African Series
The Illustrated Things Fall Apart
This special, large-format, lavishly-illustrated edition of Things Fall Apart, 'Africa's best loved novel', is a timely tribute to 'the father of modern African Literature'. It is published to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of a book now considered a classic of African and World Literature. This edition uniquely blends the enduring simplicity of Achebe's tale with the creative visual talents of some of Nigeria's best and bright contemporary artists. The result is a book that will appeal to lovers of African Literature and Art the world over. A treasured testament to the art of story-tellling, Things Fall Apart Illustrated is bound to become a collector's item.
Chinua Achebe: Tributes and Reflections By Nana Ayebia Clarke
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) is widely recognized as the founding father of modern African literature in English. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, not only contested European narratives about Africa, but also challenged assumptions about the form and function of the novel.
Throughout his long career, Achebe was a voice for the peoples of Africa and also a formative influence on a new generation of African writers. This volume of tributes and reflections is a fitting testament to his legacy.
Throughout his long career, Achebe was a voice for the peoples of Africa and also a formative influence on a new generation of African writers. This volume of tributes and reflections is a fitting testament to his legacy.
Challenge of the Barons By Lekan Are
In the fictional country of Kato, a successful and much-loved academic, Jungu, comes face to face with academic colonialism in the guise of American economic aid to the poor African country. Highly qualified Africans are passed over in favour of "experts" from the donor country, and students do not receive the education which is their due. Jungu comes into tense confrontation with the American dean, in his efforts to correct the policy and restore academic dignity.
Man-Eaters of Kumaon By Jim Corbett (eBook)
Jim Corbett was every inch a hero, something like a "sahib" Davy Crockett: expert in the ways of the jungle, fearless in the pursuit of man-eating big cats, and above all a crack shot. Brought up on a hill-station in north-west India, he killed his first leopard before he was nine and went on to achieve a legendary reputation as a hunter. Corbett was also an author of great renown. His books on the man-eating tigers he once tracked are not only established classics, but have by themselves created almost a separate literary genre. Man Eaters of Kumaon is the best known of Corbett's books, one which offers ten fascinating and spine-tingling tales of pursuing and shooting tigers in the Indian Himalayas during the early years of this century. The stories also offer first-hand information about the exotic flora, fauna, and village life in this obscure and treacherous region of India, making it as interesting a travelogue as it is a compelling look at a bygone era of big-game hunting.
Dark Times Are Over? By Olu Obafemi
This play satirises the decay in the university system in Nigeria as symptomatic of larger social ills: prostitution, religious zeal and cultism, corruption and social injustice.
In the drama, a young woman, Beatrice, is raped by a group of cultists. The perpetrators are brought to court. But as the judge turns out to be an aunt of one of the cultists, the court is corrupted as she bribes the police to release her nephew.
About the Author:
Olu Obafemi is a playwright, poet and scholar. He is Professor of English at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). He is a notable critic of contemporary theatre in Nigeria.
Two Plays By Niyi Osundare
In the first play, The Man who Walked Away, a principled and sensitive young man who has served a multi-national company for decades, is ‘retrenched’, with severe consequences for his self-respect and his family. In the second play, The Wedding Car, a corrupt businessman and politician exercises his ambition for his daughter to marry ostentatiously, though things do not go according to plan.
About the Author
Niyi Osundare
Poet, dramatist, critic, essayist, and media columnist, Niyi Osundare has authored over ten volumes of poetry, two books of selected poems, four plays, a book of essays, and numerous articles on literature, language, culture, and society. He regards his calling as a writer and his profession as a teacher as essentially complementary.
He was educated on three continents: B.A. (Honours) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, M.A. from the University of Leeds in England, and Ph.D. from York University, Toronto, Canada. The wide and varied exposure accruing from this has proved very useful for his writing and teaching careers. Born in Nigeria, one of the most linguistically and culturally heterogeneous countries in the world, he learnt early in life the complexities and challenges of diversity.
He began his teaching career at the University of Ibadan in 1974 and rose to the position of full professor there in 1989. From 1993 to 1997, he was the chair of its Department of English. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990 to 1991, and in 1991/92, an associate professor of English at the University of New Orleans, where he returned as full professor in 1997, and was selected university research professor in 2001. His areas of specialization are African literature, literature of the African diaspora, literary stylistics, sociolinguistics, and creative writing
About the Author
Niyi Osundare
Poet, dramatist, critic, essayist, and media columnist, Niyi Osundare has authored over ten volumes of poetry, two books of selected poems, four plays, a book of essays, and numerous articles on literature, language, culture, and society. He regards his calling as a writer and his profession as a teacher as essentially complementary.
He was educated on three continents: B.A. (Honours) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, M.A. from the University of Leeds in England, and Ph.D. from York University, Toronto, Canada. The wide and varied exposure accruing from this has proved very useful for his writing and teaching careers. Born in Nigeria, one of the most linguistically and culturally heterogeneous countries in the world, he learnt early in life the complexities and challenges of diversity.
He began his teaching career at the University of Ibadan in 1974 and rose to the position of full professor there in 1989. From 1993 to 1997, he was the chair of its Department of English. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990 to 1991, and in 1991/92, an associate professor of English at the University of New Orleans, where he returned as full professor in 1997, and was selected university research professor in 2001. His areas of specialization are African literature, literature of the African diaspora, literary stylistics, sociolinguistics, and creative writing
The Bikoroa Plays By J.P. Clark
The Bikoroa Plays is a major of cycle of three plays, The Boat, The Return Home and Full Circle that were first staged in 1981 at the University of Lagos and the National Theatre of Nigeria. The Boat is a prose drama that documents Ngbilebiri history. The Return Home is a historical play set in the 1920s. Full Circle is set in the 1950s and concerns a brothers' quarrel in a traditional setting. The three plays are characterised by their dramatic qualities and unique poetic voice.
The Broken Bond By Grace Ukala
From the begining of her life eighteen year-old Belinda has struggled hard against the immorality, oppressions and crime prevalent in the Nigerian society in which she lives. Her mother dead and her father a drunk, she chooses to work as a riceseller rather than become a prostitute. Her search for truth and spiritual development leads her through traumatic experiences. Through poverty she learns self- reliance, through physical and psychic battles with a friend in a polygamous marriage she learns to trust in her own strength. And when Chief Ojo offers her family freedom and marriage into riches Belinda must decide between the boy she loves and marrying a man for money, and her family's survival.
Season of Crimson Blossoms by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
“A rich and vibrant novel with shades of brutality, romance and the pressures of a close-knit community. ” —Leila Aboulela, author of The Kindness of Enemies
“A powerful and compelling debut. The taboo subject of an older woman’s sexuality, portrayed with courage, skill, and delicacy, is explored in the context of the criminal underworld and the corrupt politics that exploits it. This is a novel to be savored. ” —Zoe Wicomb, author of October
Season of Crimson Blossoms tells the captivating story of an illicit affair between a twenty-five-year-old street gang leader, Hassan Reza, and a devout fifty-five-year-old widow and grandmother, Binta Zubairu, who yearns for intimacy after the sexual repression of her marriage and the pain of losing her first son. This story of love and longing—set in a conservative Muslim community in Nigeria—reveals deep emotions that defy age, class, and religion.
This novel gives a unique perspective on life and relationships in Northern Nigeria, a region vastly under-represented in the body of world literature.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim‘s short story collection The Whispering Trees was long-listed for the Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2014, with the title story shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. Abubakar is a Gabriel Garcia Marquez Fellow (2013) and a Civitella Ranieri Fellow (2015). In 2014, Abubakar was named in the Hay Festival Africa39 list of the most promising writers under the age of forty. Season of Crimson Blossoms has been shortlisted for the $100,000 2016 NLNG Prize for Literature.
A Walk in the Night By Alex La Guma
This collection reveals Alex La Guma as one of the most impressive of contemporary African writers. In the starkest form, it also shows, the plight of the non-whites in South Africa today.
A Man Of The People By Chinua Achebe
By the renowned author of "Things Fall Apart," this novel foreshadows the Nigerian coups of 1966 and shows the color and vivacity as well as the violence and corruption of a society making its own way between the two worlds.
The Concubine By Elechi Amadi
Ihuoma, a beautiful young widow, has the admiration of the entire community in which she lives, and especially of the hunter Ekwueme. But their passion is fated and jealousy, a love potion and the closeness of the spirit world are important factors
The Strange Man By Amu Djoleto
Mensa endures his Ghanaian childhood under the shadow of successive tyrannical headmasters. In his maturity he struggles with the trials that village jealousies and his own family lie upon him.
Devil on the Cross By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
This remarkable and symbolic novel centers on Wariinga's tragedy and uses it to tell a story of contemporary Kenya.
The River Between By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Christian missionaries attempt to outlaw the female circumcision ritual and in the process create a terrible rift between the two Kikuyu communities on either side of the river.
A Grain of Wheat By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Ngugi takes the reader back to the days preceding Kenya's independence. Mugo, a farmer and hero in the eyes of the villagers, is asked to deliver a speech during the Uhuru celebrations, to be held in memory of his friend Kihika. He refuses to make a speech and turns out to be a traitor.
A Question of Power By Bessie Head
"Your mother was insane. If you're not careful you'll get insane just like your mother. Your mother was a white woman. They had to lock her up, as she was having a child by the stable boy who was a native." It is never clear to Elizabeth whether the mission school principal's cruel revelation of her origins is at the bottom of her mental breakdown. She has left South Africa with her son and is living in the village of Motabeng, the place of sand, in Botswana where there are no street lights at night. In the darkness of this country where people turn and look at her with vague curiosity as an outsider she establishes an entirely abnormal relationship with two men. A mind-bending book which takes the reader in and out of sanity.
Houseboy By Ferdinand Oyono
Toundi Ondoua, the rural African protagonist of Houseboy, encounters a world of prisms that cast beautiful but unobtainable glimmers, especially for a black youth in colonial Cameroon. Houseboy, written in the form of Toundi's captivating diary and translated from the original French, discloses his awe of the white world and a web of unpredictable experiences. Early on, he escapes his father's angry blows by seeking asylum with his benefactor, the local European priest who meets an untimely death. Toundi then becomes "the Chief European's 'boy'--the dog of the King." Toundi's attempt to fulfill a dream of advancement and improvement opens his eyes to troubling realities. Gradually, preconceptions of the Europeans come crashing down on him as he struggles with his identity, his place in society, and the changing culture.
Season of Migration to the North By Salih
The Sudanese writer al-Tayyib Salih has been described as the "genius of the modern Arabic novel." He has lived abroad for most of his life, yet his fiction is firmly rooted in the village in which he spent his early years. His most well-known work is the modern classic Mawsim al-hijra ila’l-shamal (1967; Season of Migration to the North), which received great critical attention and brought new vitality to the Arab novel.
Salih has not been a prolific writer; his early work, including Season of Migration to the North, remains the best of his oeuvre. He has received critical acclaim in both the west and the east. In Sudan he is without rival, and his writing has played a considerable part in drawing attention to Sudanese literature. Arabic literature has been dominated by social criticism, social realism, and committed literature depicting the bitter realities of life; Salih managed to break with this trend and return to the roots of his culture, capturing the mystery, magic, humor, sorrows, and celebrations of rural life and popular religion.
Salih has not been a prolific writer; his early work, including Season of Migration to the North, remains the best of his oeuvre. He has received critical acclaim in both the west and the east. In Sudan he is without rival, and his writing has played a considerable part in drawing attention to Sudanese literature. Arabic literature has been dominated by social criticism, social realism, and committed literature depicting the bitter realities of life; Salih managed to break with this trend and return to the roots of his culture, capturing the mystery, magic, humor, sorrows, and celebrations of rural life and popular religion.
Every Man is a Race By Mia Couto
18 short stories which look at the issues of civil war, petty officialdom and curruption against the backdrop of post-independence Mozambique. They tell the wider Mozambican story through tales of individual men and women, and contain many strange and fantastic incidents.
The Enemy Within By Steve Jacobs
1990s South Africa is changing. Or is it? Jewish barrister Jeremy Spielman questions this as he defends a black man accused of murder. His girlfriend's belief in the superiority of whites, the anti-Semitism, and the unfairness of the legal system, all become increasingly apparent.
The Imprisonment of Obatala and Other Plays By Obotunde Ijimere
This is a collection of Yoruba verse plays.
The Old Man And The Medal By Ferdinand Oyono
Takes a satirical look at colonialism and the situations it promotes. By the author of Houseboy.
Woman Of The Aeroplanes By B. Kojo Laing
Woman Of The Aeroplanes documents fiction's most fantastic calamity--the bewilderment and resolution of people faced for the first time with their own mortality. An astonishing and exhilarating story of modern myth and meaning.
When Rain Clouds Gather By Bessie Head
A poverty-stricken village in the heart of rural Botswana is a haven to the exiles gathered there. When a political refugee from South Africa joins forces with an English agricultural expert, the time-honoured subsistence-farming method and old ways of life are challenged.
The New Tribe By Buchi Emecheta
When a baby girl is abandoned at birth, Reverend Arlington and his wife Ginny are only too happy to adopt her. The media cover this moving story, and a Nigerian woman living in England takes more than a passing interest in the Arlingtons. She decides that they world provide the right Christian home for her own baby, Chester. Shortly afterwards, Chester is delivered to social services with a letter explaining that the Arlingtons should be his new parents. So young Chester enters the vicarage of the sleepy seaside village of St Simon. He is the only black child for miles around.
"The New Tribe" tells the story of Chester's long search for his true identity, and the challenges he faces as a black child in a white family.
"The New Tribe" tells the story of Chester's long search for his true identity, and the challenges he faces as a black child in a white family.
The Housemaid By Amma Darko
A dead baby and bloodstained clothes are discovered near a small village. Everyone is ready to comment on the likely story behind the abandoned infant. The men have one opinion, the women another. As the story rapidly unfolds it becomes clear that seven different women played their part in the drama. All of them are caught in a web of superstition, ignorance, greed and corruption.
Search Sweet Country By B. Kojo Laing
A brilliant first novel from Ghana portraying a crucial period in the nation's history--a poet's story of Africa that has already provoked critical attention in Britain.
Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing By Yvonne Vera
A selection of women's poetry and prose from all over Africa. Included are some of the newest writers in modern Africa.
Money Galore By S.A. Amu Djoleto
An irreverent satire set in Ghana, told with serious intent.
Mine Boy By Peter Abrahams
First published in 1946, this novel exposed the condition of black South Africans under a white regime. It presents a portrait of labour discrimination, appalling housing conditions and one man's humanitarian act of defiance.
Arrows of Rain By Okey Ndibe
An exposition of the raw side of human emotions as explored through one man's tormented life's experiences. It seeks to expose the fallacies of the human condition while remaining real in its depiction of universal problems inflicted on postcolonial Africa.
A Squatter's Tale By Ike Oguine
A series of stories within a story, all narrated by Obi, a young, hopeful Nigerian immigrant in America.
A Cowrie of Hope By Binwell Sinyangwe
In A Cowrie of Hope Binwell Sinyangwe captures the rhythms of a people whose poverty has not diminished their dignity, where hope can only be accompanied by small acts of courage, and where friendship has not lost its value.
The Black Hermit: A Play By Ngugi
Should Remi, the first of his tribe to go to university, return to his people? Or should he continue to be a black hermit in the town?
Girls at war and other stories By Chinua Achebe
Girls at war and other stories
The madman.--The voter.--Marriage is a private affair.--Akucke.--Chike's school days.--The sacriticial egg.--Vengeful creditor.--Dead men's path.--Uncle Ben's choice.--Civil peace.--Sugar baby.--Girls at war.
Author: Chinua Achebe
Copyright date: August 1, 1991
The madman.--The voter.--Marriage is a private affair.--Akucke.--Chike's school days.--The sacriticial egg.--Vengeful creditor.--Dead men's path.--Uncle Ben's choice.--Civil peace.--Sugar baby.--Girls at war.
Author: Chinua Achebe
Copyright date: August 1, 1991
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Smouldering Charcoal By Tiyambe Zeleza
Chronicles the lives of two families in post-colonial Africa, the first - poor, working-class and ill-educated - is compared to the young politically aware college student and her journalist fiance. The middle-class pair become victims of the same brutal violence that the poor and powerless suffer.
The Return Of The Water Spirit By Pepetela
Set in Angola in the late 1980's, a time of war, and when the Marxist-orientated ruling elite became engulfed by corruption, nepotism and rampant capitalism.
Three centuries earlier, a hideous crime occurred, the beheading of a slave who had had inappropriate relations with his Master's daughter. Now, in the very same Kinaxixi Square in the city of Luanda buildings are falling down one by one baffling the country's engineers. Many describe this mysterious process as 'Luanda Syndrome, God's punishment on a degenerate society.
Drawing on the essence of African mythology which had all but been obliterated by history, could this be explained by the return of a Water Spirit (the 'kianda')?
The novel focuses on the interplay between these two forces-the forces of old and new. Just like faith can move mountains, the spirit of the water can move cities.
This book is a scathing critique of Angola's ruling elite, for abandoning their socialist principles in favour of rampant capitalism
Three centuries earlier, a hideous crime occurred, the beheading of a slave who had had inappropriate relations with his Master's daughter. Now, in the very same Kinaxixi Square in the city of Luanda buildings are falling down one by one baffling the country's engineers. Many describe this mysterious process as 'Luanda Syndrome, God's punishment on a degenerate society.
Drawing on the essence of African mythology which had all but been obliterated by history, could this be explained by the return of a Water Spirit (the 'kianda')?
The novel focuses on the interplay between these two forces-the forces of old and new. Just like faith can move mountains, the spirit of the water can move cities.
This book is a scathing critique of Angola's ruling elite, for abandoning their socialist principles in favour of rampant capitalism
Anthills Of The Savannah By Chinua Achebe
Anthills of the Savannah is a frightening look at oil-boom Nigeria, a world of robberies, road blocks and intimidation in which those who are meant to be protecting a country's citizens are in reality supervising the looting.