The 60 Notable Books of 2023

The notable books of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and drama by African writers published in 2023, selected by the staff of Open Country Mag.

Poetry

Winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, Momtaza Mehri’s debut poetry collection provides an unfiltered and penetrating examination of the migrant journey and its multi-generational intricacies, all framed within the context of Somalia’s historical narrative. Buy.

Chronicling the movement of migrants through both internal and external borders, Oriogun’s poems explore vulnerability and sharp intelligence. The poet himself has had to embark on forced journeys that took him across nations in West and North Africa, through Europe, and through American cities as he navigates the challenges of living through terror and loss and wrestles with the meaning of home. Buy.

In these poems, African and Western mythic systems and modern rituals originate an ill-omened universe. Venturing through dreamscapes, hellscapes, and lurid landscapes, they map speculative fields of spiritual warfare. Buy.

In Ghana’s Akan tradition, a child is named according to the day of the week on which they were born. This marks their true birth. In Abimbola’s debut, the intimacy of this practice yields an intricately layered poetics of time and body based in Black possibility, ancestry, and joy. Buy.

Exhilarating, alert, and animated by both Bété oral poetics and modernist zeal, these two major linked poems by the late Ivorian poet Azo Vauguy, translated into English for the first time by poet and scholar Todd Fredson, evokes the legendary figure of Zakwato, who, having slept through the massacre of his village, marches to the blacksmith to have his eyelids removed so that he might never sleep again. Buy.

Umezurike takes on the rich concepts of home and belonging—home lost and regained, home created with others and with the land, home as “anywhere we find something to love”—giving voice to the experiences of migrant and other marginalized citizens whose lives society tends to overlook. Buy.

These poems explore racial margins, the enduring remnants of violent colonial history. Shanahan, an American Moroccan, expresses the universal yearning for genuine intimacy and connection, providing a language that transcends a world often preoccupied with categorization and separation. Buy.

Winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, Oburumu’s collection is a brief history of where he came from: Syma, a neglected oil-producing region of Nigeria. It examines single parenthood, music, religion, and political critique. Buy.

In compassionate, playful, fable-like poems, Barya awakens us to the fully alive, non-human communities surrounding us. They demonstrate poetry’s unique ability to prick us from our self-involved numbness and awaken us to wonder. Buy.

Set against the backdrop of post-Apartheid South Africa, Len Verwey looks at a person’s life from youth and growing up to aging and dying, considering what the ineluctable reality of death might imply about how we should think about our lives. Buy.

The poems in the collection delve into the intricate and multi-faceted aspects of migration, illustrating how the numerous borders we traverse leave lasting impressions. Shifferaw offers insights on embracing the intricacies of a perpetual state of transit. Buy.

Forced to leave Sudan by Omar al-Bashir’s regime, Mamoun sat down to reflect during the pandemic. These poems, translated from the Arabic into English by Yasmine Seale, capture the difficulties of being exiled during the pandemic. Buy.

Okpara explores queer male identity, effeminacy, exile, desire, sanctuary, freedom, and estrangement. It is dedicated to the memory of victims of anti-queer violence in Nigeria and beyond. Buy.

Nonfiction

Iduma explores the silences he encounters within his family and the larger culture as he searches for answers about the fate of his uncle, who never returned from Nigeria’s Biafra War. Read our review. Buy.

This book draws attention to the experiences of black people in China. It explores the racism prevalent on both sides. Nigeria’s Saro-Wiwa uses her own experiences and observations to provide a more balanced point of view. Buy.

A gripping memoir about a Nigerian doctor’s experience with the country’s medical system in the 1990s. Buy.

In 2009, the gender controversy surrounding South African athlete Caster Semenya ignited a passionate discussion in the world of sports. Her memoir is a compelling and uplifting tale of strength and rebellion against both a formidable industry and public judgment. Buy.

Sara Cheikh’s memoir details her first visit to see her family at a Western Saharan refugee camp after 20 years and how she is unexpectedly held back due to border closures and the increasing panic around Covid-19. Buy.

Sister Nature follows the adventures of a Kenyan beekeeper-turned-farmer on a decade-long journey to find purpose and potential in the explosive world of regenerative agriculture: from the rainforests of southern Ethiopia to the arid lands of northern Kenya. Buy.

Critical whiteness studies is an offshoot of critical race theory that Thandiwe Ntshinga believes is desperately needed in South Africa. She pokes holes in the belief that leaving whiteness undisturbed for analysis creates justice and normalcy. Instead, she argues perpetually that studying the “other” hinders our development. Buy.

Plays

Winner of the NLNG Prize for Literature, Grit explores betrayal, loyalty, grief, and service to one’s country when two half-brothers, both ex-soldiers, join separate political groups to run for the office of chairman.

The Phoenix Black Science Organisation introduces a 100,000-pound prize for African witches and wizards, leading three wizards to vigorously pursue the foreign largesse. A comedic play that delves into power, politics, neo-colonization, and greed. It was longlisted for the NLNG Prize for Literature.

Anthologies

The sixth volume in 20.35 Africa‘s galvanizing series of poetry anthologies, introduced by managing editor Precious Okpechi, features work by Caleb Femi, Precious Arinze, Vuyelwa Maluleke, Wale Ayinla, Zibusiso Mpofu, Ola Elhassan, and Ernest Ohia, among others. Read online.

A collection of poems from the 1800s to the present, showcasing a host of new voices. Buy.

In these nonfiction pieces, a group of Nigerian writers critique toxic expressions of masculinity and homosexuality in the country. Buy.

A collection of contemporary Zimbabwean women’s poetry. Buy.

Published in the English and French languages, the anthology, co-edited by the Nigerian writer and pioneering LGBTQ advocate, celebrates queer women’s experience in West Africa. Contributors include Olaedo Obinze, Tanamia Illunga, Noni Salma, Delasi Sanenu, Enyo Sela, Gsan Rolifane, Abalawa Solime, and Emmanuella Nduonofit, among others. Buy.

Winner of the World Fantasy Award, the anthology engages with fiction that introduces rich cultures and vibrant characters from Africa and its diaspora. Buy.

This diverse collection spans genres, providing a lively reflection on existence. It encourages connections across both real and imaginary boundaries, celebrating deep and meaningful relationships. Buy.

Children’s Book

With stunning illustrations from Joelle Avelino, here is a celebration of family, and a touching story about the everyday objects that remind us of the ones we love. It is the first children’s book by the Open Country Mag cover star. Buy.

Fiction

Through the voices of seven men and women whose fates are linked, Aboulela’s latest novel illuminates the Madhist Revolution in 1880s Sudan. She was Open Country Mag‘s December 2023 cover star. We published an excerpt. Buy.

Tunde, a West African photographer on a New England campus, is our guide into Open Country Mag cover star Cole’s long-awaited second novel. He is a reader, a listener, a traveler, drawn to many different kinds of stories. An illumination of culture and time. Buy.

America is seen through the eyes and ambitions of three characters with ties to Ghana in this gripping novel. Their desires and ambitions highlight the promise and the disappointment that life in a new country offers. The book is a summer reading pick by Barack Obama. Read our profile of him. Buy.

When an artist’s memories of his past lives are triggered, he meets a woman with a complicated past of her own, who becomes key to helping him understand what he is experiencing. An exploration of memory, fate, and the threads that bind individuals across time and circumstance. Read our review. Buy.

A young man navigates university life, grappling with familial expectations, self-discovery, and the complex emotions surrounding his attraction to another man. It takes on identity, acceptance, and the longing for genuine connection amidst societal pressures. Buy.

These stories are anchored in place — the village of Serowe, where the author is from, and Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana — charting the emotional journeys of women seeking love and opportunity beyond the barriers of custom and circumstance. Buy.

A short story collection about characters in strange situations. A beautiful woman is discovered half-naked and dead, but is the killer one of her wealthy suitors? A plumber is treated to an intense sexual experience by a woman with cash, curves, and killer moves — but is she who he thinks she is? Buy.

A thought-provoking story of a South African who asks uncomfortable questions and forces his compatriots to contemplate their national future. Buy.

Ozoemena has an itch in the middle of her back. It’s an itch that speaks to her patrilineal destiny, an honor never before bestowed upon a girl, to defend the land and protect its people — by becoming a Leopard. Buy.

Blending drama and satire while examining colonialism, racism, and what it means to be American, Digging Stars probes the emotional universes of love, friendship, family, and nationhood. Buy.

Longing for independence, a young sheltered Kenyan woman flees the expectations of her mother for a life in New York City that challenges all her beliefs about race, love, and family. Buy.

A tragicomic debut novel about the indomitable child of a scorned, formerly land-owning family who must grow up in the wake of Ethiopia’s socialist revolution. Buy.

The story follows Ngozi’s abrupt shift from a promising future to a secretive and withdrawn state, focusing on her romantic involvement with Femi. As suspicions arise regarding Femi’s role in Ngozi’s disappearance, tension and intrigue mount. Buy.

Narrated by a young man, who after the death of his father flees from home because he cannot withstand the harsh treatment from his mother and brother, this is a story of disintegration and hope for rebirth. Buy.

The fifth novel by Congo’s Dongala, a major figure in Francophone African literature, first appeared in 2010 but has only now arrived in English, with translation by Sara Hanaburgh. It is set in an imagined contemporary African country and told in the second person point-of-view of women working as stone crushers at a gravel pit and demanding higher wages. Buy.

It’s not everyday that we find African writers fictionalizing struggling writers. Here, a struggling Nigerian writer accepts an offer to help a prospective benefactor locate an estranged son, and is lured into a web of conspiracies and a kidnap-for-ransom deal gone sour. Buy.

Gaslight, Femi Kayode

Mulholland

As Taiwo strives to crack a vast conspiracy, he’s tugged away by the demands of family life and derailed by systemic challenges. Through his eyes, we’re treated to religion’s cult-like grip, how the state is in bed with the church, and the difference between police corruption in Nigeria and America, where Philip has been living for over two decades. Buy.

The novel explores the history and human cost of colonialism in the Congo. In April 1958, subcommissioner Robert Dumont succumbs to royal pressure during the Brussels World Fair, leading to the unsettling inclusion of a “Congolese village” in the settlements pavilion. Buy.

In a vividly imagined fantasy realm akin to West Africa, girls compete in martial arts to support their families. A tale of the strength of women and the significance of a chosen family. Buy.

Tanya Junghans draws from Zulu mythology to craft this trans-dimensional tale centered on a young woman’s journey to becoming a Dreamer – a hero among a mystical race entrusted with protecting the Milky Way galaxy from destruction. Buy.

Page-turning stories inspired by Shona cosmology, folklore, and indigenous knowledge. The fictional worlds are fantastical and refreshing. Buy.

This collection blends speculative fiction and romance, drawing from ancient times to the modern era to present contemporary Black womanhood. Buy.

The first in the Blademakers of the Langabi series, in which an ironworking family strives to defend its world against creatures and tyrannical royals. The Zimbabwean author’s book is also the first from Jacana’s speculative fiction imprint. Buy.

A reflection on and celebration of Angolan music, the intertwining of cultural roots, freedom, and love. Buy.

Set in Soweto, the urban heartbeat of South Africa, Innards tells the intimate stories of everyday black folks processing the savagery of apartheid with grit, wit, and their own distinctive bewildering humor. Buy.

A Nigerian epic fantasy debut. It follows Dèmi, a young woman with blood magic, seeking vengeance for her mother’s murder during a tyrannical regime. Buy.

An exploration of mortality and the interconnectedness of all forms of being, it follows the lives of five strangers – a model, a former nun, a couple in crisis, and an offender newly released from prison – who have come to the Institute, to discover an end to life as they’ve known it. Buy.

This sweeping tale of the breakup of Sudan explores the porous and perilous nature of borders ― national, ethnic, or religious ― and the profound consequences of crossing them. Buy.

A powerful and personal tale of conflict, crime, and upheaval in rural upper Egypt. It follows Nader, an idealistic public prosecutor at the outset of his career, who leaves Cairo to start a new posting. Buy.

In the turbulent era of the Red Emperor, Lilong and Danso, seeking refuge, face escalating threats and whispers of magic. Their quest to return the Diwi, an ibor heirloom, becomes a perilous journey. Read our profile of the author. Buy. ♦

Compiled by Iheoma Uzomba, Michael Chukwudera Chiedoziem, and Otosirieze.

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Previous Notable Books of the Year

— The 60 Notable Books of 2022

— The 60 Notable Books of 2021

More Lists & Recommendations from Open Country Mag

— Our Top Stories of 2023

— The Rovingheights Bestseller List 2022: Presented with Open Country Mag

— The Anticipated Books of 2023

— Your Guide to Booker Prize Winner Damon Galgut‘s 9 Books of Fiction

— 52 Books in 64 Years: Your Guide to Wole Soyinka‘s Body of Work

— 22 African Writers, Groundbreaking and Female, Born Before the Last 60 Years and Now Gone