Book Club: This weekend we’re celebrating Africa with two exceptional books
A powerful memoir and an incredible visual history – both with their hearts in Africa.
When severe drought hit her village in Zimbabwe, Elizabeth, then eight, had no idea that this moment of utter devastation would come to define her life’s purpose. Unable to move from hunger, she encountered a United Nations aid worker who gave her a bowl of warm porridge and saved her life.
This transformative moment inspired Elizabeth to become a humanitarian, and she vowed to dedicate her life to giving back to her community, her continent, and the world. I Am A Girl From Africa: A Memoir is Elizabeth Nyamayaro’s powerful memoir about a girl from Africa whose near death experience sparked a dream that changed the world. Jonathan Ball Publishers
Many of us grew up with images of African women that were purely anthropological with bright displays of exotica where the deeper personhood seemed tucked away. Or they were chronicles of war and poverty.
But now, Catherine E. McKinley draws on her extensive collection of historical and contemporary photos to present a visual history of what is among the earliest photography on the continent.
The images in The African Lookbook tell a different story of African women, how deeply cosmopolitan and modern they are in their style; how they were able to reclaim the tools of the colonial oppression that threatened their selfhood and livelihoods.
Featuring works by celebrated African masters, African studios of local legend, and anonymous artists, this book captures the dignity, playfulness, austerity, grandeur, and fantasy making of African women across centuries. Bloomsbury HB
