10 Incredibly Underrated African Authors You Need To Read Now

10 Incredibly Underrated African Authors You Need To Read Now

It is not surprising that literature from a continent as ethnically and culturally diverse as Africa is equally diverse and multifaceted. Some of Africa’s best contemporary writers address a wide range of social and cultural issues, from women’s rights and feminism to post-war and post-colonial identity.

However, not all authors are well known in that the audience has only interacted with the likes of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who have made waves in the field of literary works but do not know of other African authors who are also producing thought-provoking pieces that deserve to be read by many people. Therefore, this article will explore the ten underrated African authors that the reader should sample their works.

1 Yvonne Odhiambo Owuor

A picture of Yvonne Owuor by Brittle Paper.com-brittlepaper.com

The Kenyan writer was born in 1968. She studied English at Kenyatta University before proceeding to her master’s degree in Video Development at Reading University. Yvonne won the 2003 Caine Prize for her short story ‘Weight of Whispers”.  Her work has also appeared in several publications across the globe including McSweeney’s, Kwani? and The Knife Grinder’s Tale which was turned into a film in 2007.

Yvonne also released a novel in 2014 known as ‘Dust’. The book shows the violent history of Kenya during the post-colonial era. The book was well received by the audience and in a review by the New York Times, Taiye Selasi stated; ‘ In this dazzling novel you will find the entirety of human experience — tear shed, bloodshed, lust, love — in staggering proportions. The author also released another novel in 2019 known as The Dragonfly Sea which tells the story of Ayana as she goes through life.

2 Fiston Mwanza Mujila

The Congolese writer was born in 1981 in Lubumbashi. Fiston Mwanza Mujila won the gold medal for literature at the 2009 Francophone Games in Lebanon for his work “The Night.”

Tram 83, Mujila’s debut novel, was published to rave reviews by Éditions Métailié in 2014. Deep Vellum Publishing in Dallas, Texas, published an English translation of Tram 83 by Roland Glasser in the autumn of 2015, and it received widespread acclaim. This translation was also released by Jacaranda Books in the United Kingdom, as well as Scribe in Australia and New Zealand.

Mujila received the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2016 for Tram 83, the novel having previously been named to the Man Booker International Prize longlist, and the Grand Prix of Literary Associations (Belles-Lettres Category) on February 26, 2016.

3 Elnathan John

A picture of Elnathan John-Wikimedia

The Nigerian novelist is a full-time writer working and living in Nigeria. His pieces have been published in magazines and newspapers including, Per Contra, Zam Magazine, Evergreen Review, Hazlitt and Chimurenga’s The Chronic. Elnathan works for a Nigerian newspaper where he focuses on political satire to address the issues facing the country.

Furthermore, also has a blog which he hopes will someday attract enough attention and make him famous. The novelist has tried very hard and was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing because of his book ‘Flying’ which tells the story of a young boy who grows up in Kachiro Refuge Home and goes on a journey of self-discovery.

4 Tendai Huchu

He is a Zimbabwean author who writes as T. L. Huchu. The novelist is well known for his novels ‘The Hairdresser of Harare’ which he published in 2010 and ‘The Maestro, The Magistrate and The Mathematician’ which was released in 2014.

The Hairdresser of Harare, Tendai Huchu’s first novel, received great reviews and has been translated into, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. Several publications have published his short fiction and nonfiction like The Africa Report, Interzone, Gutter, and Wasafiri. He was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship and a Sacatar Fellowship in 2013. He was nominated for the Caine Prize in 2014.

5 Namwali Serpell

A picture of Namwali by Slowking4-Wikimedia

The Zambian writer is among the underrated African writers as she is a great writer. Her short story “Muzungu” was shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2010. The next year, she received the Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award which is a prize for beginning women writers. In 2015, her story ‘The Sack’ won the 2015 Caine Prize and she surprised everyone when she shared the $15,000prize money with other shortlisted writers. The author has continued to do well in her field and is now an English professor at Harvard University.

6 Maaza Mengiste

She is an Ethiopian-American writer who has published novels that include ‘Beneath the Lion’s Gaze’ which was released in 2010 and ‘The Shadow King’ published in 2019. Her books focus on the Ethiopian revolution and the plight of sub-Saharan immigrants when they arrive in Europe. Furthermore, her work has been positively received by the public and it has appeared in several publications like The New Yorker, The New York Times, Enkare and The Granta Anthology of the African Short Story.

Her second novel The Shadow King which is set in 1935 when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia sheds light on how women soldiers were not given credit in African history and yet they were also fighting to protect their countries. The book is a fast-paced one that keeps the reader hooked to it. It was even shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.

7 Aminatta Forna

The author who was born in Glasgow but raised in Sierra Leone rose to prominence with her memoir The Devil That Danced on Water (2003), an extraordinarily brave account of how her family survived living in war-torn Sierra Leone, particularly her father’s tragic fate as a political dissident. Forna went on to write several critically acclaimed novels, including The Memory of Love (2010), which juxtaposes personal stories of love and loss within the larger context of the devastation caused by the Sierre Leone civil war and was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

8 Nanjala Nyabola

Nanjala Nyabola. Photo by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung –Wikimedia

She is a writer, journalist and political activist based in Nairobi, Kenya. Nanjala writes academic and non-academic publications about several topics that include feminism, international law, African society and politics. Her first book Digital Democracy: How the Internet Era is transforming Kenya was described as a must-read for journalists by Zed books.

The writer even sparked discussions on BBC over her Al Jazeera opinion piece where she said that western media get Africa wrong. Her ability to write thought-provoking pieces that make the audience examine the situation is what makes her a great writer.

9 Stella Nyanzi

She is a Ugandan scholar, human rights advocate, medical anthropologist and queer rights advocate. She published No Roses From My Mouth which is a collection of poems that she wrote while in prison. The author was sentenced to 15 months in prison after she posted a poem on Facebook that is alleged to have insulted the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni. Nyanzi deserves more recognition as she writes inspiring and unapologetic pieces on different topics that affect society.

10 Makena Maganjo

The Kenyan novelist is another author who should get recognition for her prowess in the literary field. In 2020, Makena launched her debut novel South B’s Finest which tells the story of Malaba Estate and how friendships are formed when former and current residents meet to reflect on the twists and turns, they have gone through in a country that is faced with economic and political challenges