2024 Anticipated African Book Releases
By Ilerioluwa Olatunde
The new year unveils a remarkable array of literary gems for enthusiasts of African literature. From new voices and memoirs to contemporary works and highly anticipated sequels, these upcoming releases from African writers promise to be a testament to the rich storytelling tradition that has defined African literature for generations. Here are books you should add to your 2024 TBR list, ranging from contemporary fiction to short story collections, historical non-fiction, YA fantasy and science fiction, memoirs, and more.
And So I Roar by Abi Dare
Expected Release Date: August 2024 by Dutton
The highly praised author of the novel The Girl with the Louding Voice is back with a much-anticipated sequel titled And So I Roar. Building on her first book's heart-wrenching and powerful narrative, the second novel is expected to continue the story seamlessly. Notably, the protagonist, Adunni, returns with a twist in her journey as her life becomes intertwined with the young Tia in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. With a stunning book cover, this sequel promises to captivate readers with its compelling and interconnected narratives.
After the End by Olukorede S. Yishau
Expected Release Date: July 2024 by Masobe
Yishau’s sophomore novel explores the story of two women connected by a shared tragedy as they navigate through a web of betrayal, racism, and motherhood while grappling with life complexities. Idera’s world crumbles when her husband, Demola, dies. However, she is met with a shocking discovery as she battles with this reality. A woman appears at her door with a child—Demola’s son. The love of her life, the man whom she felt could do no wrong by her and her children, had betrayed her.
Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings
Expected Release Date: April 2024 by Masobe
Renowned South African author Karen Jennings’ fourth novel will be released through Masobe Books following its Nigerian rights acquisition. The book, set in a futuristic Cape Town, is a daring exploration of the post-apartheid era in South Africa as a woman, Deidre van Deventer, confronts her family’s intricate past. The book captures the national trauma and collective guilt that accompanied that period in South Africa.
The Road to the Salt Sea by Samuel Kolawole
Expected Release Date: July 2024 by HarperCollins
Described as a searing exploration of the global migration crisis that moves from Nigeria to Libya to Italy, Kolawole’s debut novel follows the compelling story of Rufus Tacitus, also known as Able God, a university graduate turned accidental murderer. Working in a four-star hotel for low pay, Able's ordinary life takes a drastic turn when a room service order entangles him in the life of Akudo, a sex worker connected to a powerful yet dangerous hotel guest. Caught in a web of violence, guilt, and fear, Able must run to save himself.
The Silence of the Choir by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
Expected Release Date: May 2024 by Europa Editions
Acclaimed Senegalese writer and 2021 Prix Goncourt winner drafts a compelling tale of immigration and community in his new novel. The polyphonic novel revolves around seventy-two men, labeled immigrants, refugees, or ragazzi, who find themselves in the Sicilian countryside. While they wait to know their fate, the ragazzi encounter various intriguing characters—a strange vicar who rewrites their pasts, a woman committed to ensuring them asylum, a man determined to fight against it, an older ragazzo who has become an interpreter, and a reclusive poet who no longer writes.
Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Expected Release Date: May 2024 by Tordotcom Publishing/Masobe
Lost Ark Dreaming by award-winning author of fantasy, science fiction, and general speculative work is a post-climate disaster novella that captures a futuristic Lagos, where our greatest fear has finally happened: The rise of the Atlantic Ocean and the submerging of a once magnificent city. This is one book I am so excited to delve into as the narrative sheds light on the impacts of climate change within an African context, showcasing the richness and depth of contemporary African literature.
Origins of the Syma Species (African Poetry Book) by Tares Oburumu
Expected Release Date: March 2024 by University of Nebraska Press
Mixing music, religion, and political critique, Origins of the Syma Species evokes pasts and futures. Inspired by the relative chaos found in the origin of things, Oburumu’s poems explore how the beauty of chaos binds us to our ancestral roots. In his poems, Oburumu identifies with anyone who is a single parent or is dealing with the lonely trauma of a broken home. His poems instill hopefulness in a world that has the means to throw many into poverty and agony.
Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi
Expected Date of Release: February 2024 by DAW Books
A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Spring 2024 Roundup pick, Convergence Problems, is a collection of stories investigating the rapidly changing role of technology and belief in our lives as we search for meaning, knowledge, and justice, constantly converging on our future selves.
Half Portraits Under Water by Dennis Mugaa
Expected Release Date: August 2024 by Masobe
Mugaa’s Half Portraits Under Water is a collection of ten loosely interlinked stories that explore love, grief, and the interconnected nature of human experiences. The collection has been described as “A brilliant addition to the Kenyan and African literary landscape” by Troy Onyango.
The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma
Expected Release Date: June 2024 by Hogarth
Set in Nigeria in the late 1960s, The Road to the Country by two-time Booker Prize finalist is an epic war story involving a shy, bookish student, Kunle, haunted by long-held guilt and shame, who must go to war to free himself. Kunle’s search for his younger brother becomes a journey of atonement that will see him conscripted into the breakaway Biafran army and forced to fight a war he hardly understands, all while navigating the prophecies of a local seer, he who marks Kunle as an “Abami Eda”- one who will die and return to life.
Captive: New Short Fiction from Africa, Edited by Rachel Zadok and Helen Moffett
Expected Release Date: April 2024 by Catalyst Press
In Captive, twelve emerging writers from Africa and the African Diaspora explore the identities that define us, the obsessions that bewitch us, and the self-delusions that drive us apart. The anthology takes readers on a journey from the fantastical Heaven’s Mouth, where time stands still, to a London bus where a neurodiverse woman steals love to the songs of Tom Jones. . . flip the page to Ghana to examine a fertility fetish, or a post-apocalyptic Lesotho where sentient AI uses our emotions against us . . . visit the deceptively beautiful islands off the Tanzanian coast, where the ocean is always hungry, and women pay the price.
Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda
Expected Release Date: May 2024 by W. W. Norton | Masobe
Ghostroots features 12 surreal stories set in a hauntingly reimagined Lagos, where “characters vie for freedom from ancestral ties.” The stories in this collection explore the tension between our yearning to be individuals and how we are haunted by what came before
We Were Girls Once by Aiwanose Odafen
Expected Release Date: April 2024 by Simon and Schuster
The sophomore novel by the author of Tomorrow I Become a Woman follows the travails of three women in post-independence Nigeria and their changing fortunes in the volatile environment of a country grappling with multiple political problems.
The synopsis reads: “Ego, Zina, and Eriife were always destined to be best friends ever since their grandmothers sat next to each other on a dusty bus to Lagos in the late 1940s, forging a bond that would last generations. But over half a century later, Nigeria is a new and modern country. As the three young women navigate the incessant strikes and political turmoil that surrounds them, their connection is shattered by a terrible assault. In the aftermath, nothing will remain the same as life takes them down separate paths.”
Someone Birthed Them Broken: Stories by Ama Asantewa Diaka
Expected Date of Release: April 2024 by HarperCollins
“In this startling collection of short fiction, Ama Asantewa Diaka creates a vibrant portrait of young Ghanaians’ today, captured in the experiences of characters whose lives bump against one other in friendship, passion, hope, and heartache. . . Diaka charts this constellation of interconnected lives in thirteen stories, exploring themes which run through the collection like a current: corruption and economic hardship, trauma and infidelity, shame, neglect, and the tribulations of the female body. In telling their stories, Diaka illuminates hope, freedom, and triumph that can be found in the everyday—the bonds between women, the joys of love and sex and art and dancing, the possibility of repair and redemption.” — The Deborah Harris Agency
Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase
Expected Date of Release: January 2024 by Erewhon Books
Motswana author’s debut adult novel, Womb City, “blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body. . . Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?” — Erewhon Books
The Incredible Dreams of Garba Dakaskus by Umar Abubakar Sidi
Expected Release Date: August 2024 by Masobe
Umar Abubakar Sidi’s debut novel, The Incredible Dreams of Garba Dakaskus, a metaphysical murder mystery about the hunt for a book with supernatural abilities, has been described as a masterpiece of experimental fiction, a wondrous cross between the surreal and the supernatural.
The Gilded Ones #3: The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna
Expected Release Date: February 2024 by Delacorte Press
The Eternal Ones is the final thrilling installment of the epic fantasy series The Gilded Ones, set in an ancient West African-inspired world in which a young heroine, Deka, fights against a world that would dare tame her. It has been described as perfect for Children of Blood and Black Panther fans.
She Who Knows: Kponyungo by Nnedi Okoroafor
Expected Release Date: August 2024 by DAW Books -Astra Publishing House
The novella is billed as a prequel to the Nigerian-American author’s acclaimed novel, Who Fears Death, and focuses on the life of Najeeba, Onyesonwu's mother. It is also part of a three-book project by the famous speculative fiction author. She Who Knows is the first installment, followed by two sequels in later seasons.
Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
Expected Release Date: June 2024 by Henry Holt and Co.
Children of Anguish and Anarchy is the final book in Adeyemi’s legendary YA fantasy trilogy titled Legacy of Orisha. The trilogy, set in the land of Orisha ruled by a tyrannical king, tells the story of the young Zélie Adebola as she attempts to restore magic to the kingdom and resist the monarchy. This book continues where the last left off.
Sand Roses by Hamza Koudri
Expected Release Date: April 2024 by Masobe
Sand Roses by Algerian writer Hamza Koudri is a historical criminal novel set in 1930s colonial Algeria. It is about two sisters who arrive in Bousaada with aspirations of becoming successful dancers. However, their dreams take a dark turn when, in self-defense, they inadvertently kill a French soldier in a city occupied by the ruthless French colonial army.
A Kind of Madness: Stories by Uche Okonkwo
Expected Release Date: April 2024 by Tin House Books
Okonkwo’s debut short story collection features stories set in Nigeria that explore themes of community expectations, familial strife, and the struggle for survival. Part of the description reads: “In vivid, evocative prose, A Kind of Madness unravels the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings, and more, marking the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction and inviting us all to consider the question: why is it that the people and places we hold closest are so often the ones that drive us to madness?” — Tin House
Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli
Expected Release Date: May 2024 Graydon House
The book follows the life of a young girl who was raised in the spotlight by her influencer stepmother. The main character, Anuri, eventually overcomes her toxic family and reclaims her identity. But when her stepmother starts preying on her young half-sister, Anuri decides she must stop the cycle of abuse.
Everything Is Not Enough by Lola Akinmade Åkerström
Expected Release Date: March 2024 by Masobe
Lola Akinmade Akerstrom’s second novel, Everything Is Not Enough, published in October 2023, will grace Nigerian bookstores in March 2024. A sequence to her brilliant debut novel, In Every Mirror She’s Black, the second novel continues the journey of the lives of three Black women as they fight their struggles in one of the most egalitarian societies, Sweden.
NONFICTION
An Imperfect Storm by Chikwe Ihekweazu with Vivian Ihekweazu
Expected Release Date: April 2024 by Masobe
The memoir is written by the stellar husband-wife duo: Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Nigeria's former Director General of the CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention), and Vivianne Ihekweazu, the Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch. It details the personal account of the pandemic and prospects for the future of healthcare in Nigeria. It has been critically acclaimed by the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as a riveting account of the battle against COVID-19 by one of Nigeria’s frontline heroes.
The Minotaur at Calle Lanza by Zito Madu
Expected Release Date: April 2024 by Belt Publishing
In the fall of 2020, amid the global pandemic, Zito Madu traveled to Venice for a writing fellowship. There, he found a deserted, silent, but still beautiful city, “one of those extraordinarily strange places in the world.” As he details his walks through a haunted landscape, he unveils a memoir that delves into his family’s immigration from Nigeria to Detroit, his troubled relationship with his father, his meditations on race and otherness, the small joys of daily life and solitude, and his rage and regret.
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by Zeinab Badawi
Expected Release Date: April 2024 by Penguin
In this fascinating book, Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history. Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and local storytellers, she unearths buried histories from across the continent and gives Africa its rightful place in our global story. The result is a gripping new account of Africa: an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through Africans' voices.
Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans in China by Noo Saro-Wiwa
Expected Release Date: March 2024 by Masobe
Renowned for her travel writing, Noo Saro-wiwa’s newest book is a travel memoir of a Nigerian woman in China exploring the lives of African economic migrants in the bustling People’s Republic. Originally published in November 2023, Black Ghosts is set to hit Nigeria's bookstores through Masobe Books.
African Possibilities: A Matriarchitarian Perspective for Social Justice by Ifi Amadiume
Expected Release Date: February 2024 by Zed Books
Representing the culmination of over 40 years of ground-breaking work on notions of matriarchy at the intersection of the Igbo-African universe and the Western capitalist reality, award-winning author of the hugely influential Male Daughters, Female Husbands, Ifi Amadiume sets forth a blueprint for a bold new matriarchitarianism, critiquing all forms of social injustice with a shared matriarchal-relational humanism.
Writer’s Biography
Ilerioluwa Olatunde is a creative writer and book reviewer interested in fiction, creative nonfiction, and performance poetry. She recently tried her hands at business writing and finds it amusing. She is a fellow of SprinNG and Speakin’ Fingers Academy. Her work has been published on platforms such as Sprinng and Shuzia. She draws inspiration from the books she reads, societal and economic issues, daily experiences, and her relationship with God.
She enjoys volunteering, and When she is not writing, she reads, listens to music, has fun in her head, or does research.
