Unajua? – Nigerian Olaudah Equiano was sold into slavery as a child and sent to the Americas. He later bought his freedom and became an abolitionist in Britain. He wrote, Equiano’s Travel, which helped pass the British Slave Trade Act of 1807.

For a long time there were few African history books by African authors – in European languages – and European books about Africans were often racist.

So books about Africa and by African authors, like Olaudah Equiano, were needed, to tell the truth and bring change.

This article gives you 10 African history books by African authors in the African Writers Series.

The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of over 300 books by African authors published by Heinemann between 1962 and 2003 <– that’s post-colonial Africa.

Most AWS novels show the serious change colonialism brought to African lives.

There are no spoilers! This list of books mostly has historical novels which are based on history but with made up characters.

Taarifa💡

Taarifa means information in Swahili. Under every book you get quick information about the book, that's the title, author, setting and genre. * The years of publication used in this article are the ones in the African Writers Series.*

Click to Read: African Independence Movements in Summary

Top 10 African History Books By African Authors In The African Writers Series

Check out articles all about West African Art over here <<

#1 book by African author

Arrow of God

Chinua Achebe

Arrow of God (1965) is a historical novel that shows how Nigerians reacted to the colonialist and missionary invasion in Igbo villages.

The novel is part of The African Trilogy, with Things Fall Apart (1962) and No Longer at Ease (1963) which also show the change colonialism brought to Nigerians.

For more books about colonialism in Africa click here

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian writer seen as the Father of African Literature. His first novel, Things Fall Apart is one of the most read African novels in the world.

Taarifa💡

Title: Arrow of God (1965)
Author: Chinua Achebe
Setting: British colonial Nigeria, early 20th century
Genre: Historical fiction

Image source: Goodreads, used under Fair Use

11 Best Books About Colonialism In Africa From The African Writers Series

11 Best Books About Colonialism In Africa From The African Writers Series

#2 book by African author

Equiano’s Travels

Olaudah Equiano

Equiano’s Travels (1967) is the autobiography, or life story, of Nigerian Olaudah Equiano that was sold into slavery as a child to the Americas.

Olaudah Equiano later bought his freedom and became an abolitionist in Britain.

Equiano’s Travels was the first novel about slavery by an African. It was first published in 1789 and was a bestseller in the 18th century.

Olaudah Equiano was important in the British abolitionist movement. Equiano’s Travels helped stop the slave trade in the British Empire.

Taarifa💡

Title: Equiano's Travels (1967)
Author: Olaudah Equiano
Setting: Igbo Land, the Middle Passage, the Americas, Europe, the Arctic, c.1750–1790
Genre: Autobiography, memoir

Image source: Goodreads, used under Fair Use

15 Types of Clothing in Medieval Africa Every Time Traveller Should Own

#3 book by African author

Facing Mount Kenya

Jomo Kenyatta

Facing Mount Kenya (1979) is a study of the Kikuyu ethnic group’s cultural and historical traditions that till then had been kept through oral tradition.

The Kikuyu, like the Luo and Kalenjin, are one of over 30 ethnic groups from Kenya.

In the 1930s Jomo Kenyatta studied at the London School of Economics where he took a social anthropology course by Bronisław Malinowski.

Jomo Kenyatta was an African nationalist and the first president of Kenya.

Taarifa💡

Title: Facing Mount Kenya (1979)
Author: Jomo Kenyatta 
Setting: Central Kenya (Mount Kenya), 19-20th century
Genre: Non fiction, Ethnography

Image source: Goodreads, used under Fair Use

11 Best Books About Colonialism In Africa From The African Writers Series

11 Best Books About Colonialism In Africa From The African Writers Series

#4 book by African author

A Grain of Wheat

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

A Grain of Wheat (1967) is a historical novel with stories set at the end of the Mau Mau War and British colonialism in Kenya.

The Mau Mau War was fought between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) and Britain. It was an African independence movement that helped Kenya reach independence.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a Kenyan writer and an important figure in world literature.

His first novel Weep Not, Child (1964) was the first English novel by an East African, it is also about the Mau Mau War, which he lived through.

Taarifa💡

Title: A Grain of Wheat (1967)
Author: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Setting: at the end of British colonial rule in Kenya, 1950s to 1963 
Genre: Historical fiction

Image source: Goodreads, used under Fair Use

You Can Read about 8 more major African independence movements here <<

#5 book by African author

Two Thousand Seasons

Ayi Kwei Armah

Two Thousand Seasons (1979) is a novel about the dark side of some of Africa’s history symbolically.

It mentions the evils brought into Africa, like Arabic and European slavery – but also from inside – and all from the past 1,000 years or two thousand seasons.

Two Thousand Seasons uses an African oral tradition style and also shared Pan Africanist ideas.

Ayi Kwei Armah is a Ghanaian writer. He has two other books in the AWS, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) and The Healers (1978).

Taarifa💡

Title: Two Thousand Seasons (1979)
Author: Ayi Kwei Armah
Setting: A symbolic Africa, during about 1,000 years (or two thousand seasons)
Genre: Allegorical fiction

Image source: Goodreads, used under Fair Use

15 Types of Clothing in Medieval Africa

15 Types of Clothing in Medieval Africa Every Time Traveller Should Own

#6 book by African author

The Healers

Ayi Kwei Armah

The Healers (1979) is a historical novel about traditional healers at the end of the Ashanti Empire.

The Ashanti empire was a powerful Akan kingdom in modern-day Ghana that started in the 18th century and ended after five Anglo- Ashanti wars.

Read about the 5th Anglo-Ashanti War here

Other than writing Ayi Kwei Armah also worked for Jeune Afrique and Revolution Africaine in Algeria, where he was a translator.

Taarifa💡

Title: The Healers (1979)
Author: Ayi Kwei Armah
Setting: Ashanti Empire (now Ghana) during the Anglo-Ashanti wars, 19th century
Genre: Historical fiction

Image source: Goodreads, used under Fair Use

10 African Nationalists And Their Contributions

#7 book by African author

Warrior King

Sahle Selassie

Warrior King (1974) is a historical novel about the way Emperor Tewodros became the Emperor of Ethiopia during the Zemene Mesafint.

Ethiopia is the only country, along with Liberia, to have never been colonised.

The Empire of Ethiopia began in the 13th century and ended after the 1974 Derg coup d’état. Haile Selassie was the last of Emperor of Ethiopia.

Sahle Selassie is an Ethiopian writer and translator. He wrote other novels like The Afersata: an Ethiopian novel (1969).

Taarifa💡

Title: Warrior King (1974)
Author: Sahle Selassie
Setting: Ethiopian Empire, 19th century during the Zemene Mesafint
Genre: Historical Fiction

Image source: Goodreads, used under Fair Use

11 Types of West African Artifacts And Their Meaning

11 Types of West African Artifacts And Their Meaning

#8 book by African author

Mhudi

Sol Plaatje

Mhudi (1978) is a historical novel and a love story set during the Mfecane in Southern Africa at the beginning and end of many peoples. 

It was written in 1920 but only published later. Mhudi was the first novel written in English by a Black South African.

Sol Plaatje was a South African writer and politician. He helped found the South African Native National Congress which became the African National Congress (ANC).

Taarifa💡

Title: Mhudi (1978)
Author: Sol Plaatje
Setting: Transvaal region in South Africa, c. 1820s-1830s during the Mfecane
Genre: Historical fiction

Image source: Goodreads, used under Fair Use

NELSON MANDELA was an African nationalist and the leader of the ANC. Read more here<<

#9 book by African author

Emperor Shaka The Great

Mazisi Kenene

Emperor Shaka The Great (1979) is a Zulu epic, or long poem, about the life of Shaka Zulu.

Shaka Zulu was the famous king of the Zulu Kingdom which ended after the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.

Mazisi Kenene was a South African poet and anti-apartheid activist in Europe and America, where he was exiled, and represented the ANC. His works were banned by the South African Apartheid government.

Taarifa💡

Title: Emperor Shaka The Great (1979)
Author: Mazisi Kenene
Setting: Zulu Kingdom (now South Africa), 18-19th century
Genre: Historical fiction, epic poem

Image source: Goodreads, used under Fair Use

Click here for historical fiction novels based on real events and facts of colonialism in African countries..

#10 book by African author

Batouala

René Maran

Batouala (1973) is a historical novel that shows life during colonialism for Banda people who were forced to work on railroads and plantations.

The book was banned in French colonies because it criticized colonialism.

However, Batouala is about a fight over a woman between chieftain Batouala and a younger man.

His parents were Black elites, when most Africans had no rights in French colonies. He grew up in Gabon and worked for the French colonial government in Equatorial Africa.

René Maran was a French writer and the first black writer to win the Prix Goncourt.

Taarifa💡

Title: Batouala (1973)
Author: René Maran
Setting: French Equatorial Africa, Ubangi-Shari colony (now Central African Republic), early 20th century
Genre: Historical Fiction

Image source: Wikipedia, used under Fair Use

Continue reading, friend

THINK ABOUT IT! Have you read African history books by African authors?

 

Move like the chameleon, keep one eye on the past and the other on the future.

~ African Proverb ~

Word Bank📚🧑🏿‍🏫

Abolitionist

Coup d’état

Elite

Epic

Trilogy

Racism

Symbolical

Read More 🙂 

Dreams in a Time of War by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

11 Best Books About Colonialism In Africa From The African Writers Series

11 Best Books About Colonialism In Africa From The African Writers Series

References

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. – ROMANS 11:36

This post was all about books by African authors