Blog posts on books or exhibitions about or related to Africa. Links/titles which aren’t yet live indicate reviews I’m going to publish over the next month.
Pre-history
Ancient Africa
- Plutarch’s Life of Pompey
- Plutarch’s Life of Cato the Younger
- Plutarch’s Life of Antony
- The Alexandrian War by Aulus Hirtius
- The African War by Aulus Hirtius
- The Pharsalia by Lucan 1: Introduction
- The Pharsalia by Lucan 2: Summary
Imperialism in Africa
- The Age of Capital: 1848 to 1875 by Eric Hobsbawm (1975)
- The Crisis of Imperialism 1865 to 1915 by Richard Shannon (1976)
- The Boer War 1899 to 1902 by Thomas Pakenham (1979)
- Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe 900 to 1900 by Alfred W. Crosby (1986)
- The Age of Empire: 1875 to 1914 by Eric Hobsbawm (1987)
- The Scramble For Africa by Thomas Pakenham (1991)
- Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa by Frank McLynn (1992) part one
- Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa by Frank McLynn (1992) part two
- Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (1997)
- King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild (1998) – 1 [Belgian Congo]
- King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild (1998) – 2 [Belgian Congo]
- King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild (1998) – 3 [Belgian Congo]
- Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson (2003)
- Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal (2007) – 1
- Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal (2007) – 2
- Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal (2007) – 3
- Congo: the epic history of a people by David Van Reybrouck (2010)
- Explorers of the Nile: the triumph and tragedy of a great Victorian adventure by Tim Jeal (2011) – 1
- Explorers of the Nile: the triumph and tragedy of a great Victorian adventure by Tim Jeal (2011) – 2
- Unfinished Empire by John Darwin (2012)
- Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire by Roger Crowley (2015)
Second World War in Africa
- Alamein to Zem Zem by Keith Douglas (1946) [Libya]
- Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying by Roald Dahl (1946) [Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt]
- Going Solo by Roald Dahl (1986) [Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt]
Post-war Africa
- Another Day of Life by Ryszard Kapuściński (1976) [Angola]
- A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne (1977) [Algeria]
- The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat by Ryszard Kapuściński (1978) [Ethiopia]
- Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey by Fergal Keane (1995) [Rwanda]
- We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch (1998) [Rwanda]
- The Shadow of The Sun: My African Life by Ryszard Kapuściński (1998)
- In The Footsteps of Mr Kurz by Michaela Wrong (2000) [Congo]
- Islam’s Black Slaves: The Other Black Diaspora by Ronald Segal (2001)
- Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide by Linda Melvern (2004)
- The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence by Martin Meredith (2005) – 1
- The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence by Martin Meredith (2005) – 2
- No One Can Stop The Rain: A Chronicle of Two Foreign Aid Workers during the Angolan Civil War by Karin Moorhouse and Wei Cheng (2005)
- I Didn’t Do It For You: How The World Used and Abused A Small African Nation by Michela Wrong (2005) [Eritrea]
- Blood River: A Journey To Africa’s Broken Heart by Tim Butcher (2007) [Congo]
- Mugabe: Power, Plunder and the Struggle for Zimbabwe by Martin Meredith (2007) [Zimbabwe]
- The Night Wanderers: Uganda’s Children and the Lord’s Resistance Army by Wojchiec Jagielski (2009)
- Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe by Gérard Prunier (2009) [Congo]
- Congo: the epic history of a people by David Van Reybrouck (2010) – 1
- Congolese soldiers in the world wars
- Congo: the epic history of a people by David Van Reybrouck (2010) – 2
- Congo: the epic history of a people by David Van Reybrouck (2010) – 3 The Great War of Africa
- Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason K. Stearns (2011)
- The World’s Most Dangerous Place: Inside the Outlaw State of Somalia by James Fergusson (2013) [Somalia]
- Blue Dahlia, Black Gold: A Journey Into Angola by Daniel Metcalfe (2014)
- The Looting Machine by Tom Burgis (2015)
- A Short History of Mozambique by Malyn Newitt (2017) [Mozambique]
- Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa by Paul Kenyon (2018)
- Two Weeks in November by Douglas Rogers (2019) [Zimbabwe]
- Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad by Michela Wrong (2021) [Rwanda]
Foreign aid
- The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly (2006)
- The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier (2007)
Fictions and memoirs set wholly or partly in Africa
- Anthony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (1606)
- Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave by Aphra Behn (1688)
- Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert (1862)
- King Solomon’s Mines by Henry Rider Haggard (1885)
- Allan Quatermain by Henry Rider Haggard (1887)
- She by Henry Rider Haggard (1887)
- The Light That Failed by Rudyard Kipling (1891) [Sudan]
- Nada the Lily by Henry Rider Haggard (1892) [South Africa]
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899) [Congo]
- Prester John by John Buchan (1910)
- The Unbearable Bassington by Saki (1912) [West Africa]
- Remote People by Evelyn Waugh (1931)
- Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh (1932)
- Waugh in Abyssinia by Evelyn Waugh (1936) [Ethiopia]
- Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (1938)
- Evelyn Waugh: A Biography by Selina Hastings (1994)
- The Outsider by Albert Camus (1942) [Algeria]
- The Plague by Albert Camus (1947) [Algeria]
- The Heart of The Matter by Graham Greene (1948) [Sierra Leone]
- The Strange Land by Hammond Innes (1954) [Morocco]
- Ice Cold In Alex by Christopher Landon (1957) [Egypt]
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958) [Nigeria]
- No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe (1960) [Nigeria]
- A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene (1960) [Congo]
- The World In Winter by John Christopher (1962) [Nigeria]
- Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe (1964) [Nigeria]
- Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1964)
- Arrow of God: Sayings of Wisdom [Nigeria]
- A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe (1966) [Nigeria]
- Riotous Assembly by Tom Sharpe (1971) [South Africa]
- The Big Footprints by Hammond Innes (1977) [Kenya]
- Flyaway by Desmond Bagley (1978) [Sahara]
- Congo by Michael Crichton (1980) [Congo]
- A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd (1981) [British East Africa]
- Windfall by Desmond Bagley (1982) [Kenya]
- An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd (1982)
- The Trouble With Nigeria by Chinua Achebe (1983) [Nigeria]
- Juggernaut by Desmond Bagley (1985) [Nyaland, fictional]
- Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe (1987)
- The Day of Creation by J.G. Ballard (1987) [between Chad and Sudan]
- The Catastrophist by Ronan Bennett (1997) [Congo]
- The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden (1998) [Uganda]
- Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee [South Africa]
- Ladysmith by Giles Foden (1999) [South Africa]
- The Constant Gardener by John le Carré (2001) [Nigeria]
- Zanzibar by Giles Foden (2002) [Tanzania]
- Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2003)
- Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle for Lake Tanganyika by Giles Foden (2004) [Congo]
- Moses, Citizen and Me by Delia Jarrett-Macauley (2005)
- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006)
- The Mission Song by John le Carré (2006) [Congo]
- Freight Dogs by Giles Foden (2021) [Rwanda/Congo]
Exhibitions about Africa
- A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography @ Tate Modern (2023)
- The Island by Mónica de Miranda @ Autograph (2022)
- Lina Iris Viktor @ Autograph (2020)
- Mimesis: African Soldier @ the Imperial War Museum (2019)
- Liberty / Diaspora by Omar Victor Diop @ Autograph ABP (2018)
- Artist and Empire: Facing Britain’s Imperial Past @ Tate Britain (2016)
- South Africa: The Art of a Nation @ the British Museum (2016)
Books & Boots 