Hello, readers! It is Monday again! As it is Monday, welcome to another #5OnMyTBR update. The rule is relatively simple. I must pick five books from my to-be-read piles that fit the week’s theme.

This week, I am featuring works of female Asian writers. This is in commemoration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, celebrated every March 8. This week, I am featuring the works of female African writers I am looking forward to. Here are some works of female African writers I have on my perpetually growing reading list.

5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook where you choose five books from your to-be-read pile that fit that week’s theme. If you’d like more info, head over to the announcement post!

Title: Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
Author: Meryem Alaoui
Translator (from French): Emma Ramadan
Publisher: Other Press
Publishing Date: 2020 (2018)
No. of Pages: 281
Country: Morocco

Synopsis: 

Thirty-four-year-old prostitute Jmiaa reflects on the bustling world around her with a brutal honesty, but also a quick wit that cuts through the drudgery. Like many of the women in her working-class Casablanca neighborhood, Jmiaa struggles to earn enough money to support herself and her family – often including the deadbeat husband who walked out on her and their young daughter. While she doesn’t despair about her profession like her roommate, Halima, who reads the Quran between clients, she still has to maintain a delicate balance between her reality and the “respectable” one she paints for her own more conservative mother.

This daily grind is interrupted by the arrival of an aspiring young director, Chadlia, whom Jmiaa takes to calling “Horse Mouth.” Chadlia enlists Jmiaa’s help on a film project, initially just to make sure the plot and dialogue are authentic. But when she’s unable to find an actress who’s right for the starring role, she turns again to Jmiaa, giving the latter an incredible opportunity for a better life.

In her breakout debut novel, Meryem Alaoui creates a vibrant picture of the day-to-day challenges faced by working people in Casablanca, which they meet head-on with resourcefulness and resilience.

Title: The Family
Author: Buchi Emecheta
Publisher: George Braziller
Publishing Date: 1990 (1989)
No. of Pages: 239
Country: Nigeria

Synopsis: 

Born into poverty in Jamaica, deserted when her parents emigrate, and raped by an “uncle” at age nine, Gwendolen Brillianton is happy to be summoned to London to care for the siblings she has never met – but being reunited with her family does not solve her problems, or theirs. Not until she has again been the victim of rape and has left home does Gwendolen begin to understand that she must take control of her own life. Widely known and respected for her stories of black women struggling with the conflicting demands of tradition and modernity, Buchi Emecheta hs written a painfully engrossing tale of bravery in the face of familial disintegration.

Title: The Kindness of Enemies
Author: Leila Aboulela
Publisher: Grove Press
Publishing Date: 2015
No. of Pages: 335
Country: Sudan

Synopsis:

A riveting epic of love, betrayal, and war from New York Times Notable author and winner of the first ever Caine Prize for African Writing, Leila Baoulela.

It’s 2010 and Natasha, a half-Russian, half-Sudanese professor of history, is researching the life of Imam Shamil, the nineteenth century Muslim leader who led the anti-Russian resistance in the Caucasian War. When shy, single Natasha discovers that her star student, Osama (Oz), is not only descended from the warrior but also possesses Shamil’s legendary sword, the Imam’s story comes vividly to life. As Natasha’s relationship with Oz and his alluring actress mother intensifies, Natasha is forced to confront issues she had long tried to avoid – that of her Muslim heritage. When Oz is suddenly arrested at his home one morning, Natasha realizes that everything she values stands in jeopardy.

Told with Aboulela’s inimitable elegance and narrated from the point of view of both Natasha and the historical characters she is researching, The Kindness of Enemies is both an engrossing story of a provocative period in history and an important examination of what it is to be a Muslim in a post-9/11 world.

Title: Changes
Author: Ama Ata Aidoo
Publisher: The Women’s Press Ltd.
Publishing Date: November 1991
No. of Pages: 166
Country: Ghana

Synopsis:

In this lively and touching novel about Esi, freshly separated from her husband and confronted with the near impossibility of finding male love and companionship on anything like acceptable terms, the distinguished Ghanaian writer, Ama Ata Aidoo, shows herself once more on entertaining and unreformed subversive.

Changes is her latest novel, and in it she indulges in a skilful play of irony and social satire brought off with irrepressible joyousness that will delight new readers and old friends alike.

Title: The Hundred Wells of Salaga
Author: Ayesha Harruna Attah
Publisher: Other Press
Publishing Date: 2019
No. of Pages: 225
Country: Ghana

Synopsis:

Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that turns her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father’s court. Their lives converge as infighting among Wurche’s people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century.

Through the story of these remarkably strong women who challenged the expectations placed on them by society, The Hundred Wells of Salaga offers an intimate, authentic look at what it was like to live and think in Africa before the colonial era. At once heartbreaking and inspiring, this novel is essential for those who loved Homegoing and Things Fall Apart.

Title: Evening Primrose
Author: Kopano Matlwa
Publisher: Quercus
Publishing Date: 2019
No. of Pages: 149
Country: South Africa

Synopsis:

When Masechaba finally achieves her childhood dream of becoming a doctor, her ambition is tested as she faces the stark reality of South Africa’s public health care system. As she leaves her deeply religious mother and makes friends with the politically minded Nyasha, Masechaba’s eyes are opened to the rising xenophobic tension that carries echoes of apartheid. Battling her inner demons, she must decide if she should take a stand to help her best friend, even if it comes at a high personal cost.

A powerfully insightful novel from one of the foremost voices of South Africa’s “Born Free” generation, Evening Primrose explores issues of race, gender, and the medical profession with tenderness and urgency.