East and Central Africa

Introduction

The writing scene in East and Central Africa continues to grow both in range and volume, with an interesting mix of established trends of writing and scholarship and new variations of themes, genres and platforms of production. Among the older trends in the region’s writing are missionary biographies, a distinct genre that now boasts an extensive list of reflections on missionary work and life across the region. Under this category, this year’s list features theologians Rodney and Sarah Schofield’s Malawi Mailings: Reflections on Missionary Life 2000-2003 [see Auto/Biographies, Malawi] and Nicola Neal’s Journey into Love: The Unfailing Power That Restores Lives [see Auto/Biographies, Uganda] on their experience of missionary work in Malawi and Uganda, respectively. As missionary biographies go, these two titles stand out for their contemporary focus, as the trend, especially by non-local authors, tends to be reflections on a much earlier time. An example of this convention is Lambert Doerr’s Abbot Bishop Gallus Steiger, O.S.B. (1879-1966): Life and Work of an Outstanding Missionary Pioneer [see Auto/Biographies, Tanzania], a portrait of the catholic bishop’s life and work in Lindi, Tanzania. An equally notable title in this category is Archbishop David Gitari’s posthumously published autobiography Troubled but Not Destroyed [see Auto/Biographies, Kenya]. Apart from his remarkable role as a bishop of the Anglican Church in postcolonial Kenya between 1975-1997 (before serving as the Archbishop, 1997 – 2002), Archbishop Gitari’s life story offers important insights into Kenya’s troubled political histories, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s, when tensions between the state and the church were at their peak and the church played an increasingly vocal role in struggles for democracy.

A new kind of life writing slowly taking shape in the region are police and civil servants’ auto/biographies. This year’s list features several such titles, including Chrisopher Bean’s Bwana wa Polisi: The Story of a Policeman’s Life in England, Nyasaland and Bechuanaland [see Auto/Biographies, Malawi] and RN Callander’s One Beat of a Butterfly’s Heart: A Tanganyika Police Notebook [see Auto/Biographies, Tanzania]. The two autobiographies of colonial policemen in Malawi and Tanganyika, respectively, are interesting archives of specific moments in these countries’ histories and the workings of colonial bureaucracies, as seen through the eyes of members of these administrations. Equally important entries are S.W. Wambuzi’s The Odyssey of a Judicial Career in Precarious Times: My Trials and Triumphs as a Three-Time Chief Justice of Uganda and Jim Davidson’s A Three Cornered Life: The Historian W.K. Hancock [see Auto/Biographies, Uganda]. Though reflecting on different moments and experiences in Ugandan history, these two texts share the distinction of offering portraits of the behind-the-scenes dynamics of both the colonial and the postcolonial Ugandan states. Davidson’s text will be of interest to readers intrigued by the British response to the exile of the Baganda king in the 1950s. As Davidson writes, W.K. Hancock, an Australian historian found himself making history travelling to Uganda in 1954 on the request of the British government and engaging with the Baganda leadership, following the exile of the king. The story of Wambuzi’s three-term service as a chief justice of Uganda takes readers through a unique historical journey of the country’s shifts and turns, as its political fortunes changed.

Life writing themed around experiences of philanthropic work in the region continues to grow, with this year’s list featuring an extensive list of such narratives. Among these is Irene Gleeson and Nicole Patridge’s Heart of a Lioness: Sacrifice, Courage and Relentless Love among the Children of Uganda [see Auto/biographies, Uganda], which tells the story of Irene Gleeson’s disintegrating life in her mid-thirties, having sunk into depression after a broken marriage. After a spiritual encounter, she relocates to Kitgum in Northern Uganda where she works closely with former child soldiers for years, helping them rebuild their lives and forge new futures. Mother to the Motherless: The Inspiring True Story of One Woman’s Devotion to the Orphaned Children of Kenya [see Auto/biographies, Kenya] tells a similar story, but focusing on a Kenyan woman, Mama Zipporah, founder of the Huruma Children’s Homes in Kenya, who rose against odds to intervene in vulnerable children’s lives and offer them other futures.

The Lord’s Resistance Army and Northern Uganda continue to attract writers’ attention, with a number of entries this year, including Susan Minot’s novel Thirty Girls [see Fiction, Uganda], a fictional rendering of the experiences of young girls abducted by the LRA. But perhaps two most remarkable entries under this sub-theme are Dinaw Mengestu’s All Our Names [see Fiction, Uganda] and Jane Bussman’s A Journey to the Dark Heart of Nameless Unspeakable Evil: Charities, Hollywood, Joseph Kony, and Other Abominations [see Auto/biography, Uganda]. Mengestu – a remarkable voice in the region, whose previous fiction has focused on Ethiopian experiences in Ethiopia and the USA – turns his attention to the Lord’s Resistance Army in this novel, which builds on insights he has explored earlier in a journalistic essay format. On its part, Jane Bussmann’s memoir-cum-travelogue traces her encounters as a celebrity gossip columnist turned foreign news correspondent who comes face to face with the complexities of the various interests and complicities of different stakeholders in the quest for peace and reconstruction for Northern Uganda. Still in Uganda, Susan R Whyte’s Second Chances: Surviving Aids in Uganda [see Auto/Biographies, Uganda] offers personal accounts of people living with HIV, reflecting on their everyday lives and experiences of being on anti-retroviral therapy.

Africans’ experiences of migrancy, primarily in Europe and the USA, have preoccupied a significant number of writers for years now; and Kate Saller’s The Moon in Your Sky: An Immigrant’s Journey Home [see Auto/Biographies, Uganda] is one such addition to this thematic cluster. Saller tells the story of Annah Emuge who grows up in Idi Amin’s Uganda, relocating to the USA with her husband, a preacher, when he receives a scholarship to study there. But the collapse of the Ugandan government crushes their dreams, leaving the young couple stranded in America as their dreams disintegrate and the pressures of migrant life become too much for the husband who succumbs to alcoholism. In offering this portrait of Annah Emuge’s personal struggles and courage to survive these difficulties, this book captures one family’s experiences, while implicitly narrating the imprints of history on ordinary people’s everyday lives. Equally remarkable for this list are the tensions between African migrants’ experiences of migrancy in America and US and European migrants’ experiences of migrancy in Africa as healing encounters that offer new meaning to life and allow for new beginnings. Two other novels on migrant experiences on the list are Tasneem Jamal’s Where the Air Is Sweet: A Novel [see Fiction, Uganda] and Anna Ramsay’s Heartbeat [see Fiction, Tanzania]. A growing subcategory on migrant experiences in the region is life writing on regional migrancy and experiences in the region’s refugee camps, with such titles as America Here I Come: A Somali Refugee’s Quest for Hope Brings You the Moving Story of Hamse Warfa, Halima Abdirazak’s My Father’s Legacy: A Somali Woman’s Journey from Somalia to US and Majok Marier and Estelle Ford-Williamson’s Seed of South Sudan: Memoir of a “Lost Boy” Refugee [see Auto/Biographies, Kenya].

The region remains a popular setting for thrillers and this year features, among others, John Butziger’s The Second Tree: The Order Series, Book 1 set in New York and Western Uganda and Graham Tottle’s 2040 [see Fiction, Uganda], which spans 1990 to 2040 and unfolds across a large narrative canvas that stretches from the UK to the US to Iraq and Uganda. On their part, both Steven Taylor’s The Catch and Justin Fox’s Whoever Fears the Sea [see Fiction, Kenya] engage with encounters with piracy off the Kenyan coastline.

Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere and Ujamaa remain a subject of interest for both biographers and literary sholars, with Tom Molony publishing Nyerere: The Early Years [see Auto/Biography, Tanzania] and two academic essays by Mary Ann Mhina and Kelly Askew examining newspaper poetry published in Tanzania during Nyerere’s reign and the time of his death [see General Studies, Tanzania]. Given the dearth of scholarship on poetry and, indeed, the publication of poetry itself, these two articles, coupled with Joanna Woods’ From Home and Exile: A Negotiation of Ideas of Home in Malawian Poetry [see General Studies, Malawi] are important interventions in a genre that remains under-explored in the region’s scholarship.

An equally exciting entry on the list is journalist and politician Joe Khamisi’s autobiography Dash before Dusk: A Slave Descendant’s Journey in Freedom [see Auto/biography, Kenya]. In view of recent resurgence of interest in Indian Ocean Studies and slavery in the Eastern African region, Khamisi’s autobiography is a timely contribution to the developing archive on slavery in East Africa, a subject that has hitherto tended to be confined to Swahiliphone fiction.

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s Dust [see Fiction, Kenya] and Jennifer Nansumbuga Makumbi’s Kintu [see Fiction, Uganda] are two noteworthy novels to emerge from the region. They are bound to attract significant critical attention in years to come. The two novels share a concern with revisiting the national histories of Kenya and Uganda, with remarkable attention to the textures of everyday experiences as they are interwoven with major historical encounters. These two novels’ ambitious temporal and thematic scopes offer readers a remarkable meditation on the two countries’ histories, with rare insight and nuance.

Lastly, an important addition to the region’s literary scholarship is the Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies Journal, whose inaugural double-issue was published in 2014. This is a much-welcome platform for Eastern African literary scholarship and will hopefully be showcasing a wide range of new and established scholarly voices.

Bibliography: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi

Research Aids

African Studies in the Digital Age: Disconnects? Terry Barringer and Marion Wallace 262pp Brill (Leiden).

Kenya

Historical Dictionary of Kenya Robert M Maxon and Thomas P. Ofcansky 482pp Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Lanham).

Poetry

Kenya

Gachagua, Clifton and Kwame S. N. Dawes Madman at Kilifi 60pp University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln).

Uganda

Makoha, Nick The Second Republic 26pp Sleepy Hollow (New York).

Tanzania

Skelt, Jo Connected Journeys 64pp Mkuki na Nyota (Dar es Salaam).

Drama

Kenya

Kahora, Billy, Parselelo Kantai, Andia Kisia, Tony A. Mochama and Valentine Njoroge Six and the City: 6 Short Plays on Nairobi 122pp Native Intelligence (Nairobi).

Wa Thiong’o, Ngũgĩ and Micere G. Mugo The Trial of Dedan Kimathi 85pp Waveland Press (Long Grove).

Fiction

Regional

Caine Prize The Gonjon Pin and Other Stories 247pp Jacana Media (Johannesburg).

Kenya

Alfieri, Annamaria Strange Gods 288pp Minitaur (New York).

Andersson, Madeleine Olivia’s Dead 290pp Matador (Beauchamp).

Berenson, Alex The Night Ranger 471pp WF Howes (Leicester).

Bond, Mike The Last Savanna 286pp Mandevilla (Weston).

Coates, Frank Echoes from a Distant Land 817pp EasyRead (Sydney) [2012].

Crompton, Richard Hour of the Red God: A Detective Mollel Novel 190pp Picador (New York).

Farah, Nuruddin Hiding in Plain Sight: A Novel 342pp Riverhead (New York).

Farnell, Shane Kenya’s Souls 165pp Two Harbors (Minneapolis).

Fonda, Victoria A. Be My Valentine 168pp Jomo Kenyatta Foundation (Nairobi).

Fox, Justin Whoever Fears the Sea 261pp Umuzi (Cape Town).

Hoagland, Edward Children Are Diamonds: An African Apocalypse 232pp Arcade (New York).

Hurley, Graham Sins of the Father 352pp Orion (London).

Jagero, Anthony True Citizen 248pp KoaMedia (Nairobi).

Kibera, Ngumi Killer of the Innocents 255pp MK Publishers (Nairobi).

—End of a Dark Era 153pp MK Publishers (Nairobi).

Kimani, Githara Goldfields 220pp Oxford UP (Nairobi).

Levine, James Bingo’s Run: A Novel 287pp Spiegel and Grau (New York).

Maillu, David G. Mwanzo the Nairobian 236pp Kenya Literature Bureau (Nairobi).

McCallum, Dawood A The Final Charge 354pp Sandstone Press (Dingwall).

Mulwa, David Flee, Mama, Flee 412pp OnePlanet (Nairobi).

Muyumbu, Gilbert The Noses in Our Family and Other Stories 144pp Pangolin (Egerton).

Mwachiro, Kevin Invisible: Stories from Kenya’s Queer Community 114pp Native Intelligence; Goethe-Institut (Nairobi).

Ngugi, Patrick M. Root of All Evil 146pp MK Publishers (Nairobi).

Nyakiongora, Gideon Born to Die: Nameless, Vagabond, and Anonymous 120pp Canon (Nairobi).

Oduori, Anthony W. Jam on Our Faces 100pp 360 Nile Media (Nairobi).

Orchardson-Mazrui, Elizabeth Seasons of the Jacarandas: Anthology of Stories Set in Kenya 144pp New Generation Publishing (London).

Owuor, Yvonne A Dust 369pp Alfred A Knopf (New York).

Park, Tony The Hunter 432pp Pan Macmillan (Sydney).

Pickett, Debra Reporting Lives 304pp Keith Publications (Arizona).

Somjee, Sultan Bead Bai 457pp CreateSpace (Charleston).

Stevens, Taylor The Catch: A Novel 342pp Crown (New York)

wa Ngugi, Ndũcũ City Murders 178pp East African Educational Publishers (Nairobi).

wa Ngũgĩ, Wanjiku The Fall of Saints: A Novel 272pp Atria (New York).

Uganda

Alkemade, Jo Belonging in Africa 256pp Lesleigh (Nairobi).

Bourne, Sarah Never Laugh at Shadows: … of Oppression and Death, Love and Determination 269pp Custom Book Publications (Charleston).

Butziger, John The Second Tree: The Order Series, Book 1  322pp CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (Charleston, SC).

Hampton, Sue, and Mary Casserley Gorilla Dreams 106pp Pneuma Springs Pub (Dartford).

Handler, Chelsea Uganda Be Kidding Me 257pp Grand Central Publishing (New York).

Isegawa, Moses Abyssinian Chronicles 480pp Picador (London)[2001].

Jamal, Tasneem Where the Air Is Sweet: A Novel 367pp HarperCollins (Toronto).

Kreutter, Cathy, Johnmary Mukiza, and Eric Kreutter I Know an Old Mzee Who Swallowed a Fly 14pp Cornerstone (Kampala).

Makumbi, Jennifer Nansumbuga Kintu Kwani? (Nairobi).

Mengestu, Dinaw All Our Names 255pp Sceptre (London).

Minot, Susan Thirty Girls 537pp Thorndike Press (Waterville, Maine).

Sandhu, M. S. I Robbed Your Diamonds 298pp Power (Kolkata).

Tottle, Graham 2040 302pp The Book Guild (Hove).

Tanzania

Ramsay, Anna Heartbeat 304pp Thorpe (Leicester).

Ejersbo, Jakob and Mette Petersen Liberty 735pp MacLehose Press (London).

Esmail, Nahida The Detectives of Shangani: The Mystery of the Lost Rubies 118pp Mkuki na Nyota (Dar es Salaam).

Ferrars, Elizabeth The Swaying Pillars 224pp The Murder Room (London) [1973].

Jinja, Fatma M. The Shirazi Enigma 574pp Pub (Dar es Salaam).

Mwakimatu, J. Mwamgwirani The Wish 114pp Mkuki na Nyota (Dar es Salaam).

Tuwa, Hussein I. The Temporary Orphan 98pp Aidan Publishers (Dar es Salaam).

Malawi

Chimombo, Steve B. M. Fire on Kaphirintiwa 34pp WASI Publications (Zomba).

Auto/biography

Kenya

Abdirazak, Halima My Father’s Legacy: A Somali Woman’s Journey from Somalia to US 115pp Tate Publishing (Mustang, OK).

Anderson, Ross The Forgotten Front: The East African Campaign, 1914 1918 351pp Spellmount (Gloucestershire).

Barnes, Juliet The Ghosts of Happy Valley: Searching for the Lost World of Africa’s Infamous Aristocrats 318pp Aurum Press (London).

Budgor, Mindy Warrior Princess: My Quest to Become the First Female Maasai Warrior 421pp Read How You Want (Sydney).

Cran, Hugh And Miles to Go Before I Sleep: A British Vet in Africa Merlin Unwin Books 684pp (New York).

Davies, Colin C From Pilot to Pastoral Bishop: Memoirs and Reflections of 53 Years of Missionary Life in Kenya 180pp Pauline Publications (Nairobi).

Diaz-Ortiz, Claire Hope Runs: An American Tourist, a Kenyan Boy, a Journey of Redemption 204pp Revell (Grand Rapids).

Froome, Chris The Climb: My Autobiography 352pp Viking (London).

Gadway, Kaze and Priscilla H Wilson Everyday Wonder: From Kansas to Kenya, from Ecuador to Ethiopia 159pp TeamTech (Prairie).

Gallmann, Kuki African Nights 336pp Penguin (London) [1994].

Gitari, David Troubled but Not Destroyed: Autobiography of Dr. David M. Gitari 639pp BookBaby (Cork).

Hoffman, Tod  Al Qaeda Declares War: The African Embassy Bombings and America’s Search for Justice 252pp ForeEdge (Lebanon).

Hofmann, Corinne and Peter Millar Africa, My Passion 210pp Arcadia (London).

Huxley, Elspeth The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood 288pp Vintage Classics (London) [1959].

Khamisi, Joe Dash before Dusk: A Slave Descendant’s Journey in Freedom 294pp East African Educational Publishers (Nairobi).

Kituyi, Dinah, Njuguna Mutonya, Victor Bwire and Louise Tunbridge Images That Stay Forever: Personal Stories of Trauma Suffered by Kenyan Journalists Covering the Tana River Massacres in 2012 and the Westgate Shopping Mall Attack in 2013 41pp International Media Support & Media Council of Kenya (Coppenhagen).

Koinange, Jeff M. Through My African Eyes 358pp Footprints (Nairobi).

Liban, Tadhi Jatani Ali Tandhu: Life & Legacy of a Borana Statesman 298pp Jason Swiney (Freemantle).

Loewen, Arvid, and Paul D Loewen When Quitting Is Not an Option: My Road to Cycling, a Guinness World Record and Making a Difference 309pp Castle Quay (Pickering).

Lombardi, N. J. Journey towards a Falling Sun 611pp John Hunt Publishing (Lanham).

Ligtenberg, Anja Pongezi: Alternative Rites of Passage for Maasai Girls 119pp Lecturis (Eindhoven).

MacDonald, Iain Poison of the Arrow: A Tale of Quest & Survival 220pp Old Africa (Naivasha).

Mugambi, J. N. K. and Evaristi M. Cornelli Endless Quest: The Vocation of an African Christian Theologian: Essays in Honour of Laurenti Magesa 341pp Acton (Nairobi).

Marier, Majok and Estelle Ford-Williamson Seed of South Sudan: Memoir of a “Lost Boy” Refugee 192pp MacFarland (Jefferson).

Namulundah, Florence Wangari Maathai: Visionary, Environmental Leader, Political Activist 268pp Lantern (New York).

Ndesandjo, Mark O. An Obama’s Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery across Three Cultures 274pp Lyons Press (Guillford).

Mwelu, Julius Julius Mwelu & the Mwelu Foundation 144pp Africalia (Brussels).

Odhiambo, Tom and Nina Wichmann Miriam Syowia Kyambi Goethe-Institut (Nairobi).

Ogolla, Francis O. and Johnson O. Omondi The Kenya Air Force Story: 1964-2014 285pp Kenya Airforce (Nairobi).

Storm, Morten, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister Agent Storm: My Life inside Al Qaeda and the CIA 404pp Atlantic Monthly Press (New York).

Sunman, Hilary A Very Different Land: Memories of Empire from the Farmlands of Kenya 278pp IB Tauris (London).

Vińa, Alison and Jane Hemstrich A Colonial Family: The Story of the Waite Siblings 258pp Jane Hemstrich (UK).

Wakhungu-Githuku, Susan and Bobby Pall Wisdom of the Elders: Personal Reflections of over 70 Kenyans Who Have Lived through Changing Times 668pp Footprints (Nairobi).

Wa Kinyatti, Maina Mwakenya: The Unfinished Revolution: Selected Documents of the Mwakenya-December Twelve Movement (1974-2002) 440pp CreateSpace (New York).

Wall, Carol Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart 351pp Thorndike (Farmington Hills).

Warfa, Hamse America, Here I Come: A Somali Refugee’s Quest for Hope 202pp Sunshine Publishing (Minneapolis).

Watson, Rupert Culture Clash: The Death of a District Commissioner in the Loita Hills 160pp Old Africa (Naivasha).

Zipporah, Mama Mother to the Motherless: The Inspiring True Story of One Woman’s Devotion to the Orphaned Children of Kenya 113pp Hatherleigh (New York).

Uganda

Arrowsmith, Keith The Changing Scenes of Life: From the Colonial Service to the European Civil Service 195pp The Radcliff Press (London).

Avineri, Shlomo and Haim Watzman Herzl’s Vision: Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State 275pp Bluebridge (New York) [2013].

Ball, Jennifer All Are My Children: Voices of Ugandan Women Peacebuilders 274pp Jennifer Ball (Charleston).

Bussmann, Jane and Jane Bussmann A Journey to the Dark Heart of Nameless Unspeakable Evil: Charities, Hollywood, Joseph Kony, and Other Abominations 332pp Nortia Press (Santa Ana).

Davidson, Jim A Three Cornered Life: The Historian W.K. Hancock 811pp PointBreak (Sydney).

Gleeson, Irene and Nicole Partridge Heart of a Lioness: Sacrifice, Courage and Relentless Love among the Children of Uganda 319pp Authentic Publishers (Franklin).

Ilukor, Geresom Who and Deeds: The Autobiography 76pp Sue White (Pilling).

Kalinaki, Daniel Kizza Besigye and Uganda’s Unfinished Revolution 336pp Dominant Seven (Kampala).

Katongole, Emmanuel and Violet Barungi The Gift of Service above Self: My African Story of Engaging Rotary to Change Lives World of Inspiration (Kampala).

Kivejinja, Kirunda, Bidandi Ssali and Kintu Musoke The Sapoba Legacy: A Story of Ideals and Idealism in Ugandan Politics and Family Life 334pp Menha Publishers (Kampala).

Kiwanuka, Jenkins Son of a Rat Catcher 251pp MK Publishers (Nairobi).

Landheer, Bob Memories of My Africa: Enjoying Africa and Its People 171pp Publish on Demand Global LLC (Cork).

Lewis, Gayle Loving Uganda 244pp Abigail Press (Las Cruces).

McAlpine, Margaret Well Be Back 156pp Authorhouse (New York).

McGettigan, Tony The Ascent of Mount Elgon 46pp Woodpark Publications (Dublin).

Mucunguzi, Julius Once upon a Time: The Story of Keeping Hope Alive 295pp Optimist Media (Kampala).

Muwemba, Deogratias A Short African Church History 201pp Angel Agencies (Kampala).

Neal, Nicola Journey into Love: The Unfailing Power That Restores Lives 175pp Destiny Image Publishers (Shippensburg).

Read, Leslie and Raymond Menino Seeds of Hope: The Life and Work of Patricia Brenninkmeyer 24pp Step Beach Press (London).

Rhee, Peter and Gordon Dillow Trauma Red: The Education of a Surgeon in War and in America’s Cities 241pp Scribner (New York).

Rugasira, Andrew A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee Brand 254pp Vintage (London) [2013].

Saller, Kate The Moon in Your Sky: An Immigrant’s Journey Home 232pp University of Missouri (Columbia).

Suruma, Ezra S. Advancing the Ugandan Economy: A Personal Account 213pp Brookings Press (Washington DC).

Wambuzi, S. W. W. The Odyssey of a Judicial Career in Precarious Times: My Trials and Triumphs as a Three-Time Chief Justice of Uganda 244pp Christian House (UK).

Weekes, David Mbarara Genesis: Early European Travellers in Ankole and the Founding of Mbarara by an African, Asian and European Initiative 170pp Lavender InPrint (London).

Whitten, Reggie and Nancy Henderson Sewing Hope: Joseph Kony Tore These Girls’ Lives Apart. Can She Stitch Them Back Together? 236pp Dust Jacket Press (Oklahoma City) [2013].

Whyte, Susan R. Second Chances: Surviving Aids in Uganda 308pp Duke UP (Durham).

Zwolsman, Monica Love. Loss. Life. 192pp MFBooks (Johannesburg).

Tanzania

Banda, Queen The Luckiest Bastard: My Journey Began at Birth 479pp CreateSpace (Lexington).

Billings, Sabrina J. Language, Globalization and the Making of a Tanzanian Beauty Queen 222pp Multilingual (Bristol).

Burrows, Tess Touch the Sky 256pp Eye Books (Shropshire).

Callander, R N One Beat of a Butterfly’s Heart: A Tanganyika Police Notebook 323pp 30° South Publishers (South Africa).

Dawtrey, Brian Voyage to Wild Africa 219pp Austin Cacauley (London).

Denison, Harriet Hayes Leopards at My Door: Peace Corps Tanzania, 1966-67 236pp Peace Corps Writers (Oakland, CA).

Doerr, Lambert Abbot Bishop Gallus Steiger, O.S.B. (1879-1966): Life and Work of an Outstanding Missionary Pioneer 238pp Eos (Sankt Ottilien).

Gissing, Lynn K. Light in Africa: My Journey to Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the People and Children Who Have Touched My Life 240pp Motivational Press (Melbourne).

Häusler, Nola and Hilary Smilie Siyakudumisa: The Journey of African Missionary Nola Häusler 300pp Dragonwick (Goonellabah).

Hirji, Karim F. Growing up with Tanzania: Memories, Musings and Maths 284pp Mkuki na Nyota (Dar es Salaam).

Molony, Tom Nyerere: The Early Years 284pp James Currey (Suffolk).

O’Brien, Stuart Everything All of the Time 337pp BookBaby (Cork).

Shah, Anup and Fiona Rogers Tales from Gombe 334pp Firefly Books (Richmond Hill).

Thieme, Eva M. Kilimanjaro Diaries: Or, How I Spent a Week Dreaming of Toilets, Drinking Crappy Water, and Making Bad Jokes While Having the Time of My Life 250pp CreateSpace (Charleston).

Malawi

Msadala, Alfred A Ragged Portfolio of My portrait: A Rumbling Journey towards the Joys of Writing 322pp Blantyre ACIN (Blantyre).

Shea, Suzanne Strempek This Is Paradise: An Irish Mother’s Grief, an African Village’s Plight, and the Medical Clinic that Brought Fresh Hope to Both 293pp PFP Inc (Georgetown, MA).

Criticism

GENERAL STUDIES

Regional

Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati Msia K Clarkand and Mickie M Koster 283pp Boulder (New York) Lexington Books (London).

Hip Hop Ukraine: Music, Race, and African Migration Adriana Helbig 218pp Indiana UP (Bloomington).

“Journeying into Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies” Tom Odhiambo and Godwin Siundu Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp1-6.

Remembering Nayeche and the Gray Bull Engiro: African Storytellers of the Karamoja Plateau and the Plains of Turkana Mustafa K Mirzeler 365pp University of Toronto Press (Toronto) Buffalo (London).

Zili(zo)pendwa: Dance Music and Nostalgia in East Africa Birgit Abels, Barbara Titus and Frank D. Gunderson 184pp Verlag (Berlin).

Kenya

“Archives of the Present in Parselelo Kantai’s Writing” Popular Culture in Africa: The Episteme of the Everyday Grace A. Musila pp244-265 eds Steph Newell and Onookome Okome 323pp Routledge (New York).

“The Anxiety of Class in Kenyan Drama: A Reading of Boy’s Benta and Sibi-Okumu’s Role Play” Christopher Joseph Odhiambo Syncretic Arenas: Essays on Postcolonial African Drama and Theatre for Esiaba Irobi pp223-237 eds Isidore Diala and Esiaba Irobi Rodopi (New York; Amsterdam).

“Asr Focus on Ali A. Mazrui” Seifudein Adem and James H. Mittelman African Studies Review 57 pp131-170.

Biblical Representations of Moab: A Kenyan Postcolonial Reading R. S. Wafula 246pp Peter Lang (New York) [2005].

Britain’s Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya Caroline Elkins 475pp The Bodley Head (London) [2005].

Citizenship, Ethnicity and Politics of Belonging in Kenya Samuel A. Nyanchoga 110pp CUEA (Nairobi).

“Continuities and Innovation in Luo Song Style: Creating the Benga Beat in Kenya 1960 to 1996” Ian Eagleson African Music: Journal of the African Music Society 9(4) pp91-122.

“Cultural Practice as Resistance in the British Colony of Kenya” Christina Kenny The Australasian Review of African Studies 35 (1) pp10-22.

English in Kenya or Kenyan English? Natalia Budohoska 191pp Peter Lang (Frankfurt).

“Heshimu Ukuta: Local-language Radio and the Performance of Fan Culture in Kenya” Tirop P. Simatei pp266-274 Popular Culture in Africa: The Episteme of the Everyday eds Steph Newell and Onookome Okome 323pp Routledge (New York).

Historicizing Colonial Nostalgia: European Women’s Narratives of Algeria and Kenya 1900-Present Patricia M. E. Lorcin 317pp Palgrave Macmillan (New York) [2012].

“The Intersection of the Self and History in Kenyan Autobiographies” Jennifer Muchiri Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp83-93.

“Literary Insurgence in the Kenyan Urban Space: Mchongoano and the Popular Art Scene in Nairobi” Miriam Maranga-Musonye Popular Culture in Africa: the Episteme of the Everyday pp195-217 eds Steph Newell and Onookome Okome 323pp Routledge (New York).

“The New (Asian) African: Politcs and Creativity in the 1960s” M. G. Vassanji Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp51-58.

“Mapping Emerging Constructions of Good Time Girls in Kenyan Popular Media” Dina Ligaga Journal of African Cultural Studies 26 (3) pp249-261.

The Politics of Everyday Life in Gikuyu Popular Music of Kenya 1990-2000 Maina wa Mutonya 186pp Twaweza Communications (Nairobi).

Progressive Librarianship: Perspectives from Kenya and Britain, 1979-2010 Shiraz Durrani 435pp Vita Books (London).

“Queer Agency in Kenya’s Digital Media” Evan Mwangi African Studies Review 57 pp93-113.

“‘Raid at Abottabad’: Editorial Cartoons and the ‘Terrorist Almighty’ in the Kenyan Press” Duncan Mainye Omanga Journal of African Cultural Studies 21(1) pp15-32.

“The Riyadha Mosque Manuscript Collection in Lamu: A Ḥaḍramī Tradition in Kenya” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts Anne K Bang 5 pp125-153.

“Slum Discourse, Media Representations and ‘Maisha Mtaani’ in Kibera, Kenya” Brian Ekdale Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies 35(1) pp92-108.

“Technological Innovation and the Diversification of Audiovisual Storytelling Circuits in Kenya” Ann Overbergh Journal of African Cultural Studies 26(2) pp206-219.

“‘Unsound’ Minds and Broken Bodies: The Detention of ‘Hardcore’ Mau Mau Women at Kamiti and Gitamayu Detention Camps in Kenya, 1954-1960” Katherine Bruce-Lockhart Journal of Eastern African Studies 8(4) pp590-608.

Wanjiku: A Kenyan Sociopolitical Discourse Naomi L Shitemi and Eunice Kamaara 334pp Native Intelligence (Nairobi).

“‘You Don’t Have to Pray to Somebody in Special English’: Style, Narration, and Salvation in Urban Kenya” Elizabeth J. Brummel Journal of Religion in Africa 44(2) pp251-281.

Uganda

“A Historical Overview of the Ugandan Film Industry” Dominica Dipio pp232-256 African Film: Looking back and Looking Forward ed Foluke Ogunleye Cambridge Scholars (Newcastle).

Baakisimba: Gender in the Music and Dance of the Baganda People of Uganda Sylvia A Nannyonga-Tamusuza 259pp Routledge (New York) [2005].

“Crafting Forgiveness Accounts after the War: Editing for Effect in Northern Uganda” Lotte Meinert, Julaina Obika, and Susan R Whyte Anthropology Today 30(4) pp10-14.

In Idi Amin’s Shadow: Women, Gender, and Militarism in Uganda Alicia C Decker 244pp Ohio UP (Athens).

“‘Mic Power’: ‘Public’ Connections through the Hip Hop Nation in Kampala” Nanna Schneidermann Ethnography 15(1) pp88-105.

“Trauma Aesthetics in War Dcoumentaries about the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda” Okaka Opio Dokotum Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp7-16.

Tanzania

Bongo Media Worlds: Producing and Consuming Popular Culture in Dar Es Salaam Uta Reuster-Jahn and Matthias Krings 286pp Rudiger Koppe Verlag (Koln).

“The Complexity of Public Space at the Swahili Town of Songo Mnara, Tanzania” Jeffrey Fleisher Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 35 pp1-22.

“Constructing Arguments and Institutions of Islamic Belonging: M.O. Abbasi, Colonial Tanzania, and the Western Indian Ocean World, 1925-61” James R. Brennan The Journal of African History 55(2) pp211-228.

“From Collective Villages to Private Ownership: Ujamaa, Tamaa, and the Postsocialist Transformation of Peri-Urban Dar Es Salaam, 1970-1990” Geoffrey R. Owens Journal of Anthropological Research 70(2) pp207-231.

“Globalectical Swahili Literature” Remi Armand Tchokothe Journal of African Cultural Studies 26(3) pp30-39.

“Julius Nyerere, Ujamaa, and Political Morality in Contemporary Tanzania” Marie-Aude Fouéré African Studies Review 57(1) pp1-24.

“Lionel Cliffe, 1937-2013: a Comradely Scholar in Nyerere’s Nationalist Tanzania” G. S. Issa Review of African Political Economy 41(140) pp284-287.

Mobilizing Zanzibari Women: The Struggle for Respectability and Self-Reliance in Colonial East Africa Corrie Decker 254pp Palgrave Macmillan (New York).

“The Poetry of an Orphaned Nation: Newspaper Poetry and the Death of Nyerere” Mary Ann Mhina Journal of Eastern African Studies 8(3) pp497-514.

“Postcolonial Archival Fever and the Musical Archiving of African Identity in Selected Paintings by Elias Jengo” Imani Sanga Journal of African Cultural Studies 26(2) pp140-154.

“Postmodernism as Seen through the Swahili Novel: A Reading of Babu Alipofufuka and Dunia Yao by Said Ahmed Mohamed” Flavia Aiello Traore Journal of African Cultural Studies 26 (3) pp20-29.

“Sex and Relationship Education of the Streets: Advice on Love, Sex, and Relationships in Popular Swahili Newspaper Columns and Pamphlets in Tanzania” Uta Reuster-Jahn pp69-92 Popular Culture in Africa: the Episteme of the Everyday eds Steph Newell and Onookome Okome 323pp Routledge (New York).

State Ideology and Language in Tanzania Jan Blommaert 168pp Edinburgh UP (Edinburgh).

Taarab Music in Zanzibar in the Twentieth Century: A Story of “Old Is Gold” and Flying Spirits Fargion J Topp 237pp Ashgate (Burlington).

“Tanzanian Newspaper Poetry: Political Commentary in Verse” KellyAskew Journal of Eastern African Studies 8(3) pp515-537.

“Technological Innovation and the Diversification of Audiovisual Storytelling Circuits in Kenya” Ann Overbergh Journal of African Cultural Studies 26(2) pp206-219.

Transgression in Swahili Narrative Fiction and Its Reception Rémi A. Tchokothe 236pp Lit (Berlin).

Ujamaa: The Hidden Story of Tanzania’s Socialist Villages Ralph Ibbott 347pp Crossroads Books (London).

Malawi

“‘Aid for Gays’: The Moral and the Material in ‘African Homophobia’ in Post-2009 Malawi” Crystal Biruk The Journal of Modern African Studies 52(3) pp447-473.

From Home and Exile: A Negotiation of Ideas of Home in Malawian Poetry Joanna Woods 236pp Langaaa (Cameroon).

Oral Literature and Moral Education among the Lakeside Tonga of Northern Malawi David K. Mphande 346pp Mzuni Press (Malawi).

Tumbuka Folktales: Moral and Didactic Lessons from Malawi Lester Brian Shawa and Boston Jaston Soko 104pp Mzuni Press (Malawi).

STUDIES ON INDIVIDUAL WRITERS

Christianse, Yvette “Yvette Christianse’s Oceanic Genealogies and the Colonial Archive: Castaways and Generations from Eastern Africa to the South Atlantic” Meg Samuelson Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp27-38.

Gurnah, Abdulrazak “Sexuality, Power and Transgression: Homophobia in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Memory of Departure” Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp59-70.

Nelson, Suzanna “Edgy Edgars: The Restless Youth in Suzanna Nelson’s Nightmare along the River Nile: A Story of Twentieth Century Slavery” Paul M Mukundi Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp17-25.

Otieno, Wambui “The Female Condition as Double Incaceration in Wambui Otieno’s Mau Mau’s Daughter” Ken Walibora Waliaula Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp71-81.

Serumaga, Robert “Soyinkan Parallels in the Works of Uganda’s Robert Serumaga” Don Rubin Syncretic Arenas: Essays on Postcolonial African Drama and Theatre for Esiaba Irobi eds Isidore Diala and Esiaba Irobi pp183-195.

Vassanji, MG “‘Since When Has Paper Any Value?’: Reading, Materiality and Meaning in MG Vassanji’s Fiction” Ariel Bookman Journal of Commonwealth Literature 49(2)pp189-201.

— “‘Dwelling-in-Travel’: Of Ships, Trains and Planes in MG Vassanji’s Fiction” Tina Steiner Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp39-49.

Wa Thiong’o, Ngugi “Between Nationalism and Pan-Africanism: Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Theater and the Art and Politics of Modernizing African Culture” Aida Mbowa in Bloom, Peter J., Stephan Miescher, Takyiwaa Manuh and Percy C. Hintzen Modernization as Spectacle in Africa 378pp Indiana UP (Bloomington).

— “Historification and Kenya’s Plural Identities: Re-Reading Ngugi’s Historiography” Jairus Omuteche Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies 1(1) pp107-116.