SINGAPORE – In this week’s Book Box, The Straits Times explores the stories of Africa. Buy the books at Amazon. These articles include affiliate links. When you buy through them, we may earn a small commission.
Book review: In Blaise Ndala’s In The Belly Of The Congo, a 1958 human zoo haunts the present
At the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, a Congolese village – a live display of more than 700 men and women – was exhibited in the Belgian capital for visitors to gawk at.
It was to be the last human zoo in history, and ostensibly one of the final crimes committed by the Belgian colonial empire before its colony gained independence as the Republic of the Congo in 1960.
But Canadian writer Blaise Ndala, who was originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has an eloquent way of locating history in the present.
Book review: The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa – why a black boy loving blonde girls is danger
From Nigeria comes this modern and refreshing debut by Stephen Buoro. It is full of humour, yet one of the most savagely unflinching looks at the curse of Africa in recent memory.
Editorially, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries Of Andy Africa makes little concessions – from devoting nearly 50 pages to a bizarre African welcome of a white pastor’s niece to a pitiless ending in the Sahara desert.
While pitched as a bildungsroman, it is much more, telling powerfully of the doomed fate of those born in Africa.
Book review: Rose And The Burma Sky a haunting tribute to African soldiers conscripted for WWII
Coerced, exploited and given short shrift. This was the harrowing reality for many African soldiers who fought in some of the most vicious and protracted campaigns of World War II.
Treated as expendable, these soldiers still fought hard – not for their colonisers, but so that they might survive and honour their own culture.
Born to Nigerian and Caribbean parents in the United Kingdom, Rosanna Amaka has written a historical romance that bears haunting testimony of collective trauma in Nigeria wrought by war, colonialism and prejudice that has gone under the radar.
Book review: A Spell Of Good Things is a slow burn with an abrupt ending
Set in modern Nigeria, this novel follows Eniola, a teenage boy from a poverty-stricken family struggling to continue his education, and Wuraola, the “perfect” doctor daughter of a wealthy family.
Switching between them, the novel is occasionally broken up by perspectives from secondary characters, such as Eniola’s younger sister, his mother and Wuraola’s father.
Nigerian author Ayobami Adebayo takes readers into the most personal and honest moments of her characters’ lives, highlighting the divide between the wealthy and the impoverished.
Through this, she paints a realistic picture of scarcities that remain despite the country’s advancement.
The Straits Times’ Weekly Bestsellers July 8
This week’s bestseller list sees Colleen Hoover return to the top spot in fiction after being dethroned for all of June.
