15 Popular African Books Published Since 2020

These 15 African books published since 2020 showcase some of the most compelling contemporary writing from across the continent.

Every year, readers can expect superb works of African literature, from poetry to short stories and novels. These pieces have kept readers on their toes, turning the pages and anticipating what comes next. 

Since the 2020s, writers across the African continent have released some of the best works in contemporary history.

Many of them addressed issues that resonated with modern readers in bold, unforgettable ways. 

Here are 15 of the most popular works of literature from the 2020s to date. 

1. Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

Glory is Zimbabwean author Bulawayo’s second novel and draws inspiration from George Orwell’s classic, Animal Farm. It was released on 8 March 2022 and shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize. 

A political allegory of the almost four-decade regime, it narrates Robert Mugabe’s fall from power through the lens of Animals. Destiny, a young goat, returns to Jidada to witness the revolution and uncover the untold history of the women who quietly orchestrated it behind the scenes.

2. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is Akwaeke Emezi’s third novel and their first romance novel. It was originally published on 24 May 2022 in the United States and later on 26 May 2022 in the United Kingdom. 

The book follows Feyi Adekola, a Brooklyn-based visual artist who has been grieving her deceased husband for 5 years. Encouraged by her best friend Joy, Feyi returns to dating and meets a man named Milan. Here, she’s faced with the possibility of finding love again after isolating herself from the idea following the death of her husband. 

3. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi 

Transcendent Kingdom is novelist Yaa Gyasi’s second novel. It was published in September 2020, and Literary Hub named it one of the best books of 2020 on 17 lists. 

The story revolves around Gifty, a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience and an American-born daughter of immigrant parents. She conducts research on reward-seeking behavior and the neuroscience of depression and addiction in mice. Gifty’s mother’s experience with depression and her brother’s struggle with addiction (which eventually claims his life) fuels her research.

4. The Death of Comrade President by Alain Mabanckou

Congolese author Alain Mabanckou originally published The Death of Comrade President in French in 2018 under the title “Les cigognes sont immortelles”. It was later published in English in 2020.

The book follows Michel. He’s an observant 13-year-old only child living a normal life with his parents until disaster strikes with the brutal assassination of President Marien Ngouabi in Brazzaville.

The reader views the events that unfold through the simplistic and naive view of Michel, who can’t quite grasp the gravity of the calamity.

5. Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

Blessings is the debut novel of the Nigerian author Chukwuebuka Ibeh. Masobe Books in Nigeria published it on 22 February 2024. It centers on Obiefuna, who has always been the odd one out in his family. He is sensitive and drawn to dance, a trait that his father and brother do not possess. 

After catching him in a compromising position with the family’s apprentice, his father sends him away to a strict Christian boarding school in hopes of ‘rehabilitating’ him. The book explores Obiefuna’s experiences with his sexuality and the rigid hierarchy of Nigerian boarding schools. 

6. The Creation of Half-Broken People by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

The Creation of Half-Broken People is Zimbabwean author and filmmaker Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s fourth novel. It was published in April 2025 and won the Best International Fiction Book award at the 44th Sharjah International Book Fair. 

The book is a strong example of African Gothic literature and follows a nameless character who works in a museum housing stolen precolonial African artifacts tied to conquest and exploitation.

7. Women Rent Men and Secrets Here by Damilare Kuku

Women Rent Men and Secrets Here is the third novel of Nigerian author Damilare Kuku. TBLNG Press published it in February 2026. It revolves around the character of Ara Ikoyi, who, having run out of ideas of her own, sets out to tell the story of her neighbor, Juicy Mbelu, accused of killing her sugar daddy. 

The novel reveals the double standards women endure in the face of society’s expectations. 

8. We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan

We Are All Birds of Uganda is Hafsa Zayyan’s debut novel and the winner of the inaugural Merky Books prize. It was originally published on 22 January 2021 and was inspired by her mixed background. The story unravels between two timelines.

The first follows an Asian Ugandan man, Hasan, struggling to manage his family business after the death of his wife. He eventually ends up losing everything thanks to the wave of Asian hate that springs up after Idi Amin’s rise to power.

Timeline two follows Sameer, a young lawyer who faces pressure from his family to return to Leicester and manage the family business as he wrestles with his sense of purpose.

9. The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro

The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa is Nigerian author Stephen Buoro’s debut novel. Set in Kontagora, a city in northwestern Nigeria, the coming-of-age story follows Andrew Aziza, a brilliant fifteen-year-old who lives with his single mother, Gloria.

Against the backdrop of a mixed-faith society, where Hausa-Fulani Muslims form the majority and Christians are the minority, Andrew navigates adolescence, identity, and the complexities of his world.

10. Walking on Cowrie Shells by Nana Nkweti

Walking on Cowrie Shells is Cameroonian-American author Nana Nkweti’s debut short story collection. Graywolf Press published it on 1 June 2021 in the US, and Indigo Press later published it on 1 August 2022 in the UK. 

The title story, “It Takes a Village, Some Say,” was shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2019. It first appeared in the magazine The Baffler before being included in her collection. 

The story revolves around a Cameroonian-American couple who illegally adopt a girl from Cameroon in the aftermath of a scandal. Through the alternating names of “Our Girl” and “Their Girl,” it confronts who gets to claim the girl’s identity and the supposed innocence of their actions.

11. Ghostroots by Pemi Aguda

Ghostroots by Nigerian author Pemi Aguda is her debut short story collection. It is made up of 12 haunting, speculative tales set in Lagos, where Aguda grew up. In her stories, she explores the tension between the desire to be oneself and the unavoidable pull of ancestral or familial entities.

12. God’s Children are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu

God’s Children Are Little Broken Things is Nigerian author Arinze Ifeakandu’s debut short story collection. It was published in 2022 by A Public Space Books. The title story, God’s Children are Little Broken Things, was first published in the magazine A Public Space and was shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize. 

It revolves around a young musician’s rise to fame at the cost of losing himself and the man who loves him. Other short stories in the collection include “The Dreamer’s Litany”, “Happy Is a Doing Word” and many others that bring queer stories to life.

13. Mass For Shut-Ins by Mary-Alice Daniel

Mass for Shut-Ins by Nigerian-American poet Mary-Alice Daniel is her debut poetry collection, published on March 21, 2023, by Yale University Press. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rae Armantrout selected it as the winner of the 2022 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize. 

Some poems in the collection include “One Hell”, “Red Hell” and “Revivalism 101”. These poems are part of a recurring series in the collection that ponders the idea of hell and moral horror.

14. Owele by Sihle Ntuli 

Owele is the third poetry collection of  South African poet Sihle Ntuli. Released in July 2025, it features a unique blend of English and Zulu. The collection uses rivers as its central image and structures its metaphors around them. The rivers trace the origin of Ntuli’s family history through what is described as “the earthen-toned rivers of the Zulu world.” 

15. Black Ghosts by Noo Saro-Wiwa

Black Ghosts: A Journey into the Lives of Africans in China by British-Nigerian writer Noo Saro-Wiwa, the daughter of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, executed in 1995, is a travel memoir. 

The memoir follows the author’s travels through China as she searches for the country’s “Black Ghosts,” African migrants who live there and are often found in tight-knit communities. It is a portrayal of their lives and their experiences with racism and prejudice.