Contemporary fiction (Diaspora / Nigeria)
Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
R492 from Amazon
Francesca Ekwuyasi’s remarkable debut follows Kambirinachi and her twin daughters, Kehinde and Taiye, as they navigate the aftershocks of a tragedy that splinters their family across continents. Moving between Nigeria, the UK, France and Canada, the novel traces lives shaped by grief, loneliness, desire, faith, and the slow, uncertain work of reconciliation. At its centre is the bond between the twins, though it’s bigger than sisterhood: it’s about the different people we become after something breaks us. Kehinde and Taiye carry the same wound in opposite ways, while Kambirinachi believes she’s an ogbanje, a spirit meant to die young, so every day she stays alive feels stolen. Ekwuyasi doesn’t clean any of her characters up. She lets them be inconsistent, selfish, scared, and still worth caring about. Then there is the food, a character in its own right. Every meal carries the emotional weight of memory, longing and love. Cooking becomes an act of care, of mourning, of apology and, ultimately, of hope. Some books leave you with plenty to say, while others leave you so emotionally fulfilled that words feel inadequate. Butter Honey Pig Bread belongs firmly in the latter category. Amyn Bawa-Allah
Contemporary fiction (South Africa)
Because I Love You by Joy Watson
R320 from The Book Lounge
Although Because I Love You is posited as three stories about three women, all navigating harmful heteronormative romantic relationships, it is actually about four women. Joy Watson’s own processing of the loss of her parents and the end of her marriage is present as a strong filter and frame on the stories. She herself asks, ‘How do we write ourselves back to safety in moments of indescribable pain?’ The book is part ethnography, part memoir, part advice, part fiction. And its premise is a sensitive one: the subtler ways in which gendered relationships can be disorienting and diminishing particularly when there are other vulnerabilities (like loss) present. It is a quick and compelling read, undermined somewhat by the repetitive motifs and metaphors: everyone drinks sparkling wine, breakdowns happen in storms, worlds tilt. Nonetheless, this is a worthwhile read on the important topic of emotional violence. Shivani Ranchod
Contemporary fiction (Zimbabwe)
Trapped by Valerie Tagwira
R330 from Modjaji Books
Trapped is a compelling exploration of disillusionment and the quiet endurance of ordinary people. Set in Harare, Zimbabwe during its years of economic and political decline, the novel follows three young graduates: Unesu, a doctor fighting for patients in hospitals that have nothing left to give, and friends Cashleen and Delta, whose hard-earned qualifications promised a future the country can no longer deliver. As the reality of hardships sink in, each is forced to navigate a world where survival demands everything and promises nothing. Yet beneath their struggles burns a fire sustained by friendship, humour and resilience. Through honest and deeply humane storytelling, Tagwira captures the everyday realities of systemic failure, deferred dreams and the radical act of continuing to care when everything is falling apart. With its unadorned prose and emotional clarity, this is a story about the small, invisible acts of courage that make survival possible. Nokwanda Mngxitama
Art (Diaspora)
Black Earth Rising: Colonialism and Climate Change in Contemporary Art by Ekow Eshun
R1720 from Clarke’s Bookshop
Renowned writer, broadcaster and curator Ekow Eshun’s Black Earth Rising is both ambitious in scope and argument, and almost poetic in its language, making it an intriguing and complex reading experience rather than a coffee-table title that is easy to dip into and out of. That said, the book is also exquisitely put together, with large glossy reproductions of artworks and photographs. One hundred leading artists are featured and there is much visual richness to discover here; their work is also used to trace the links between the workings of colonialism and our current climate emergency. Encouragingly, Black Earth Rising concludes with a hope-inducing section entitled ‘Reclaiming’, which in Eshun’s words, ‘brings together works that assert the natural world as a site of personal and political liberation’, and is filled with truly beautiful, uplifting and inspiring artworks. Robyn Alexander
Contemporary fiction (South Africa)
Love Stories for Ghosts by Alex Latimer
R360 from The Book Lounge
Alex Latimer was short-listed for the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and his Love Stories for Ghosts is a pleasurably weird and wonderful collection that will live in the reader’s memory long after the last page has been read. These stories feature characters enacting lonesome and tender scenes of unrequited love, or being set adrift by loss on inner voyages at an early age. However, even though death is never far away, there is usually a redemptive arc, and the connections between the living and the dead seem naturally imbued with a lightness that isn’t always present in stories with a fantasy element. Latimer’s ghosts find love in the afterlife as a bad smell, as an awaiting greeter in a sparse heaven that consists of a house with a garden and a pool, and as a couple who want to escape death and find an eternity together on the moon. Original, melancholy and occasionally sweet, these stories tackle the big questions: where do souls go? Who do you become when you die? What is heaven like? Does reincarnation exist? Can you communicate with ghosts? Responses to all these difficult-to-answer queries find purchase in Latimer’s capable storytelling. Luso Mnthali
Contemporary fiction (Nigeria)
The Comfort of Distant Stars by I.O. Echeruo
R420 from The Book Lounge
Ezeani was always different: since he was a child, he has been able to see the presence of the Sun God, Anyanwu. In The Comfort of Distant Stars Echeruo takes us on a journey across Nigeria and the United States, as we follow Ezeani and his budding academic career. This book packs a massive punch. It covers themes of politics, family, belonging, the stories we believe, and who gets to tell them, and the desperate need we all have to fit in. It is gorgeously and cerebrally written, with a strong focus on science and mathematics. While the subject matter is quite intellectual at times, I never felt out of the loop. The Comfort of Distant Stars is a stunning book filled with highly engaging writing. I cannot wait for everyone I know to read it too. Riley Herbert-Henry
Memoir / life advice (South Africa)
Ancestory by Nokulinda Mkhize
R265 from Clarke’s Bookshop
This is an essential read for anyone who is curious about – or maybe even suspicious of – African spirituality. Its invisible pull and teachings are expertly linked to South African and global history, and present the modern reader with nuggets that not only resonate but often reprimand (with care, of course). Difficult and urgent questions are demanded of the reader by Mkhize. Her razor-sharp insights, which are broad in their knowledge base but narrow in their specific lesson, often leave one lingering on a chapter for days on end – having to come back, reread, ingest, discuss before truly moving on. She extends much grace to the modern reader’s largely extractive and isolated inherited environment but calls for increased accountability all the same. This is the kind of book you need to work through slowly, especially if you are to meet her questions, your people and yourself honestly. Pheladi Sethusa
Art (Nigeria)
Nigerian Modernism edited by Osei Bonsu
R1145 from Jonathan Ball
Deeply researched, attentively detailed and endlessly interesting, Nigerian Modernism will introduce many of its readers to the work of Nigeria’s mid-20th-century artists for the first time. And what a diverting, inspiring and just plain visually wonderful introduction it is. From exploring the paintings and sculptures of renowned modernist master Ben Enwonwu – his portraits, landscapes and imagery encompassing African cultural traditions are breathtakingly gorgeous – to presenting the work fostered by two key centres of modernist art-making in Nigeria (the Zaria Art Society and the Mbari Artists and Writers Club) this book is a comprehensive introduction to an artistic time and place that resonates beautifully down the years. Robyn Alexander
