This is the list of books I’ve read for the Reading Africa challenge — another 30 to go! I’ve listed countries by region, according to the African Union’s list. I’ll link to the book reviews as I complete them.
Fiction from West Africa
- Things Fall Apart (Nigeria)
- The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born (Ghana)
- The Memory of Love (Sierra Leone)
- Sundiata (Mali)
- So Long a Letter (Senegal)
- (Benin)
- (Burkina Faso)
- (Cabo Verde)
- (Gambia)
- (Guinea)
- (Guinea-Bissau)
- (Liberia)
- (Niger)
- (Togo)
Books Set in North Africa
- Secret Son (Morocco)
- So Vast the Prison (Algeria)
- In the Country of Men (Libya)
- (Sahrawi Republic/Western Sahara)
- (Tunisia)
- (Egypt)
- (Mauritania)
Novels from Central Africa
- Tomorrow I’ll be Twenty (Republic of Congo)
- Mount Pleasant (started) (Cameroon)
- Queen Pokou (Ivory Coast)
- La Bastarda (Equatorial Guinea)
- (Central African Republic)
- (Chad)
- (Democratic Republic of Congo)
- (Gabon)
- (São Tomé and Príncipe)
- (Burundi)
Fiction from Southern Africa
- When Rain Clouds Gather (Botswana)
- Nervous Conditions (Zimbabwe)
- The Mourning Bird (Zambia)
- How We Buried Puso (incomplete) (Lesotho)
- Dog Eat Dog (South Africa)
- The Purple Violet of Oshaantu (Namibia)
- (Eswatini)
- (Angola)
- (Malawi)
- (Mozambique)
Novels Set in East Africa
- Shadow King (Ethiopia)
- Paradise (Tanzania)
- A Grain of Wheat (Kenya)
- Kintu (Uganda)
- Maps (Somalia)
- Minaret (Sudan)
- Beneath the Darkening Sky (South Sudan)
- (Comoros)
- (Djibouti)
- (Eritrea)
- (Rwanda)
- (Seychelles)
- (Madagascar)
- (Mauritius)
How Many Countries Are There in Africa?
For some, this is a contentious issue. It boils down to whether you accept the Sahrawi Republic’s independence from Morocco. The African Union does, as does In Mzansi. In that case, there are 55 countries in Africa.