Seven Anthologies by African Writers to Enjoy

We give you some anthologies to keep you busy this weekend as well as to look forward to in the near future.

We here at JamesMurua.com regularly collate a list of books by writers of African descent for you to read and enjoy. In this post, we have opted not to give you work by individuals but collective works by several writers under one or more editors. The anthologies are in the languages of English and Ga and feature prose, poetry, and nonfiction.

Enjoy.

A Fire Within And Other Stories

A Fire Within

Editors: Mathew Sang, Muthoni Garland
Genre: Short Stories
Language: English
Publisher: Storymoja Publishers
Publishing Date: October 1, 2022
Contributors: Kristine Ong (Phillipines), Lillian Akampurira Aujo (Uganda), Lubnah Abdulhalim (Kenya), Nnamdi Oguike (Nigeria), Heran Abate (Ethiopia), Muthoni Muchemi (Kenya), Farai Mudzingwa (Zimbabwe), Hellen Rial Isaac (South Sudan), MG Vassanji (Tanzania/Canada), Hassan Ghedi Santur (Somalia), Muna Ahmed Omer (Republic of Somaliland), and A. Igoni Barrett (Nigeria).

Where to get it: Click here.

Something in the Water: The Blood Beats Series

Something in the Water

Editors: Anathi Jongilanga and Moso Sematlane
Publisher: Brittlepaper
Language: English
Genre: Short Stories

Contributors: Ema Babikwa, Abeke Bello, Tebogo Manthata, Keratile Moses Israel, Merle Grace, Viola Konji, Rafiat Lamidi, Hugo ka Canham, Msawenkosi Motolwana, Raul Bimenyimana, Mathopa Moeti, Miriam Gayize, Caio Simões de Araújo, Lazarus Kgageng, and Thomas Alfred.

Anathi Jongilanga, Moso Sematlane and the contributing authors to Something in the Water have called us together to a celebration of creativity and survival. By deploying literature as a force to free marginalised voices and as an agency to propel those voices to their farthest reach, they demonstrate the intentionality of the responsible artist in confronting oppression and erasure. The quiet audacity of this resistance and the empathy with which the tragic lives of ordinary characters are rendered bestow on this collection of short stories an enduring luminosity.

Where to get it: Click here.

Voices That Sing Behind The Veil: Anthology of Short Stories from Africa and the Diaspora Paperback

Voices That Sing Behind The Veil

Editor: Ivor Agyeman-Duah
Publication Date: July 26, 2022
Language: English
Contributors: Zaynab Alkali (Nigeria), Ben Okri (UK/Nigeria), Molefi Kete Asante (US), Wesley Macheso (Malawi), Ogochukwu Promise (Nigeria), Grace Maguri (Zimbabwe), Athol Williams (South Africa), Martin Egblewogbe (Ghana), Esther K Mbithi (Kenya), Mary Ashun (Ghana), Wale Okediran (Nigeria) among others.

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The fifty-six stories come from fifteen African countries and elsewhere; Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and East of the continent, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Great Lakes region, Ethiopia and Tanzania (in setting). They bring in other voices in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, St. Maarten, United States and Britain. The themes are amok and definitely so in a vein of free expression. There are stories of love (of even a man who finds one whilst visiting a dying cancer-patient wife at the hospital in Lagos) or of a husband wrongfully imprisoned in Malawi who upon escape from jail confronts a wife about to wed again, a story very reminiscent of the main character in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s, Weep Not, Child.

There is hate and there is poverty – one from Kenya which reads like the Zimbabwean novelist, Dambudzo Marechera’s 1978 classic, The House of Hunger. Issues of mental health, corpse donation for scientific research and Coronavirus-19 are addressed alongside Pentecostal redemption, fake prophets and the havoc they exert on societies as do their counterparts in Islam.
Where to find it: Amazon.

A possible future: Best of Nigerian writings anthology

A possible future

Publisher: Farafina
Language: English
Where to find it: Farafina
Contributors: Olaudah Equiano, D.O. Fagunwa, Gabriel Okara, Cyprian Ekwensi, Obotunde Ijimere, Chinua Achebe, Duro Ladipo, Chukwuemeka Ike, Christopher Okigbo, Elechi Amadi, Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, J.P. Clark-Bekederemo, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Isidore Okpewho, Mobolaji Adenubi, Buchi Emecheta, Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare, Tanure Ojaide, Odia Ofeimun, Ben Okri, Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, Dulue Mbachu, Ikeogu Oke, Biyi Bandele, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Aisha Osori, Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi, Yemisi Aribisala, Lola Shoneyin, Teju Cole, Yejide Kilanko, Eghosa Imasuen, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Niran Okewole, A. Igoni Barret, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Taiye Selasi, Jowhor Ile, Tope Folarin, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Helen Oyeyemi, Uche Okonkwo, Gbenga Adesina, and Wale Lawal.

Spanning two hundred years and multiple genres, A Possible Future uses gorgeous excerpts from over eighty literary works to showcase the inventiveness in Nigerian letters and the various zeitgeists-colonialism, despotism, Afropolitanism, postcolonialism, race and sexuality- that have defined it throughout the country’s history.

Where to find it: Farafina.

Hɔmɔwɔ: Ga Lalawiemɔi

Editor: Nikitta Dede Adjirakor
Publisher:
Writing Ghana Literary Initiatives
Language: Ga
Genre: Poetry
Contributors: Zenith Akwei, Ashitei Amarh, Anna Naa Amanua Ankrah, Nii Ayertey Aryeh, Clement Ashia, Sueley Akron Bi, Nana Dokua Obuobi, Gab-Darlin Mate-Teye, Amu Mawutoh, Ephraim Poncho-Kotey, Naa Momo Quaye-Kumah, Nii Temoh Tetteh, Gariel Nii Obodai Torgbor-Ashong

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Hɔmɔwɔ: Ga Lalawiemɔi is a collection of Ga poetry by thirteen contemporary poets. Featuring nineteen poems, the poems cover different themes such as pandemics, Ga heritage, family, memory, childhood and love. Written completely in Ga, the book is a groundbreaking addition to the Ga language literary scene.

Where to find it: Click here.

No Edges: Swahili Stories

No edges Swahili stories

Editor: Sarah Coolidge
Publisher: Two Lines Press
Language: English (From Kiswahili)
Genre: Short stories
Date available: March 14th, 2023
Contributors: Fatma Shafii, Lusajo Mwaikenda Israel, Mwas Mahugu, Clara Momanyi, Fadhy Mtanga, Katama G. C. Mkangi, Lilian Mbaga, and Euphrase Kezilahabi.

Swahili is the future. The first collection of Swahili literature of its kind, No Edges: Swahili Stories introduces eight East African writers from Tanzania and Kenya as they share tales of sorcerers, Nairobi junkyards, cross-country matatu rides, and spaceships that blast prisoners into eternity. Here we’re invited to explore the chaos of life on an overcrowded Earth as well as those mysterious realms that lie just beyond our reach. Translated into an English bursting with rhythm and vivid Africanfuturist visions, these are writers who are authoring the boundless future into being.

Where to pre-order: Barnes & Noble,

Rain Dance: The Afritondo Anthology.

Rain Dance The Afritondo Anthology

Editor: Allwell Uwazuruike, Munachim Amah, Confidence Uwazuruike
Genre: Short Stories
Publisher: Afritondo
Publishing Date: August 31, 2022.
Contributors: Sabah Carrim (Mauritius), Bwanga Kapumpa (Zambia), Okwubi Godwin Adah (Nigeria), Alain Patrick Irere Hirwa (Rwanda), Uvile Memory Samkelisiwe Ximba (South Africa) Mazpa Ejikem (Nigeria), Jocelyn Fryer (South Africa), Efua Boadu (Ghana/UK), Howard Meh-Buh (Cameroon), Raheem Omeiza (Nigeria), Victor Ola-Matthew (Nigeria), Lynsey Chutel (South Africa), Somtochukwu Ihezue (Nigeria), Moses Musuku Abukutsa (Kenya), Obinna Obioma (Nigeria), and Alex Kadiri (Nigeria).

Rain Dance is a collection of enthralling short stories on spirituality, identity, and self-discovery. The stories are told by rising and award-winning writers from across the African continent and beyond, and capture rich themes of love, race, and taboo.

Where to find it: Click here.

Credit: James Murua
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