2013 books with a Ghana or an Africa focus

I read quite a lot of different types of books, though I readily admit to a weakness for mysteries/crime/thrillers.

But I do also live in Ghana, and have always felt the desire to read books written by Ghanaians – both living here and in the diaspora – and also books about Ghana. To a lesser extent that has also applied to books by Africans and about Africa.

Out of a total of 68 books completed during 2013, 29 (approx 43%) were either with a Ghana or an Africa focus, as detailed below:

Ghana fiction

• Mr Happy and the hammer of God and other stories, by Martin Egblewogbe
• Ghana must go, by Taiye Selasi [one of my favourite reads of the year]
• Children of the street, by Kwei Quartey [a Ghana mystery]
• Akosua and Osman, by Manu Herbstein [a winner of the Burt prize]
• The deliverer, by Kwabena Ankomah-Kwakye [another Burt prize winner, not sure whether this is really fiction though]

Ghana non-fiction

• Pilgrims of the night: development challenges and opportunities in Africa, edited by Ivor Agyeman-Duah
• Bright lights, no city, by Max Alexander [very entertaining view of a social enterprise based in the Eastern Region of Ghana]
• Interventions: a life in war and peace, by Kofi Annan with nader Mousavizadeh [illuminating]
• Lose your mother, by Saidiya Hartman [on the slave trade, but also the story of one African-American’s journey to understand some of its legacies. Very personal]
• No worries, 5th ed, NAWA [great guidebook to Accra]
• Defeating dictators, by George B N Ayittey
• The library tree, by Deborah Cowley

Africa fiction

• Open city, by Teju Cole [even though it takes place mostly in the US]
• Chicago, by Alaa al Aswany [again takes place in the US]
• Nairobi heat, by Mukoma wa Ngugi [another African crime story!]
• Broken glass, by Alain Mabanckou
• No time like the present, by Nadine Gordimer
• Every day is for the thief, by Teju Cole [actually written before Open City]
• Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie [another of my favourite reads of the year]
• Waiting for the barbarians, by J M Coetzee [the author is South African]

Africa non-fiction

• Yes, Chef – a memoir, by Marcus Samuelsson
• This child will be great, by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
• Of Africa, by Wole Soyinka
• Chocolate nations – Living and dying for cocoa in West Africa, by Orla Ryan
• The boy who harnessed the wind, by William Kamkwamba and Brian Mealer
• There was a country – A personal history of Biafra, by Chinua Achebe
• Birds of our land, by Virginia Dike
• The beautiful tree, by James Tooley [one of my favourite non-fiction books of the year]
• One day I will write about this place, by Binyavanga Wainaina

I hope these lists give a flavour of some of the range of books I’ve read.

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