2018 Africa Reading Challenge

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Africa, Africa Reading Challenge, Ghana, Kinna, Reading Challenge, West Africa

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

1. Overlap with other challenges is allowed.
2. E-books and audio books are allowed.
3. 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

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2014 Africa Reading Challenge

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Africa Reading Challenge, Kinna

My dear friend Kinna is hosting the 2014 Africa Reading Challenge form January 1 to December 3. Now read on and be sure to participate for a fun time. As Kinna 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? 🙂

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

Kinna is not inclined to push any reading philosophy but would however like to encourage participants to broaden their knowledge of African literature. Broadly then:

For the novice, if you have not read any African lit or if you’ve read one book (E.g. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart):  a mix of at least two regions, two languages, classic and contemporary, with both male and female writers is suggested.  A sample reading list could be:

• Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (North Africa, Arabic, classic)
• Maps by Nuruddin Farah (East Africa)
• Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Southern Africa, contemporary)
• So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba (West Africa, classic, Francophone)
• Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (Southern Africa, contemporary, modern fantasy)

For the advanced reader of African literature: perhaps there is some gap (country, region, language, theme, gender) you want to fill or author(s) whose works you want to explore further?

You could also, for example:

• Read only collection/anthologies of short stories
• Stick to the literary tradition of one country
• Explore literature written in African languages
• Read only Lusophone literature
• Explore the literature of contemporary South Africa
• Read the books of North African countries of the Arab Spring
• Read wherever the urge takes you!

These suggestions notwithstanding, the most important thing is to have fun and to explore Africa through books.

Other Details

1. Overlap with other challenges is allowed.
2. E-books and audio books are allowed.
3. 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

Review: Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo

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Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghanaian Literature Week, Kinna, Short Story

Title:         Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories
Author:     Ama Ata Aidoo
Binding:    Paperback
Genre:      Fiction
Publisher: Ayebia Clarke Publishers Ltd, UK
Pages:      170
Publication Date:  2012

Reason for reading: For the Ghanaian Literature Week hosted by Kinna

A collection of twelve fine short stories (the third) written by the celebrated Ghanaian author, Ama Ata Aidoo, Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories is about every day concerns relating to women, age, love, marriage, class, war and poverty, cultural issues and identity.

Ms Aidoo approaches these concerns in a candid manner, with a fresh and unique perspective, delving deep into the psyche of the characters in a bid to make the reader understand where they are coming from and where they are going, especially where she questions old traditions and  long-held views in Ghana. I see this also as an attempt to make the reader identify and perhaps sympathize with the characters. Most of the characters are strong-willed and assertive, all the more so to buttress the poignancy of these concerns and consequences.

The author makes good use of humour extensively in her narration. In her own delicate but powerful style she engages the reader through her own brand of diction, a spicy mix of precise choice words, phrases and proverbs stringing together to form beautiful narrative with a pure Ghanaian feel. Transliterations abound here and on occasion, certain phrases or sentences cannot be properly translated to create the desired impact unless it is translated directly from the local dialect.

In No Nuts, a good dose of the Fante dialect is sprinkled in the narrative for the desired effect and for good measure.

Both Diplomatic Pounds, the title story and Mixed Messages are a frank look into women’s obsession with weight where Ama Ata Aidoo offers two interesting sides of the coin in a clearly humorous manner.

Issues of race and or skin colour and gender are given prominence in the collection through stories like Outfoxed, Rain and Did you Ever? In the latter the following powerful statement by Koku says it all.

‘Yes, where I come from girls don’t matter. Nobody wants them. Only boys are desired, cherished….‘ p42

Recipe for a Stone Meal is a powerfully poignant  two page story of the effects of war in Africa, told simply and seemingly seamlessly.

Feely Feely is the only story among the collection which gives insight into the lives of a father and son.

I highly recommend Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories to all lovers of the short story genre and African literature for its fresh presentation of how ordinary and everyday issues affect us ‘modern’ women. I most certainly identified with some of the concerns. 🙂

To learn more about the author please visit here