Great African Reads discussion

What would you like to learn about in 2022?

For this project, every 3 months, we will read and discuss a nonfiction book about a topic concerning Africa. Any nonfiction is fair game: history, politics, commentary, theory, science, journalism, anthropology/ethnography, arts, etc. Here's what we've read so far.

Nonfiction books written by African authors are highly encouraged, though our nonfiction reads are not restricted to African or Diaspora authors.

Jan-Mar 2022: African Mythology
The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa | Discussion thread

Apr-Jun 2022: Historical time period of decolonization, independence movements, and liberation struggles
No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, 1963-74 | Discussion thread

Jul-Sep 2022: History book focusing on one country or region
Formation: The Making of Nigeria From Jihad to Amalgamation | Discussion thread

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Suggest Topics
Please suggest topics you'd like to read about in the thread below. We'll vote on topics by mid-December. The top 2 choices will guide us the first 2 quarters of 2022. We'll start discussing books for these two quarters in the end of December.

Please "second" the ideas you like! This helps us narrow down choices & build em up!

Here are a few ideas I'd like to toss out:
- Mining in Africa
- History book focusing on only 1 country
- Analysis of a conflict
- Nonfiction published by an African publisher (for example, Cassava Republic https://cassavarepublic.biz/product-c...)

I very much enjoyed our dive into the history of Northern Africa at the beginning of this year so I would vote for reading a history book focusing on only one country / specified region.
I would also be very much interested in non-fiction published by e.g. Cassava Republic!!!

Spirituality and belief systems

I support the idea of reading a history book focused on a region.

In addition, I'll add the following
Land systems and property ownership in Africa
African mythology

I would second African mythology. This might fit well with Queen Pokou on my TBR so some non-fiction to back it up would come in great :)))

I will second Spirituality and belief system.

Any last ideas before I put a poll up tomorrow?

Hi Everyone,

Nice to meet you all! (I’ve been in this group for a while, adding some of your reads to my list, but too busy to join your conversations. I have enjoyed reading your comments from the sidelines, though!)

I wanted to suggest This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. It’s uplifting and inspiring.

Another book on my list is They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak.

Excited to hear what you guys choose next!

~Krys

Great suggestions!
I would like to add a last minute topic: books on the historical period of decolonization / independence movements and struggles.

Ooh, I will second that, Wim!

Good suggestions Krys. This poll focuses on topics, but once we pick the topic we will be looking for specific book ideas, so hold tight!

Poll is up! Go vote!

Results are in!

For the 1st quarter of 2022 (Jan-Feb-Mar) we will read a nonfiction book about African mythology. Help us select a book.

For the 2nd quarter of the year (Apr-May-June), we'll dig into the historical time period of decolonization, independence movements, and liberation struggles. I'll put up a thread to start suggesting books on this topic in January.

Apologies, my friends, as I have been traveling without much internet access for the past several weeks. So here we are nearing the end of June and still haven't chosen our nonfiction topics for the rest of the year. Let's go!

Here is a poll to pick topics, from those suggested in this thread above that we didn't already cover this year.

Vote!