African City Life

The big cities in Africa are growing faster than in other parts of the world. They attract children and young adults with the promise of a better life, a job, education and fun. But let’s follow the outcasts of the society – the orphaned children, and the young boys and girls, who were abandoned by their parents in the marketplaces of Accra in Ghana, in the secret places in downtown Maputo, Mozambique, and on the beach of Lagos, in Nigeria. Their journeys are sometimes exciting and joyous, sometimes sad and frightening, and sometimes full of humor and wit.  None of these stories will leave you untouched by their humanity.

Street Children – Survival in urban Africa

Henning Mankell, famous for his Wallander crime series, has spent half his life in Africa, working at the theatre of Maputo, Mozambique. It is at this theatre where his beautiful novel, “The Chronicler of the Winds”, is set. His story powerfully examines how the streets of urban Africa have become home to many orphaned children.

Civil war, the AIDS epidemic and shattered homes are some of the reasons children try to make their living in the streets of the big cities.

Amma Darko‘s novel, “Faceless”, describes the life of a street girl. Darko takes us to “Sodom and Gomorrah,” a mean part of Accra, as we follow the odyssey of the teenage girl Fofo, who is searching for an answer to what happened to her sister, Baby T.

Heroes of the Underworld

Chris Abani is a phenomenon of modern African literature.

He exhibits cross-cultural humour in his story, “Graceland”, mixing western idols with African reality. Abani’s hero, named for the American idol Elvis, shows us to the beach life of Lagos, the criminals of the underworld, and the outcasts of the slums, but leaves us with a glimpse of hope.

You can find many of these books in your library