[a / b / c / d / e / f / g / gif / h / hr / k / m / o / p / s / t / u / v / vg / vm / vmg / vr / vrpg / vst / w / wg] [i / ic] [r9k / s4s / vip] [cm / hm / lgbt / y] [3 / aco / adv / an / bant / biz / cgl / ck / co / diy / fa / fit / gd / hc / his / int / jp / lit / mlp / mu / n / news / out / po / pol / pw / qst / sci / soc / sp / tg / toy / trv / tv / vp / vt / wsg / wsr / x / xs] [Settings] [Search] [Mobile] [Home]
Board
Settings Mobile Home
/lit/ - Literature

Name
Spoiler?[]
Options
Comment
Verification
4chan Pass users can bypass this verification. [Learn More] [Login]
File[]
  • Please read the Rules and FAQ before posting.

08/21/20New boards added: /vrpg/, /vmg/, /vst/ and /vm/
05/04/17New trial board added: /bant/ - International/Random
10/04/16New board for 4chan Pass users: /vip/ - Very Important Posts
[Hide] [Show All]


Janitor acceptance emails will be sent out over the coming weeks. Make sure to check your spam folder!


[Advertise on 4chan]


Best books from here?
Serious question for people who read. Refrain from meme answers and /pol/tard chimp out.
>>
>>25366688
Honestly the only book from Sub-Saharan Africa I’ve read is Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom
>>
bump of interest
>>
Necropolitics
>>
>>25366688
I like their music and grapefruits, which, if you define 'literature' broadly enough, is a text. A litre of grapefruit juice will tell you what no script can.
>>
I'd love something historical taking place before colonial period (or even before europeans made contact) or taking place in the myths and folklore.
>>
Teju Cole's "every day is for the thief" is good. I have not read enough from the region to claim it is the "best" though
>>
>>25366688
I read Things Fall Apart in high school and liked it. A heavily accented “Okonkwo ate da Kola Nut” because a vocal stim in my English class that year. This was done out of affection and not insult.
>>
>>25366688
The Epic of Sunjata is interesting
>>
File: nervous conditions.jpg (805 KB, 1650x2475)
805 KB JPG
>>25366688
I thought picrel was great. Adolescent girl in 60s Rhodesia tries to get an education so she can escape her parochial, stunted village, gets continually thwarted by her backwards family and racist whites, keeps trying anyway
>>
>>25366688
Literally nothing unless you’re an anthropologist studying archaic creation myths or some self-hating liberal faggot who still believes in noble savage nonsense
>>
Rhodesian author Arthur Kemp’s March of the Titans
>>
File: IMG_20260626_142340.jpg (189 KB, 1080x304)
189 KB JPG
I havent read anything african, but i have found some interesting authors and books of african diaspora literature.
Some interesting writers i have found have been the haitian Anteonor Firmin who elaborated an essay called "The equeality of the human races" in response to Arthur de Gobineau's book and Frantz Fanon, whose books havent read but i have found quotes of them in Fausto Reinaga's book "Revolucion India" like pic rel.
>>
>>25367386
I also remember reading some texts of Booker T. Washington that talked about the beahaviour and bio-spirit of the negroe but i lost the text and havent found it.
>>
>>25366688
A Bend in the River
>>
>>25367386
>>25367393
non-fiction is not literature.
>>
File: Olaudah Equiano.jpg (210 KB, 1167x1024)
210 KB JPG
This was pretty interesting.
>>
>>25366688
>Congo Kitabu - talks about africans enslaving and eating pygmies
>ON THE EDGE OF THE PRIMEVAL FOREST - Albert Schweitzer started a hospital and talks about the locals behavior
There's another one about a black american minister who traveled to sub sahara to start a church. His wife died and the locals burned his church down. Can't remember the name of it, it is on hathitrust
>>
>>25368942
None of those are written by africans.
>>
>>25368954
OP's post says books from here. It does not say books written by native Africans.
>>
>>25368976
Yea bro by "books from Africa" he meant books written by some jew named Schweitzer.
>>
>>25366688
A History Of Central Banking And The Enslavement Of Mankind by Stephen Goodson
>>
>two hours and still no good book at sight
uh tranny sisters we are revindicating pol
>>
>>25366688
I enjoyed Paradise by Gurnah. Wasn't a masterpiece, but interesting and would recommend

>>25366904
I fucking hated that book, boring flat characters
>>
>>25366688
Holistic Management by Allan Savory was interesting
>>
Any good history books on Subsahara Africa? It can be anything from general comprehensive history of the region, one on a specific nation/peoples/culture or during a specific time (e.g. cold war)
>>
>>25369765
It also covers North Africa but The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence by Martin Meredith is fantastic. Africa Addio in book form.
>>
>>25366688
the only novels I've read from there are Things Fall Apart, Ways of Dying and The House of Hunger but I enjoyed all three, especially the last
>>
>>25369765
The Golden Rhinoceros for some lesser known history
Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande for a classic of anthropology
Dark Continent, My Black Arse for a pretty fun travel book
>>
we had to read "a long way gone" in school back in the day and i recall it being pretty good. id like to revisit it one day
>>
>>25367386
>Frantz Fanon
Basically a black frog. He was from the Antilles and fought in ww2 against Germany and then studied psychoanalysis in France. Of course he complained about racism in France.

>>25367393
Booker T. Washington is often dismissed because he promoted a developmental approach of integrating blacks into society. That means blacks are at a lesser stage of development and therefore can't have full rights and that gap must be bridged by education
>>
https://www.mybib.africa/
im sure you can find something interesting
>>
>>25366688
Very fond of Amos Tutuola
>>
File: 1000009239.jpg (15 KB, 430x465)
15 KB JPG
>>25366688
books are propaganda for white sisies colonialists we don't read in Africa we use the inner traditional knowledge transmitted to us via from our ancestors, your deconstructed almost extinct ass wouldn't understand
>>
>>25366688
Lord of the Rings if count Tolkien as african.
>>
probably something about the kongo kingdom of the 1400s, they had a legit civilization with ambassadors who went to europe, they had myths about a lizard creature called mokele mbembe, but you'll probably not find it in english since the kongo only had contact with the portuguese, i don't know why no one ever talks about this kingdom when it comes to african history
>>
Many years ago I made an effort to read a book from every country in the world. Here are some African works (by Africans) that I felt were worth reading:

The First Wife - Pauline Chiziane
Guardian of the Word - Camara Laye
Two Thousand Seasons - Ayi Kwei Armah (perhaps my favorite on this list)
The Parachute Drop - Norbert Zongo
The Epic of Askia Mohammad
The Beggar’s Strike - Aminata Sow Fall (I still laugh at the absurdity of this novel’s plot)
Allah is Not Obliged - Ahmadou Kourouma
Bound to Violence - Yambo Ouologuem
Murder in the Cassava Patch - Bai T Moore (I was told this is a required reading in Liberian high schools)

I hesitate to add any more to the list because, to be quite honest, there were a lot of duds too. For example, I mentioned Camara Laye once on this list, but the other works I read by him were really… subpar at best. I hope you enjoy your African literature journey, there are some good works to be found!
>>
>>25366688
Ethiopian Bible is its own thing. It has a lot of material not present in other canons.
>>
Heart of Darkness obviously
>>
>>25366904
>Things Fall Apart
A second for this book.

Also, not by an African, but a beautiful book nevertheless is Out of Africa. I also liked Coetzee's Disgrace and Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room.
>>
>>25371133
>Ethiopian Bible
Is there any particular publication of this which you would recommend? I've looked around online before but a fair few seem dubious in nature, I'm unsure where to start.
>>
>>25366688
>>25366852
there's a lot of actual old stories that have been preserved and recorded. try classiques africains for west africa and the oxford library of african literature for southern africa.
to me that's the real literature of africa, not postcolonial western influenced novels. that's always going to be imitative at best.
>>
>>25369955
In that case, if you read The Dance of the Lizard's Tale you will not be disappointed.
>>
>>25371133
>>25372193
Also that Ethiopian medieval chronicle Kebra nagast, IIRC it has son of king solomon and queen of sheba taking the arc of covenant into Ethiopia. It's apparently pretty good, although it's meme becouse of rastafarians and hoteps/black izraelites and adjacent black cultic milieu movements (but I doubt many of them have actually read it)
>>
>>25366688
The only modern literary tradition worth anything from that region is Afrikaaner.
>>
>>25372720
Ironically you have not listed any book written by an Afrikaneer, my dear poltard, as such there is no need to disprove your statement for you have done se yourself already.
>>
>>25366688
>muh pol, muh meme
we've lived in an era for 10 years where nig writers have received worship-level treatment for shitting out anything remotely legible. if there was worthwhile literature out of there, you would never hear the end of it. not to mention that, if you insist on force-reading regions, you already have shit taste
>>
>>25372720
I bet you couldn't even name 1 you fucking retard
>>
>>25372770
>Afrikaneer
Illiterate Zulu
>>25372807
André Brink
>>
>>25371123
Good post anon. Not that I know anything about this topic really, but I appreciate hearing from someone who has delved in.
>>
Does this count? It's from a white dude but he was born in South Rhodesia.
Read that as a kid I remember it being quite popular here in Germany for some reason.
>>
File: IMG_5665.jpg (327 KB, 692x1024)
327 KB JPG
>>25366688
>>25373242
Was gonna say that Mama Ramotswe is the only african book(s) I’ve heard of.
Funniest thing is that it’s written by an old white dude
>>
>>25371123
Add to that:
Ake: Years of Childhood by Basedinka Wole (Nigeria)
Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda)
Chaka by Thomas Mofolo (Lesotho)
A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (Kenya)
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo (Zimbabwe)
>>
>>25373366

And don't forget about I Pray to the Angry God
>>
Eeben Barlow's autobiography, he's a mercenary from South Africa so it's an interesting read.
His combat manuals for African countries are also an interesting read from a political viewpoint since it highlights what the problems are from a practical view in African countries.
>>
File: $_57.jpg (692 KB, 1200x1600)
692 KB JPG
>>25366688
Author was American but this book is KINO, cyberpunk Zimbabwe
>>
>>25366852
You can search for African medieval epics. They passed them down orally but they were eventually written down by someone. I think the only written text dating back centuries is Kebra Nagast though which is Ethiopia’s national epic
>>
>>25367016
found the /pol/ chimp out
>>
>>25366999
>racist whites
from the fiction section I see
>>
>>25375878
Prove him wrong then
I had a super liberal education and read several books from there and remember absolutely nothing from them
The only African books I got anything from were written by Rhodesians
>>
>>25366688
I've only ever read about the wars that happened on this continent.



[Advertise on 4chan]

Delete Post: [File Only] Style:
[Disable Mobile View / Use Desktop Site]

[Enable Mobile View / Use Mobile Site]

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective parties. Images uploaded are the responsibility of the Poster. Comments are owned by the Poster.