Welcome to the 2018 Africa Reading Challenge.
This is the sixth time my dear friend Kinna is hosting the Africa Reading Challenge. Details and requirements are the same this year as for 2012 when she started. And she says, “I have absolutely no reason for hosting nor urging you to participate in this challenge save for the joy of discovering and reading African literature!” Are you in? 🙂 I’m in,and this time I sincerely hope I will make it cos I have loads of books on my TBR and this sounds like the perfect opportunity to read the African writers among the lot and review. 🙂
Here are the details:
Challenge Period
January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018
Region
The entire African continent, including its island-states, which are often overlooked. Please refer to this Wikipedia “list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa”. Pre-colonial empires and regions are also included.
Reading Goal
5 books. That’s it. There will be no other levels. Of course, participants are encouraged to read more than 5 books. Eligible books include those which are written by African writers, or take place in Africa, or are concerned with Africans and with historical and contemporary African issues. Note that at least 3 books must be written by African writers.
Genres
- Fiction – novels, short stories, poetry, drama, children’s books. Note: You can choose to read a number of individual and uncollected short stories. In this case, 12 such stories would constitute 1 book. Individual poems do not count but books of poetry do.
- Non-fiction – memoirs, autobiographies, history and current events
Reading Suggestions
- Cover at least two regions, pick from North Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa, West Africa and Central Africa
- Include translated fiction from Arabic, Francophone and Lusophone literature
- You can mix classic and contemporary fiction
- If you are intend to read mostly non-fiction, then please include at least one book (out of the five) of fiction
No particular reading philosophy is being suggested, however participates are encouraged to broaden their knowledge of African literature. The most important thing is to have fun and to explore Africa through books.
Other Details
- Overlap with other challenges is allowed.
- E-books and audio books are allowed.
- There is no need to make a list beforehand. Although most of us love lists, don’t we?
To Sign up:
Leave a comment here to sign-up. You can list the books you intend to read if you’ve already decided. For those with blogs: write a post on your blog about the challenge (with or without your list) and link to this post.
Please for more details read here