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Read Africa

Madison Public Library was pleased to add new books through Read Africa, a grant project funded by the University of Wisconsin-African Studies Program. Libraries across the state were invited to submit proposals to purchase books and materials that will enable Wisconsin readers to deepen their understanding of Africa. Below is a selection of books that were added to our collection. Learn More

Adult Fiction

Cover of A spy in time
Imraan
Coovadia

After the apocalypse, the Agency was created with one purpose: protect time. Enver Eleven is twenty-five years old and ready for adventure. He's the Agency's newest recruit, eager to leap through his first gate into an unfamiliar time. The Agency's thinking machines have set his first mission for Marrakesh, circa 1955. His handler is the tough and taciturn Shanumi Six. Their mission: prevent the apocalypse from happening again.

Cover of AfroSF: science fiction by
Ivor W.
Hartmann, editor

AfroSF is the first ever anthology of Science Fiction by African writers only that was open to submissions from across Africa and abroad. It is comprised of original (previously unpublished) works only.

Cover of Triangulum: a novel
Masande
Ntshanga

In 2040, the South African National Space Agency receives a mysterious package containing a memoir and a set of digital recordings from an unnamed woman who claims the world will end in ten years. Assigned to the case, Dr. Naomi Buthelezi, a retired professor and science-fiction writer, is hired to investigate the veracity of the materials, and whether or not the woman's claim to have heard from a "force more powerful than humankind" is genuine. Thus begins TRIANGULUM, a found manuscript composed of the mysterious woman's memoir and her recordings.

Cover of A family affair: a novel
Sue
Nyathi

Meet the Mafus, a close-knit, traditional family with three daughters. As leaders of their church, The Kingdom of God, Pastor Abraham and his wife Phumla are guiding the community of Bulawayo in faith, while trying to keep the different branches of their family intact. The Mafus always present a united front, but as their personal lives unravel, devastating secrets are revealed that threaten to tear the family apart.

Cover of Return to the enchanted is
Johary Ravaloson and
Allison M Charette (translator)

Named after the first man at the creation of the world in Malagasy mythology, Ietsy Razak was raised to perpetuate the glory of his namesake and expected to be as illuminated as his Great Ancestor. But in the chaos of modernity, his young life is marked only by restlessness, maddening insomnia, and an adolescent apathy. When an unexpected tragedy ships him off to a boarding school in France, his trip to the big city is no hero's journey.

Cover of Incomplete Solutions
Wole
Talabi

An elderly woman in early 22nd century Lagos is called in to help test the artificial intelligence built from her genius mother's mind, but all is not as it seems in the Nommo-award winning story, "The Regression Test". Exiled from Earth for a crime of passion, a young man must learn to survive a barely habitable prison planet and come to peace with his past in "Polaris". "Wednesday's Story", nominated for the 2018 Caine Prize, is at once a retelling of nursery rhymes and folklore and a meta-fictional meditation on the mechanics, art and power of storytelling.

Cover of Better never than late
Chika
Unigwe

This richly imagined collage of interconnected stories follows Prosperous and Agu, and the motley community of Nigerian expats who gather at their apartment each week. Their reality is one of dashed hopes, twisted love and the pain of homesickness, even as they fight to make their way in this new world.

Cover of A small silence
Jumoke
Verissimo

Imprisoned for ten years for his rage against society, activist and retired academic Prof resolves to live a life of darkness after his release from prison. He holes up in his apartment, pushing away friends and family, and embraces his status as an urban legend in the neighborhood until a knock at the door shakes his new existence.

Adult Nonfiction

Cover of Embracing my shadow: growi
Unoma Nguemo
Azuah

Embracing My Shadow traces Unoma Azuah's challenging growth as a lesbian in Nigeria and how she navigated the paths of abuse, ethnic discrimination and homophobia in a hyper-religious and patriarchal Nigerian society. It is a story of a real life experience, and it affirms the conflicts and voices of LGBTQI Nigerians who have been constantly told that their sexual orientation is un-African.

Cover of Mask off: masculinity rede
J.J.
Bola

Using examples of non-Western cultural traditions, music and sport, Bola shines light on historical narratives around manhood, debunking popular myths along the way. He explores how LGBTQ men, men of colour, and male refugees experience masculinity in diverse ways, revealing its fluidity, how it's strengthened and weakened by different political contexts, such as the patriarchy or the far-right, and perceived differently by those around them.

Cover of The bite of the mango
Mariatu
Kamara

When Mariatu set out for a neighborhood village in Sierra Leone, she was kidnapped and tortured, and both of her hands cut off. She turned to begging to survive. This heart-rending memoir is a testament to her courage and resilience. Available to download: eBook

Cover of Not my time to die: a test
Yolande Mukagasa and
Patrick May

Yolande Mukagasana is a Rwandan nurse and mother of three children who likes wearing jeans and designer glasses. She runs her own clinic in Nyamirambo and is planning a party for her wedding anniversary. But when genocide starts everything changes. Targeted because shes a successful woman and a Tutsi, she flees for her life.

Cover of They called me queer
Kim Windvogel and
Kelly-Eve Kooman

'They Called Me Queer' is a collection written by Africans who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual. South Africa has become known for its tolerance towards us, the LGBTQIA+ community. However, we live in a devastatingly segregated and unequal society, where sexual identities still heavily impacts every part of our daily lives.

Teen

Cover of Between Sisters
Adwoa
Badoe

When sixteen-year-old Gloria fails thirteen out of fifteen subjects on her final exams, her future looks bleak indeed. Her family's resources are meager so the entire family is thrilled when a distant relative, Christine, offers to move Gloria north to Kumasi to look after her toddler son, Sam. In exchange, after two years, Christine will pay for Gloria to go to dressmaking school.

Cover of Court of lions: a mirage n
Somaiya
Daud

On a planet on the brink of revolution, Amani has been forced into isolation. She's been torn from the boy she loves and has given up contact with her fellow rebels to protect her family. Alone and desperate, Amani is thrust into the center of the court, navigating the dangerous factions on the princess's behalf.

Cover of Mirage
Somaiya
Daud

In a world dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. When adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects. If Amani ever wishes to see her family again, she must play the princess to perfection -- because one wrong move could lead to her death.

Cover of The boy who spat in Sargre
Manu
Herbstein

On Christmas Day, 1871, Kofi's godfather gives him a diary as a Christmas present and charges him with the task of keeping a personal record of the momentous events through which they are living. This novel is a transcription of Kofi's diary.

Cover of Soldier boy
Keely
Hutton

Follows Ricky from 1987-1991, and Samuel in 2006, as they are abducted to serve as child-soldiers in Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. Includes historical notes and information about Friends of Orphans, an organization founded by Ricky Richard Anywar, on whose life the story is partly based.

Cover of The bite of the mango
Mariatu Kamara and
Susan McClelland

When Mariatu set out for a neighborhood village in Sierra Leone, she was kidnapped and tortured, and both of her hands cut off. She turned to begging to survive. This heart-rending memoir is a testament to her courage and resilience. Today she is a UNICEF Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Available to download: eBook

Cover of Stones for my father
Trilby
Kent

Corlie Roux's farm life in South Africa is not easy: the Transvaal is beautiful, but it is also a harsh place where the heat can be so intense that the very raindrops sizzle. When her beloved father dies, she is left with a mother who is as devoted to her sons as she is cruel to her daughter. Despite this, Corlie finds solace in her friend, Sipho, and in Africa itself and in the stories she conjures for her brothers.

Cover of Rebel Sisters
Tochi
Onyebuchi

Living a comfortable life in the Space Colonies, Ify, now nineteen and a medical administrator, must return to wartorn Nigeria, where she last saw her sister, to investigate why young refugees from that nation are carrying a deadly virus.

Cover of Shuri. Vol. 1, The search
Nnedi
Okorafor

The Black Panther has disappeared, lost on a mission in space. And in his absence, everyone's looking at the next in line for the throne. But Shuri is happiest in a lab, surrounded by gadgets of her own creation. She'd rather be testing gauntlets than throwing them. But a nation without a leader is a vulnerable one - and Shuri may have to choose between Wakanda's welfare and her own.

Cover of When morning comes
Arushi
Raina

This fictionalized account of a student uprising that began in Soweto, South Africa, on June 16, 1976, unfolds through the first-person narratives of four young adults from different backgrounds whose lives intersect. Unlikely alliances develop and shift among the four protagonists, each of whom feels pressure from loved ones to conform to expectations.

Cover of Far from home
Na'íma bint
Robert

Tells the story of two fourteen-year-old girls in Zimbabwe, Katie and Tariro, who are linked by terrible secret as both their lives change tragically in different ways twenty-five-years apart.

Cover of Black dove, white raven
Elizabeth
Wein

Having moved to Ethiopia to avoid the prejudices of 1930s America, Emilia Menotti, her black adoptive brother Teo, and their mother Rhoda, a stunt pilot, are devoted to their new country even after war with Italy looms, drawing the teens into the conflict.

Children's

Cover of The Infinite
Patience
Agbabi

Leaplings, children born on the 29th of February, are very rare. Rarer still are Leaplings with The Gift the ability to leap through time. Elle has The Gift, but she’s never used it. Until now.

Cover of Orange for the sunsets
Tina
Athaide

In alternating voices, friends Asha and Yesofu, one Indian and one African, find their world turned upside-down when Idi Amin decides to expel Asian Indians from Uganda in 1972.

Cover of Once upon a time in Ghana:
Anna Cottrell and
Kumassah Agbotabda

Recorded on location in the Volta Region in Ghana in 2006-07, these stories are the result of collaboration between Anna Cottrell and Agbotadua Togbi Kumassah. Agbotadua Togbi Kumassah translated the Ewe stories into English and Anna Cottrell has retold them in contemporary English.

Cover of One shadow on the wall
Leah
Henderson

In Senegal, eleven-year-old orphan Mor has three months to prove to his aunt that he can support himself and his two younger sisters, allowing them to stay together in their village and fulfilling the promise he made to their dying father, but a malicious gang of boys threatens Mor's success and his integrity.

Cover of Sing to the moon
Nansubuga Nagadya
Isdahl

 A grandfather and his grandson share the quiet pleasures of a rainy day.

Cover of The Mzungu boy
Meja
Mwangi

For Kariuki, life in his small Kenyan village in the 1950s is one great adventure. It gets even more interesting when he meets Nigel, an English boy who is visiting his grandfather. Kariuki befriends Nigel even though the rest of the villagers fear him and call him "the mzungu boy."

Cover of Auma’s long run
Eucabeth A
Odhiambo

When AIDS devastates thirteen-year-old Auma's village in Kenya during the 1980s, Auma must choose between staying to help her family and working toward a track scholarship that will take her away from home. Available to download: eBook

Cover of Chicken in the kitchen
Nnedi
Okorafor

Awakened by strange sounds, Anyaugo discovers a giant chicken in her kitchen and has to muster the courage to remove it before the chicken destroys her family's preparations for the New Yam Festival.

Cover of Ikenga
Nnedi
Okorafor

In southeastern Nigeria, twelve-year-old Nnamdi is determined to avenge his police chief father, who was murdered while triyng to rid the town of criminals, but Nnamdi feels powerless until he receives a magical object which gives him superpowers. Available to download: eBook | Audio

Cover of Zahrah the Windseeker
Nnedi
Okorafor

Zahrah, a timid thirteen-year-old girl, undertakes a dangerous quest into the Forbidden Greeny Jungle to seek the antidote for her best friend after he is bitten by a snake, and finds knowledge, courage, and hidden powers along the way.

Cover of Akua’s Venturous Life
Oladoyin Oladapo and
Ibironke Otusile

Being adventurous is a good thing, they said. Taking risks can be fun and exciting, they said. Oh, and positively terrifying, it seems they left that part out! But luckily, Akua (eh-kwee-ya) is about to show us just how true all of that really is. After all, you can't travel across the country and back again without some very animated stories to show for it.

Cover of Wangari Maathai: the woman
Franck
Prévot

Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her efforts to lead women in a nonviolent struggle to bring peace and democracy to Africa through its reforestation. Her organization planted over thirty million trees in thirty years. This beautiful picture book tells the story of an amazing woman and an inspiring idea.

Cover of Songs in the shade of the
Nathalie Soussana and
Jean-Christophe Hoarau

An illustrated collection of partial lyrics from twenty-three traditional songs pays homage to the cultural heritage and multilingual communities of West Africa and the Caribbean. Back matter includes full lyrics for all songs, a world map, language notes, historical and cultural notes, and performance credits for the accompanying CD.

Cover of Desmond and the very mean
Desmond
Tutu

When Desmond takes his new bicycle out for a ride, his pride and joy turn to hurt and anger when some boys shout a very mean word at him causing Desmond to seek the advice of Father Trevor, who teaches him about the power of forgiveness.