Library highlights

Library Highlight: Onitsha market literature and the Nigerian response to Lumumba’s death

Our latest Library Highlight focuses on examples of Onitsha (Nigeria) market literature from the period surrounding the death of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, in 1961. These pamphlets, from the archive of British political scientist Ken Post, shed light on popular opinion in Nigeria in this tumultuous period in African history.

Previous highlights

2026

Polygyny: an African female writer’s perspective
New year, new discoveries

2025

These letters end in tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere
Summer reading: five new novels
Zines from Lamu, Kenya
Tempo de John: a história do encalhe do Steam Ship John E. Schmeltzer na ilha de Santo Antão, Cabo Verde em novembro 1947, romance histórico

2024

Tanzanian children's and youth literature
Caine Prize for African Writing 2024
Film from Mauritius: Gazing at the stars
Jewish bookpublishing in South Africa (Dorem-Afrike)
James Barnor

2023

River spirit, by Leila Aboulela
Climate change and intergenerational justice
Chika Unigwe, feminism and 'The Middle Daughter'
Aqeeqa: Drama in English & Kreol / Drama an Kreol E Angle
New film: Le spectre de Boko Haram
Embroidery from Africa
Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously
Security and crime in Lusophone Africa
Scatterlings: a novel by Rešoketšwe Manenzhe
Islands in a cosmopolitan sea : a history of the Comoros

2022

Filmmaking in Sudan
African cookbooks
Irene Ropa Rinopfuka Mahamba: a woman’s take on the Zimbabwe Chimurenga
Slam poetry
If an Egyptian cannot speak English, by Noor Naga
Cahiers du Bureau Social Urbain
Chosen, new film by Jean-Marie Teno
My first time
A Zimbabwe acquisition trip (by proxy)
De koerier van Maputo (The Courier of Maputo)

2021

Children's books on COVID-19
Afar history from within
African insects
The basilicas of Ethiopia : an architectural history
Guerrilla radios in Southern Africa
A Sin of Omission, a novel by Marguerite Poland
New films on Congolese society by Dieudo Hamadi
Nigerian books on languages and linguistics
Collection republished historical newspapers from Somalia (1961-1987)

2020

A trilogy by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Development as rebellion: a biography of Julius Nyerere
Germanin: Nazi perspectives on an aspect of Central African colonial history
Graffiti to save lives
Lumumba in the arts
New from CERDOTOLA, Cameroon: On languages and identity
Epidemics and the health of African nations
Documentary film: Omulaule heißt schwarz (Omulaule means black)

2019

“Filming on the winning side”. Kenya through the lens of Mohamed Amin (1943-1996)
In Africa with Avi and Kumbi
On football: The People’s Game and Ladies’ Turn
Infertility, a novel and a film
Exploring Ancient Nubia
The unknown Van Gogh

2018

Manger L’Autre, a novel by Mauritian writer Ananda Devi
Arts and fashion: wax and Tingatinga
Sorry you've been troubled
Les deux visages d'une femme bamiléké. The two faces of a bamiléké woman

2017

La Pesadilla de Obi (Obi’s Nightmare)
The Anyuak and the Ethnographer
Deon Meyer
Homegoing
Turtle 1: building a car in Africa
Nigerian civil servants’ personal memoirs

2016

The last flight
Still a Pygmy
Documentary film: Du piment sur les lèvres (Chili on the lips)
Moonsighting
Photobooks: Malick Sidibé and 'Sahara rocks!'
Sista brevet från Kasempa – the last letter from Kasempa
Southern African liberation struggles : contemporaneous documents, 1960-1994

2015

Le Mali contemporain / Contemporary Mali
Chappie: a new film by South African Neill Blomkamp
Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel “The Fishermen” by Chigozie Obioma
The courage of ǁkabbo
African crime fiction
Renewable Energy (RE) in Africa
The maestro, the magistrate and the mathematician, by Tendai Huchu
The Bloody Miracle & Forerunners
Ojijo: Politics of Poverty: the Odinga curse to the Luos!

2014

Nicolaas Vergunst: Knot of stone
Gefangene Bilder - Captive Portraits
Leading Kenyan Academic Ali Mazrui Dies at 81
Empire of Dust, Bram van Paesschen (2011), 77 min.
Chronique d'une révolte, photographies d'une saison de protestation
African approaches : roads to a far-off place, by Jo Jordan
Prof. Sjoerd Hofstra’s Mende fieldwork notes
Lieve Joris: Op de vleugels van de draak
New Titles from our Ugandan Fieldtrip
Treasures from the German Colonial Library
Frank Westerman: Stikvallei
Martin Waalboer: A Dream Called Harper
Zanzibar: Personalities & Events (1828-1972)

2013

Acquisition Highlight: Mozambican author Mia Couto wins prestigious literary prize
Mit Gutferngruß : The Fudge Postcard Collection
Morton Jerven: Poor Numbers
We need new names
Le Président
Zanele Muholi
Chinua Achebe
Les manuscrits de Tombouctou

2012

Ama Ata Aidoo at 70
Prix Renaudot pour Scholastique Mukasonga
La collection ADORAS
Robert Jacob Gordon (1743-1795): een Nederlander ontdekt Zuid-Afrika

2011

Heinemann African Writers Series
Black Butterflies: selected poems by Ingrid Jonker
Outstanding Academic Titles of 2010: Cambridge History of South Africa: Vol. I

2010

Nigerian writer Sefi Atta receives Noma Award
Invictus, a film by Clint Eastwood (2009)
Abdellatif Laâbi
Land grab or development opportunity?

2009

Ernst Wilhelm Mattenklodt (1886-1931)
Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro)
Alphonse Muambi
Posted on 28 September 2015, last modified on 14 January 2016