A classic of modern Swahili literature, Rosa Mistika is now available in English. First published in 1971, it’s the story of a teenage girl whose parents and boarding school teachers try to keep her away from boys, and of course she circumvents all efforts to control her. It’s also an allegory for the young nation… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Africa
Burundi: Small Country
Burundi, indeed, is a small country in East Africa, with about 14 million people across 27,830 square kilometers. It was under German and Belgian colonial rule until 1962. The country has two primary ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. The Germans and Belgians kept the Tutsi monarch intact, but the Belgians began cutting off… [Read More]
Benin: Breaking the Maafa Chain
This novel imagines aspects of a true story. Sarah Forbes Bonetta was born into a West African tribe around 1843, orphaned, and captured with the intention of selling her into slavery or using her for human sacrifice. In 1850, she was given to Frederick Forbes, a representative of Queen Victoria who was working to stop… [Read More]
Ghana: Ghana Must Go (the other novel)
When I did my reading around Africa project a few years back, I read a novel called Ghana Must Go. Now, I’m plugging away on my reading around the world project, and I finished another novel called Ghana Must Go. The title of both refers to the 1983 expulsion of Ghanaian migrants from Nigeria. Many… [Read More]
Morocco: Bank Al-Maghrib Museum
Morocco’s central bank has a museum in Rabat, the nation’s capital, and it is worth a visit. The collection and exhibits are a mix of economic history, numismatics, and works by Moroccan artists. The Bank al-Maghrib Museum also hosts public performances and corporate events. (Maghrib, which means “west” or “sunset”, is the Arabic name for… [Read More]
