I prefer single-authored short story collections, as it can be jarring jumping from one author’s style to the next. But anthologies can be very helpful for discovering new authors and sampling their work. Not all the stories in Picador’s Book of African Stories worked for me, but there were a few gems, I got to try out the work of some authors I’ve been meaning to pick up, and I discovered some I’d never heard of but would definitely like to read more from now. I also appreciated the geographic scope of the collection, with most of Africa covered and almost half of the stories in translation too! Although being printed in 2002 it is quite male-centric and there are zero queer stories here.

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Notable themes that crop up throughout the anthology are corruption, hypocrisy, colonialism, belonging and divides (between men & women, Black people and white people, rich and poor). A few of the stories felt too on the nose in their moral offerings, more like a kids fable where there’s a clear lesson at the end. I’ll give you a quick rundown of some of my fave stories:

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🇰🇲 Comoros - The Revolt of the Vowels by Aboubacar Ben Saïd Salim, tr. from French by Carole Beckett

One of the few fantastical stories in the collection, vowels decide they’ve had enough of their forced participation in exploitation, war and violence and go on strike, meaning most of the world can now only communicate by grunting.

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🇨🇬 Republic of Congo - The Ceremony by Emmanuel Dongala, tr from French by Norman Strike

This was a hilarious piece of political satire, following a man who wants to join the Party because he fully believes in their values and absolutely not because he wants a pay rise and a nice car. Highlights how corrupt officials will say anything to bend reality to their own agenda.

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🇪🇹 Ethiopia - Letter to My Sisters by Fatmata Conteth

Sad but striking, a qualified doctor writes her suicide note because she’s tired of the sexist double standards that have ruled her life.

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🇰🇪 Kenya - Minutes of Glory by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

I’ve been wanting to try this author’s work for a while now and this story made me really excited about that! It was a brilliant piece about men using then discarding women to improve their own social status, colourism and beauty standards in Kenya.