In celebration of this year's African World Heritage Day, we are sharing some of our favourite books on the rich diversity of Africa: Art, literature, history, cultures, fashion! They are all free for you to read anytime through the Online Library.
An African history of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by Zeinab Badawi
Straight off the Sunday Times bestseller list, commended as a top nominee for the NERO awards, chosen as Radio 4 Book of the Week and the Guardian's Best Summer Read, we can not recommend this book enough. Zeinab Badawi redirects the history of Africa away from the short term colonial western focus, to restore and acknowledge the far longer rich multicultural history of the longest inhabited continent.
Great Kingdoms of Africa by John Parker
With a forward from one of the great architects of our time (David Adjaye), John Parker's tome will enthrall any reader as it pours out new stories of the very diverse history of this expansive continent sharing interesting anthropological details of each destination and it's auspicious rulers.
Africa Is Not a Country: Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa by Dipo Faloyin
Finally a book that unravels the traditional tired tropes of Africans, not with anger but with humour. Dipo Faloyin brings readers on a hilarious journey of love and compassion and fascination with anecdotes varying from urban life to jollof rice revealing the multifaceted, multi-lingual, multicultural world that is modern day Africa.
The African imagination: literature in africa and the black diaspora by Abiola F. Irele
One of Africa's leading scholars in post-colonial African Literature, Irele illumates the works of modern authors such as Chinua Achebe, Kamau Braithwaite, Amadou Hapae Ba, and Amadou Kourouma, by sharing the themes and literary traditions that thread their work to create the African literary tapestry.
What Is African Art?: A Short History
by Peter Probst
Probst opens the Art World's invention of "African Art" as a novelty that broke free of it's own confines and morphed into a globally recognized genre. Interesting pieces and artists are scrutinized and appraised to identify what it is, how it started and how it is evolving and growing in a globalized world, where the African Diaspora has come into it's own state of affluence.
If you'd like to see more on any of these topics, please check out some of our fascinating databases such as:
Middle Eastern and African Newsstream
Africa Culture Collection in Jstor
African Studies in Archives Unbound
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