Read African Books

- news and views on African publishing and books -
Henry Chakava: in memoriam

Henry Chakava: in memoriam

ABC Spring Catalogue 2024

ABC Spring Catalogue 2024

Take a look at the African Books Collective Spring 2024 Catalogue!

Stephanie Kitchen

Stephanie Kitchen

Stephanie Kitchen, African Books Collective Director, speaks to the Independent Publishers Guild podcast about all things ABC.

David Mills

David Mills

Interview with David Mills, University of Oxford academic and now African Books Collective Director!

ABC Children and Teens Books 2023-24

ABC Children and Teens Books 2023-24

Take a look at the African Books Collective Children and Teens 2023-24 Catalogue!

ABC Fall Catalogue 2023

ABC Fall Catalogue 2023

Take a look at the African Books Collective's Fall 2023 Catalogue!

ABC Literature Catalogue 2023

ABC Literature Catalogue 2023

Take a look at the African Books Collective's 2023 Literature Catalogue!

ABC Catalogue 2022–2023

ABC Catalogue 2022–2023

Welcome to the African Books Collective Catalogue 2022-2023! Explore books from 30 independent publishers from across 12 African countries.

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Interview with Nii Ayikwei Parkes, British-Ghanaian writer, editor, publisher, and now African Books Collective Director.

Decolonising Knowledge and its Challenges

Decolonising Knowledge and its Challenges

For Africa, knowledge is a contested site that acquires affirmations, claims, and delineations. İt has to operate through many layers. In fact, is Africa a discourse, or an idea or concept? These are the questions begging to be asked. Ahmet Sait Akcay reflects on the recent ASAA conference.

Transforming African Scholarly Writing

Transforming African Scholarly Writing

African scholarship, like all scholarship, must be conducted rigorously, follow scientific methods, account for context, and stand up to critical appraisal. Why, however, refer specifically to “African scholarly writing?”

Mad Bob Republic

Mad Bob Republic

Tendai Mwanaka is a Zimbabwean writer, editor and publisher who has published 21 books and 23 curated anthologies. Perhaps his best-known anthologies are the Best New African Poets anthologies that have provided a forum for poets across the African continent.

Babingo, the Nobel Rebel

Babingo, the Nobel Rebel

At the last count there were 48,400,000 fictional accounts on the theme of Colonialism globally.

Zeb Silhouette

Zeb Silhouette

It is amazing that in a year when an African novelist, Abdulrasaq Gurhni won the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Norwegian Academy referred to as "his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents," a phenomenal new book on ‘the cause of women, love and immigration’ would be published.

A good reading culture: Potential game changer in Africa

A good reading culture: Potential game changer in Africa

I made a deal with my eight-year-old son that for every book above 110 pages that he reads, I’ll pay him 15 rands, an equivalent of one United States Dollar (US$1).

Literature Catalogue 2021

Literature Catalogue 2021

Welcome to the African Books Collective Literature Catalogue 2021, a double-issue which features titles published since March 2020. Inside are books from 30 independent publishers across 12 African countries.

The Disillusioned African

The Disillusioned African

Published in 1995, The Disillusioned Africans consists of letters about the observations and experiences of a black student-academic living in London in the 1980s. The novel brings up many issues that determine the present and future of the continent, from the African discourse to the administrations in the postcolonies.

Henry Chakava

Henry Chakava

After graduating from the University of Nairobi in 1972, Henry Chakava was looking at postgraduate scholarship offers from local and international universities. While thinking through his options, his lecturer at the Department of Literature, Professor Andrew Gurr, arranged a temporary job at the Nairobi office of Heinemann Educational Books Limited (HEB). This temporary job instead became a life dedicated to books as he fell in love with publishing.

Vitabu kwa Swahili 2021

Vitabu kwa Swahili 2021

Karibu ABC na karibu upitie katalogi ya Vitabu vya Kiswahili kutoka kwa wachapishaji wa vitabu kutoka Afrika ya Mashariki, na mmoja kutoka Afrika ya Kusini, jambo la kushangaza na kuvutia. Kiswahili kinaenea kote Mashariki na Kusini mwa Afrika.

Marginalisation and Exclusion of Women in Scholarly Publishing and Dissemination in Africa

Marginalisation and Exclusion of Women in Scholarly Publishing and Dissemination in Africa

I came across a discussion on Twitter a while back about how notable women, especially those in academia, were either missing from Wikipedia or had their entries written incorrectly or with insufficient information.

Keep Informed With The Latest Updates

Newsletter Signup Newsletter Signup