BOOK CLUB March 2025 Selection

The Color Bar by Susan Williams tells the fascinating story of Seretse Khama, born into a royal family in what was then Bechuanaland, a British protectorate. He attended university in the UK and fell in love with and married a British woman, but when the time came for them to return to Africa, the South African government pressured the British government to prevent him from returning to his home. It was only several years later that the couple were allowed to return. Khama eventually became Prime Minister and later President of what became the independent country of Botswana. 

BOOK CLUB February 2025 Selection

Ghost Season by Fatin Abbas from Sudan, is a sweeping history of the breakup of Sudan and takes you to Saraaya, a fictional town rich with crude oil, located at the border of Sudan and South Sudan.

Abbas was born in Khartoum where she experienced the upheaval of the 1989 coup that forced her family to move to New York City. But, her ties to Sudan remained strong, and she drew from these experiences, particularly her time in the town of Abyei, in crafting the world of Saraaya, a place of quiet mystery and tension. into the lives of  five strangers in an NGO compound on the border between Sudan and South Sudan.

This novel  is a “gripping, vivid debut that announces Abbas as a powerful new voice in fiction”.

BOOK CLUB January 2025 Selection

BOOK CLUB November 2024 Selection

The History of a Difficult Child by Mihret Sibhat is a novel about a young girl growing up during turbulent times in a small town in Ethiopia in the 1980s. The narrator is ten years old by the end of the story and  according to one reviewer, is “a magnificent guide to this ancient and enduring culture.” (New York Review of Books).

Our club welcomes new members. We meet approximately every six weeks and generally alternate between fiction and non-fiction books written about Africa, primarily although not exclusively by African authors.

For more information or to join us, write tomessage@ujamaagrandmas.com and we will  get back to you.

Born a Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah is a memoir of growing up as a mixed-race person in South Africa.

Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.This promises to be an enlightening read that is also very funny.

BOOK CLUB July  2024 Selection

This month our  book is Tea, Scones and Malaria by Katlynn Brooks.

This book is a phenomenal true account of one girl’s extraordinary upbringing in the rough and feral bushveld of 1950s and 60s Rhodesia. Moving from one makeshift camp to the next, the family follows Dad, a bridge builder for the government, deep into the heart of elephant and cheetah country.

“We ran barefoot in the bush, and swam in crocodile-infested rivers. We shared our camps with snakes, scorpions, and jerrymunglums. There was no electricity, no hospitals, and no schools in the bush. How I survived it all, I will never know.”

Hilarious, touching, raw, and deeply honest, this memoir records the journey from child to teenager to woman against the backdrop of a vanishing world, as Rhodesia begins its long and tumultuous transition into the independent country of Zimbabwe.

BOOK CLUB April  2024 Selection

This month our  book is This Child Will Be Great, a memoir by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Sirleaf shares the story of her rise to power, including her early childhood; her experiences with abuse, imprisonment, and exile; and her fight for democracy and social justice. She reveals her determination to succeed in multiple worlds, from her studies in the United States to her work as an international bank executive, to campaigning in some of Liberia’s most desperate and war-torn villages and neighborhoods. It is the tale of an outspoken political and social reformer who fought the oppression of dictators and championed change. By telling her story, Sirleaf encourages women everywhere to pursue leadership roles at the highest levels of power, and gives us all hope that we can change the world.

Sirleaf became the first elected head of state of an African country (in this case, Liberia, in 2006) She  won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

Burger’s Daughter by Nadine Gordimer (winner  of the Nobel Prize for Literature) was published in 1979. This novel is modelled after real people involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

This is the moving story of the unforgettable Rosa Burger, a young woman from South Africa cast in the mold of a revolutionary tradition. Rosa tries to uphold her heritage handed on by martyred parents while still carving out a sense of self. Although it is wholly of today, Burger’s Daughter can be compared to those 19th century Russian classics that make a certain time and place come alive, and yet stand as universal celebrations of the human spirit.

Most of our books to date have been written by contemporary young, black African authors and we thought it would be interesting to go back to this earlier period in history.

BOOK CLUB June 2023 Selection

Eizabeth Nyamayaro is from Zimbabwe. At the age of 8, she nearly died of starvation during a famine. Her rescue by a United Nations aid worker inspired her with a dream to work for the UN. This memoir recounts her early life in a small village and her career working for a variety of causes at the UN, including HIV/AIDS, child marriage, domestic violence, and women’t rights. It is an inspirational read.

BOOK CLUB May 2023 Selection

Glory is a new book from NoViolet Bulawayo, the award-winning author of the Booker-prize finalist We Need New Names.
NoViolet Bulawayo’s bold new novel follows the fall of the Old Horse, the long-serving leader of a fictional country, and the drama that follows for a rumbustious nation of animals on the path to true liberation.

BOOK CLUB February 2023 Selection

On February 24, we will be discussing the novel “How Beautiful We Were” by Cameroonian-American author Imbolo Mbue.

This book is about a fictional African village that is suffering from pollution and environmental degradation caused by an American oil company, and how they decided to fight back. We have also read Mbue’s previous novel, Behold the Dreamers, and loved it.