving Before The Rains Come by Alexandra Fuller
Location(s): Zambia
Although Leaving Before The Rains Come mainlynfocuses on the breakdown of Fuller’s marriage in America, there are bits and pieces dedicated to her memories of Africa.
Fuller dissects her marriage and recounts the interesting beginning of it in Zambia (where they met) before leaving for America. Fuller struggles to adjust to American life when her African ways are so deeply engrained in her.
Travel Light, Move Fast by Alexandra Fuller
Location(s): Zimbabwe, Zambia
If you enjoyed Alexandra Fuller’s first three memoirs listed above, you’ll also want to read Travel Light, Move Fast, packed with tales about her father.
On a trip to Budapest Fuller’s father becomes seriously ill. While she arrives in time to see him, inevitably it is his time. She accompanies her mother home to Africa with his ashes, and faces the sobering reality that he is gone.
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The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah
Location: Morocco
In The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca, Tahir Shah gives in to a longtime desire and moves his family from London to Casablanca.
Having fallen in love with Moroccan craftsmanship and architecture, he purchases a crumbling mansion, and painstakingly renovates it. He encounters headache after headache during the process as Moroccan and Islamic traditions and folklore intermingle with his day-to-day life, but he follows his dream nevertheless.
Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison
Location: Botswana
A passionate safari guide, Peter Allison works with both tourists and wild animals. In Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide, he pens entertaining stories about what happens when their worlds collide.
Allison shares some amusing tales and offers a revealing peek into landlocked Botswana, seventy percent of which is covered by the Kalahari Desert.
There’s Something Special About Africa
I noticed a trend with these books about Africa: I wanted to reread them as soon as I’d finished them.
Perhaps because the authors have managed to breathe soul, life and unapologetic honesty into their writing. There really is something special about Africa, and that essence leaps off the pages.
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