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I have already made a thread about historical novels set in Ancient Egypt. Here I will make one about novels set in other parts of Africa. Novels can provide a break from all the scholarly articles, fact books and reports that one reads both at work and in ones spare time.
So if you have any tips for good historical novels set in Africa, this is the right thread.
I can start with an excellent book called The Great Ponds written by the Nigerian author Elechi Amadi. It is about two villages in Nigeria at the turn of the last century, who end up at war because both claim ownership of some ponds or lakes rich in fish. The war begins with small skirmishes but soon escalates out of control. In the wake of war comes famine, disease and death. In their attempts to win the war, both sides invoke both spirits and gods. Soon the war is noticed by surrounding peoples who try to intervene and end the conflict.
The book is an excellent study in the psychology of war, its inherent dynamics and fate.
It is a dramatic and exciting book, who does not leave the reader unmoved.
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I have not seen many fictional books about Green Sahara, but I managed to find this French comic book about a young woman in Tassili during the Neolithic. One can of course wonder over the choise of skin color for the protagonist and her people, but it is still interesting that someone makes a fictional narration about Green Sahara and its people, and art.
Front cover of the comic book « Tassili, une femme libre au Néolithique » (Tassili, a Free Woman in the Neolithic Age) from 2022
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