Following the announcement of the shortlist for the inaugural Pan-African Etisalat Prize for Literature literary critic John Preston has listed the ten authors that “defined Africa” and “brought this evocative continent to the rest of the world.”
Preston describes how in 1957 Chinua Achebe was told there was no market for fiction from Africa when he sent his only copy of Things Fall Apart to a London publisher. Now, however, Preston writes that “Africa is the source of some of the most distinctive, vibrant novels being produced — novels that often make a lot of Western fiction look very pale and watery in comparison.”
Starting with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Preston mentions the Nigerian writer’s first two books, Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. Other Nigerians on the list include Buchi Emecheta, author of Second Class Citizen, Ben Okri for The Famished Road and Wole Soyinka, author of Of Africa.
Senegal is represented by Mariama Ba with her novel So Long a Letter, while Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo is on the list for her Man Booker shortlisted debut novel, We Need New Names.
Interestingly, Preston includes Kenyan Mukoma wa Ngũgĩ for his crime novel Nairobi Heat, but not his father, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Taiye Selasi, who was raised in America by Ghanian parents, is included for Ghana Must Go. South Africans JM Coetzee and Damon Galgut are also on the list, for Disgrace and The Good Doctor respectively.
Tell us what you think – any other novelists that should have been included?
Later this month, the shortlist for the Etisalat Prize, the first-ever Pan-African literary prize for first-time novelists, will be announced. Fifty years ago, anyone suggesting that there should be such a thing as an African literature prize would probably have been regarded as a little mad. Back in 1957, the late Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, sent off the only copy of his first novel, Things Fall Apart, to a publisher in London — he couldn’t afford to get it duplicated. Months went by without Achebe hearing anything. When he asked if they’d read it, he was told sternly that, ‘fiction from Africa had no market potential’. But Achebe was undaunted. He kept plugging away and eventually Things Fall Apart was published. Immediately, it was hailed as a masterpiece and went on to sell more than eight million copies. Where Achebe led, others soon followed — slowly at first and then in something approaching a flood. Now Africa is the source of some of the most distinctive, vibrant novels being produced — novels that often make a lot of Western fiction look very pale and watery in comparison.
Book details
- So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba
EAN: 9780435913526
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- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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EAN: 9780007200283
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- We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
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EAN: 9780701188047
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- Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta
EAN: 9780807610664
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- Disgrace by JM Coetzee
EAN: 9780099289524
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- Nairobi Heat by Mukoma wa Ngugi
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EAN: 9780143026884
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- The Famished Road by Ben Okri
EAN: 9780099929307
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- Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
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EAN: 9780670919888
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- Of Africa by Wole Soyinka
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EAN: 9780300140460
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- The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut
EAN: 9780143024569
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