Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Zimbabwe International Book Fair, 100 Books

To mark the beginning of the 21st century, and encouraged by Professor Ali Mazrui, the Zimbabwe International Book Fair launched the international compilation of "Africa's 100 Best Books." This project was organized in collaboration with the African Publishers Network (APNET), the Pan-African Booksellers Association (PABA), African writers' associations, book development councils, and library associations.

Nominations were sought throughout the African continent and internationally. A comprehensive list of all nominations was published at the ZIBF in August 2001 and during the course of the following year regional panels compiled their own short lists of 100 best books. Closing date for nominations was 30 September 2001.

A jury made the final decision from the short list and the final list of "Africa's 100 Best Books" was announced on February 18, 2002.

This list was originally published in 2002 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
8566 Sosu's Call Meshack Asare 1997 Ghanaian English
7067 Adventures Of A Breath Hayam Abbas Al-Homi 1989 Egyptian Unknown
7067 Stories From A Shona Childhood Charles Mungoshi 1989 Zimbabwean English
6951 Mamy Wata and the Monster Veronique Tadjo 1988 French French
4476 Al Mawt `Ala Al Asfalt `Abd al-Rahman Abnudi 1960 Egyptian Arabic
733 Arrow of God Chinua Achebe 1964 Nigerian English
60 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 Nigerian English
5266 Anowa Ama Ata Aidoo 1970 Ghanaian English
7067 O Testamento Do Sr. Napumoceno Da Silva Araújo Germano Almeida 1989 Cape Verdean Portuguese
1502 The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born Ayi K. Armah 1968 Ghanaian English
5469 L'étrange Destin De Wangrin Amadou Hampâté Bâ 1973 French French
1278 So Long a Letter Mariama Bâ 1980 Senegalese French
2319 The Sacred Night Tahar Ben Jelloun 1987 Moroccan French
4141 Le Pauvre Christ De Bomba Mongo Beti 1956 French French
1003 A Dry White Season Andre Brink 1979 South African Afrikaans
8981 Riwan, Ou Le Chemin De Sable Ken Bugul 1999 French French
7178 The Last Harmattan Of Alusine Dunbar Syl Cheney-Choker 1990 Sierra Leonean English
3948 Le Passé Simple Driss Chraibi 1954 Moroccan French
1743 Life & Times of Michael K J. M. Coetzee 1983 South African English
7796 Sleepwalking Land Mia Couto 1992 Mozambican Portuguese
6351 Karingana Ua Karingana José Craveirinha 1982 Mozambican Portuguese
4141 Climbié Bernard Dadié 1956 French French
746 Nervous Conditions Tsitsi Dangarembga 1988 Zimbabwean English
2467 La Grande Maison Mohammed Dib 1952 Algerian French
3860 Tales of Amadou Koumba Birago Diop 1947 Togolese French
5406 Murambi, The Book Of Bones Boubacar Boris Diop 2000 Senegalese French
1121 Fantasia Assia Djebar 1985 French French
2411 The Joys Of Motherhood Buchi Emecheta 1979 Nigerian English
3860 Forest of A Thousand Daemons Daniel O. Fagunwa 1938 Nigerian Yoruba
3296 Maps Nuruddin Farah 1986 Somali English
4557 The Blood Knot Athol Fugard 1961 South African English
3915 Zayni Barakat Jamal al- Ghitani 1974 Egyptian Arabic
938 Burger's Daughter Nadine Gordimer 1979 South African English
1322 A Question of Power Bessie Head 1973 Botswanan English
4746 Nos Matamos O Cão Tinhoso Bernardo Honwana 1964 Mozambican Portuguese
6951 Bones Chenjerai Hove 1988 Zimbabwean English
4449 Abyssinian Chronicles Moses Isegawa 1998 Dutch English
3860 The Wrath of the Ancestors Archibald Campbell Jordan 1940 South African English
5958 The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena Elsa Joubert 1978 South African Afrikaans
1025 Ambiguous Adventure Cheikh Hamidou Kane 1961 Senegalese French
6855 Ualalapi Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa 1987 Mozambican Portuguese
5095 The Suns of Independence Ahmadou Kourouma 1968 French French
818 The African Child Camara Laye 1953 Guinean French
7647 Living, Loving And Lying Awake At Night Sindiwe Magona 1991 South African English
1115 The Cairo Trilogy Naguib Mahfouz 1956 Egyptian Arabic
5958 House Of Hunger Dambudzo Marechera 1978 Zimbabwean English
1108 Chaka Thomas Mofolo 1925 South African Sesotho
9770 Un Attieké Pour Elgass Tierno Monenembo 2021 French French
4746 Indaba, My Children Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa 1964 South African English
2813 Matigari Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1987 Kenyan Gikuyu
2268 A Grain Of Wheat Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1967 Kenyan English
4476 Soundjata Ou L'épopée Mandingue Djibril Tamsir Niane 1960 French French
4557 Inkinnsela Yase Mgungundlovu Sibusiso Nyembezi 1961 South African Zulu
3008 Labyrinths Christopher Okigbo 1971 Nigerian English
1505 The Famished Road Ben Okri 1991 Nigerian English
4141 Le Vieux Nègre Et La Médaille Ferdinand Oyono 1956 French French
1195 Song Of Lawino Okot P'Bitek 1966 Ugandan Acholi
6206 A Geração Da Utopia Pepetela 1992 Angolan Portuguese
1234 Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi 1975 Egyptian Arabic
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
6102 Le Jeune Homme De Sable Williams Sassine 1979 French French
771 God's Bits of Wood Ousmane Sembène 1960 Senegalese French
4746 Oeuvre Poétique Léopold Sédar Senghor 1964 Senegalese French
8566 Third World Express Mongane Wally Serote 1997 South African English
4995 Utenzi Wa Vita Vya Uhuru Robert Bin Shabaan 1967 Tanzanian Swahili
6102 Life and a Half Sony Labou Tansi 1979 French French
3563 The Beggars' Strike Aminata Sow Fall 1979 Senegalese French
4083 Death And The King's Horsemen Wole Soyinka 1975 Nigerian English
4099 Le Mauvais Sang Feu De Brousse à Trisse Coeur Tchicaya U. Tam'si 1955 Tchadian French
859 The Palm-Wine Drinkard Amos Tutola 1952 Nigerian English
8735 Butterfly Burning Yvonne Vera 1998 Zimbabwean English
5520 Nós Os Do Makulusu José Luandino Vieira 1974 Angolan Portuguese
3860 Amal'eZulu B. W. Vilakazi 1945 South African Zulu
4141 Nedjma Kateb Yacine 1956 Algerian French
5266 Accumulation On A World Scale Samir Amin 1970 French French
6855 Male Daughters, Female Husbands Ifi Amadiume 1987 Nigerian English
4557 Os Nacionalismos Africanos Mario de Andrade 1961 Brazilian Portuguese
7796 In My Father's House Anthony Appiah 1992 Ghanaian English
6102 Unity And Struggle Amilcar Cabral 1979 Guinean Portuguese
8735 Kiswahili, Past, Present And Future Horizons Rocha Chimera 1998 Kenyan English
3948 Antériorité Des Civilisations Nègres Cheikh Anta Diop 1954 Senegalese French
8057 Cutting The Rose Efua Doorkenoo 1994 Ghanaian English
3860 Ethiopia Unbound J. E. Casely Hayford 1911 Ghanaian English
5691 Sur La Philosophie Africaine Paulin Hountondji 1976 French French
3860 The History Of The Yorubas Reverend Samuel Johnson 1921 Nigerian English
2837 Facing Mount Kenya Jomo Kenyatta 1938 Kenyan English
5384 Histoire De L'afrique Noire Joseph Ki-Zerbo 1972 French French
6136 Country Of My Skull Antjie Krog 1998 South African Afrikaans
8235 Beyond The Mask, Race, Gender And Identity Amina Mama 1995 British English
6763 Citizen And Subject Mahmood Mamdani 1996 Ugandan English
2276 Long Walk To Freedom Nelson Mandela 1994 South African English
3860 The Soul of the White Ant Eugène N. Marais 1925 South African Afrikaans
4206 The Colonizer and the Colonized Albert Memmi 1957 French French
5186 The Struggle For Mozambique Eduardo Mondlane 1969 Mozambican English
1662 Down Second Avenue Es'kia Mphahlele 1959 South African English
6951 The Invention Of Africa V. Y. Mudimbe 1988 Congolese English
4206 Ghana Kwame Nkrumah 1957 Ghanaian English
3860 Native Life In South Africa Sol Plaatje 1916 South African English
3134 Ake Wole Soyinka 1981 Nigerian English
8377 The Seed Is Mine Charles Van Onselen 1996 South African English