Great African Reads discussion

I will go for the full Bingo (edited on 31st January, 2020):

Regional Group Read
- finished Nineveh by Henrietta Rose-Innes (3 to 4 stars)

Free Choice
- finished Rock Alphabet by Henrietta Rose-Innes (5 stars)

50 African Women List
- finished Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo (4 to 5 stars)

Female African Author
- finished Green Lion by Henrietta Rose-Innes (4 stars)

Award Winning Book
- finished Stay with Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (4.5 stars)

From the Horn of Africa
- finished Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Somali poet Warsan Shire (5 stars)

Written in French
- finished Akissi Tome 2 - Super-héros en plâtre by Marguerite Abouet (3 stars)
- finished Akissi Tome 3 - Vacances dangereuses by Marguerite Abouet (4 stars)
- finished Akissi (Tome 5) - Mixture magique by Marguerite Abouet (5 stars)
- finished Akissi (Tome 6) - Sans amis by Marguerite Abouet (4 stars)
- finished Akissi (Tome 7) - Faux départ by Marguerite Abouet (3 stars)

Published 2010 - 2020
- finished Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika (3.5 stars)

genre fiction (e.g. crime)
-finished Grk: Operation Tortoise by Joshua Doder (1.5 stars)

non-fiction
- finished: Licht und Schatten in Namibia: Alltag in einem Traumland by Anna Mandus (3 stars)

published 1970 - 1980
- dnf-ed halfway through: Karnak Café by Naguib Mahfouz

African Writers Series
- finished The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing (5 stars)

translated from French or a language other than English
- finished La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono (3.5 stars)

Theme: Migration / Displacement
- finished The January Children by Safia Elhillo (5 stars)

published by indie press
- finished Baho! by Roland Rugero (4 stars)

author under 30 by the time of publication
- finished A Warning to the House That Holds Me by Somali-British poet Amina Jama (4.5 stars)

For the category "Female African Author", I have started Green Lion by Henrietta Rose-Innes.

For the category "From the Horn of Africa" I have started the short story collection The Land Without Shadows by Abdourahman A. Waberi from Djibouti which will probably take me some time as I usually do not read through short story collections in one go.

I finished Green Lion by Henrietta Rose-Innes today, another enjoyable book I can only recommend!

I have just finished Akissi Tome 2 - Super-héros en plâtre by Marguerite Abouet, a 3 star read, entertaining and similar to Akissi Tome 1 - Attaque de chats. These are easy to read funny comics in French depicting the world of Akissi, an independent little girl, her family and friends in the Cote d'Ivoire. So far, in each volume there are around 7 short individual stories.

My plan is to work my way through the rest of the series this year. My goal is to read the entire series in French (at least the volumes that are available to me) before I can tick off the Bingo field.
And I am looking forward especially to the later volumes as Akissi seems to grow up in the course of the series. I am curious as to how this is depicted.

I finished Rock Alphabet by Henrietta Rose-Innes which fits the category "Free Choice".

As my reading this year is progressing quite well I have just decided to go for the full Bingo :))!

I started February with Akissi Tome 3 - Vacances dangereuses by Marguerite Abouet, the best of the series so far. An easy and entertaining read in French focussing on the adventures of Akissi, Fofana and other children during their stay at Akissi's grandparents in the countryside.

Orgeluse wrote: "I started February with Akissi Tome 3 - Vacances dangereuses by Marguerite Abouet, the best of the series so far. An easy and entertaining read in French focussing o..."

I've only read the first tome of Akissi, and really enjoyed it. You make me want to read the other volumes as well!

Valerie wrote: "Orgeluse wrote: "I started February with Akissi Tome 3 - Vacances dangereuses by Marguerite Abouet, the best of the series so far. An easy and entertaining read in F..."
I have recently finished the fifth tome Akissi (Tome 5) - Mixture magique which I now consider to be the best so far as it has a background story and three quite charming fairy tales embedded with Akissi and her friends / family playing key roles in these tales.
I also like the bonus pages in each of the volumes.

I have just finished Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika. It was a quick and solid three-star read (maybe 3.5).
The protagonist is a 75-year-old Nigerian woman living on her own in San Francisco. She is quite a flamboyant character and an independent spirit, so the story deals with what happens when she is faced with physical weaknesses and the threat of losing her independence.
I "only" gave it 3.5 stars as there are various topics mentioned but not dealt with in-depth (the book only has 118 pages but it not only deals with becoming frail but also with mixed ethnic neighbourhoods, certain aspects of Nigerian history, racism in the US and homelessness).
The writing style is a bit peculiar - the entire story is told in the first-person narrative but perspectives shift from one chapter to the next or even within one chapter. Though I did not find it difficult to make out who is talking, I can imagine that this is not for everyone BUT I would definitely recommend it :)

Orgeluse wrote: "I have just finished Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika. It was a quick and solid three-star read (maybe 3.5).
The protagonist is a 7..."

This has been on my list for a while. I'll definitely try it.

Great! When you will have finished it, tell me what you think of the ending!

Orgeluse wrote: "For the category "From the Horn of Africa" I have started the short story collection The Land Without Shadows by Abdourahman A. Waberi from Djibouti which will probably..."

I had to put this short story collection aside as it was not my cup of tea... I will probably try it again with more time at hand. In the meantime I will be looking for other literature matching this category.

For the category "From the Horn of Africa" I have just finished Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Kenyan-born Somali poet and writer Warsan Shire. This was an intense 4 star read I can highly recommend also for readers who are not that much into poetry!

I will also read Fuchsia by Ethiopian poet Mahtem Shiferraw and "A Warning to the House that holds me" by Somali poet Amina Jama, thus turning this category into a poetic one.

After having read 5 volumes of Marguerite Abouet's Akissi Series I have decided to round off the category "Written in French".

Great, you're making good progress!
Teaching My Mother is on my TBR takedown, I'm looking forward to it.

Orgeluse wrote: "After having read 5 volumes of Marguerite Abouet's Akissi Series I have decided to round off the category "Written in French"."

I think that is fair enough! Hope you enjoyed them.

I finished our group read Stay with Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ which was a conflict ridden, plot-heavy novel. The author definitely knows how to spin her yarn :)

I could just tick off square Nr 9 as I have finished Joshua Doder's Grk: Operation Tortoise that my nephew had on his shelf and which is supposedly set on the Seychelles. We both agreed it was a 2-3 star read only but served the purpose of fitting the category of genre fiction😊

I finished square No 10 (author under 30 at the time of publication). I read A Warning to the House That Holds Me by Amina Jama, another poetry collection which is highly recommendable! The Somali-born poet can also be seen online performing her poems which is an experience one should not miss!!!

Orgeluse wrote: "I finished square No 10 (author under 30 at the time of publication). I read A Warning to the House That Holds Me by Amina Jama, another poetry collection which is..."

I had never heard of this author, so thanks for the recommendation!

Orgeluse wrote: "For the category "From the Horn of Africa" I have just finished Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Kenyan-born Somali poet and writer Warsan Shire. This was an..."

I listened to Warsan Shire read her collection on audiobook and thought it really powerful! I look forward to hearing what you think of Fuchsia; I’ve been thinking of checking out that one and The Careless Seamstress.

Orgeluse wrote: "I finished square No 10 (author under 30 at the time of publication). I read A Warning to the House That Holds Me by Amina Jama, another poetry collection which is..."

I’m definitely going to look up their online performance! Thank you for the recommendation! =D

Erin wrote: "Orgeluse wrote: "For the category "From the Horn of Africa" I have just finished Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Kenyan-born Somali poet and writer Warsan Shire


Thanks a lot for pointing out The Careless Seamstress to me!
It sounds great and is on my TBR! I am so glad that this year I re-discovered poetry and to watch life performances online is absolutely fascinating!

I have just finished another poetry collection: The January Children by Sudanese-American poet Safia Elhillo. It falls into the category of Theme: Migration / Displacement.
I can highly recommend this collection also for those who are not drawn to poetry as it has a certain narrative structure and is extremely well crafted.
The topics depicted in the collection are belonging, the notions of home and nationality in the face of emmigration, as well as the effects of displacement on family history and what is passed on from one generation to the next. Also the tensions that are generated by being Arab-African are explored particularly by references to the Egyptian singer Abdelhalim Hafez.

This morning I finished our Regional Read La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono from Equatorial Guinea which fits the category "published in a language other than English".
It was a very informative read as it is set in the early 2000s and depicts Fang life in a remote village on the country's mainland close to the border with Gabon.
The story is told from the perspective of an orphaned teenage girl who lives with her mother's family under the strict regime of her grandparents.
When she becomes more and more aware that she is a lesbian, her life becomes even more unbearable as it is demanded of her to attract a rich husband, get married at the age of 16 and have children.
In parts, this novella reminded me of the literary quality of YA novels, in other parts it provided passages in which a character would explain in an informative tone certain gender related issues to the more or less naive protagonist and then again the novella contained a lot of (involuntarily?) funny passages - esp. the depiction of the grandmother in her desperation though the story itself is rather dreadful, so I am not sure if the humour I felt was really intended...
Due to these literary inconsistencies I only rated it 3.5 stars but would recommend it nevertheless!!

Only four more categories to go :))

For the category "published by indie press" I will go for Roland Rugero's novel Baho!. According to the cover it is the first novel from Burundi to be translated into English and the author (born in 1986) is said to be the "leading writer of Burundi's younger generation" (quote by Martin Ntirandekura).
I am quite excited about this find and will start reading today!

I discovered that The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing is on the African Writers Series list. As I read this excellent 5 star novel back in Februrary, I will use it for this category here.

Orgeluse wrote: "I discovered that The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing is on the African Writers Series list. As I read this excellent 5 star novel back in Februrary, I will use it for..."

Always nice to find a book that can be used for multiple purposes!

You can say that again :))) Though this one is only used for this challenge here :)

I finished Licht und Schatten in Namibia: Alltag in einem Traumland by Anna Mandus, a depiction of life of the white middle-class of German descent in today's Namibia. A solid 3 star read though I must admit that I expected a bit more depths...

Two more to go :))

Well done on your progress! You've had some lovely ones this year.

Carolien wrote: "Well done on your progress! You've had some lovely ones this year."

Absolutely, and I am really enjoying these challenges!! I still have "The Gold Diggers" ahead of me (as an audio-read for the Random African Travels Challenge) that was one of your recommendations!

For next year I am already planning to also give the TBR takedown a try given that this challenge will continue :))

These challenges force one to read much wider and I keep discovering new authors that I love. My favourite challenge has been the Random Africa one as I end up with countries that would never occur to me - Sao Tome and Principe would never make it into my world otherwise.

The core of my African reading this year actually is part of a challenge in a different group which worked out very well.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Carolien wrote: "These challenges force one to read much wider and I keep discovering new authors that I love. My favourite challenge has been the Random Africa one as I end up with countries that would never occur..."

It definitely broadens one's horizon. Last year only I discovered the existence of CAR. I must admit I had not heard of this country before let alone come across literature from there and was really excited to discover Makombo Bamboté and one of his works in French...
I have just had a glimpse into this other group and your inspiring list and discovered that you read and recommended Awu's Story: A Novel which I have nominated for one of the regional reads next year 😊. It sounds promising!

With some interruption I finished Baho! by Burundi author Roland Rugero. It was an interesting read also as far as the style is concerned. It contains allusions to the Bible, Burundian sayings and tales and probably more that I did not get because of my lack of knowledge of Burundian culture, but exactly this made it a very interesting read!

One more to go :)))

Well done on you progress!

Thank you! I have really enjoyed it!

Congrats-- plenty of time this year for the last one! Thanks for so many good recommendations!

Thank you, Tinea, and thank you as well for your recommendations but also for moderating in this group!!!!

Thank you for participating in this year’s bingo challenge!

Would you like to see a new bingo challenge for 2021?
If so, please add any suggestions for categories / challenges / bingo squares ni this year’s bingo thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I have to admit I dnf-ed Karnak Café by Naguib Mahfouz halfway through for my last category "published 1970-1980".
The reason for dnf-ing this novella was its pace. The story is told from the perspective of a male narrator who discovers the little café while waiting for his watch to be repaired in a nearby shop. He then becomes a regular customer in Karnak Café, because the café is run by Qurunfula, a once famous bellydancer (she is said to have modernized bellydancing in the 1940s) and the narrator is still intrigued by her so he shows up on a regular basis. So far so good.

The café is frequented by only very few customers among them a group of young people. As the story is told in the first-person narrative from the perspective of an outsider, the reader is only presented with what this narrator overhears (which is not much) and thinks (which is not much, either). When the young people disappear for a while, there are rumours that they got arrested and Qurunfula is rather worried but when they appear again life continues as it was before the disappearance. This is when I quit reading as this way of narration is not at all my cup of tea. I would have been more interested in learning more about the inner world of the young people, but those who like e.g. Thomas Mann's Mario and the Magician or Mercè Rodoreda's Jardí vora el mar will probably like Karnak Café as well!

Life's too short and there are too many books. I've given up feeling obliged to wade through those that I do not enjoy. Good luck with finding something you enjoy for your next read

Carolien wrote: "Life's too short and there are too many books. I've given up feeling obliged to wade through those that I do not enjoy. Good luck with finding something you enjoy for your next read"

Exactly my motto now! I had a couple of mediocre reads lately (basically altogether 2-3 stars according to the goodreads rating system) and this made me more strict. But I also have some really promissing titles on my TBR for 2021 to be happy about!

I saw you didn't love As the Crow Flies either. I hope you have some nice ones coming up.

Carolien wrote: "I saw you didn't love As the Crow Flies either. I hope you have some nice ones coming up."

Just now I am thinking of how to write a review on that one as this helps to get to terms with what one has read especially as it is such a short but also complex novella - complex in the sense that it contains "a rich tapestry of voices", although I would replace "rich" with "a few too many" to be honest :))) ...
If I manage to come up with some sort of a review I will post it :)

"A rich tapestry of voices" in a novella length work sounds ominous. I have got Kintu to hand and my first read for the MENA challenge -The Pearl That Broke Its Shell, both of which bode well for my 2021 reading.

Orgeluse wrote: "Just now I am thinking of how to write a review on that one as this helps to get to terms with what one has read especially as it is such a short but also complex novella - complex in the sense that it contains "a rich tapestry of voices", although I would replace "rich" with "a few too many" to be honest :))) ..."

I remember I did like As the Crow Flies, though I read the original version in French and it must be a book hard to translate, very poetic. I especially loved the language and the atmosphere created.

Carolien wrote: ""A rich tapestry of voices" in a novella length work sounds ominous. I have got Kintu to hand and my first read for the MENA challenge -The Pearl That Broke Its Shell, both of which..."

This seems to be a great title! I am looking forward to your thoughts on this one and will start the MENA challenge with the group read for Jan-Feb.