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!!
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Kugali – a visual story telling brand using comics, graphic novels, augmented reality (AR) and animation to tell stories about about African mysticism
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Gizo Gizo by Emily Williamson
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Dan Auta: An African Tale by Jose Ortega y Gasset