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T2* Teggatz.com
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Best African Novels of all Time*
Pagoda of the
king’s concubine,
This is highly subjective, and slanted toward
An Instant in the Wind (Brink): Not even
on the list because it’s in a class by itself. It may just be the best
novel ever, of all time. It strikes me like Shakespeare’s Tempest;
you’re just aware that you’re inside a great peace of art. I would
nominate Brink as the greatest South African writer of all time.
1.
Maru (Head): This is one of the most beautiful books ever written. It speaks to the
noblest aspirations of man: to be a better person, to create a better world.
There is a lot of talk in academe about Head’s perceived lack of
political involvement in the liberation struggle against Apartheid, but Maru certainly takes racism head-on. Head once
remarked that it was preferable to change the world on the basis of love,
rather than at the point of a gun, and Maru
certainly expresses this well.
2.
To Every Birth Its Blood (Serote): This is a tough book to read. When I finished it,
I kept thinking about it, over and over. I couldn’t get it out of my
head. It’s dark and disturbing at times, but truly wonderful.
3.
Things Fall Apart (Achebe)
4.
Martha Quest (Lessing)
5.
The Flame Trees of Thika (Huxley)
6.
The Famished Road (Okri)
7.
Devil’s Valley (Brink)
8.
Nervous Conditions (Dangaremba)
9.
Waiting for the Barbarians (Coetzee)
10.
Like Water in Wild Places (Jooste)
11.
A Perfect Marriage (Lessing)
12.
Disgrace (Coetzee): Dark
and disturbing, but probably one of the most important books in
The
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