The best Non-fiction from Africa

In the right hand columns you can select to read an extract or buy a book, where those titles are available.

 Top Twelve

The list
by author

The list
by title

The list
by country

Best children's

The jury
Author Sex Country Title Publisher Read it Buy it
Amadiume, Ifi Female Nigeria Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society Zed Books Read it Buy it
Amin, Samir Male Egypt L’Accumulation à L’Échelle Mondiale: Critique de la Théorie du Sous-Développement [Accumulation on a World Scale: A Critique of the Theory of Underdevelopment] Éditions Anthropos Read it N/A
Andrade, Mario Pinto de Male Angola Origens do Nacionalismo Africano Publicaçoes Dom Quixote N/A N/A
Appiah, Anthony Male Ghana In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture Oxford University Press Read it Buy it
Cabral, Amilcar Male Guinea Bissau/Cape Verde Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings Monthly Review Press Read it N/A
Casely-Hayford, J.E Male Ghana Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation Frank Cass and Co. Read it N/A
Chimera, Rocha Male Kenya Kiswahili: Past, Present and Future Horizons Nairobi University Press Read it Buy it
Diop, Cheikh Anta Male Senegal Antériorité des Civilisations Nègres: Mythe ou Vérité Historique? [The African Origin of Civilisation: Myth or Reality?] Présence Africaine Read it Buy it
Dorkenoo, Efua Female Ghana Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation The Practice and its Prevention Minority Rights Group Read it Buy it
Hountondji, Paulin J. Male Benin Sur la philosophie africaine [African Philosophy: Myth or Reality] François Maspero Read it N/A
Johnson, Samuel Male Nigeria The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate CSS Ltd. Read it Buy it
Kenyatta, Jomo Male Kenya Facing Mt Kenya: The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu Secker and Warburg Read it Buy it
Ki-Zerbo Joseph Male Burkina Faso Historie de l”Afrique Noire: d’Hier à Demain A. Hatier N/A N/A
Krog, Antjie Female South Africa Country of My Skull Random House Read it Buy it
Mama, Amina Female Nigeria Beyond the Masks: Race, Gender and Subjectivity Routledge N/A N/A
Mamdani, Mahmood Male Uganda Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism Princeton University Press Read it Buy it
Mandela Nelson Male South Africa Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela Little, Brown & Co Read it Buy it
Marais, Eugène Male South Africa Die Siel van die Mier [The Soul of the White Ant] Van Schaik Read it Buy it
Memmi, Albert Male Tunisia Portrait du Colonisé: Précédé de Portrait du Colonisateur [The Colonizer and the Colonized] Éditions Corréa Read it Buy it
Mphahlele, Ezekiel Male South Africa Down Second Avenue Faber & Faber Read it Buy it
Mudimbe, V. Y. Male Democratic Republic of Congo The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge Indiana University Press Read it Buy it
Nkrumah, Kwame Male Ghana Ghana: Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah Nelson Read it Buy it
Plaatje, Sol T. Male South Africa Native Life in South Africa P. S. King & Son Read it Buy it
Soyinka, Wole Male Nigeria Aké: The Years of Childhood Collings Read it Buy it
Van Onselen, Charles Male South Africa The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper, 1894-1985 James Currey Read it Buy it