Francafrique Literature
So Distant From My Life - Monique Ilboudo
Jeanphi, a young man from the fictional West African city Ouabany, has one obsession that will determine the fate of his life – migration. He scrapes together money to take the illegal route across the Sahara, making it as far as Morocco before being repatriated. Increasingly desperate, Jeanphi meets an elegant French widower who for his part is despairing at the insurmountable bureaucratic hurdles for his charitable endeavour in Jeanphi’s country. A window opens to opportunity – but it will also bring tragedy.
Co-Wives, Co-Widows - Adrienne Yabouza
Co-Wives, Co-Widows is the first book from the Central African Republic to be translated into English. This is the story of Ndongo Passy and Grekpoubou, the two widows of Lidou. Following their husband’s sudden and unexplained death, they find themselves fighting tooth and nail for all that is important to them. A playful, bittersweet story full of dry wit and local colour, set against a backdrop of political instability, corruption and the friction between the old and the new in Bangui in the Central African Republic.
Allah Is Not Obliged - Ahmadou Kourouma
'The full, final and completely complete title of my bullshit story is: Allah is not obliged to be fair about all things he does here on earth.' Birahima's story is one of horror and laughter. After his mother's death he travels to Liberia to find his aunt but on the way gets caught up in rebel fighting and ends up with a Kalashnikov in his hands. He tells of the chaotic and terrible adventures that follow in his career as a small soldier with heartbreaking bravado and wisdom.
Black Moses - Alain Mabanckou
It's 1970, and in the People's Republic of Congo a Marxist-Leninist revolution is ushering in a new age. But over at the orphanage on the outskirts of Pointe-Noire where young Moses has grown up, the revolution has only strengthened the reign of terror of Dieudonné Ngoulmoumako, the institution's corrupt director. So Moses escapes to Pointe-Noire, where he finds a home with a larcenous band of Congolese Merry Men and among the Zairian prostitutes of the Trois-Cents quarter. But the authorities won't leave Moses in peace, and intervene to chase both the Merry Men and the Trois-Cents girls out of town. All this injustice pushes poor Moses over the edge. Could he really be the Robin Hood of the Congo? Or is he just losing his marbles?
The Most Secret Memory of Men - Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
Paris, 2018. Diégane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer, discovers a legendary book titled The Labyrinth of Inhumanity. It has an immediate hold over him. No one knows what happened to its author, T. C. Elimane, who was accused of plagiarism, his reputation destroyed by the critics. Obsessed with discovering the truth about Elimane's disappearance, Faye weaves past and present, countries and continents, to follow the author's labyrinthine trail from Senegal to Argentina and France and to confront the great tragedies of history. Will he get to the truth at the centre of the maze?