The pace of present African literature is
moving at a high speed , style and tone
sexier and defiant than the great
independence writers ’ generation . Here , the
subjects of taboo are widely explored. The
emerging African Authours of this
generation are not afraid to go further
afield for the literary fodder . Since the birth
of literature in Africa , there have been a
number of African authors from all over
the continent who have done a lot in the
literature industry .
The following are Top 10
African Authors of all time :
1. Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe is one of the best African
authors who have contributed a lot in the
field of African literature . He was born in
1930, and schooled at the University of
Ibadan, Nigeria. His first groundbreaking
novel titled ‘ Things Fall Apart ” was
published in 1958 . This novel made Chinua
Achebe very popular and it was then
translated to over 50 languages due to its
high demand . Later , he served as the
professor of David and Marianna Fisher
University as well as a professor of African
Studies at the Brown University in the
Providence, Rhode Island. He died early
2013 at the age of 82 years old , in Boston,
Massachusetts .
2. Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka is also one of the great heroes
in the list of top and best African
authors who have won great awards and
honours in the world of literature . He was
born in 1934 in Nigeria and he became the
first African author to be awarded the Nobel
Prize award in literature . Late 1950 s , he
wrote his very first important play titled ‘ A
Dance of the Forests ’ that satirizes a
fledgling nation by highlighting that the
present days in no longer a golden age than
was in the past . In some cases , his writing
focuses on the modern West Africa in a style
of satire, but his belief and serious intent in
the evils fundamentals in the practice of
power are common in his present work .
3. Amos Tutuola
Amos Tutuola was born in 1920, Abeokuta in
Western Nigeria and died in 1997. He was a
self- taught African author who usually
focused his literature on the Yoruba folk
tales. He became popular after gaining the
world fame with his best story ‘ The Palm -
Wine Drunkard ’ that completed in 1946 .
4. Camera Laye
Camera Laye was born in 1928 in
Kouroussa , Upper Guinea and later died in
1980. He was the first African author from
French speaking countries in the continent.
His French novel “ L ’ Enfant noir ” made him
one of the best and important novelists
from the French- speaking countries in
Africa.
5. Dinaw Mengestu
Dinaw Mengestu was also one of the best
African authors who have contributed
greatly in the field of African literature . He
was born in 1978 in Addis Ababa the capital
city of Ethiopia . He moved to the USA
together with his sister and mother two
years after his birth , to reunite with his
father who had previously fled the country
during the Red Terror. He graduated from
Georgetown University . So far , he has
written two novels titled “ The Beautiful
Things that Heaven Bears” which was
established in 2007 and “ How to Read the
Air” established in 2010 . He also recently
received a MacArthur Foundation , usually
known as “ genius grant” .
6. Mariama BA
Maria BA is also an African author born in
1929, Dakar , Senegal . She has been
regarded as one of the best and most
original African authors to come from West
Africa. Her work and life were usually
preoccupied with several issues such as
power, gender relations , and inequality . She
also focused on the ways in which these
issues were affected and framed by Islamic
and African cultural beliefs . She wrote her
first novel titled “ So Long a Letter ” in 1981 .
She died in 1986 , just before publishing her
second novel titled “ Scarlet Song” .
7. Buchi Emecheta
Buchi Emecheta was born in Lagos, the
capital city of Nigeria in 1944 . Her work and
life as an African author set the stage for
the new generation of the west African
female authors. Her fiction was drawn from
her experiences of Diaspora because of the
influence from her educational background.
“ In the Ditch” and Second - Class Citizen that
was established in 1972 and 1974
respectively were Emecheta ’ s heavily and
early autobiographical novels .
8. Bessie Head
Bessie Head was born in the year 1937 ,
Pietermaritzburg and died in 1986. She was
one of the African female authors whose life
and work experiences have been brought
into focus in these days . She became
famous because of her three novels ; ‘ When
Rain Clouds Gather ’ , published in 1968 ,
‘Maru’ also published in 1971 and the third
one ‘ A Question of Power’ launched in 1974 .
9. Ousmane Sembane
In 1923 , Uosmane Sembane was born in
Ziguinchor , a region found in southern
Senegal. He’ s widely acknowledged as the
seminal figure in both African film and
literature . His work was focused centrally on
the cultural practices as well as political
discourses that surround the female body in
the continent of Africa . He died in 2007
after winning a critical acclaim for the
Moolaade in 2004.
10. Ngugi wa Thiong’ o
In 1938 , Ngugi wa Thiong ’ o was born in
Kamiriithu , Kenya. He is one of the best and
most celebrated African authors and
intellectuals . He is also one of the African
authors who have enjoyed both national
and international acclaim as an essayist ,
novelist, playwright , activist and social
commentator. His experience of the Mau
Mau struggle for independence , British
colonialism and the position of Kenya in the
neo - colonial era are some of the issues that
preoccupy much of his thought and writing .
Some of his novels include Weep Not Child
published in 1964 , The River Between in
1965, and A Grain of wheat in 1967.
In conclusion , there are also a number of
other African authors apart from the above -
discussed authors who have done marvelous
work in the African literature industry. There
are also young and vibrant upcoming
authors with thoughts and different writing
touching all aspects of life .
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