Great African Reads discussion

Alright 2020. First half of these will clear my bookshelf and the second half will finish up the Tour d'Afrique countries I missed. I had trouble finding books for a lot of these countries so instead of picking the book in advance I'll search for something actually available when the time comes.

[Edit March 2020: Replacing library reads with books on hand since libraries are closed due to coronavirus]

1 The Wretched of the Earth
2 Cutting the Vines of the Past: Environmental Histories of the Central African Rain Forest
3 State of Rebellion: Violence and Intervention in the Central African Republic
4 Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants, Impunity and State Formation
5 La guerre du Cameroun. L’invention de la Françafrique
6 Women and the War on Boko Haram: Wives, Weapons, Witnesses
7 She Called Me Woman
8 City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
9 Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Kenya
10 The Thing Around Your Neck
11 What Is the What
12 The travails of a first wife
13 Tour d'Afrique: Togo or Equatorial Guinea
14 Tour d'Afrique: Rwanda OR Les Bouts De Bois De Dieu (in French)
15 Tour d'Afrique: Niger OR Tomorrow's Battlefield : U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa
16 Tour d'Afrique: Mozambique: The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy
17 Tour d'Afrique: Gambia or Gabon [Missed-- come back to it]
18 Tour d'Afrique: Djibouti Le pays sans ombre
19 Tour d'Afrique: Burundi Baho!
20 Tour d'Afrique: Benin or Guinea-Bissau [Missed-- come back to it]
21 Tour d'Afrique: Zimbabwe
22 Tour d'Afrique: Botswana: When Rain Clouds Gather
23 Tour d'Afrique: Mauritius: Les rochers de Poudre d'Or
24 Une si longue lettre

Nice books Tinea! Some of them I certainly will explore further.

Great titles Tinea. Always some brilliant books on your reading list, and some non fiction that I am definitely going to check out

I like the way you put in the Tour d’Afrique books in to make it more flexible. I might borrow that idea.

Hmm, it's been a hard year for reading. Just putting this here as a reminder to myself if it ever looks like I'll catch up. Baby steps.

To read:
January: 20 Benin or Guinea-Bissau
February: 5 La guerre du Cameroun. L’invention de la Françafrique (making some progress on this one)
March: 17 Gambia or Gabon
April: 16 Mozambique or Swaziland
May: 6 Women and the War on Boko Haram: Wives, Weapons, Witnesses
June: 4 Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants, Impunity and State Formation

Does anyone have any good book recs in English or French for Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Gabon, Mozambique, or Swaziland? :)

I FINISHED A BOOK! Seven months into 2020 and I've knocked 1 of 7 off my TBR. Review of La guerre du Cameroun. L’invention de la Françafrique to come. Let's see if we can make up for lost time. :)

Congratulations Tinea! Looking forward to your review.

I've made it to March but am not even going in order anymore.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Was not too impressed with Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants, Impunity and State Formation. Review here.

Oh, and here is my review from "January."

That's (reading) life 😂. I am drifting from poetry to YA to poetry again which is completely different from my normal reading habit... Your list is really inspiring and I will most certainly join this challenge next year, too!
As to the recs, I could recommend Paulina Chiziane from Mozambique!

I was doing great until May, then if was downhill form there :) Hope you get back to it :)

Alright, alright, making some progress. Some reviews on the way.

January: 20 Tour d'Afrique: Benin or Guinea-Bissau
February: 5 La guerre du Cameroun. L’invention de la Françafrique
March: 17 Tour d'Afrique: Gambia or Gabon
April: 16 Tour d' Afrique: Mozambique: The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy (Thanks for the recommendations, Orgeluse!)
May: 6 Women and the War on Boko Haram: Wives, Weapons, Witnesses
June: 4 Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants, Impunity and State Formation
July: 8 City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
August: 18 Tour d'Afrique: Djibouti: Le pays sans ombre
September: 15 Tour d'Afrique: Niger
October: 10 The Thing Around Your Neck
November: 21 Tour d'Afrique: Zimbabwe
December: 13 Tour d'Afrique: Equatorial Guinea Shadows of Your Black Memory

Yeeeeeesssssss!
By the way: Shadows of Your Black Memory sounds interesting and is now on my tbr 😂!
I can highly recommend the short story collection by Adichie, it is the best story collection I have read in a while!
Le pays sans ombre is devoid of plot and was not really for me. If you should read it, I would be quite interested in your take on this collection!!

2020 was quite a year. Since I wasn't traveling or going inside eateries, I lost my typical reading venues in airplanes, buses, and cafés. My concentration was also... distracted.... despite lots of time alone. That said, I read some great books and did dent the to-be-reading bookshelf a bit! Here are all my books and reviews from this challenge:

February: La guerre du Cameroun. L’invention de la Françafrique | my review
April (Mozambique): The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy | my review
May: Women and the War on Boko Haram: Wives, Weapons, Witnesses | my review
June: Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants, Impunity and State Formation | my review
August (Djibouti): Le pays sans ombre | my review
October: The Thing Around Your Neck | my review

Tinea wrote: "2020 was quite a year. Since I wasn't traveling or going inside eateries, I lost my typical reading venues in airplanes, buses, and cafés. My concentration was also... distracted.... despite lots o..."

I had the same problem concentrating on reading for vast periods of time this year as routines were disrupted again and again... but despite all this I think we still managed to make it through a lot of inspiring titles!

It's been a weird year. I barely read anything between March and June and then ended up tearing through stuff at the end of the year.
I read The First Wife as well and ended up really enjoying it.