Contemporary: Biography & Memoir (Sep 2012)

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Please suggest books for this genre. Remember that the author must be African. Setting does not matter.

[Addy]

How about Looking for Transwonderland by Noo Saro-Wiwa? It came out this year and it's part memoir part travel writing (Nigeria).

[Carolien]

Sometimes there is a Void – Memoirs of an Outsider

[Tinea, Nonfiction Logistician]

A Long Way Gone
The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka
You Must Set Forth at Dawn
Long Walk to Freedom
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir
The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest
Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad

But also, someone in another thread said that Chinua Achebe will be coming out with a memoir very soon! And I want to read that!!

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Great suggestions! We'll have to keep and eye out for the Achebe memoir publication so we can plan accordingly and in case it gets picked in the poll.

Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria is an excellent suggestion, Adlyn, and i might read it ASAP. That's really great to see Ken Saro-Wiwa's daughter writing. :)

[Katy]

Against the Grain: Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman by Geoffrey Nyarota (ISBN 9781770071124)

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa by Peter Godwin (SBN 9780316018715)

[Beverly]

Adlyn wrote: "How about Looking for Transwonderland by Noo Saro-Wiwa? It came out this year and it's part memoir part travel writing (Nigeria)."

I was going to add Transwonderland to the Narrative Nonfiction group as while it is memoir/travel writing - we have many memoir/bio suggestions and less in the narrartive nonfiction group (especially with travel writing)

[Beverly]

There Was a Country - Chinua Achebe (Oct 2012)

My First Coup d'Etati:And Other True Storeis from the Lost Decades of Africa - John Dramani Mahama

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

i just started Transwonderland. I just couldn't resist!

i have this biography to suggest: Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist.

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Hi everyone!

i know i'm late doing this but i want to set up a poll for this genre. We will be choosing a selection for Februrary. Does anyone have any more titles to add?

[Manu]

1. John Dramani Mahama (President of Ghana and member of the Ghana Association of Writers): My First Coup d'Etat.

2.Philip Tobias: Into the Past

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Thank you Manu!

[Fela]

Dreams in the time of war - ngugi wa thiongo

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Thank you, Fela!

I'm going to post the poll tonight so please leave your suggestions here today. (It's 10am my time)

[Geoff]

* One Day I Will Write About This Place—Binyavanga Wainaina
* The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior—Tepilit Ole Saitoti
* Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman—as told to Marjorie Shostak
* Mafeking Diary—Sol T. Plaatje.

I hope this month's reading will interest some of you in my new anthology African Lives (coming out in March)! http://bit.ly/LaDhtl

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Great! thanks everyone!

because we have so many options, i'm going to randomize the list and take just five for the poll.

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

And here are the top five after randomizing:

Mafeking Diary—Sol T. Plaatje.
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir
Dreams in the Time of War
A Long Way Gone
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

[Katy]

Except, if I may correct you, it's Mafikeng Diary, not Mafeking...

[sarah]

oh my. this is a great thread for me right now. I am trying to put together a (world lit) syllabus that includes non-fiction, which is my least-read-genre...memoir is definitely an important aspect of non-fiction.

is anyone familiar also with shorter essays, or collections?

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

sarah wrote: "oh my. this is a great thread for me right now. I am trying to put together a (world lit) syllabus that includes non-fiction, which is my least-read-genre...memoir is definitely an important aspe..."

if you can wait until March, Geoff's anthology is coming out (see his link at the end of post 15) :)

ETA: sorry, did you mean non-biography essays?

[Beverly]

Katy wrote: "Except, if I may correct you, it's Mafikeng Diary, not Mafeking..."

I think it may be a translation issue - it is listed on Amazon US as Mafeking Diary if it is the same book (actually quite pricey)

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Sarah, have you checked How to Write about Africa?

[Katy]

Beverly wrote: "Katy wrote: "Except, if I may correct you, it's Mafikeng Diary, not Mafeking..."

I think it may be a translation issue - it is listed on Amazon US as Mafeking Diary if it is the same book (actuall..."

That's interesting. In South Africa, I always saw it spelled as Mafikeng.

[sarah]

Marieke wrote: "Sarah, have you checked How to Write about Africa?"

Marieke, I haven't, and that looks both great, and maybe right on...I will definitely take a look at it. thanks!

[Geoffrey]

Around 1900, when Plaatje was writing, the town was spelled Mafeking. It was renamed Mafikeng in 1980 and Mahikeng in 2010, though most still call it Mafikeng.

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir will be our February selection!

[Beverly]

Marieke wrote: "One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir will be our February selection!"

thanks

[Geoff]

Great choice! I've read it (and reviewed it) but look forward to opening it again.

[Andrea]

I will definitely be joining the February read. I've read that book once already, but I would love to get some new insights into it. Also, have a small plane trip coming up in February (over a weekend when I shouldn't have any grading!) so I'll actually have time to read it!

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Andrea wrote: "I will definitely be joining the February read. I've read that book once already, but I would love to get some new insights into it. Also, have a small plane trip coming up in February (over a we..."

excellent!

i'm excited to read it, too. and i'm glad we will have people discussing who have read it before.

[Friederike]

Good choice for February. I also read the book once and it will motivate me to look at it again.

[Beverly]

I am planning to start the Feb BOM - "One Day I Will Write About This Place" - this weekend.

Is anyone else reading?

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

I will definitely be reading it. I own it and I'm excited for it!

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

That reminds me...did I set up a discussion thread yet? :/

I'm on my phone, I'll check at lunchtime.

[Muphyn]

Yes, I'll be reading it too (once I manage to get myself to the library and borrow it!).

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

I totally forgot to check at lunchtime. Crazy day!

Soon I'll be home...

Go to the library, Muph! ;)

[Muphyn]

I KNOW!!! :) Hopefully I'll manage it tonight!

[Chinook]

Sadly, I didn't get a copy of this one.

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Chinook wrote: "Sadly, I didn't get a copy of this one."

:(

[Anne]

I will be reading 'one day a will write about this place' too.

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Anne wrote: "I will be reading 'one day a will write about this place' too."

wonderful!

i finally opened a thread for discussing it! i'm really very sorry for the delay. i don't know why February is speeding by like this.

[Muphyn]

And it's a short month, that always gets me! By the time I've managed to get the book out (I know, I know, go to the library says Marieke! ;) ), it'll be March... :(

[Marieke, Former guide & Chief Chatterbox]

Heehee...the discussion can certainly continue after February. I will set up the sci-fi poll tomorrow. Or maybe even tonight.