February 2014 - West/Central Africa; and South America and Caribbean

[ConnorD]

Please nominate two books for the February 2014 group read. (1) from authors of African descent from South America and Carribean; and (2) authors of African descent from from West/Central Africa

Please note the following countries are included in this Africa grouping
West Africa --- (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo)
Central Africa --- (Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe)


WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA NOMINATIONS
The Famished Road by Ben Okri - Nigeria
Diplomatic Pounds & Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo
So Long a Letter
Foreign Gods, Inc.

SOUTH AMERICA & CARIBBEAN
From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island - Jamaica
Benedita Da Silva: An Afro-Brazilian Woman's Story of Politics and Love by Benedita Da Silva
They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America
Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus

[Donald]

The Famished Road by Ben Okri for West Africa (Nigerian author)


And From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island by Lorna Goodison - from Jamaica

[ConnorD]

I have not read any works from this author, so I nominate Diplomatic Pounds & Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo from Ghana -- for the AFrica read

and


Benedita Da Silva: An Afro-Brazilian Woman's Story of Politics and Love by Benedita Da Silva - not that easy to find English works by Brazilians because of the language barrier
Any one know of other authors?

[ConnorD]

Another book that looks quite interesting is
Cadernos Negros: Literatura Afro Brasileira Contemporânea = Black Notebooks: Contemporary Afro Brazilian Literature by Niyi Afolabi

[[deleted user]]

Hi Connor,

I truly have no idea, but I looked up Brazillian authors and found
Cahuna- Os Sertões' Rebellion in the Backlands
Found it via Wikipedia and then read the reviews here on goodreds

[ConnorD]

Thanks Denise,
Brazil has the largest diaspora population. Only Nigeria has more Africans than Brazil! So i figured we need to find some literature from there to really connect with all of the diaspora across the world, given the size of the population

Language is such a barrier!
Let me check out that author - thanks for the reference

[ConnorD]

Denise, this is the book you referred to -- He is not Afro-Brazilian. Actually would be quite interesting to read what the write up on goodreads says about his influences (Darwinism) ..

[[deleted user]]

Thank you. i read more about it when i got to work today. I looked it up so early this morning, and i spelled his name wrong lol. It was fun to search and find anything in English and that was all i found at the time.

[Rowena]

So Long a Letterby Mariama Ba (Senegal) is a wonderful book. It was the first book by an African woman that I ever read.

[Raven]

I nominate "They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America" by Ivan Van Sertima who is from the Caribbean.


And here is a great video of him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dIwh...

[Beverly]

I nominate for West African writer:



Foreign Gods, Inc. by Okey Ndibe

For writer of African descent from South America:



Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus by Carolina Maria de Jesus

[Dominique]

The Famished Road by Ben Okri and From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island by Lorna Goodison

[ConnorD]

The nominations for February 2014 will close on 19 December, please get your nominations in for West Africa and South America/Caribbean