Top FREE African Novels, Books of Poetry, and African folk tales, African books for students and learners and adults

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Let my People Go - Autobiography Albert Luthuli

Chief Albert Luthuli's story is also that of the early ANC which he led. Luthuli's lively account tells of the repression and resistance that were to shape the South African anti-Apartheid movement: the Defiance Campaign, the drafting of the Freedom Charter, the Treason Trial, the tragedies of Sharpeville and Langa. Luthuli was the first Black African person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This book bears witness to Luthuli's unfailing humility, perseverance, passion, vision and bravery.

#2 - Pan-African Poetry - 1960's Collection

2,901 Downloads

The selection is of 13 classic poems by African poets from the 1960's, a period of liberation and transformation and high hopes and struggles on the continent. The poems illustrate the great diversity of African poetry at the time, and its rarity, preserved here at AfroStory and by AfroStory. Poets come from countries including Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.

#3 - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - Weep Not, Child

2,231 Downloads

Weep Not, Child is celebrated Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's first novel, published in 1964. It was the first English novel to be published by an East African author. Thiong'o's work deals with the relationship between Africans and the British colonists in Africa, and is heavily critical of British colonial rule. Specifically, 'Weep Not, Child' deals with the Mau Mau Uprising, and "the bewildering dispossession of an entire people from their ancestral land."

Native Life in South African - Solomon Plaatjie

#4 - Sol Thekiso Plaatjie - Native Life in South Africa

1,860 Downloads

An epic of South African 'Native' life a hundred years ago. The first known published novel by a black South African writer. The novel documents legal changes and the harsh outcomes on black people long before Apartheid officially begin. The history is told with conviction and clear sightedness. For example, from 1936, Black People lost all land ownership, while Apartheid 'started' in 1948...

#5 - Peter Abrahams - Mine Boy

1,425 Downloads

A young black man, fresh from the countryside, becomes a mine worker in Johannesburg, adjusts to his harsh environment, and learns to fend himself from police and and combat racial injustice. A South African classic that pulls you into the world of early apartheid and the slums of Johannesburg at the time. A gripping novel that should not be missed or forgotten, ever. As relevant today as ever.

Harriet Jacobs - Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself

#6 - Harriet Jacobs - Life of a Slave Girl...

1,331 Downloads

The book documents Jacobs' life, starting as a slave, and how she gained freedom for herself and for her children. Jacobs' narrative uses the techniques of sentimental novels "to address race and gender issues" based on her own experiences. She explores the struggles and sexual abuse that female slaves faced as well as their efforts to protect their children from sale!

#7 - Richard Wright - Black Boy.

1,330 Downloads

Richard Wright’s Black Boy was written in 1943 and published 2 years later (1945) in the early years of his career. Wright wrote Black Boy as a response to the experiences he had growing up. Given that Black Boy is partially autobiographical, many of the anecdotes stem from real experiences throughout Wright’s childhood.

#8 - Alan Paton - Cry the Beloved Country

1,138 Downloads

Kumalo undertakes the difficult and expensive journey to the city of gold in the hopes of aiding Gertrude and of finding his son, Absalom, who traveled to Johannesburg from Ndotsheni and never returned. In Johannesburg, Kumalo is warmly welcomed by Msimangu, the priest who sent him the letter, and given comfortable lodging by Mrs. Lithebe, a Christian woman who feels that helping others is her duty. Kumalo finds Gertrude, who is now a sex worker who sells liquor...

#9 - Ancient Egypt - Book of The Dead

1,203 Downloads

One of the most influential books in all history. Containing ancient rituals to be performed for the dead with instructions for the behavior of the soul in the afterlife, it served as the most important repository of religious authority for some three thousand years. This book represents cumulative history and research from Ancient Egypt. And yes, Africans designed and made the pyramids!

#10 - Kwame Nkrumah - Neo Colonialism

305 Downloads [NEW!]

Kwame Nkrumah famously predicted and explained many civil strifes around Africa at large, as a situation where newly independent, small countries had no bargaining power and were exploited for mineral wealth by the world at large. Nkrumah was the first Ghanaian President, political theorist, and revolutionary. He directly calls Lumumba's death an assassination and delves deep into financial interests controlling Africa and within (particularly South) Africa and 'Rhodesia'.

#11 - Thomas Mafolo - Shaka

1,009 Downloads

Hailing from Lesotho, Thomas Mafolo trained as a minister and then teacher (graduating in 1898). Some of the missionaries encouraged Mafolo, and others with literary talent, to write books, thus starting one of the first literary movements in southern Africa. Chaka, or Shaka, was written in 1925, about the eventful and dramatic life of Shaka Zulu. Shaka was a conqueror who built a mighty empire and highly effective army, but ultimately was a tragic figure whose cruelty brought demise.