Page 2 - BPW BERKELEY BULLETIN - Edition 22 - February 2024 - with attachments

5 African Writers You Should Be Reading

Who are the best African writers of the 20th and 21st centuries? We’ve chosen five of the most
significant African writers of the past few generations.
By Chris Chriv

June 19, 2020

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at Harvard Day, May 2018.

Making a list of the best African writers is a delicate exercise. The majority of African cultures
primarily maintained and still maintain an oral tradition for transmitting literature. That’s the
case with the Epic of Sundiata, an epic poem in the Mandinka language that recounts the
founding of the Mali empire in the 13th century. It’s still sung by the Griot storytellers of the
21st century.

Written African literature has existed since antiquity, however. Egyptian, Phoenician, or
Carthaginian literature, protected by Muslim universities in the Middle Ages, are among the
most ancient literature in the world. There’s also Kebra Nagast (ክብረ ነገሥት, “Glory of the
Kings” in Geʽez), another epic narrative from the 14th century that combines Ethiopian folk tales
with stories from the Bible, Talmud and Koran.

For everyone interested in writing and thought from Africa, we encourage you to read and
discover five of the best African writers from recent history. We also recommend a good starting
point for each of the authors.