Not so many African authors have works about the fight for African Freedom. Reason being, the niche attracted confinement, aggravation, as well as exile cases from respective governments. However, government threats could not intimidate some diligent African Authors who wrote about African stories and struggles as it occurred. Here are three inspiring books about fight for African freedom and justice:
Long Walk To Freedom
Written by Nelson Mandela and published by Little Brown & Co in 1994, Long Walk To Freedom is Nelson Mandela autobiography. The book is captivating, inspiring, and moving, and explains the life of the former ANC presidents, his leadership story, struggle for independence, and latter triumph marking an end to the Apartheid rule! The book split into three chapters with the first one describing his early life as a teenager. In the second chapter, Long Walk To Freedom brings to light the social aspects of the apartheid regime in South Africa. The last chapter describes Nelson Mandela 27 years in Prison, providing first-hand information about the Rivonia trial.
Cuba and Angola: Fighting for Africa’s Freedom and Our Own
The book provides an account of the Cubans support to Angola against the South –Africa apartheid regime. Cubans, Angolan and Namibian combatants wrestled against the South Africa Apartheid regime at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola. Pioneered by Fidel Castro with him supporting other independence leaders as Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, among others, this sacrifice was one of the greatest ever in African history from westerners. More than 4,300 Cubans perished in the Angola South African Apartheid conflict. The book authors are Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, among others leaders who participated in one way or the other in the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola.
Hisham Matar’s The Return
Hisham Matar’s The Return was among the six favorite books read by Former United States president Barak Obama according to Quartz. Many people globally are familiar with the unfolding of events in the books, as it provide a memoir of two brothers born overseas, with their father (Jaballah Matar) emancipating from a wealthy Libyan family). He was abducted from the streets in Egypt, where he fled to seek asylum after fearing for his life. (Jaballah was a resistance fighter against Gadhafi regime). Taken to a prison in Libya, Jallabah Matar existence remains a mystery up to date. The book provides a recollection of what prisoners underwent in the jails in Libya under Qadafi dictatorial tenure. Hisham Matar still seeks justice for whatever happened to his father back in the Libya prison, but with little homes as 42 years of terror by Qaddafi, his family, and supporters left no stone unturned.
Other popular books written by African authors rebuking the dictatorship form of government by most leaders include Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart ,Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat, Weep Not, Child, Wizard of the Crow among others.
By Samson Ogaye
Africa Global News Publication
