African Novels In The Classroom

Many teachers of African studies have found novels to be effective assignments in courses. In this guide, teachers describe their favourite African novels - drawn from all over the continent - and share their experiences of using them in the classroom.

What is the African novel, and how should it be taught? The twenty-three essays of this volume address these two questions and in the process convey a wealth of information and ideas about the diverse regions, peoples, nations, languages, and writers of the African continent. Topics include Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's favoring of indigenous languages and literary traditions over European; the special place of Marxism in African letters;the influence of Frantz Fanon; women writers and the sub-Saharan novel;the Maghrebian novel;the novel and the griot epic in the Sahel;Islam in the West African novel;novels in Spanish from Equatorial Guinea;apartheid and postapartheid fiction;African writers in the diaspora;globalization in East African fiction; teaching Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart to students in different countries;the Onitsha market romance. The volume editor, Gaurav Desai, writes, "The point of the volume is to encourage a reading of Africa that is sensitive to its history of colonization but at the same time responsive to its present multiracial and multicultural condition."

After an 11-year-old Nigerian boy leaves his small village to live with his uncle in the city, he is exposed to a range of new experiences and becomes fascinated with crossing the Niger River on a ferry boat.

From National Book Award Finalist Eliot Schrefer comes the compelling tale of a girl who must save a group of bonobos -- and herself -- from a violent coup. Congo is a dangerous place, even for people who are trying to do good.When Sophie has to visit her mother at her sanctuary for bonobos, she's not thrilled to be there. Then Otto, an infant bonobo, comes into her life, and for the first time she feels responsible for another creature.But peace does not last long for Sophie and Otto. When an armed revolution breaks out in the country, the sanctuary is attacked, and the two of them must escape unprepared into the jungle. Caught in the crosshairs of a lethal conflict, they must struggle to keep safe, to eat, and to live. In ENDANGERED, Eliot Schrefer plunges us into a heart-stopping exploration of the things we do to survive, the sacrifices we make to help others, and the tangled geography that ties us all, human and animal, together.

Penda Diakité joins forces with her award-winning author/artist father to give a charming peek at everyday life in Africa. "This fact-based story of losing a tooth while visiting family in Mali rings with authenticity and good humour...[T]he illustrations exude happiness and togetherness." - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

This collection of essays addresses questions pertinent to the teaching of the relatively new discipline surrounding the teaching and researching of African literature. A valuable resource for both researchers, lecturers and students, it examines current practices, considers which material and writers should be studied, and considers how academic programmes can be structured.

Shows how important learning is in a country where only a few children are able to go to school.

A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) Jason Reynolds’s Newbery Honor, Printz Honor, and Coretta Scott King Honor–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling novel Long Way Down is now a gripping, galvanizing graphic novel, with haunting artwork by Danica Novgorodoff. Will’s older brother, Shawn, has been shot. Dead. Will feels a sadness so great, he can’t explain it. But in his neighborhood, there are THE RULES: No. 1: Crying. Don’t. No matter what. No. 2: Snitching Don’t. No matter what. No. 3: Revenge Do. No matter what. But bullets miss. You can get the wrong guy. And there’s always someone else who knows to follow the rules…

Upright African, we need a revolution in education to take our history back into our hands, and to perform it through our eyes for humanity and ourselves. Without question, our African histories are under siege by those who would rather we believed that Africa has no history and that colonialism is over. —From Dear Upright African In this manifesto, Donald Molosi shows us what a decolonized Africa would look like. This matter is vital for people in school today. It is this sort of activism that our continent needs now. —Binyavanga Wainaina, author of How To Write About Africa Palpably outraged, Molosi reminds us - sharing vivid examples - of how the metaphysical and physical engagement of empire with the African continent formed a carefully orchestrated strategy whose end result was to inflict large numbers of Africans, including African elites, with a chronic, debilitating self-hatred. Drawing form his extensive reading on the subject, Molosi offers practical remedies for the devastating crisis he chronicles. —Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of Nervous Conditions and This Mournable Body

My father says that a journey should always change your life in some way. Well, when you have nothing, I suppose a journey promises everything. "Diamonds for everyone." That's what fifteen-year-old Patson Moyo hears when his family arrives in the Marange diamond fields. Soon Patson is working in the mines along with four friends, pooling their profits for a chance at a better life. Each of them hopes to find a girazi, a priceless stone that could change their circumstances forever. But when the government's soldiers come to Marange, Patson's world is shattered. Set against the backdrop of Zimbabwe's brutal recent history, Diamond Boy is the story of a young man who succumbs to greed but finds his way out through a transformative journey to South Africa in search of his missing sister, in search of freedom, and in search of himself. A high-stakes, harrowing adventure in the blood-diamond fields of southern Africa, from the critically acclaimed author of Now Is the Time for Running.