Daughters of Africa

by Margaret Busby

An international anthology of words and writings by women of African descent--from the ancient oral tradition to the present. A monumental literary enterprise, it is the most inclusive anthology ever attempted of oral and written literature--in every conceivable genre--by women of African descent the world over. (Pantheon)

List of Contributors Continued:

Dorothy West, Carolina Maria de Jesus, Ellen Kuzwayo, Billie Holiday, Claudia Jones, Margaret Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Caroline Ntseliseng Khaketla, Aída Cartagena Portalatín, Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley, Alice Childress

Genres: Africa, Anthologies, Fiction, Feminism, Short Stories, African American, Poetry

1093 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Margaret Busby OBE (Nana Akua Ackon) was born in Ghana, of part-Caribbean parentage, and educated in Britain. On graduating from London University in the 1960s she became the UK’s youngest and first Black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby Ltd, of which she was Editorial Director for 20 years.

She works as a writer, editor, consultant, reviewer and broadcaster.

She has served as a judge for many literary awards (such as the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Orange Prize, the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature), and has been associated with numerous organizations, including the Africa Centre, the Royal Literary Fund, PEN, Wasafiri magazine (for which she is currently chair), the Organization of Women Writers of Africa, the African & Caribbean Music Circuit and the Hackney Empire theatre. Having won awards for her contribution to book publishing, she continues to campaign for diversity in the industry and is also the patron of Independent Black Publishers (IBP).

(from https://sileedsliteraryprize.wordpres...)

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bemba. Xhosa. Kipsigi. Didinga. Somalia. Kgatla, Botswana. Yao. Sudan. Akan, Ghana. Khoikhoi, South Africa. Dahomey/Benin. Amhara, Ethiopia. ChiChewa and ChiTumbuka, Malawi. Tigray. Ancient Egyptian.

Between the day I started Daughters of Africa and today's finishing, I've made around 1350 edits to the Goodreads database based on this work's contents. More often than not, whenever I came across an author who didn't need my efforts, the lack was due to her inclusion in 500 Great Books By Women having already drawn her into my librarying radar. It got to the point that I'd check over those those more frequently thrown around names of Morrison, Kincaid, Larsen and Butler, Walker and Hurston, just to see some evidence of someone other than me walking through these rooms. Presumptuous, I know. A cause less so was the ever burgeoning need for reassurance.

Hatshepsut. Makeda, Queen of Sheba. Lucy Terry. Phillis Wheatley. Old Elizabeth. Mary Prince. Zilpha Elaw. Sojourner Truth. Nancy Gardner Prince

There will be no lists for the difficult works. There will be no road maps to the unpopular, the buried, the unloved. There will be no white person to tell you the way. You want a direction? Pick out a history and look out for the sole representative, the lonely soul, the only one amidst a sea of the norm. Now commit one thousand pages, days, and lives to them and their people.

Maria W. Stewart. Mary Seacole. Harriet E. Wilson. Mwana Kupona. Harriet Jacobs. Ann Plato. Harriet Tubman. Henrietta Fullor. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Lucy Delaney.

I would not exist without these black women. My town would not exist without these black women. My country would not exist without these black women, a country that today murders them for parking tickets and claims they have killed themselves, utilizes medicine born on their tortured wombs and unborn children, combats calls for representation with "You weren't there then. You are not there now. Your history is where we say it, and where we do not know we call anathema."

I owe these black women everything. For now, I owe them their story.

Charlotte Forten Grimké. Bethany Veney. Mattie J. Jackson. Susie King Taylor. Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins. Anna Julia Cooper. Annie L. Burton. Kate Drumgoold. Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Mary Church Terrell. Adelaide Casely-Hayford

Yesterday, on the anniversary of the magnificent Ida B. Wells-Barnett's birthday, she was featured by a Google Doodle. Goodreads' quote of the day, usually so in tune with the birthdays and the like, offered up one by January born J.D. Salinger. Knowledge, you see, is power.

Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Baba. Angelina Weld Grimké. Jessie Redmon Fauset. Anne Spencer. Elise Johnson McDougald. Georgia Douglas Johnson. Zora Neale Hurston. Nella Larsen.

Now come the autobiographies claimed by anthropologists, the first poets included by that steamroller Norton, the ushering in of the Harlem Renaissance and all without a profile to their name. You see the owner of the once unmarked, then rediscovered grave by descendants above? What of the others, is what you should be thinking.

Amy Jacques Garvey. Marita Bonner. Gwendolyn B. Bennett. Gladys May Casely-Hayford. Una Marson. Mabel Dove-Danquah. Pauli Murray. Virginia Brindis de Salas. Ann Petry. Dorothy West

Wives of famous men, daughters of Victorian black women, unknown Harlem Renaissance and Uryguan poets. Who is she you are most surprised by, standing on her own two feet?

Carolina Maria de Jesus. Ellen Kuzwayo. Billie Holiday. Claudia Jones. Margaret Walker. Gwendolyn Brooks. Marie Vieux-Chauvet. Caroline Ntseliseng Khaketla. Aída Cartagena Portalatín. Louise Bennett-Coverley. Alice Childress.

'The book you are adding may already exist in our database. If it appears below, please use that edition instead of adding a new one.' Ha. I wish.

Nisa. Noni Jabavu. Naomi Long Madgett. Louise Meriwether. Mari Evans. Beryl Gilroy. Efua Sutherland. Rosa Guy. Alda do Espírito Santo. Noémia de Sousa. Annette Mbaye d'Erneville. Maya Angelou

Tired of all the unfamiliar names? Wondering what's up with the Latin American-looking ones? Welcome to the realities you've had no interest in reading about. Enjoy your stay.

Sylvia Wynter. Mariama Bâ. Citèkù Ndaaya. Paule Marshall. Lorraine Hansberry. Alda Lara. Grace Ogot. Mabel Segun. Charity Waciuma. Lourdes Teodoro. Toni Cade Bambara. Kristin Hunter Lattany. Toni Morrison.

What is the publishing date of an oral performance of poetry prepared for an entire life? Are we familiar with this for the sake of progress, or for it progressing in what we consider the right direction? In the year 1992, the year of this compilation, there was no woman of African heritage who had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. What arrogance, then. All this.

Flora Nwapa. Lauretta Ngcobo. Marta Rojas. Alice Perry Johnson. Rebeka Njau. Adaora Lily Ulasi. Miriam Tlali. Marion Patrick Jones. Audre Lorde. Sonia Sanchez. Zulu Sofola. Lucille Clifton.

The ancestry begins to call in earnest to the diaspora. Theory burgeons. Names are claimed in an inheritance never to be understand by most of the canon.

Jayne Cortez. Georgina Herrera. June Jordan. Awa Thiam. Maryse Condé. Bessie Head. Velma Pollard. Simone Schwarz-Bart. Erna Brodber. Anne Moody.

More 500 GBBW, more countries outside of the US, the first of the NYRB Classics. The latter needs to get on that a hell of a lot more.

Nafissatou Diallo. Zee Edgell. Aminata Sow Fall. Ama Ata Aidoo. Pamela Mordecai. Carolyn M. Rodgers. Pilar López Gonzales. Hattie Gossett. Micere Githae Mugo. Eulalia Bernard. Christine Craig. Joyce Sikakane

Tiring? Imagine if all these names still held blankness beyond them.

Olive Senior. Nikki Giovanni. Angela Y. Davis. Thadious M. Davis. Akasha Gloria Hull. Eintou Pearl Springer. Merle Hodge. Amryl Johnson. Red Jordan Arobateau. Joan Cambridge. J. California Cooper. Jane Tapsubei Creider.

Some of these had not yet discovered their names at the time of this compilation. Others had not yet embraced their identity. Many of them, however, are still kicking, if you'd bother to be intrigued beyond the small few of the shiniest names above.

Barbara C. Makhalisa. Myriam Warner-Vieyra. Amelia Blossom House. Ifi Amadiume. Grace Akello. Lina Magaia. Alice Walker. Nancy Morejón. Buchi Emecheta. J.J. Phillips. Sherley Anne Williams.

(continued in comment 1)

[Zanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this because of Aubrey's review, please read it

Margaret Busby couldn't find the book she wanted, so she created it. More than a book, an act of resistance, a work of love, a gift. Samples of writing by Black women from all over the world, gathered and presented for delectation, for celebration, for the daughters of daughters. For you to decide what to read next, Reader, of all races and all genders, because we both know the publishers who think you would rather read another run-of-the-mill yarn by a mediocre White man than an extraordinary one by a brilliant Black woman are wrong, and we'd better let them know.

Seriously, let them know. Because although thanks to GR friends awesomeness and especially Aubrey's 500 Great Books by Women project, a lot of the books I scrambled to add to my to-read list were there already, too many were not only absent from my own bubble, but outrageously unrated, unread, coverless, and in many cases only there thanks to Aubrey's gift of librarian hours to fill the gaps where they were not at all.

[Nebby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthologies are my favorite because of this treasure! Blackness is not one portrait or image, it's a conglomerate of beauty that has been deposited and sprinkled globally. The anecdotes of the women who volunteered their stories in this book are absolutely powerful, and exemplifies accurate stories of and about women of color! If you want something diverse, expand your palette with this volume.

[Sincerae Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The anthology Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby and Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace are two books that took me the longest to read, around two years plus. This is not because I disliked either book, but things in my life happened, and I was also distracted by much shorter books.

When I would take time to read Daughters of Africa over the last couple of years, I really enjoyed this heavy book that I got free through a book club. It begins writing by female poets in ancient Egypt and then moves on to cover writings by women of sub-Saharan African heritage through the centuries especially in modern times, women writers and poets in the US, South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe. The genres the book contains are poetry, excerpts from novels and nonfiction, essays and a portion of a play.

Daughters of Africa is an entertaining and impressive volume of work.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, simply, AN ABSOLUTELY AMAZING COLLECTION. I think I will be re-reading this for the rest of my life, and I know I'll ever get some of these stories out of my head. Fantastic collection of writers - some I had read before, but many new to me, so I've just (happily) increased my "to-read" pile quite a bit too!

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 1,000 page anthology offers a wide range of voices, literary styles, topics, and experiences of women of African descent. Stretches back in time and across continents, well worth reading for the diversity of experience.

[Hafidha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is out of print, and supposedly a new edition is in the works ... excellent, excellent book. Wish I had a copy of it in my library. Eclectic collection of writings by and about women of African descent throughout the world. Truly inspiring and eye opening for me, as a woman of African descent.

[LeTara Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful collection of writing is a treasure! Daughters of Africa reveals exactly how deeply a woman can love, hurt, hate and persevere. From the classic poetry to the more modern pieces, each contribution illustrates how women of color as a whole have overcome and the strength it took to do so. Some of the poetry, especially those from Sub-Saharan Africa, really touched me and made me feel things deep in my soul. I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology.

[Redfawn]

This book was a gift to me from the Occidental College Women's Studies department upon graduation.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

super bad

[Meiroz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a reference book. It contains a number of texts taken from other publications, covering a very wide range of styles, periods in time and geographical locations.

[Candice Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Anthology

[Stacey Chin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Kaytee Cobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared to New Daughters, this one seemed less consistent in a number of ways.

[Destiny Varnado · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book and I love it so much.
I loved the deepnest in every poem and story this book was such an amazing read.