Ngũgĩ's most recent work, The Perfect Nine, retells and transforms the founding myth of the Gĩkũyũ people of Kenya into an epic novel-in-verse.Chinua Achebe ( / ˈ tʃ ɪ n w ɑː ə ˈ tʃ ɛ b eɪ/ ⓘ born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. The memoir Wrestling with the Devil recounts his time in Kenya’s Kamĩtĩ Maximum Security Prison and the writing of the novel Devil on the Cross, which was done in secret and written on toilet paper. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1977 for the political message of the play Ngaahika Ndeenda: Ithaako ria ngerekano ( I Will Marry When I Want), co-authored with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii. He has written dozens of books, primarily in Gikuyu, that span genre and form-from novels to criticism, memoir to plays. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is one of the giants of contemporary literature. His book Islam Explained is both an introduction to one of the world’s great religions and a cry for tolerance and understanding in deeply troubled times. Racism Explained to My Daughter, arose out of the frank discussions Ben Jelloun had with his ten-year-old daughter after taking her to a protest against anti-immigration laws in Paris. In the wake of 9/11 Ben Jelloun published two works of nonfiction that have become valuable resources and have been celebrated in multiple languages. Ben Jelloun has been called "a master minimalist" ( Washington Post) and his novel Corruption, a morality tale about the fall of Morocco's last honest man, Mourad, drew comparisons to Albert Camus' The Stranger. Winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt and the International Dublin Literary Award, writer Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in Morocco in 1944 and emigrated to France in 1971. Paradise, Gurnah's breakthrough fourth novel published in 1994, is a coming-of-age story that alludes to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and, as the Nobel committee noted in their Biobibliography, provides a "retelling of the Quran’s story of Joseph, against the background of a violent and detailed description of the colonisation of East Africa in the late 19th century." Born in Zanzibar, Gurnah later emigrated to the United Kingdom. In the novel an unnamed writer is struggles to work on a biography of forgotten Scottish poet Thomas Pringle, a 19th century figure who became known as the “father of South African poetry.” The biographer conjures ghosts and travels through time and space to reveal the gaps in how Pringle is remembered.Ībdulrazak Gurnah is a writer and literary scholar whose work often explores the themes of colonialism and displacement. Muli-layered, Still Life examines the history of colonialism and racial oppression and asks who gets to tell that history. Her most recent novel, Still Life, was selected by the New York Times as one of 2020's best works of historical fiction. In her later work the protagonist's lives often mirror her own, torn between their new lives in Scotland and home in South Africa. Coetzee, Zoë Wicomb's fiction often examines racial politics and history in South Africa -her novel Playing in the Light follows travel agent Marion Campbell as she negotiates the complexities of post-aparthied society in 1990s Cape Town. Lauded by writers like Toni Morrison and J.M. His memoir The Lights of Pointe-Noir, in many ways a love letter to the city, meditates on homecoming, memory, and belonging. Mabanckou left Congo in 1989, at the age of twenty-two, not to return until a quarter of a century later. A poignant and riotous tale of family and revolution, The Death of Comrade President captures the tensions between the forces of capitalism and the regime of dictator Marien Ngouabi. His most recent novel in English, The Death of Comrade President, chronicles life in the Pointe-Noire neighborhood Voungou through the eyes of teenage protagonist Michel. His novel Black Moses, an orphan story set in the 1970s, journeys through the Pointe-Noire underworld. The bustling port town often becomes a character in his work. To celebrate this year’s win, we are looking back through our list of international literature to put a spotlight on five African writers and their stand-out books.Īlain Mabanckou is an award winning writer born in Congo-Brazzaville in the coastal city of Pointe-Noire. But the Eurocentric history of the prize-winners reflects that it hasn’t always lived up to its mandate of being a genuinely global honor. The Nobel Prize in Literature is open to authors from around the globe, awarded for a body of outstanding work in any language. Earlier this month the Swedish Academy announced Abdulrazak Gurnah as this year's winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, making Gurnah the first Black African writer to win the most esteemed prize in international literature since Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka won in 1986.
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