Great African Reads discussion

1. Mauritius: Les rochers de Poudre d'Or
2. Botswana: When Rain Clouds Gather
3. Niger: Misères et grandeurs ordinaires
4. Rwanda: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
5. Comoros: Tropique de la violence
6. Gabon: Mema
7. Equatorial Guinea: Shadows of Your Black Memory
8. Gambia: The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia
9. Togo: Cola Cola Jazz
10. Madagascar: Lost People: Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar
11. Zimbabwe: Nervous Conditions
12. Sao Tomé and Príncipe: Chocolate Islands: Cocoa, Slavery, and Colonial Africa
13. Benin: Agõtĩme: Her Legend
14.
15.
16. eSwatini: When the Ground Is Hard
17.
18. Western Sahara: Nomads and Nation-Building in the Western Sahara: Gender, Politics and the Sahrawi
19.
20.
21 Burundi: Baho!
22.
23. Guinea-Bissau & Cape Verde: No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, 1963-74
24. Seychelles: The Edge of Eden

Nice list! I can recommend Thread of Gold Beads for Benin - I read it in 2019 and it was lovely.

You can take a look at The Sabi for Swaziland or When Hoopoes Go to Heaven.

Great way of tackling this challenge!!!
The island states are really the most tricky ones - for the Seychelles there is the kindle version of Voices: Short stories from the Seychelles Islands by Glynn Burridge, but I have not read that yet. He is also the author of Kolony.

A quick and easy read for Swaziland is When the Ground Is Hard by Malla Nunn.

How were the books you read on The Gambia and Madagascar?

Annette wrote: "How were the books you read on The Gambia and Madagascar?"

Hi Annette! I haven't read them yet-- but promise I'll write a review later this year when I read them as part of this challenge!

Chiquinho for Cape Verde, Chaka for Swaziland, and The Edge of Reason for Seychelles. I haven’t read them yet but they are on my TBR for this challenge.

I finished my January read, Baho! by Roland Rugero. I read in French but my short review is in English, here.

Thank you for all these fantastic suggestions! I'll be picking them up as I go along!

I finished my January book, Baho! (Burundi!), February's Tropic of Violence (Comoros!) and read ahead for When Rain Clouds Gather (Botswana!). I'm trying to finish all 18 books listed (books from the remaining African countries I've never read a book about or from), so I'll keep trying to read ahead a bit and listing remaining books in that book's slot whenever a space clears.

Baho and Tropic of Violence were both good stories with well-developed senses of place, but When Rain Clouds Gather was like an old growth tree next to saplings. A layered, wise book centering the intellectual and emotional life of rural villagers.

Great strategy, Tinea, and good progress!! For Cabo Verde I have The Madwoman of Serrano on my TBR. I am planning to read it for my Bingo (African Island) :)).

Continuing with my liberal attachment to the rules of this challenge, I've switched my March and April assignments to match the books I stowed in my suitcase on my March and April travels.

For March, I finished The Edge of Eden for the Seychelles, with my review here: an easy, fun read, but recycling colonial tropes.

For April, I'll stick with the Indian Ocean islands and read Les rochers de Poudre d'Or by Nathacha Appanah, who also wrote February's Comoros book, Tropic of Violence. This time my copy is in the original French.

I've rounded out the Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles and Comoros, with Mauritius, finishing Les rochers de Poudre d'Or, a historical fiction novel telling a few possible stories of the journey from India to Mauritius of Indian laborers, sitting in the special cognitive dissonance of the late-1800s British Empire after the abolition of slavery within an economic system wholly dependent on forced labor. The stories explore the joke of choice, contracts, and labor protections as people are tricked, desperate, or forced into effective enslavement. Beautifully written. I read it in French. Here is my review.

For May, my original Gambia choice, The Order of Nature, is unavailable across all the libraries and book stores I searched, so I'm replacing it with one I think may interest the group of us who have gotten absorbed in African-centered African history this year: The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia. Reviews look good but I expect I won't finish it within the month! Hoping we hit a few of the short and easy books on my list at some point this year!

I've finished my May book, The World and a Very Small Place in Africa: A History of Globalization in Niumi, the Gambia, and wrote a review here. Super interesting to read a 500-year plain old historical survey for a single location in West Africa while still muddling through A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution, our nonfiction read from January, which meanders and hops across space and time. I feel much better situated to follow Toby Green's big multifarious claims after this traditional chronicle.

On to June, with Nomads and Nation-Building in the Western Sahara: Gender, Politics and the Sahrawi.

Both look very interesting, Tinea. Thanks for the review, I'll add it to the list.

I finished June's Nomads and Nation-Building in the Western Sahara: Gender, Politics and the Sahrawi, a gender ethnography set inside women's tents in an Algerian Sahrawi refugee camp. It was interesting enough and would make a readable, if occasionally too 'anthropology PhD lit review,' choice if you plan to visit Western Sahara / Sahawri communities or want to learn about Sahawri culture. Review is here.

My July book is No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, 1963-74, and I will count it for both the countries in the sub-title, because the book I found that was Cape Verde-specific just doesn't look very good. And I'm feeling behind. :)

For August, I've got a small set of short stories in French by Nigerien author Adamou Ide, Misères et grandeurs ordinaires. I had to add this book to Goodreads, so I'm going in blind and curious how it will be! I'l probably start this now and read it alongside No Fist, as I need a little fiction break.

Carolien wrote: "Nice list! I can recommend Thread of Gold Beads for Benin - I read it in 2019 and it was lovely...."

The author is Nigerian, but I guess it's set in Benin? It's available as a kindle book for only $3.

George P. wrote: "Carolien wrote: "Nice list! I can recommend Thread of Gold Beads for Benin - I read it in 2019 and it was lovely...."

The author is Nigerian, but I guess it's set in Benin? It's av..."

Set in Benin, yes.

I finished my August book, Misères et grandeurs ordinaires by Nigerien author Adamou Ide today, while miraculously still in August! A short review is here: simple short stories pulled from different types of lives across Niger, with abrupt endings and occasionally too moralizing. Overall enjoyable, though. I read it in French.

I have nearly caught up!

I finished July's bittersweet communiqué, No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, 1963-74, today, and read October's sweet When the Ground Is Hard in one day earlier this week.

I haven't started September's Agõtĩme: Her Legend but read another book from my list, the moving classic Shadows of Your Black Memory, instead.

Reviews all coming soon.

You made great progress, and read some interesting books!

While reviews-to-write pile up, reading continues. I'm down to 3 books left to finish this challenge and to complete my Tour d'Afrique!

Still on the to-be-read pile:
- Chocolate Islands: Cocoa, Slavery, and Colonial Africa
- Cola Cola Jazz
- Lost People: Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar

Just Madagascar and Togo to go!!

I reviewed Chocolate Islands: Cocoa, Slavery, and Colonial Africa about Sao Tome and Principe: read it here. I wasn't impressed.