Book picks similar to
Guardians of the Sacred Word: Ewe Poetry (Traditional African literature) by Kofi Awoonor
poetry
20th-century-fic
africa
african-lit
Growing Up African in Australia
Maxine Beneba ClarkeSuban Nur Cooley - 2019
“Dhaqan” means culture and “Celis” means return.’Learning to kick a football in a suburban schoolyard. Finding your feet as a young black dancer. Discovering your grandfather’s poetry. Meeting Nelson Mandela at your local church. Facing racism from those who should protect you. Dreading a visit to the hairdresser. House- hopping across the suburbs. Being too black. Not being black enough. Singing to find your soul, and then losing yourself again.Welcome to African Australia.Compiled by award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke, with curatorial assistance from writers Ahmed Yussuf and Magan Magan, this anthology brings together voices from the regions of Africa and the African diaspora, including the Caribbean and the Americas. Told with passion, power and poise, these are the stories of African-diaspora Australians.Contributors include Faustina Agolley, Santilla Chingaipe, Carly Findlay, Khalid Warsame, Nyadol Nyuon, Tariro Mavondo and many, many more.
A Stranger's Pose
Emmanuel IdumaMichael Tsegaye - 2018
Iduma blends memoir, travelogue and storytelling in these fragments of a traveller’s journey across several African cities. Inspired by the author’s travels with photographers between 2011 and 2015, the author's own accounts are expanded to include other narratives about movement, estrangement, and intimacy. These include: an arrest in a market in N’djamena, being punished by a Gendarmes officer on a Cameroonian highway and meeting the famed photographer Malick Sidibe in Bamako.
Black Sunlight
Dambudzo Marechera - 1980
"Black Sunlight" gives a similar cockroach-eye view of London.“I really tried to put terrorism into a historical perspective, neither applauding their acts nor condemning them. The photographer does not take sides; he just takes the press photographs.” In an unspecified setting the stream-of-consciousness narrative of this cult novel traces the fortunes of a group of anarchists in revolt against a military-fascist-capitalist opposition. The protagonist is photojournalist Chris, whose camera lens becomes the device through which the plot is cleverly unraveled. In Dambudzo Marechera’s second experimental novel, he parodies African nationalist and racial identifications as part of an argument that notions of an ‘essential African identity’ were often invoked to authorize a number of totalitarian regimes across Africa. Such irreverent, avant-garde literature was criticized upon publication in Zimbabwe in 1980, and Black Sunlight was banned on charges of ‘Euromodernism’ and as a challenge to the concept of nation-building in the newly independent country.
The Night Country
Bryce Courtenay - 1998
A little boy witnesses the ugliness of apartheid.
Writings from Ancient Egypt
Anonymous - 2010
But writings make him remembered'In ancient Egypt, words had magical power. Inscribed on tombs and temple walls, coffins and statues, or inked onto papyri, hieroglyphs give us a unique insight into the life of the Egyptian mind. Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson has freshly translated a rich and diverse range of ancient Egyptian writings into modern English, including tales of shipwreck and wonder, obelisk inscriptions, mortuary spells, funeral hymns, songs, satires and advice on life from a pharaoh to his son. Spanning over two millennia, this is the essential guide to a complex, sophisticated culture.Translated with an Introduction by Toby Wilkinson
Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law
Adrienne Rich - 1967
In Collected Early Poems, 1950-1970, Rich discusses this book as a watershed moment in the discovery of her voice.
Hazel House
Oby Aligwekwe - 2018
With Phina’s beauty and the massive fortune she inherited from her father, everything seems to have been handed to her by fate, but her keen mind and business acumen keep Ophinas – her luxury retail company – a cut above the rest. Phina and Patrick lead an enchanting life, and with high-powered friends and everything money can buy, their lives are never short of excitement. When a dead body turns up in a hotel room in Barcelona and a letter exposes a dark secret, some truths about their extraordinary lives begin to unravel. As more people are drawn into the puzzle that Phina’s Private Investigator is piecing together to solve the murder, they soon realize they are dealing with an opponent far more ominous than they ever imagined. Filled with treachery and intrigue and delivered in a thrilling narrative that takes readers from London to Lagos to New York, Hazel House paints a vivid portrait of how the needs of humans collide amidst unimaginable wealth, intense desire and the quest for power.
Kidnapped
Colin Freeman - 2011
It is a terrifying experience - the gang's hideout is attacked by rival pirates, Freeman is threatened with being handed over to Islamists who wish to execute him and he constantly fears death at the hands of his constantly drug-addled captors. But he survives - thinner, greyer and wiser - to tell the tale of an astonishing adventure in a surprisingly funny and fond way. ‘More than simply a terrific book on the scourge of Somali piracy, Freeman’s wry style and heartfelt candour raises Kidnapped to the highest rank’ – Tim Butcher, author Blood River'He treats these grim experiences with a self-deprecating humour which makes one laugh out loud...' - The Daily Telegraph'A hair-raising account of life as a prisoner of Somalia's 21st century buccaneers. Essential reading for anyone interested in the world's most broken state, and why it became that way' - Oliver Poole, London Evening Standard'One finishes the book admiring the author's wit in adversity and enlightened on one of the least known parts of the world' - Simon Scott Plummer, The Daily TelegraphAbout the author:Colin Freeman is the chief foreign correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph. His first taste of foreign reporting came during the Iraq war in 2003, when he gave up his up job on the London Evening Standard and went to Baghdad to freelance. He lived there for two years, during which time he was shot and injured while covering a Shia militia demonstration in Basrah. Since joining the Sunday Telegraph full time in 2005, he has reported extensively across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. He is aged 41 and lives in London. He is also the author of 'Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel and other half-truths from Baghdad.
Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol
Okot p'Bitek - 1984
Song of Lawino is an African woman's lamentation over the cultural death of her western educated husband - Ocol. In Song of Ocol the husband tries to justify his cultural apostasy. The first was translated from Acholi by the author while the second was written in English.
From One Mom to a Mother: Poetry & Momisms (Jessica Urlichs: Early Motherhood Poetry & Prose Collection Book 1)
Jessica Urlichs - 2020
Minuscules : when less is more…
Priyanka Bhatt - 2018
Since then, my words have been oozing pain. Today’s instant make-up, instant break-up generation have no time to spare time at all. They prefer enjoying eternity in moments to waiting eternally for that moment. Hence, these micro tales have become the latest fad. Minuscule is a collection of unique micro tales and short stories that are spread over various themes. From horror to social issues to romance, these tales leave no topic unwritten about, no emotion unexplored. Though told with brevity, the impact of these stories can be more lingering than that of novels. To-the-point, poignant, relatable - this micro fiction book can be read by anyone in today’s time - a teenager and an adult alike. Its varied range of themes is the cherry on the cake. Minuscule is a book that is sure to bring a smile to your face and tears to your eyes – and stay with you for a very long time. May the stories make a home in your heart! Don’t leave me the way you leave others. Some things are permanent indeed. Like love, like regret. And trust me honey, I’ll be your both.
मेरी श्रेष्ठ कविताएँ
Harivansh Rai Bachchan - 2009
An anthology of some the best poems written by Harivansh Rai Bachchan,which have been selected specially for this anthology by himself.
Notes on Thought and Vision
H.D. - 1982
(Hilda Doolittle) is an aphoristic meditation on how one works toward an ideal body-mind synthesis; a contemplation of the sources of imagination and the creative process; and a study of gender differences H.D. believed to be inherent in women's and men's consciousness. Here, too, is The Wise Sappho, a lyrical tribute to the great poet of Lesbos, for whom H.D. felt deep personal kinship.""Notes" is filled with dualisms that seem to split experience at all levels: body and spirit, womb and head, feeling and thought, the unconscious and ego consciousness, female and male, nature and divinity, classical and Christian, Greek and Hebrew, Greek and Egyptian, Sphinx and Centaur, Pan and Helios, Naiads and Athene, thistle and serpent. But the impulse behind "Notes" is to account for those mysterious moments in which the polarities seemed to fall away, or—more accurately—to find their contradictions lifted and subsumed into a gestalt that illuminated the cross-patch of the past and released her to the chances of the future." —Albert Gelpi, Introduction"H. D.'s Notes on Thought and Vision [is] such a unique, inspiring, exploration of her notion of the creative process, orchestrated through an array of fully female, not feminine, not feminist, female figures." —Paul Kameen, University of Pittsburgh, English DepartmentHilda "H.D." Doolittle (1886-1961) was a poet, novelist, and memoirist well-known for her role with the avant-gard Imagist group. Though born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, her publications took off in London and earned her a spot within the emerging Imagist movement. She is also known for being unapologetic about her sexuality and is an icon for LGBT rights and feminist movements.
Karamojo Safari
W.D.M. Bell - 1949
Walter Bell (1880-1954), known as Karamojo Bell, was a Scottish adventurer, big game hunter in East Africa, soldier, decorated fighter pilot, sailor, writer, and painter.Famous for being one of the most successful ivory hunters of his time, Bell was an advocate of the importance of shooting accuracy and shot placement with smaller calibre rifles, over the use of heavy large-bore rifles for big African game. He improved his shooting skills by careful dissection and study of the anatomy of the skulls of the elephants he shot. He even perfected the clean shooting of elephants from the extremely difficult position of being diagonally behind the target; this shot became known as the Bell Shot.Although chiefly known for his exploits in Africa, Bell also traveled to North America and New Zealand, sailed windjammers, and saw service in South Africa during the Boer War, and flew in the Royal Flying Corps in East Africa, Greece and France during World War I.
Collected Poems
Chinua Achebe - 2004
A collection of poetry spanning the full range of the African-born author's acclaimed career has been updated to include seven never-before-published works, as well as much of his early poetry that explores such themes as the African consciousness, the tragedy of Biafra, and the mysteries of human relationships.