Best of
African-Literature

1995

Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


J. Nozipo Maraire - 1995
    Nozipo Maraire evokes the moving story of a mother reaching out to her daughter to share the lessons life has taught her and bring the two closer than ever before. Interweaving history and memories, disappointments and dreams, Zenzele tells the tales of Zimbabwe's struggle for independence and the men and women who shaped it: Zenzele's father, an outspoken activist lawyer; her aunt, a schoolteacher by day and secret guerrilla fighter by night; and her cousin, a maid and a spy.Rich with insight, history, and philosophy, Zenzele is a powerful and compelling story that is both revolutionary and revelatory--the story of one life that poignantly speaks of all lives.

Looking for a Rain God and Other Short Stories from Africa


Ian Gordon - 1995
    

Birds of Heaven


Ben Okri - 1995
    The work presents an alternative spiritual response to the problems of the present day.

Jump Up and Say!: A Collection of Black Storytelling


Linda Goss - 1995
    Collected here are family stories and moral fables, ghost stories and tales rich in humor, along with raps and rhymes, memoirs and commentaries, and songs, stories and poems about freedom, protest, and the change.

Osiris Rising: a novel of Africa past, present and future


Ayi Kwei Armah - 1995
    But in the moment of discovery, she also finds that this is only seed time in Africa. Before future harvests and love's consummation, the continent's creative ones must discover ways, old and new, to end the millennial rule of destroyers.

Ways of Dying


Zakes Mda - 1995
    Day after day he attends funerals in the townships, dressed with dignity in a threadbare suit, cape, and battered top hat, to comfort the grieving families of the victims of the city's crime, racial hatred, and crippling poverty. At a Christmas day funeral for a young boy Toloki is reunited with Noria, a woman from his village. Together they help each other to heal the past, and as their story interweaves with those of their acquaintances this elegant short novel provides a magical and painful picture of South Africa today.

Beyond the Horizon


Amma Darko - 1995
    It provides an account of the exploitation of women in Africa and Europe, and tells of an immigrant who, having travelled to Germany to find a paradise, finds she has been betrayed by her husband and is forced into prostitution.

Beyond the Masks: Race, Gender and Subjectivity


Amina Mama - 1995
    Beyond the Masks is a readable account of black psychology, exploring key theoretical issues in race and gender. In it, Amina Mama examines the history of racist psychology, and of the implicit racism throughout the discipline. Beyond the Masks also offers an important theoretical perspective, and will appeal to all those involved with ethnic minorities, gender politics and questions of identity.

To the Bitter End


Keorapetse Kgositsile - 1995
    South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile rejuvenates the African spirit and continues the quest for total and uncompromised liberation.