Granta 48: Africa

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #48

by Bill Buford (Editor)

Twelve writers describe the profound changes this continent is undergoing. With Lynda Schuster in Liberia as Doe falls, Gilles Peress in Rwanda after the massacres, Paul Theroux at a leper colony in Malawi, Sousa Jamba in Angola, Ryszard Kapuscinski and Abraham Verghese in Ethiopia, William Finnegan in South Africa, and William Boyd’s enchanting novella of an African filmmaker made good.

Genres: Travel, Essays, Africa, Anthologies, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

William Holmes Buford is an American author and journalist. He is the author of the books Among the Thugs and Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany. Buford was previously the fiction editor for The New Yorker, where he is still on staff. For sixteen years, he was the editor of Granta, which he relaunched in 1979. He is also credited with coining the term "dirty realism".

Reviews

[Stefani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several of the essays in this anthology so accurately depict the brutality and violence inherent in war-torn countries in Africa, I found it hard to read straight through without pausing for a breath. The essay on Rwanda was graphic not only in its description of a country descimated by war, but in its photographic evidence depicting bloated corpses, both human and animal, dusty remains of human bodies, riddled with holes and decay, and mass graves. "The Lepers of Moyo" by Paul Theroux drew me in with its description of a leper colony deep in the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although leprosy is not contagious, the people at the colony have been cast out from their villages as if they already dead. Paul has been brought there to teach English, but realizes that learning only passes the time; there is no need to prepare for the future. Time has no significance and the only thing to distinguish day from night is the scorching sun that beats down mercilessly in the early afternoon, scalding everything in its path.

There is such a long lineage of history that precedes these conflicts in Africa, I am left feeling like I only have a piece of the story. It definitely compels me to do more reading on this region of the world.

[Christopher Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent the first four months or so of 2010 travelling through Africa, beginning in Ghana and finishing in South Africa. I felt the heat of the equatorial region, and marvelled at the briefest twilights I'd ever experienced (day becomes night in almost the blink of an eye when you're around the equator). I felt the sun pounding down on me so hard I couldn't breathe, and I felt what remained of my breath taken from me by the magnificent things I saw. The people I met were wonderful - welcoming, curious about my adventure, and for the most part proud of who they were and where they came from. Since that time I have taken a huge amount of satisfaction from reading about the continent - though I must say that to really get the most from the literature of this amazing corner of the earth, it truly does help to have been there.

But if you have not, it helps to have a guide. Granta 48 is full of such guides, people to take you in hand and show you around their Africa. This collection of short pieces - some fiction, including by William Boyd, and some travel writing, including by Ryszard Kapuscinski - is a brilliant introduction, and will have you hungry for more.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Granta brings some understanding of the history that Africa has lived 20 years ago. History continues to repeat itself when the people do not know or heed their past. Sounds familiar to North America also.

[Hardcover Hearts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only did Bill Buford write a fantastic book in Among The Thugs, but he also edited one of my favorite issues of Granta.

Africa is a very complex continent to discuss, and it seemed to be well represented in this anthology of short essays and stories. What I most remember is that there is a story of an American ex-pat that is in Liberia during the onset of civil war. Nothing I read portrays how terrifying and confusing that time can be as well as she had in that essay. I highly recommend this edition for that essay and others included.