Best of
Africa

2022

The Sex Lives of African Women: Self-Discovery, Freedom, and Healing


Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah - 2022
    Many of the women who tell their stories in this collection recall the journeys they have travelled in order to own their own sexualities. They do this by grappling with experiences of child sexual abuse, resisting the religious edicts of their childhood, and by asserting their sexual power. From finding queer community in Egypt to living a polyamorous life in Senegal to understanding the intersectionality of religion and pleasure in Cameroon to choosing to leave relationships that no longer serve them, these narratives are as individual and illuminating as the women who share them.The Sex Lives of African Women provides a deep insight into women's quest for freedom, highlights the complex tapestry of African women's sexuality, and bestows upon all women inspirational examples to live a truly liberated life.

Disarmed: The Radical Life and Legacy of Michael "MJ" Sharp


Marshall V. King - 2022
    Michael “MJ” Sharp was a modern Mennonite armed with wit and intellect, but not a gun. The son of a Mennonite pastor, he demonstrated a gift for listening and persuading early in life. His efforts to approach others with acknowledgement rather than judgement gave him the ability to connect on a level very few managed. He also honed a deep commitment to peace, and after college he joined the Mennonite Mission Network and moved to Germany, where he persuaded soldiers to choose peace and free them of their violent systems. At 34 years old, MJ was working for the United Nations Group of Experts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—urging rebels to lay down their weapons—when he was murdered, likely assassinated alongside his colleague Zaida Catalán by those with government ties. This compelling account of MJ’s life, death, and legacy from longtime journalist Marshall V. King explores what compelled Sharp to travel the world working for peace and the ongoing impact of his life and death in the ongoing story of Christian peacemaking in a war-torn world.

It Doesn't Have To Be This Way


Alistair Mackay - 2022
    Within a few short years, climate collapse leaves Cape Town a vast and arid slum. Those who can afford to leave have fled to the New Temperate Zones, and to The Citadel on Signal Hill, ensconced in a climate-controlled dome behind The Wall. But at what cost? Here, residents pass their days lost in virtual reality, courtesy of a biotech implant connected to their minds, refusing to see what goes on around them. In the present day, before the Change, Luthando sees the way the world is headed and tries to avert disaster, but his activism leads to clashes with the government. As their lives begin to unravel, his life partner, Viwe, becomes embroiled in the religious end-of-days fanaticism sweeping the city. And their friend Malcolm fears that his work developing mental and emotional software is being used for sinister purposes.It Doesn't Have to Be This Way is a profoundly moving story of resilience and tenderness, and our capacity for love in the face of fear. ------------------------------------------Praise for It Doesn't Have to Be This Way:"Revolutionary. Vulnerable. Chilling in its relevance." - Mia Arderne."A bracing read." - Siya Khumalo.

Faith


Itoro Bassey - 2022
    who resettles in Nigeria. The novel is a meditation where several generations of women riff on ideas of faith, expectation, identity, and independence. It's a poignant conversation between the dead and the living, the past and the present, and a young woman grappling to find her place in it all.

Third World Magicks


Mike Kleine - 2022
    prestige, the Great Fear. waves of static. fleeing the body into something somehow more corporeal. white cube and black magician. hazy buzz-z-zzz-z-z-ing sound effects. bloodrip.exe and bertrand yamasaki. tiny, intimate, personal cataclysms. deep earth rumblings. the worst type of acid rain. youtube videos of mountains. quantum chromodynamics. broken-down vr synthetics. a pink ray to the brain. the stench of ambient decay. a bronze-age gargantua monolith.in the triptych third world magicks, significance, music and the measure of personal worth tear through dimensions of physical reality. music journalists blank zizou and bloodrip.exe calmly assess and destroy one another on the sharp metallic edges of claiming and competing for cultural capital, amidst the desperate attempt to stake relevant space in the esteems of others. all the while, people continue to exist on an island. all held captive by black magician, who renders souls into dust among leisure, boglioli linen suits and men with japanese names born from portugal, all while they create The Art. and then, the actual world comes crashing in after mike kleine’s peers begin to write about the book itself. 4th wall dramaticks. something something, critical mass.how do we measure what we create? how do we decide what is great? who truly controls the orbits of the moon? and when is it acceptable to erase something that already exists? third world magicks is a place where experience is only worth how it is described. it is a story of people who enjoy the ideas of things. it is a stage where death is meaningless. the beginning of time. and then, the ending of everything else... evaporation. abject bliss. artificial terror. oceans are burning.

What Happened to Janet Uzor


Miracle Emeka-Nkwor - 2022
    Pamela buries her emotions, while Ebere has been on a mission to find out what really happened to their friend, an excellent swimmer, whose death seems unfair and unconscionable. When Pamela begins to receive sinister letters threatening her life, she finally has to confront her fears, and with the help of Ebere, on/off boyfriend Eche, good friend Daniel Kalio, she sets out to find out who is after her life. But to succeed, they must first unravel the mystery behind Janet’s death before the clock runs out and Pamela finds herself at the mercy of a bloodthirsty killer.

The Living Deserts of Southern Africa


Barry Gordon Lovegrove - 2022
    They teem with life - from ants to elephants, stone plants and colorful daisies to the curious welwitschia, dainty dik-diks to towering gemsbok, and cart-wheeling spiders to fog-basking beetles, all survive against the odds in the fragile desert ecosystem. How do they cope with scarce resources, unpredictable rainfall and extreme temperatures, and how do they protect themselves against predators while also ensuring species survival?In this fully revised and updated edition, Barry Lovegrove unravels many of the mysteries associated with life in the region's four desert biomes: Desert, Arid Savanna, Succulent Karoo and Nama-Karoo. He explains how and why such a great diversity of plants and insects, mammals, reptiles and birds successfully exist in these regions, illustrating many of his examples with spectacular photographs, supported by diagrams and maps.Drawing on the latest scientific research, the text is designed and presented in a highly readable style, and accessible to both the serious student and academic as well as the interested nature lover. The book is as much a plea for sensible management of these sensitive areas as it is a fount of fascinating information.

Glory


NoViolet Bulawayo - 2022
    Inspired by the unexpected fall by coup, in November 2017, of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president of nearly four decades, Bulawayo's bold, vividly imagined novel shows a country imploding, narrated by a chorus of animal voices who unveil the ruthlessness and cold strategy required to uphold the illusion of absolute power, and the imagination and bullet-proof optimism to overthrow it completely.As with her debut novel We Need New Names, Bulawayo's fierce voice and lucid imagery immerses us in the daily life of a traumatized nation, revealing the dazzling life force and irrepressible wit that lies barely concealed beneath the surface of seemingly bleak circumstances. At the center of this tumult is Destiny, who has returned to Jidada from exile to bear witness to revolution--and focus on the unofficial history and the potential legacy of the women who have quietly pulled the strings in this country.The animal kingdom--its connection to our primal responses and resonance in the mythology, folktales, and fairytales that define cultures the world over--unmasks the surreality of contemporary global politics to help us understand our world more clearly, even as Bulwayo plucks us right out of it. Glory is a blockbuster, an exhilarating ride, and crystalizes a turning point in history with the texture and nuance that only the greatest of fiction can.