Recommended Reads on Africa!

 

Super-volunteer Morgan Patrick is a passionate and enthusiastic innovator who’s always on the lookout for ways we can keep things fresh and future-proof at PFS! She applies these traits too in her role as Innovation and Core Growth R&D Manager at General Mills, where she oversees a portfolio of sweet and salty snacks. Since 2012, she’s volunteered on numerous projects, including leading on-site training and consulting for milling and baking professionals in Ethiopia, and helping PFS staff pioneer new volunteer models in West Africa. 

Joining PFS sparked in her, a passion for learning about different African cultures and histories, which led her to specifically seek out books from and about the continent. Morgan has graciously shared her “fantastically curated reading list with all PFS volunteers! Take a look at her recommendations and be inspired to take on some African reads this summer 

Title 

Author 

Genre  

Focus Countries 

Africa is not a Country 

Dipo Faloyin 

Non-fiction 

General perspective 

Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles 

Richard Dowden 

Non-fiction 

General perspective 

Born in Blackness 

Howard W. French 

Non-fiction 

General perspective 

African Development: Making Sense of the Issues and Actors 

 

Todd Moss 

Non-fiction 

General perspective 

White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa 

Susan Williams 

Non-fiction 

General perspective 

A Moonless, Starless Sky 

Alexis Okeowo 

Fiction 

Uganda, Mauritania, Somalia, Nigeria 

Behold the Dreamers 

Imbolo Mbue 

Fiction 

Cameroon 

King Leopold’s Ghost  

 

Adam Hochschild 

Non-fiction 

Congo 

In Search of King Solomon’s Mines  

Tahir Shah 

Non-fiction 

Ethiopia 

Cutting for Stone 

 

Abraham Verghese 

Fiction 

Held at a Distance 

 

Rebecca Haile 

Non-fiction 

Beneath the Lion’s Gaze 

 

Maaza Mengiste 

Fiction 

Homegoing 

Yaa Gyasi 

Fiction 

Ghana 

Ghana Must Go 

Taiye Selasi 

Fiction 

King Peggy 

Peggielene Bartels 

Non-fiction 

Another America 

 

James Ciment 

Non-fiction 

Liberia 

Things Fall Apart 

Chinua Achebe 

Fiction 

Nigeria 

Americanah 

 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Fiction 

Half of a Yellow Sun 

 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Fiction 

The Road to the Country  

 

Chigozie Obioma 

Fiction 

 

And something for the KIDS!! 

  • Kugali – a visual story telling brand using comics, graphic novels, augmented reality (AR) and animation to tell stories about about African mysticism 

  • Gizo Gizo by Emily Williamson 

  • Dan Auta: An African Tale by Jose Ortega y Gasset