African women whose novels you should read

Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia) In her debut novel, ‘Beneath The Lion’s Gaze’, (Random House, 2010) Maaza Mengiste takes Ethiopia’s tattered history of revolution and strife and turns it into a fine piece of art, a haunting and evocative story, bringing to life the Ethiopia of the mid to late ‘70s to the world, with all its […]

Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia)
In her debut novel, ‘Beneath The Lion’s Gaze’, (Random House, 2010) Maaza Mengiste takes Ethiopia’s tattered history of revolution and strife and turns it into a fine piece of art, a haunting and evocative story, bringing to life the Ethiopia of the mid to late ‘70s to the world, with all its colours, smells, strife and heartbreak that revolutions are known to engender.
‘Beneath The Lion’s Gaze’, named in The Guardian 10 best contemporary African books, chronicles the life of a family, a man and his two sons, during the mid ‘70s upheavals in Ethiopia that led to the overthrow of Emperor Hailie Selasie. Even though it is set in troubled times, Maaza’s prose is controlled, elegant and dignified. The novel introduces us to the Ethiopia the world should know, the one that had a history and dignity.
 Maaza Mengiste lives in New York, having previously lived in Nigeria and Kenya. She has an MFA from New York University and teaches creative writing at Queens College.

 Sarah Ladipo Manyika (Nigeria)
Sarah Ladipo Manyika has been around for a while. Her first novel, ‘In Dependence’ (Legend Press, 2009) didn’t garner as much acclaim as it deserved but hopefully her second, which is just fresh off the press would. ‘Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun’ (Cassava Republic, 2016) tells the story of Morayo, a 74-year-old Nigerian woman in the US and how she is navigating aging and San Francisco in her Porsche. It tells of friendship, generosity and the yearning of an aging woman in measured yet efficient prose. And the sudden accident that forces Morayo to take another look at her life.
Sarah delivers her story with the panache of an accomplished writer, one who is sure of her prose and what she wants to do with it.
This is not your typical immigrant story; it is one of an immigrant who has found her place in society. And it really is a good read too.
Sarah is a professor of literature at San Francisco State University having earned her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She was also the chair of judges for the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature.

Zukiswa Wanner (South Africa)
Zukiswa is witty and she brings this wit to her prose, which is fast and efficient and never stops tickling your sides. She has done this in her three previous books, ‘The Madams’ (2006), ‘Behind Every Successful Man’ (2008) and ‘Men of the South’, (2010).
In her latest work, London, Cape Town, Joburg, Zukiswa becomes even more ambitious and daring, capturing the transition of post-apartheid South Africa through the lives of a mixed-race couple and the sad tragedy that drives a wedge between them. With short, crisp sentences, Zukiswa takes us through the lives of the couple and the three cities that mean the most to them, holding up a mirror for her country to look at what it has become, but doing so with a completely grounded story at the heart of it.
Zukiswa has been named in the Africa39 list of the most promising Sub-Saharan African writers under the age of 40 by the Hay Festival. Through her works, she takes us beyond the newspaper headlines, to the heart of a country. The reader gets a fresh perspective delving into Zukiswa’s work. 
In 2016, Zukiswa was on the panel of judges for the Etisalat Prize for Literature. She had also been on the panel of judges for the Writivism Short Story Prize.

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda)
Uganda has been described as a literary desert and for a while no literature of merit has come out of that country, until the recent emergence of writers like Gorethi Kyomuhendo, Doreen Baingana, Monica Arac De Nyeko and Dilman Dila, who has been exploring fantasy writing.
But it was the emergence of Jennifer Makumbi on the literary scene that has caused many to sit up and notice. Makumbi’s ambitious and expansive debut novel, Kintu, won the Kwani Manuscript project in 2013 and a year later, her short story, ‘Let’s Tell This Story Properly’ won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
With the novel published by Kwani being in high demand in Africa and beyond, many have wondered why such a fantastic book has failed to find a home in the publishing houses of London and New York. But at least Africa has embraced it, and that is saying something.
‘Kintu’ is an epic. It tells the story of Kintu and his descendants who have to deal with the weight of an inherited curse, which has gone from generation to generation, transcending the history of a country. ‘Kintu’ is a modern classic, a masterpiece that has sprung from “Africa’s literary desert.”
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi has had to struggle long for a breakthrough. Before the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013, she had remained relatively unknown but now the teacher of creative writing at Lancaster University has become one of the most distinguished literary voices from East Africa.
She has been living in the UK since 2001 and is already working on a second novel.